1 week savage delay and everything that plays into it

[Ivtrix]

They exist but the Gap should remain. There are still fights where melee get screwed on uptime. Barbariccia comes to mind with a few key points where pf will say 'don't greed' for the large circles, for example.

There is also strats that force downtime that people use because they are easier.

Meanwhile casters only need to worry about getting their casts complete and much like true north, mitigate that weakness via instant cast abilities.

The gap should remain, but it has no right being as big as it currently is.

Additionally, any sort of safe downtime strat is generally abandoned once you actually clear and reclears come into play.

[Absurdity]

Additionally, any sort of safe downtime strat is generally abandoned once you actually clear and reclears come into play.

That's generally the case in competent statics, yes. But party finder is notorious for hating change and having the flexibility of a concrete wall, so getting them to adopt a new strat with more uptime is essentially impossible. Even in statics you will sometimes find players who refuse to learn a new strat because "what we did before worked".