BLM itemization in 5.4 is a problem.

[Xenitan]

Oh! Ok, so it's not something normal people need to worry about.

If you're worried about 'normal people' then I'd recommend just getting your ilvl as high as it will go and not caring any more. If you have any arbitrary gear set and luck with crits, you'll do better than people who run average. Go forth.

You can arbitrarily define any subset of people in this game who won't care about a particular issue if you believe the presence of such people eradicates any meaning for an issue to be fixed. I'd be shocked if there were more Triple Triad players than people who do Ultimate raiding, for example. Yet we still, somehow, get cards every patch.

The issue is: traditionally the raid weapon has been BiS and in instances where it hasn't, we have historical precedent where SE will change the stats to make it BiS, see: Diamond Weapons in Stormblood.

Right now, for Black Mages (and Black Mages only) it is not BiS. This is exceptionally problematic for content beyond the current raid tier. However, beyond just the weapon, it's also endemic to caster itemization overall.

[ItMe]

You can arbitrarily define any subset of people in this game who won't care about a particular issue if you believe the presence of such people eradicates any meaning for an issue to be fixed. I'd be shocked if there were more Triple Triad players than people who do Ultimate raiding, for example. Yet we still, somehow, get cards every patch.

I'm not saying the itemization is or isn't a problem.
I'm saying "oh, ok. We don't need to worry about +/-5 Vit if not worlds first progging. So I don't need to phantasia from a Lala to be a viable BLM. Phew..."

[Myon88]

The issue is: traditionally the raid weapon has been BiS and in instances where it hasn't, we have historical precedent where SE will change the stats to make it BiS, see: Diamond Weapons in Stormblood.

The situation in Stormblood was a little different. The raid weapons were a whole weapon damage point lower than intended resulting in them having the exact same weapon damage as upgraded tome weapons, quite a bit more serious than simply having the correct amount of less desirable substats. To my knowledge, they have never changed the stats on properly budgeted items to deliberately nudge them into best in slot status.

Frankly, I'm not convinced the devs actually 'know' what stats are desirable for each job and plan raid weapons accordingly. Depending on the complexity of the job, often which substats that job finds desirable can be somewhat emergent and only come to light after digging by the community. Having lurked around theorycrafting spaces in the past, I do not believe the developers are 'in the know' to that degree.

I agree it's not great for any job to find out their raid weapon isn't actually best in slot, but I don't believe they explicitly try to avoid this situation, it's just the luck of the draw. I've always assumed that the process was random and that they were banking on the weapon damage difference being enough to tip the scales (evidently not so this time).

That reminds me, summoners and red mages are eyeing double tome rings as best in slot this tier too, due to the glut of spellspeed on the eden ring. There is a corresponding vitality loss there too as they are unique and one ring will have to be unaugmented. Not as big a concession as going down a tier on a weapon slot, but yeah it doesn't feel great all the same.

[Xenitan]

The situation in Stormblood was a little different. The raid weapons were a whole weapon damage point lower than intended resulting in them having the exact same weapon damage as upgraded tome weapons, quite a bit more serious than simply having the correct amount of less desirable substats. To my knowledge, they have never changed the stats on properly budgeted items to deliberately nudge them into best in slot status.

Half true. The stats are algorithmically determined. We knew going in that the weapon damage on those weapons would be the same, because that's what the weapon damage formulas for those weapon levels were. This was not a mistake, it was 100% intentional. The outcome was not intentional. Then they just added a weapon damage to those pieces and, shock and horror, melee ruled that tier about as much as you'd expect a group of people with an extra weapon damage to rule.

Similarly, in this case, we knew the weapon would only have one weapon damage and 2 int over the tome weapon going in. We talked about how this MIGHT be a problem, but how it was unlikely. Well, unlikely enough, this is a problem. It was 100% intentional. I hope the outcome, which is what we are currently experiencing, is not intentional as well. It certainly is less of a big deal to adjust secondary stats than it is to give a free bonus weapon damage.