Positionals

[IruruCece]

Again, ranged are not asking for top DPS, just to be as usefull to the group as RDM/SMN for example.

Good players in any job are more valuable than meta jobs are in a vacuum. As long as all the roles are filled, anyone can clear anything provided that they play well. You are probably more useful playing a DNC or BRD in a raid than I would be bringing MNK or SAM because in all likelihood, you're the better player. You play enough to see that higher end content and push that content line. I do not.

If ranged DPS want to hit as close to as hard as melee DPS currently do, then I'd want them to have positionals to worry about, and if not that, I want them to all experience the same challenges in movement and dpsing that BLM does by SEVERELY curtailing their current mobility. Force dancers and Bards to stand still while DPSing, either through animation locks or giving them more charge bars for all of their abilities across the board, either or.

Without something along these lines, you would have a pair of jobs that GREATLY minimize the risks of death thanks to their mobility (especially DNC), while still offering more than enough output to be deemed "useful" by someone who is more worried about their numbers than others are. What then would be the point of taking a melee job into ANY new content, beyond simple preference? And honestly, preference only goes so far. Despite constant complaints about how hard MNK is to play (positionals, greased lightning, idontlikething), the job saw a surprising burst of activity early into ShB when it briefly challenged BLM for top slot. Not many stuck around, I guess.

Melee DPS must place themselves in close proximity to the enemy, regularly unleashing combos efficiently to maintain unique class mechanics, all of which face potential disruption whenever the boss does anything that denies them the ability to attack, or forces them to move away. In addition to this, they have positionals (MNK more than any other) that require moving in a specific way to get the most out of certain attacks OR use shared DPS abilities to negate those positional requirements temporarily. The mixture of limited range, limited mobility, and positionals, combined with fight mechanics, effectively places a lot more stress on the player that is trying to maximize their performance. The reward for doing so is excellent output. Failure either means reduced output, or zero output (death).

You can disagree with this as much as you want. The bottom line, however, is that Ranged DPS can still do the job in any piece of content in the game right now with less mechanical risk to the player compared to Melee DPS. If players chose to play something more demanding, the reward should be greater than for jobs with less of a demand on the player IF they play well. To demand more for less is just being greedy.