Thread: Caster Changes in 4.2 (RIP Casters)

Originally Posted by Tommyhawk

Can SE just STOP with the balancing and step back and ask if these changes will make the "job" fun or not
SMN 4.1 was fun
This SMN 4.2 garbage does not look fun
Why is SE being fun kryptonite?
In what universe does making a "job" less fun considered a good idea?

Summoner's only change was potency reductions that, frankly, are warranted. Look at the DPS parsing for the top 75th percentile in Omega savage, and the top performing job on literally every floor is summoner. Add to those numbers that summoner adds raid utility in the form of Devotion and raises, and their mobility of play compared to jobs its outperforming, and the job was in need of a nerf in power. They can't simply just make other jobs stronger, sometimes balance means an already powerful job needs to be tweaked down too.

Originally Posted by wereotter

Summoner's only change was potency reductions that, frankly, are warranted. Look at the DPS parsing for the top 75th percentile in Omega savage, and the top performing job on literally every floor is summoner. Add to those numbers that summoner adds raid utility in the form of Devotion and raises, and their mobility of play compared to jobs its outperforming, and the job was in need of a nerf in power. They can't simply just make other jobs stronger, sometimes balance means an already powerful job needs to be tweaked down too.

FFlogs overestimates SMN'er damage in a number of ways. It was absolutely not overpowered - Bard, Ninja, Dragoon and Machinist were all better.

Originally Posted by HaroldSaxon

FFlogs overestimates SMN'er damage in a number of ways. It was absolutely not overpowered - Bard, Ninja, Dragoon and Machinist were all better.

Is it only Summoner? If it's an issue with Dots, then I imagine everyone goes down a notch.

Originally Posted by Leukka

However, knowing SE's tendency for bandaid fixes it wouldn't surprise me if in the future at some point they nerf LB acquisition further for not having a specified group comp or just hard lock that slot for Casters only because it'd take a radical tuning pass to balance things out at this point.

They sorta already tried that, actually. Back in... 3.1, I think it was? There was a change to LB generation to add a penalty if you have more than 2 of any single role (tank/healer/melee/ranged/caster). It lasted all of 1 patch before they changed it to the current penalty for duplicate jobs.

After having an afternoon to stew on it all, I'm rather indifferent to the changes to the casters.

It does feel like their attempt at balancing was menial at best. Black Mages did not get a particularly useful buff, nor did Summoner's get a particularly strict nerf - both attempts seem like they will fail to balance the casters much. As for Red Mage, I thought they were fine where they were, and continue to be. However, I admit I'm not a raider, so I'm not taking that particular aspect of the game in mind, so I suppose my opinion isn't worth much considering.

Besides, people seem to be forgetting that these are preliminary notes, and changes to classes have been made at the last minute, and there is nothing preventing a change again come 4.21 or 4.25. Everyone really needs to calm down a bit and see how these changes play out before being too up-in-arms.

Originally Posted by Leukka

Now take those parses and plug them into http://xivrdps.herokuapp.com

I think every SMN would love to take a hit to personal dps if it meant a raid dps contribution equal to Ninjas, Dragoons, Bards and Machinists.

The original statement from the devs not only mentioned utility, which SMN has in the form of devotion and raises, but also in mobility and how impacted the job is by mechanics. Considering DOTs and pet damage continue through most mechanics and movement phases, added with general summoner mobility, and the job outperforms on personal DPS and ought to be sitting just above RDM, not at the top.

As I said maybe I have a different experience on what unplayable really means