Do you think the devs intended multi-flare blm?

[NyneAlexander]

Here's a simple test for you guys to do.
Take a BLM, SMN, and BRD. Have the BRD play Foe's as available, and parse for 6 minutes, enough time to use Raging Strikes 3 times.
Then take a DRG, MNK, and BRD, have the BRD play Paeon, and parse for 6 minutes, which is made possible by the bard.
Finally, take your BRD and DRG, have the DRG maintain Disembowel, and have the BRD parse for 6 minutes.

So all in all, this will take 20-25 minutes.

These will be the maximum ST dps values for our dps classes over a idealized and prolonged period.
Realistically, DRG and MNK wont go past 3-4 minutes without a break. And BLM/SMN wont get nearly as much uptime on Foe's due to healer's needs.

I don't think that 6 minutes is a realistic time frame for a couple reasons:

1.) the majority of endgame fights where dps will make or break it are almost twice as long, if not longer and
2.) the longer the fight, the larger the gap between top and bottom dps.

[Kenji1134]

I don't think that 6 minutes is a realistic time frame for a couple reasons:

1.) the majority of endgame fights where dps will make or break it are almost twice as long, if not longer and
2.) the longer the fight, the larger the gap between top and bottom dps.

I say 6 minutes for a couple simple reasons.

1. Its a nice number for 2 and 3 minute CD's, so the next decent timeframe would be 9, and the next ideal timeframe would be 12 minutes.
2. Its true that most of the important fights now take closer to 10-14 minutes... But then the issue becomes constructing a situation to sustain MNK, DRG, and BRD for the entire 12 minute parse WITHOUT breaks, which these long fights tend to have.
3. And then the other fun part, finding enough "equally" geared and skilled... highly skilled... people for this test, AND getting them to go at it for 12 minutes, without messing up or going braindead. =)

That said, this kind of test is really for 2 types of people. Theorycrafters, and the Combat QA/Dev team. We're the former, so if you can find the people to do it, all on the same server, same group, same data collection methods and cross-checking the data... By all means go to town.

But really, this "should" be SE's job, not ours.

PS.
I am having flashbacks to RIFT, where I was a Warrior main, and the entire theorycrafter community did spec and rotation checking for the warrior dev... Then he'd buff or nerf... mostly nerf... each spec and subclass until there weren't any outliers. Not "balance", there were a lot of specs that simply sucked. But of the small handful of builds that worked, they were all "fairly" balanced, mostly thanks to us, the players.