Training Dummy vs. Actual fights

[SonTensei]

for practice i think dummy is fine.. but like others agreed in raid its different... so what a WAR or DRK can do same DPS as BRD on a DUMMY they wont do that in a raid. why? because they need to TANK!

[spelley]

DRG's ability to use Geirskogul is greatly effected by "real" fight mechanics as well. With a 1-2s error window for 3 Geirskogul's per minute (from what I've read), in reality you are probably only going to comfortably be pushing 2. I'm guessing you'll be able to push 3 the higher your comfort level with the fights become and know when to expect downtime. This is mostly speculation on my part (haven't quite gotten to the EX fights yet personally) but it's an educated guess based on how mechanics go even with just dungeon bosses.

[YGSLlew]

well, to give some nice numbers:



BLM managed to crit with about 4k pre 3.0 using Fire III while the highest numbers for bard were around 1.4k Misery's End crits. That my friend makes a huge difference, even taking the cast times into account, which of course are very high with mages. As for the DoT-thing, yes, bards use a whole 2 of them which are mainly a proc-source instead of huge damage. Yeah, it adds to the overal dps but it's minor compared to Bio, Bio 2, Miasma, and Miasra only to tell a few. Don't get me wrong, I can understand your point here, just giving you my opinion on those:

1. Last I checked bard had dots too.
As I said, yes, but they are barely counting as full fledged DPS tools, considering what the SMN dots do.
2. What do you think happens when a caster loses a cast? They magically get damage back?
Of course not, but they are doing overall a lot more damage with a single cast than bards do, even with WM on, which is the main issue of WM. Since it doesn't really bring out what it should be, most of the time you're better off without it anyway. At least until now. And that's not only my personal feeling but every bards in my FC.
3. 1.5 second cast times are a joke.
Indeed. But it doesn't matter with a maximum potency of 150 which can be fired on a regular base. I won't count EA into account here, since the loss of Auto-attack is destroying it's value.
4. "WM is a minor upgrade for high risk". Well casting is "the same dps you always dealt, with double the cast times, yay". Casters don't even have a fallback like bards do.
Everyone who is playing bard as the main class, will tell you that WM is not rewarding in any way. It's actually a downgrade of damage you get for giving up the one thing that made bards good (in my eyes): Mobility.

Long story short. I can understand that casters are having a bad time with encounters designed to annoy ranged dps classes, but at least, if your attacks get trough, they go BOOM the big way, while WM is simply told a waste of time.