Quote Originally Posted by Valence View Post
There is that fantasy from non rphys players that rphys is 100% uptime free and can do whatever the fuck it wants by having full freedom. The toolkit and the job mechanics make this true, but the encounter constraints do not, and also affect rphys jobs to a lesser degree. It's not because you're playing rphys that you suddenly magically can stand everywhere you want without consequences, you know?
Having to think about your position for heals or mechanics is true for every job. If players say that p. range have full uptime, it is because they can roll their GCD and continue their rotation unimpeded regardless of what's going on. If a p. range messes up due to mechanics happening at the same time, any other role could have the same problem, too.

P. range simply don't have to take casts, range or positionals into consideration and have no constraints at all in what they do DPS-wise.

Having a look at the current tier, p. range isn't bothered by the following mechanics:

- M1: Mousers and the knockback after Mouser 1

- M2: donut > out pattern, Center/Outerstage combos, Beat 1 tower placement and out AoE, Alarm Pheromones 1 (more freedom on where to go and how), Alarm Pheromones 2, defamations in Beat 3

- M3: chariots, dives (DNC does have to consider range to the boss for dancing), towers, chains, Final Fusedown, Bombarian special

- M4: all Witch Hunts, all Electrope Edges, Ion Cluster (platform break), intermission cones and spreads/wild charges (a pain for casters), Sabaths (can take any spot or tower regardless of strat), Chain Lightning (not affected by potentially annoying patterns or rod #4 order)

I'm probably missing some but I believe the point is clear.

Does p. range deserve to deal 10% less damage than the top DPS or for MCH to be so terribly balanced? Of course not, the gap should be at most 5%, but p. range is the most consistent role when it comes to uptime because they always have it.

Perhaps what the role needs is precisely some kind of mechanic that allows them to optimize the way they look at encounters, in a similar vein that melees do with uptime or positionals or casters with slide casting and management of movement tools.