The problem with casters is the way fights are designed AND the way casters are balanced against each other.

Fights are designed with melee players in mind first and foremost.

This means that melee just have more mobility than BLM and RDM.

There’s also the Rez tax. Caster is the only sub role that has a sub role within a sub role.

BLM is the pure caster and has damage similar to that of melee jobs.

Red mage and summoner pay a Rez tax. Even taking their damage boosting utility into account, they deal less damage than melee jobs and black mage because the developers consider Rez to be such a strong utility that they should deal less damage.

This creates a strange feeling that red mage and summoner are “progression jobs” and that black mage is technically just superior in a perfect run.

No other role really deals with this disparity.

Melee and phys ranged are all balanced around their personal damage and the extra damage they provide to their parties.