Quote Originally Posted by Valence View Post
Like even back in HW you could clear with anything. The differences in dps contribution weren't wide enough to have it in any different capacity, even though some jobs were more loved than others - exactly like today. It just happened that we didn't have that arbitrary division between second rate dps jobs and melees/casters like we have today that's artificially baked into the 1% party bonus. Instead differences were baked into the slashing/piercing debuff synergies. Different paradigm, but ultimately, as long as your party satisfied the base requirements for synergies to be filled, you were good to go, only difference being that you had more freedom in role composition, but less freedom in job composition since the two debuff providers (NIN/DRG) were meta and required in party - with WAR as a potential rep for NIN.
Being able to clear with anything and the numbers being balanced are 2 different things. If a hypothetical 'lowest damage possible' can still do enough damage to clear a DPS check, then the meta 'most damage possible' party is still easily going to clear.

And let's not beat around the bush, the differences in damage numbers were quite large. Warrior was doing close to DPS levels of damage, which the other 2 tanks couldn't get near, relatively speaking. With warrior also applying the slashing debuff in rotation, it meant Ninja didn't have to use Dancing Edge, so more Aeolian Edges, not to mention Trick Attack, considered the best raid debuff at the time. You then had Dragoon giving piercing, again, in rotation, which provided an extra 10% free damage to both Machinist and Bard. It wasn't worth replacing one for a caster if you wanted the most damage. Dark Knight done more damage than Paladin, so was the better choice, which leaves the healers. AST was a party buff machine, and now we are down to just 1 healer slot to fill. If we then consider their damage buffs, they mostly aligned together, which we know how powerful that is. This is ignoring everything else that made that party the uncontested best party. Arguably, Heavensward was not balanced at all, despite every party being able to clear everything.