Concerns Regarding DPS Balance: Physical Ranged, Red Mage, and Summoner

[Reldhir]

Part of me wants to empathise with phys ranged dps mains but as someone who plays most other roles but not phys ranged I kinda have always seen phys ranged as the "free" slot xD

IM not speaking about YOU personally... but in my many years of admittedly anecdotal experience. The lower skilled players tend to congregate to the phys ranged role because its very approachable. No melee range downtime to have to negotiate and no casts to have to navigate. Its free as a bird with a simple rotation. If you're a dancer you even have 3 stacks of the get out of jail free card (or a go directly to jail card depending on who you ask)

There has been zero content that you've excluded a physranged because their damage was low. 99% of 8 person groups still take one phys ranged.

Another way to perhaps look at it is because phys ranged output is lower in potential, a lower performing player also has a reduced impact on team performance. Basically, you take a bigger hit if your picto performs poorly vs your dancer. This only further pushes phys ranged as the "free" role in a party. That is not to say skilled phys ranged players can't or don't make an absolute impact in raid groups, but if you could only have a handful of highly skilled players in your group, you'd get more bang for buck placing them in the higher output roles. Likewise if you have peeps that are maybe new or are a little slower on the uptake, having them in the phys ranged slot can mitigate the inexperience.

You could absolutely argue that this is not a good design choice but I absolutely have taken advantage of the fact when putting together groups for friends xD if any of those friends ends up reading this though, know that I <3 you all the same xD

Someones gotta be the bottom~ ✌

(Just being a bit cheeky pls no murder)

[Naryoril]

...

You are making the exact same argument that is used for the physical ranged tax: Because they are easier to keep uptime, they should deal less damage. But that logic falls apart when you consider that low skilled melee players still deal way more damage than low skilled physical ranged players. If the skill floor were that much lower with physical ranged jobs, then a bad player should be able to deal more damage as physical ranged than as a melee or a non-raise-taxed caster, but they don't. I'd be fine with physical ranged not being as good as a melee at the top end to reward the higher difficulty of reaching the skill ceiling if the average or a bit above average player would perform better as a physical ranged. But the ranged tax existing even at the bottom of the skill spectrum completely and utterly invalidates that argument.

[Carighan]

You are making the exact same argument that is used for the physical ranged tax: Because they are easier to keep uptime, they should deal less damage. But that logic falls apart when you consider that low skilled melee players still deal way more damage than low skilled physical ranged players. If the skill floor were that much lower with physical ranged jobs, then a bad player should be able to deal more damage as physical ranged than as a melee or a non-raise-taxed caster, but they don't. I'd be fine with physical ranged not being as good as a melee at the top end to reward the higher difficulty of reaching the skill ceiling if the average or a bit above average player would perform better as a physical ranged. But the ranged tax existing even at the bottom of the skill spectrum completely and utterly invalidates that argument.

This is sadly a net result of first establishing the - at the time completely correct - observation that as some jobs can keep uptime more consistently, their target-dummy DPS has to be lower to compensate; and then going back and removing the lowered uptime for the other jobs (majorly the melee DPS).

Hitboxes covering half the room, reliable safe spots in melee range, intentional positional requriements for clock spots reflected in the boss mechanics, these are all design elements meant to ensure near-100% melee uptime. Which would in turn mean melees need a damage tax! Their uptime is too high!