This is disappointing, to say the least.

I think I speak for most of the PvP community when I say that we were surprised to see season 5 of the Feast announced for as early as 4.06 - and even more surprised when 4.06 was announced for today, mere days after it was revealed, when we expected the season to start around late August or early September.

Still, after an overall good first round of adjustments in 4.05, we assumed that it wouldn't be so bad. 4.06 would bring the last few tuning changes, namely to the WAR, AST, SCH and RDM jobs, with maybe some PLD tuning, and we'd all be set for a competitive season 5. Multiple threads were left on this very forums for feedback on the AST job, the BLM job, the RDM job and the tank role, respectively.

Why were all those threads ignored? None of them got so much as a reply or even an acknowledgement from the dev team, and now the competitive season will begin with literally zero PvP change while some glaring balance issues continue to exist. I simply can't understand the thought process behind this and I know I am not alone.

As it stands now, the WAR job is laughably bad, being the only tank without a stun in a new system where CC is much more crucial and scarce, while its damage output is matched by the DRK (and PLD not so far behind) when both of those jobs bring tons of utility to their team. The RDM job is also undertuned, its burst is underwhelming and predictable, and leaves them vulnerable, which no other ranged job has to deal with. SCH is still a broken mess, far above both other healers in their MP management and damage output while the dev team doesn't seem to know what to do with Broil (seriously, why not just make it a basic enfeeblement similar to what the other two healers have????). AST still has Deorbit, a very niche (read: practically useless) ability that takes one of 9 crucial spots as they struggle with ways to increase their healing throughput and their self defense as they can't place Synastry on themselves.

Overall, the competitive season is not ready to start just yet. Most jobs are balanced, but the imbalances that remain are way too big to be ignored - WAR being a waste of a tank slot in the party, for starters. I hope we can at least get an official response to this thread to let us know when further PvP balance changes are to be expected, and why the multiple threads of feedback we left on the forums were ignored.

Thank you.