Is 2 melee 1 caster 1 ranged going to be just expected from now on?

[Lyth]

...

There are two issues.

The first is that all dps jobs should be on a level playing field in terms of damage output. Everyone wants to feel like they're able to make an equal contribution to a team. Discriminating between the jobs on the basis of one job or role being supposedly 'easier' is going to make those jobs not fun to play. There's always room to play individual jobs on a much higher level than other players, but there's no point investing that effort in if the path you're going down is treated by the community as easier or inferior. If there's a genuine discrepancy, the answer is to adjust the difficulty, not the damage output.

The second is that there are two protected ranged spots, but only one protected melee spot. Differentiating between jobs as 'physical ranged' and 'magical ranged' is arbitrary. You could just as easily subdivide melee into 'physical melee' and 'magical melee' and guarantee a spot for each. It would also justify adding more melee jobs. Oh, there are only three physical melee jobs, perhaps we should add another. When we remove the arbitary physical/magical distinction, we can see that there are 5 melee jobs to 6 ranged.

When you look at fight design, you'll see that fights are specifically designed for two melee players and two ranged players. Turning one of those spots into a caster spot gives you a lot more flexibility on spread mechanics. Most groups would move to three ranged and one melee in a heartbeat if there was no disadvantage for doing so, and we've seen that in the past.

But as things stand, that flex spot isn't going to go from melee to 'ranged'. It's going to go specifically from melee to casters, because casters treat physical ranged like second class citizens. It's the 'easymode' ranged role. It's the 'support-orientated' ranged role. And that's perception is a serious problem.

Again, I want to see all jobs on a level playing field across the board, because then player skill reigns over job selection. But I don't think giving casters the advantage of having an extra slot dedicated to them is the answer. And it most certainly will go to them, as things stand.