Quote Originally Posted by Fyrebrand View Post
I completely agree.

The status quo for most MMORPGs has always been 5-player groups: 1 Tank, 1 Healer, and 3 DPS. Even then, extraordinarily long DPS queue time has consistently been an issue across the board.
If DPS queues have been long despite having triple the allotable population, then consider: what do tanks and healers have that makes them less attractive queuing choices? While I'm sure those things can be framed in a variety of ways, the central idea, I'd argue, is usually the same—responsibility. In a dungeon, should a healer fail, the party dies. Should a tank fail, the party dies. Yet, can a DPS normally even fail, especially in any unique or "role-specific" way?

In Overwatch, for instance, a healer is a centerpiece of strategy. They hold the positional web, but the web in turn safeguards them. Tanks support in a closer, more by-event fashion, but must similarly know therefore how to make the most out of those they support. But so too must a damage specialist know how to make the most out of pressure, out of baiting, out of coordination, and how to shape the web for cover and focus, in addition to whatever mechanical skill is required to make the most of their own potential individually. All are capable and culpable of group outcomes.

Yet in XIV, there is only typically one—or on rare occasion where forced by specific mechanics such as buffing tethers, auras, or self AoEs, or overwhelming damage eHP burst splitable through targeting, two—central figures, and one battery that sustains it. All else is superficial acceleration. To achieving something quickly, these are paramount, but in the expectation of non-optimal performance, focused on the primary or essential requirements, these are "extras", free of any real responsibilities. And so those who fear responsibility flock to them, atop and overwhelming whosoever wants a change of perspective or to test a new toolkit style or priority system. Make all both culpable and capable of group outcomes, not just clearing speed, such that their base and optimal difficulties are more equal, and the proportions will level. Break attempts at oversimplification. Make the path of least resistance that which is situationally and mathematically sound, rather than the tunnel-vision of "roles". Finally, when the fears have passed, perhaps even allow players to queue as more than just one job. And then you'll finally have your queue times fixed.