SMN Theorycraft and comparison to Blm

[BakaWakka]

I dont think claiming that casters need to deal with less mechanics than melee is a viable claim, as every single fight is different. If you want the perfect counterpoint, T11 is the perfect example of where melee got the upper hand on black mages until black mages learned the optimal spot to stand (just right outside of the front cleave)

Its pretty reasonable to say all classes have to deal with all sorts of mechanics and some fights favor some DPS over others.

[HaroldSaxon]

Not that I disagree but I just wanted to point out that melee needs to deal with more mechanics to optimize their dps. Say Chimera in cutter cry, blue in, violet out, eye fixed = run-for-your-life are the basic mechanic. Let's say BLM and MNK have same level of understanding. BLM can use things like swiftcast, aetherial manipulation and so on to minimize dps loss. MNK has to move out of point-blank aoe and has to kite chasing orb around. Not that BLM will have any less to deal with, but due to the fact that BLM is ranged, he has EASIER time with the mechanic.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. I do not play melee as much as I play caster so I'm not fitted to make any judgement. If I sounded like I did, I'm sorry. That's my poor language.

I may have side-tracked as I was lost in thought but my underline 'argument' is that melee gets to deal with more 'cannot do damage' possibilities than ranged be it BLM or SMN. Although I do believe BLM needs some tweak with its timer.

Swiftcast is a 60 second cooldown. Aetherial Manipulation has an animation lock afterwards, has to be cast on a player and has a 30 second cooldown.

BLM have to move out of point-blank AOE just like a Monk has to if targetted on him. A monk can finish their cast because its an instant cast, a BLM has to finish their cast, and thus if they move to avoid an AOE, lose their DPS. They don't get procs anywhere near as often as optimally, you use 1 x F1 in your rotation, and thunder breaks your rotation.

A Monk also has longer on their greased lightning, and don't have diminishing time returns when refreshing their damage buffs. They also aren't forced to stand in a small circle to take advantage of one of their major damage buffs.

There has been no time in the last two raids where a mechanic only affects melee's compared to ranged dps. Everything can either be taken/done by another ranged DPS. The only thing that comes close is the AOE in T7, but in T7 it was common for the healers to heal them up. T6 was RNG and didn't matter if it was Melee or Ranged. T8 - Everyone had jobs to do. T9 - Any mechanic affects everyone. T10 - Doesn't stop DPS. T11 - designed around Melee. T12 - There is one mechanic but can be done by other DPS if needs be. T13 - Cover for earthshaker in first phase gets saved for Melee - all the classes get affected by movement.

In the first set of raids, you had Dreadknights (I think?) in T5, and some ground based AOE's in T2 iirc. So literally that is it.

Tl;dr - The Melee Privilege is real!