Is the Ninja nerf really needed?

[Shurrikhan]

Dropping the poison buff from 20% bonus damage to 18% would seem to be (more than) plenty. Monks can still outparse them as is (which I personally think should just barely be the case with each job playing at 90-100% <skill>), and DRGs will hopefully soon be buffed to near enough that level. If their TP costs are increased as planned, that's just going to burn holes in Bard's mana pockets. Without the ability to Goad themselves, fighting at MNK speed w/o MNK TP costs is just going to cause another, and likely more significant, DRG mDef-style issue.

On the discussion of skill floors and ceilings, I have to agree that they shouldn't be a complete justification for any job's superiority, but at the same time I'd like to generally see each class having about equal(ly high) skill ceiling in different styles rather than any one class honestly being classifiable as easier or harder than others.

As far as those DRG buffs go, I'd rather not see the CDs or generally form touched (I do find the 80s CDs to have their place alongside the 40 and 60s ones and have no desire to attempt to 'normalize' or simplify that CD arsenal), but would love to see something more than just having Heavy Thrust's bonus buffed. I'd like to see the class made more opportunistic, if possible, without losing the rotational mindset it already has (just, perhaps something equally intuitive but a bit complex and/or more able and reasonable to take risks in) and perhaps furthering on the 'melee burst king' aspect, which it now shares with Ninja for better or worse.