Quote Originally Posted by Aikaal View Post
I'm gonna sound a bit rude and I hope I'm not but, on SMN, when my group on progression has been good enough on a phase of a fight, I simply don't hold swiftcast so if someone mess up it's not available.

Also, Mantra doesn't seems to be taxed as a support ability. If Raise warrants a 7% to 8% DPS difference, then you're saying RDM should be doing a lot less DPS than SMN and I doubt any RDM main would agree there. Because their raise is on demand. SMN raise is basically once per minute if Swiftcast is up. Also, remember that raise is essentially a damage loss that enables further progression. It's not something both SMN / RDM appreciate. This also gets entirely invalidate once progression is over. I don't think you can make a strong case that BLM deserves melee equivalent DPS. It should be higher than SMN/RDM but not more than 300 which is like 2% to 3%.

Also, the reason why the devs buffed Fire IV was to suggest BLMs not to use the Paradox rotation. Because it's too hard to code that Despair burns all your Umbral Heart stacks like Flare I guess. Wouldn't even be a nerf, it's be a fix imho.
Believe me, I had the same qualm with res being a DPS tax when I used to play SMN at the end of ShB. I put in more effort than a SAM and was rewarded with notably lower DPS because of devotion (one of the worst raidbuffs at the time) and raise (useless when an encounter is learned). I'm not saying I personally agree, just that I understand from the developer perspective that this is a reasonable way to balance.

In terms of Mantra, I do think it's an outlier for power budgeting, but rather than kneecap MNK I'd much rather every class had a notable utility for the raid (like raise for RDM+SMN, Arcane Crest for RPR, Curing Waltz, Nature's Minne+Warden's Paean though those 2 are significantly less useful) to play around and push out more raid potency when well used.

I will stay on the hill of BLM deserving melee level DPS though. It works around typically more stringent requirements than modern melee and doesn't provide utility. Accessing mobility outside of the 2mins is a DPS loss in a vacuum for BLM (though a logical choice to maintain DPS in that encounter). Really from my perspective following the logic back, I think the other casters lacking these positional requirements and possessing great utility combined make this balance more reasonable. If SMN had BLM positioning and rotational requirements I would fully support it being brought up to NIN levels minimum.

Fire IV rotation always dealt more damage, and I'm glad they're willing to push it more with balance patches. My preferred change would be increasing the transpose CD as this would also curtail alternate lines that rely on either counting or addons to accurately hit mana regen ticks, though this would be a more contentious change. I think that that variety of deviation-from-standard gameplay would be better delivered through nuanced abilities than counting to three.