Why is there a noticeable gap between Casters and Melees?

[ChaozK]

To me it feels like its more a job stacking thing. In a lot of fights stacking too many melees comes with issues or makes certain mechanics harder, while stacking ranged dps doesnt come with such issues. Thats why most groups still prefer to not have more than 2 melees, which means an even split of ranged and melee dps, a quite balanced group setup.

In other words, atm melees dont take away ranged dps slots, which is usually the only reason for rebalancing. However in 2.0, where the difference in dps was very minor, people usually prefered to stack ranged and the common setup was 3 ranged and 1 melee.

[Sentinillia]

The close argument doesn't sound, well, sound in my head. They don't have to dodge much mechanics, or at least in final coil, comparative to ranged. The ranged deal with the same mechanics.
Note that I'm not asking for a buff, just sounding my irritation that the fights are always so stagnant and... plain. Why can't phases of a fight favor different job styles? Why can't there be more ranged/melee specific mechanics?

This was addressed already:

That being said, the current FCoB mechanics do not follow this path. They are all very melee friendly, which has lead to the gap between the DPS classes being very VERY noticeable.

Melee is very strong in the Final Coil. Such was not the case in Binding/Second coils. Take t7 and t9 for example. In t7 melee DPS have to disconnect from the boss everytime Melusine casts the aoe move around her, or even worse, they get Shrieked.
T9 was riddled with disconnects, spread out targets and things that forced you out of position on the boss, making you unable to hit the directional sweetspots.

Rather than adjusting the jobs any further, they should focus on making fights that cater to both jobs equally, or a multitude of encounters that have different preferences for DPS jobs.

[Almalexia]

I don't have access to MSPaint right now, but I was going to draw a small circle around the target labeled [melee range] and a big-ass circle around the target labeled [caster range].

There would also be a crude drawing of a monk shooting a magic ball at Kirin with "CHI BLAST PLEASE" scribbled next to it.

[Tex_Mex]

Rather than adjusting the jobs any further, they should focus on making fights that cater to both jobs equally, or a multitude of encounters that have different preferences for DPS jobs.

I could not agree with you more about there needing to be more mechanic types in future raiding content. Though SMN does need a buff pretty badly at the moment. They are woefully underpowered compared to their rival BLM.

[Skeith-Adeline]

I could not agree with you more about there needing to be more mechanic types in future raiding content. Though SMN does need a buff pretty badly at the moment. They are woefully underpowered compared to their rival BLM.

I wouldn't say SMNs are rivals of BLMs lol.

But yea, needs more mechanics that make both roles of DPS interesting instead of "striking dummy"

[Tex_Mex]

I wouldn't say SMNs are rivals of BLMs lol.

I only meant that since they are the only 2 magical DPS classes, that they tend to have to fight for end game content spots due to most raids being 2 melee, 1 BRD, 1 magical DPS. This is where my rival comment comes from.

[hallena]

Because the balance team's test server is still stuck in 2.0-2.1 where playing melee used to put you at a disadvantage