Why is everyone anxious about a PLD Rework?

[Lyth]

The focus on rDPS is entirely a reflection of player demands on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if you could draw a direct correlation between job iterations that were considered 'badly designed' and 'weak' and the existence of an rDPS deficit. Players are more likely to forgive a 60 second recast difference on a defensive than they are to forgive a 60 rDPS difference. PLD hasn't really changed its playstyle, it's just moved to the lower end of the rDPS scale for tanks. DRK sat in the exact same spot (with an even bigger deficit) for two expansions in a row. It played out the exact same way.

I think feedback from these forums would be much more effective if people here simply dropped the farce and acknowledged that everyone and their chocobo wants more rDPS. Just give everyone in the role rDPS parity, unilaterally reject any 'difficulty'-based claims for advantages, and let the discussion shift to variations in playstyle and utility. Those discussions are much less clear cut, and you can actually have some unique trade-offs. Mobility cooldowns are an excellent example of this.

[Shurrikhan]

The focus on rDPS is entirely a reflection of player demands on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if you could draw a direct correlation between job iterations that were considered 'badly designed' and 'weak' and the existence of an rDPS deficit. Players are more likely to forgive a 60 second recast difference on a defensive than they are to forgive a 60 rDPS difference. PLD hasn't really changed its playstyle, it's just moved to the lower end of the rDPS scale for tanks. DRK sat in the exact same spot (with an even bigger deficit) for two expansions in a row. It played out the exact same way.

I think feedback from these forums would be much more effective if people here simply dropped the farce and acknowledged that everyone and their chocobo wants more rDPS. Just give everyone in the role rDPS parity, unilaterally reject any 'difficulty'-based claims for advantages, and let the discussion shift to variations in playstyle and utility. Those discussions are much less clear cut, and you can actually have some unique trade-offs. Mobility cooldowns are an excellent example of this.

...If you ignore the claims about job A being more difficult to leverage or job B having infinite mobility, how the heck would "mobility cooldowns" be a productive point of discussion?

Moreover, having parity atop a precise rDPS parity would assume that every job must have equally valuable utility (or at least that each role must have identical[ly useful] utility], which in turn means that they each need to be as utility-centric as another (and more than likely that their utility has to have consistent value, such as by being reduced just to percentile damage or mitigation bonuses). There'd be no "supportive" option vs. "spearhead" option, etc., because they'd have to have the very same degrees of rDPS and utility, both.

[Absurdity]

The focus on rDPS is entirely a reflection of player demands on this forum. I wouldn't be surprised if you could draw a direct correlation between job iterations that were considered 'badly designed' and 'weak' and the existence of an rDPS deficit. Players are more likely to forgive a 60 second recast difference on a defensive than they are to forgive a 60 rDPS difference. PLD hasn't really changed its playstyle, it's just moved to the lower end of the rDPS scale for tanks. DRK sat in the exact same spot (with an even bigger deficit) for two expansions in a row. It played out the exact same way.

Funny thing about that, if you look at rDPS paladin is currently not even doing badly, it wouldn't even need a rework to it's offensive kit. With the exception of P8S phase 2 (probably due to it's long stretches of downtime) it is either very close to Dark Knight and Gunbreaker or even overtakes Dark Knight in some fights, sitting in 2nd place. The problem is when you look at aDPS and this is also where the problem with the 2 minute meta shows, suddenly paladin is dead last because it can't, by it's very design, capitalize on raid buffs as well as the other tanks can.

rDPS is all fine and dandy when you want to look at tank performance in a vacuum, but good rDPS doesn't help you when you wipe on enrage.

But instead of looking at the underlying problem they themselves created SE likes to go for the nuclear option and simply hammer all jobs into a mold that fits the meta of blowing all your highest potency into a 15 second window every 2 minutes, which is but one of the reasons why we currently have the most uninteresting pve gameplay in 6 years.