We cannot achieve balance while DPS jobs have utilities

[Connor]

Why, though? Sometimes %DR is the more worthwhile, other times rez, other times flat shields. Why not let a party pick what all utilities and what degrees of mobility they want, or the least of each (BLM)?

While it would force physical ranged to actually be a bit better balanced against other roles, I don't see why that'd be an issue. I'm sure Physical Ranged wouldn't mind being taken for more than just their % bonus.

(Personally, I'd like to see the bonuses increased for the first in each role in full party content, 2% each for the first tank, melee, ranged, and healer, and just 1% for the second, reducing the relative penalties of single-healer, single-melee, etc., compositions. Such in turn increases the incentive not to be complacent with imbalances between roles. Naturally, boss HP would be increased by some 3.3-4.9% to compensate -- 4% still obliging standard comp or 3.3% offering 1 slot of leeway by comparison.)

I meant to go back an edit it, but I meant ‘role skills as they are currently’, because again it’d end up with a weird situation where either caster stuff goes on ranged or vice-versa. Idk maybe I’ve misunderstood what ‘merging into one ranged role’ means.

If they reworked the role skills somehow, whether making it so different jobs within the same sub role had different role skills as required, or just making things like Swiftcast part of caster’s toolkit like the damage reduction skill all phys ranged have. Or idk if there’s a third option, just that they’d need to clean up how role skill distribution would work. It’d be a different story in that case. But as of yet there’s no indication they have any plans of changing them.

I mean, if they just stuck all the caster and ranged abilities into the same pool wouldn’t they end up with double (give or take one or two) what the others had?
They’d kind of have to adjust it by necessity, and since we’re unfortunately dealing with ‘small indie company SE, I imagine they’d mark that as ‘far too much work’.

Though it would be funny using Lucid Dreaming as a Bard lol (“How do you do fellow casters?”)