After 1 (arguably 2) expansions what is square trying to achieve with WAR (and PLD)?

[GoatOfWar]

Utility buffs on supports are an arms race, because all mitigation checks in this game are pass-fail and nobody wants to be left behind. This leads to mitigation inflation over time, where more and more of the support toolkits get stuffed with powerful mitigation tools.

Players flock to jobs that offer bigger rewards for less effort. These popular jobs then tend to retain their advantages because of a vocal fanbase. Powerful jobs traditionally get stealth nerfs at the start of expansions, when nobody understands the significance of any of the potency values. Those jobs then get progressively more buffs and return to their former power over the course of the expansion as players complain. This happens because SE doesn't like to be seen to nerf jobs, and tries to maintain the illusion of an upward balance.

This is what happened with WAR as well this expansion. The complaints only stopped when WAR pulled ahead in dps, in addition to the utility and mitigation advantages they had over other tanks. I doubt SE will change their balancing approach and perform an open nerf. What is more likely is that we eventually will get a hammer tank to split the WAR fanbase alongside stealth nerfs, which will allow them to definitively bring them in line. That's their standard approach, and we've seen it a few times before.

While I can understand why you weren't able to post this in the tank forum, I don't think that tanks are the reason for devaluing healers. Healers are doing that to themselves. I think the core audience is split between demanding DPS-lite gameplay vs. Sylphie gameplay. All the while, nobody seems interested in looking at introducing actual resource management or innovative utility/support actions. You're deskilling your own role.

Yeah, i think i'm just dropping tank in DT. Kinda just holding out for DT but i have very low expectations in regards to tank balance.
I don't feel like tank balance is done in good faith. There's a clear winner across the patches that blatantly receives preferential treatment. They refuse to apply the same logic to Warrior that they apply to literally every other job in the game.
They would never let Summoner do more damage than Black mage, because like literally every other job in the game besides Warrior, it gets it's damage taxed for it's utility and accessibility.

I don't want to play Warrior, and i don't want to play a job that's strictly worse than Warrior in every way just so i don't have to play Warrior.