Wondering what to do, honestly...

[Travel]

Honestly, I'll say what I always say - Play what you like. You'll always perform better on a Job you enjoy and have a good feel for.

As for balance - People make WAY too much of a deal over it. While there is one particular outlier (MCH), every other Job is more than functional (even MCH is) and aren't really being denied entry into parties, especially once the content is a few weeks old or more and people have geared up some.

Literally the only time it matters is within the first 1-3 weeks of brand new content, for world first race clears (which are almost always done within 1 week anyway), and MAYBE for Ultimates, where RDM will always be welcome anyway since it's so great at helping push Prog/phases.

So play what you like, ignore the community being a bit TOO hyper-focused on balance and the meta. Nothing's not viable, and people really need to step back a bit from that cliff.

If you enjoy RDM, keep playing the job. The balance with RDM has always gone up and down every expac so it will surely get back to middle of the pack at some point. I've played it since it was introduced in Stormblood and I've continued to play it through all its ups and downs. With MMOs it's important to remember that a job normally won't stay in a bad place forever so I wouldn't avoid a job just because it's not currently doing great. And people are still playing it and using it in end game content, it was actually the most desired caster for the latest ultimate when that ultimate first dropped. (when I was looking for a DSR group I put that I could play NIN or RDM, every single group wanted me on RDM) It's also still being used about as much as BLM in this savage tier, SMN is only significantly above the 2 other casters in representation because it's the one caster that's punished the least for moving a lot.

And fortunately at this point in the tier gear can make up for jobs that are under performing. So unless your plan was to do speed clears or something, RDM will still be able to clear the content. This tier was just a weird one because the dps check for the door boss was unusually tight compared to previous tiers. I don't see that situation happening again any time soon. Obviously I don't think RDM is in a great place, but it's also not worth giving up on a job you like because it's in a rough patch atm.

Apologizes if this sounds rude, gentlemen, but; that's precisely what I'm doing. Like I said in another post; I legit do not give a shit about the meta, and the only reason why I'm grabbing a melee job at all is for the sake of Savage raiding later. Like I said earlier, RDM is awesome, and I intend to keep leveling it as my mage of choice; ironically, I am considering maining another job - that would be Bard - because I like the extra mobility it offers.

I'm just frustrated right now because of the current imbalance at the higher tiers of play; yeah, it doesn't affect most content - and I am damn thankful for that - but since I am going into some of the really higher-level stuff hopefully soon, it's something I'm having to keep in mind; even if it is just to earn a single fucking mount, of all things.

[Mithron]

I'm just frustrated right now because of the current imbalance at the higher tiers of play; yeah, it doesn't affect most content - and I am damn thankful for that - but since I am going into some of the really higher-level stuff hopefully soon, it's something I'm having to keep in mind; even if it is just to earn a single fucking mount, of all things.

You don't have to keep it in mind, though. You're not doing week 1 Savage prog. That's the only time you would want to keep it mind. That is the only content where RDM would struggle, and honestly, even that's an outlier for the history of this game. That's it. Not week 2+. I know it's easy to think FF14 balance is similar to other games but it's not. The meta here is 99% of the time just play what you have the most fun playing, and play it well. If that's RDM, then it's RDM. You can clear 4th tier Savage fights as RDM and get the mount.

[Travel]

Oh no, my job has bad deeps. I can't enjoy life anymore. As if a zero more or less adds fun to anything. If I had to choose between a fun job and one that has the deeps I'd take the former every time. lol

Thanks for popping by, lad. Meaningful contribution, there.

You don't have to keep it in mind, though. You're not doing week 1 Savage prog. That's the only time you would want to keep it mind.

That's actually it, though. There are some issues that have been highlighted in 6.2 with job balance, and that is what's gotten my attention. Like you said, it doesn't entirely concern me now - Week 1 has already passed - but there are going to be other Week 1 raids in the future, and it's better to address a problem now, while it's fresh, then to ignore it.

While I am focused on grabbing the mount currently, I will be trying to go into more difficult content, including speed clears, later; I'm just thinking in long-term, you follow? I'm not disagreeing with you, far from it; it's just that my brain works in very weird-as-shit ways, and I'm terrible at explaining shit.

[Mithron]

That's actually it, though. There are some issues that have been highlighted in 6.2 with job balance, and that is what's gotten my attention. Like you said, it doesn't entirely concern me now - Week 1 has already passed - but there are going to be other Week 1 raids in the future, and it's better to address a problem now, while it's fresh, then to ignore it.

While I am focused on grabbing the mount currently, I will be trying to go into more difficult content, including speed clears, later; I'm just thinking in long-term, you follow? I'm not disagreeing with you, far from it; it's just that my brain works in very weird-as-shit ways, and I'm terrible at explaining shit.

By the time you get to week 1 savage raiding, you'll already be able to play multiple jobs and roles, they'll all be geared, and RDM may even be the OP meta top DPS job. Things change here all the time in 14, and P8S is an exceptionally rare circumstance where job balance was a problem in week 1. It's not the norm, and it'll probably not happen again for several years given how much more this game has grown. Heck, back in HW MNK was the garbage job. Now look at it.

[Renathras]

Apologizes if this sounds rude, gentlemen, but; that's precisely what I'm doing. Like I said in another post; I legit do not give a shit about the meta, and the only reason why I'm grabbing a melee job at all is for the sake of Savage raiding later. Like I said earlier, RDM is awesome, and I intend to keep leveling it as my mage of choice; ironically, I am considering maining another job - that would be Bard - because I like the extra mobility it offers.

I'm just frustrated right now because of the current imbalance at the higher tiers of play; yeah, it doesn't affect most content - and I am damn thankful for that - but since I am going into some of the really higher-level stuff hopefully soon, it's something I'm having to keep in mind; even if it is just to earn a single fucking mount, of all things.

Well, let me put it this way:

RDM is always welcome at higher tiers of play (especially if you have an alt Job to swap to once your party is consistently seeing all phases and doesn't need as main Raises anymore)

I did say as my lead "Play what you like". If the Melee you're picking up is a Job you like, then that still follows my advice. But my overall point is, you don't need to pick a Melee to clear hard content. There still needs to be a caster in every group (for the 1% buff). I guess I'm a bit confused when someone says they don't care about the meta...but are making a choice that seems based on the meta.

But I guess let me just say this: You don't need to be frustrated about imbalance at higher tiers of play. Every Job other than MCH is honestly balanced at higher tiers of play when it comes to being capable of clearing content and not holding your party back. The 1% nerf to P8S is proof that that will continue to be the case. You need not "keep in mind" that thing (which you say you don't care about but...are still keeping in mind...? Which implies you care about it, though, even if by necessity rather than choice...) since it doesn't change what I said.

But you do you, my friend. I just recommend not picking up a Job you don't like just because you feel you have to (while not caring yet still feeling you have...arg, makes no sense to me..!)

Play what you like, it will always be capable of clearing content, and if somehow it isn't, the content will be nerfed because of it until it is.

.

EDIT:

Oh, and someone else said it, but yeah: If you really really REALLY want Week 1 prog/clears (I'm not sure why anyone would torture themselves with that, but if you want that, I say go for it!), then ideally you want to be good at at least two, but possibly all, Jobs in your Subrole. The reason is that sometimes one Job might be sub-par, but it's rare for two or three to be. So instead of going RDM + Melee + Ranged, you'd want RDM + SMN + BLM and be good at all three.

The reason is that USUALLY, a week 1 prog group expects players to be flexible, but already has the team set. So if you have 2 tanks, 2 healers (1 pure, 1 barrier), 2 melee, 1 ranged, 1 caster, and you're in the Caster slot, if you swap over to your Melee Job, how's that work? Now your party has 3 Melee but 0 Casters and would lose that 1% damage buff. You'd have to assume one of the Melees in your Static has a Caster alt that they keep up and know how to play. Meanwhile, you've got a full set of Caster gear there...

The exception is if a Tier/Expansion allows 2 Melee and 2 Caster groups to work, in which case you could do Melee/Caster as your mains if you join a Static of 2 tanks, 2 healers, 1 melee, 1 ranged, 1 caster looking for a Melee/Caster to fill the last spot. But typically, people are running 2 Melee right now because SE is pushing it hard and it was clear in P8S that it was highly favored as the groups trying double-Caster found themselves really behind the 8 ball.

Point is:

If you really really REALLY are going for a week 1 prog Static, then instead of maining several Jobs across sub-roles, you need to omni-main at least two (ideally all three) Jobs within a given sub-role. (You can ALSO pick up a Melee or Ranged, but that would be after having leveled and geared RDM and SMN at the least)

The only exception to this is Melee specifically because they have 2 guaranteed slots and 3 armor/gear sets across them, or if you happen to join the rare Static that has most of its members being omni-role omni-mains already and so you COULD have, say, one of the melees swap to his BLM and you swap to your MNK or whatever and that actually work.

.

But also as others have said, Job balance goes up and down across expansions. As Wesk Alber says in all his (fantastic, imo) 1-90 Job skills guides on YouTube: "Patches can change Job's still!"

The only Job that has consistently been the top of its role is SCH, which has been either #1 or #2 (and since there are always 2 healers, being #2 still means you have a guaranteed spot) across every expansion this game has had. It's also been #1 outright in EW, in ShB, and arguably in SB. (HW was...a weird time... <_< )

But no other role has seen one Job that was always at the top. Balance changes over time. SMN was the most powerful in ShB because it could do as much damage as BLM (hence multiple rounds of nerfs to get it to where it was just a BIT below it) while also having Raise and Devotion party buff. Now it's low overall and middle of the Caster trio, but that trio is BLM >>> SMN > RDM, so that's not saying much.

This stuff changes over time, so there's no 1 always right answer in any role.

Except SCH. SCH will apparently always be fantastic.