Quote Originally Posted by Magic-Mal View Post
No one is asking or expecting SMN to be as strong as BLM, at least I'm not. But Yoshi has said that he doesn't like nerfing classes. Instead he buffs them. With RDMs utility being so strong, SMN and especially MCH need a pickup. BRD is okay since it has alot of utility. All SMN has is Raise, 5% damage up Devotion which sucks, and either 2% melee damage up or 10% magic damage up. And then it has low DPS. Going by your 95th percentile, losing to RDM 3/5 fights and baarrrrely winning in one fight. That shows that SMN needs a buff. It's utility doesn't cover for its low damage.
He just nerfed Astro for the same exact reason RDM was too strong. Even if you get a slight bump in dps RDM will still be taken because dualcast VerRaise was a mistake. Until they fix that RDM will be brought to raid over other casters unless they are nerfed to the point they aren't viable. It is just too good for progression and cuts down on number of pulls needed to learn a fight by too much. You don't even have to take into account Embolden which honestly is about as good overall as pet buffs + Devotion. If you want a quality of life change so you can pick your Devotion target since pet responsiveness sucks, sure why not. A 10 or 20 potency increase to Ruin III/Ruin IV maybe. But the sky isn't falling and you aren't that far behind dps wise. RDM utility is simply OP. The people in this thread are acting like they need a 25% overall dps buff, when if anything SMN needs like 2-5% dps buff if anything. Which isn't significant enough to matter to anyone except world 1st / server 1st groups who are just going to take RDM anyways b/c crapping out VerRaise to learn the fight quicker is simply too good.