Alternatives to "nerfing" ninja

[dday3six]

Here's the thing with the 'nerf' to rogue, there's only two ways to approach it. Buff the current DD classes, or 'nerf' rogue. Given that the rest of the classes have had 2~ years of balancing against eachother and their intended playstyles, any changes they make would have to be for every class which would require not only balancing against rogue but also eachother again. Alot of work. Rogue, on the other hand, can easily just be balanced against the DDs given the class is, itself, a DD and the other DDs are already balanced against the rest of the classes. Given this, it's only sensible to 'nerf' rogue, bring it more in line with the classes we have.

That is fine until you remember Dragoon is getting a buff.

[Gilraen]

That is fine until you remember Dragoon is getting a buff.

A defense buff to make up for the near lack of magic defense. Tank armor has the best, and most even, defenses in the game with the rest of the armors having varying mixes of physical and magical defense. Melee DDs tend to have the worst magic defense (alongside a low physical defense). It's almost laughable to expect a lancer to take a magic blast to the face and live... which is the point of the buff. It's not a buff specific to lancers, it's more a buff to their armor.

[dday3six]

A defense buff to make up for the near lack of magic defense. Tank armor has the best, and most even, defenses in the game with the rest of the armors having varying mixes of physical and magical defense. Melee DDs tend to have the worst magic defense (alongside a low physical defense). It's almost laughable to expect a lancer to take a magic blast to the face and live... which is the point of the buff. It's not a buff specific to lancers, it's more a buff to their armor.

They are getting a DPS buff too, not just Magic Defense.

[RyuDragnier]

A defense buff to make up for the near lack of magic defense. Tank armor has the best, and most even, defenses in the game with the rest of the armors having varying mixes of physical and magical defense. Melee DDs tend to have the worst magic defense (alongside a low physical defense). It's almost laughable to expect a lancer to take a magic blast to the face and live... which is the point of the buff. It's not a buff specific to lancers, it's more a buff to their armor.

They're removing positionals and buffing attacks on DRG. So why do NIN need to be nerfed after that again? Because these changes alone will take DRG higher than NIN in damage, and possibly have them compete with MNK for top DPS. There's no point in nerfing NIN if they're going to buff DRG, it'd be like nerfing BLM while buffing SMN, it makes no sense.

[ChaozK]

They're removing positionals and buffing attacks on DRG. So why do NIN need to be nerfed after that again? Because these changes alone will take DRG higher than NIN in damage, and possibly have them compete with MNK for top DPS. There's no point in nerfing NIN if they're going to buff DRG, it'd be like nerfing BLM while buffing SMN, it makes no sense.

Because the devs probably think NIN is too strong in comparison to the whole roster of dps rather than just DRG is my guess. If it was just about DRG they could've just buffed DRG but since they are going the route of nerfing NIN, it seems to suggest they are unhappy with where NIN stands in the dps rankings.
Not saying thats actually the case or my own opionion but thats probably their reasoning.

Edit: Another guess is that they didnt want DRG to be close to or on par with MNK but would've needed to in order to make them as desirable as NIN. So they went the middle route of buffing DRG a bit and nerfing NIN a bit.

[Levis]

Because the devs probably think NIN is too strong in comparison to the whole roster of dps

Yep, in this letter. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...II-Q-A-Updates

Q3: Ninja is able to silence, stun, and I feel like their DPS output is a bit too high. Do you have any plans to make adjustments to they are balanced with other jobs?

A3: With the mudra combinations, ninja is a job where it’s tricky to deal damage, and we’ve set their DPS to be somewhat higher than other jobs. However, players have really been pushing ninja to the limit, and while it’s only by a slight percentage, DPS is being output a bit higher than anticipated. Due to this, in order to make their DPS output similar to other jobs, we will be making adjustments to DPS and the TP costs of certain actions, while ensuring that the current rotation is not destroyed.

[Sapphic]

Q3: Ninja is able to silence, stun, and I feel like their DPS output is a bit too high. Do you have any plans to make adjustments to they are balanced with other jobs?

A3: With the mudra combinations, ninja is a job where it’s tricky to deal damage, and we’ve set their DPS to be somewhat higher than other jobs. However, players have really been pushing ninja to the limit, and while it’s only by a slight percentage, DPS is being output a bit higher than anticipated. Due to this, in order to make their DPS output similar to other jobs, we will be making adjustments to DPS and the TP costs of certain actions, while ensuring that the current rotation is not destroyed.

Bolded the part people seem to be ignoring, SE have accurate data, we have access to third part parsers which are not accurate.

[Mardel]

Bolded the part people seem to be ignoring, SE have accurate data, we have access to third part parsers which are not accurate.

Not true, they are pretty accurate as they read directly from memory... unless SE has some super secret technology.

[Krr]

Bolded the part people seem to be ignoring, SE have accurate data, we have access to third part parsers which are not accurate.

The insinuation that players do not have the ability to compile their own accurate data and act on it is laughable in the face of the fact that one of the issues S-E admits to having is that players actually created a better rotation than the game designers could using their own abilities.

S-E is very capable of making mistakes in their numerical analysis.

[Jeckyl_Tesla]

They're removing positionals and buffing attacks on DRG. So why do NIN need to be nerfed after that again? Because these changes alone will take DRG higher than NIN in damage, and possibly have them compete with MNK for top DPS. There's no point in nerfing NIN if they're going to buff DRG, it'd be like nerfing BLM while buffing SMN, it makes no sense.

What are you, some sort of oracle? You can see the future? Or wait, could it be, you're a part of the SE team and know the EXACT changes to the potency and cooldowns of the skills?!

Or wait, no. You're just some other shmuck talking out of his rear, making grandiose comments on things you have actually no idea about.

/sigh

Ah, the complaints of the NINs are like gold. I'm looking forward to the huge NIN playerbase falling. Maybe some going back to DRG. Who knows.

A quick comment on rotations in this game. None of the DPS rotations, nor actual styles are that difficult. MNK really isn't as that difficult as most people make it out to be. (This may change once I have hit T10+, but from what I have heard, MNKs just stick to the boss non stop). NIN rotation is a breeze and the only small thing that holds it up is the random Mudra lag. But that has always been easy to sidestep by simply waiting 1 second before hitting ninjutsu. Rest of the rotation is childs play and easy as hell. DRG's rotation, I'd argue is the most unforgiving due to their positional requirements. NINs have none, cept Trick Attack, and MNKs don't lose too much if they physically can't get the right positions. DRGS? Say goodbye to everything. Bye bye Heavy thrust/DPS boost. Bye bye Disembowel combo. Bye bye Chaos Thrust DoT.

If people find genuinely find the DPS classes in this game difficult, I'd dread to see them try something like Feral Druid back from Cata times. Oh lord, will somebody think of the children.