So you're telling me..

[ssunny2008]

RPR should not be the lowest melee DPS. Everything about this job screams DEAL DAMAGE. It's class identity, transforming into a void sent and dealing a ton of damage, would feel completely underwhelming if it hits like a wet noodle. If you're not a fan of class identity or want to be more realistic with your approach, then RPR's whole kit is designed around having a 40 - 60 second burst phase (double or triple enshroud). Circle gives a 3% damage buff, but most importantly it gives us the resource we need to use PF which enables us to do these long burst phases. I'll be honest and admit that I'm not sure if NIN and DRG has such a long burst phase and set up requirements (although lvl 80 DRG didn't seem have any issue with getting it's burst phase which was maybe a 15-20sec burst iirc). But I guarantee you RPR will become a laugh that it has to do a long burst phase in order to do more DPS than ranged variants.

What I don't understand is if you think crest is so strong, then why not advocate for nerfing it to be more on par with what MNK has, instead of wanting to nerf the whole job in itself. I'm not talking about not tuning at all, of course, but most people's reasoning for nerfing RPR to lowest "melee" dps is because of crest? Makes no sense to me and feels very overreaching. If crest was removed, would their DPS output be more acceptable?

I want MNK to be nerfed too and i´m an old MNK main so... i would always prefer to keep things UNIQUE but balanced instead of easy and broken. Imo both don´t deserve to be top melee-DPS.

Let´s say 8k DRG, 7,9k SAM / NIN, 7,7k MNK, 7,6k RPR... without AC i would go for 7,7k RPR, but that´s it. If MNK had no Mantra, i would go for 7,8k at best.
You and others might see it opinion-based, but MNK and RPR are way easier to play than the others. They´ve the flow, they´ve only 2 positionals, they´ve like 0 oGCD´s unless your gauge is full, you´ve no real animation stuck, the chance to missplay is ~halved compared to the other melees. And bot have utility,which is not just DPS, imo.
The reason why MNK should be a little bit above RPR is, because you´ve a 6 key rotation you need to adjust and a way shorter buff / Dot timing. RPR on the other hand just have to keep an eye on a 30s buff and should take care that the gauge won´t get overfilled while playing 123.

I get your point, but isn´t everything on DPS classes screaming like "DAMAGE!"? I´m up for class-identity and uniqueness in all ways. I hate homogenization, but it should still be balanced somehow. Not that i would care to be excluded from raids, because i don´t rely on the meta... i just don´t see the need that some classes should´ve everything in their kit, that they make other roles obsolete in some way or that you get "bigger rewards" in kind of DPS for less efford.

?? I don't think I understand what you are saying here, NIN and DRG have a ton of raid utility?

I don´t count raid-damage buffs as utility so far. I would always count it in the average DPS already. They don´t have stuff like AC or Mantra to assist the whole raid in another way but DPS.

I don't agree at all with your opinions, but I hope we can at the very least agree to disagree and let SE do what they feel is best.

Of course.

Don´t get me wrong, i get your and others points. I know it´s often even just about "having fun", which is the most important thing in games and ppl mostly forget it. But since it´s a multiplayer game, you might take fun away from others if stuff isn´t well balanced or changes happen out of nowhere. I lost a lot of fun because MNK and tanks got simplified and homogenized again and again to cater ppl who use them once in a while. But i would never rate "being top DPS" as fun. Big numbers are nothing but scaling. I press that button, my char uses Midare, it makes pewpew, why should i feel good, seriously? Great gameplay shouldn´t defined by some numbers. Of course it can feel great to slaughter everything down, but then i would recommend an ARPG title like Diablo instead of a MMORPG.