Let's redefine "damage taxes"

[Ransu]

Name me one job that doesn't end up needing to plan multiple sometimes several GCDs ahead to make sure that things go smooth. I'm sure "you're not screwing up rdm" sitting there green parsing and wondering why while fleche clips a whole two more gcds because you didn't use acceleration right, followed by poorly planned and poorly executed 2 minute bursts because you emboldened too early and manafied too late. Maybe when you check your uptime percent later you'll even have an answer to why experienced RDM are getting two to three more melee combos over the fight than you got.

I get it, I get the argument and I agree but can we stop pretending RDM is somehow uniquely braindead among the current roster?

Samurai requires no planning. Its loop is set in stone and P3S is about the only fight that interrupts its loop when the boss becomes un-targatable. For the spread/stack mechanic making the downtime longer than the necessary filler for the loop. Its one of the main reasons I've always liked SAM because of its loop rotation. Its probably why I like BLM too, though they actually require some planning for leylines and its much more rewarding to play than SAM atm.

Realistically none of the bosses have any actual downtime anymore so none of the melee really require any major changes to their rotations. At most you have to plan for some drift and maybe slightly alter an opener depending on what the boss does. A handful of jobs openers change slightly depending on what boss you're fighting making the countdown timers needing to be different, but realistically outside of BLM the "plan several GCD's ahead" idea is not a thing. RDM has to plan things to some degree because its ironically less mobile than BLM at times, but overall they still have a bit more freedom than BLM and are not locked down to a strict window like BLM is with enochian.

BLM, NIN, and to a point DRG because of how busy its oGCD's can be are imo the only jobs that require you to pay close attention to what you're doing. The rest of the jobs in the game really don't take much of a thought process and you can parse high on all of them while being asleep. If this was still HW and to a point SB I wouldn't be making this argument, but since ShB and into EW all the of the jobs have become relatively simple. So ya, I keep to the point that balancing around "difficulty" of a job is beyond stupid.

I'm merely stating what proper balance would be, which is something that would benefit basically everyone

Except for MCH and SMN because your idea of balance would bury them to the point that they may as well not exist.