Why are Ranged DPS so unfun to play?

[Payotz]

You can't simultaneously argue "the tax is excessive/bullshit" and "it'd be fine to be more taxed".

My argument is that if there is more tax to be put on the role as a result of added utility, it's just gonna be based on the fight design adding more responsibility to the role, which is what we want anyway.
The kit isn't going to be taxed. Damage isn't going to go down. It's literally going to be an expanded kit and damage output (even a little bit more because of addition of vuln ups into the jobs again) without any additional tax on the kit
The fact that you have fight mechanics designed around physical ranged using their brand new utility Is the "tax", which technically isn't even a tax, it's just more added responsibility for the role.

The role is already taxed on the fact that they have "utility" (that they don't even have). If they need to tax it more, it's not gonna be on the damage output or kit, it's gonna be on the fight design.

Then where does that lead us?
Raging Strikes? Damage Cooldown. Must be utility.
Gauss Barrel? Damage. On a cooldown. Must be utility.

Does Raging Strikes affect the party and add more damage for 15 seconds to the party? If yes, it's utiltiy. If no, it's a personal cooldown.
Is Gauss Barrel being put on give the party a damage buff? If yes, it's utility. If no, it's a personal cooldown.

Utility is literally anything that buffs the party. It's something you give to the party to either boost their movement speed, attack speed, mana regen, max hp, damage mitigation and yes, even damage. It's things that will help the party rather than only help yourself.

Except, you do not have to hold Refresh for a raid jump any more than Lucid Dreaming, because Refresh's value has nothing to do with upcoming duration/uptime. You need only not use it when healer MP is absolutely topped off.

No you hold it for heavy heal checks that the new fights will have since the devs will be able to have the freedom to force the healers to go OOM, OR you hold it for when the healers die during prog.
You don't hold it for jumps, because that's not the situation you need to hold it for. You hold it for other scenarios, like heavy heal checks that need more heavy mana GCD healing, or when the healers die to get their mana back up.

Unlike the likes of Intervention or raid buffs, the timing after the very first use literally does not matter, in which case your only optimal choice is to use it on CD, maximizing bonus MP ticks over time, because, unless your healers are MP-capped, there is no difference between MP ticks over time and effective MP ticks over time.

It will matter if there's phases in the fight that is designed for it.
It will also matter for niche scenarios like the healers dying, but they need to gcd heal hardcore in the next 15 seconds, and their lucid is on cooldown.

If there's no tankbusters in raid, then you're gonna go ahead and press intervention on cooldown to mitigate auto attacks, and you'll be saying the same thing for Intervention as you are saying right now with Refresh.
Having Refresh available will make it so that the devs can add more mechanics that involve Refresh, just like how tank cooldowns are essentially made for tankbusters