Disembowel: Please Fix this Mess

[Tex_Mex]

I believe that any balanced dps composition should always include 1 magic dps, 1 physical ranged dps, and 1 melee dps, with the final slot being completely open to every DPS class. This type of setup seems to me like it would be the best possible solution for the playerbase, so that each of the DPS types can be relevant and have a spot in high end raiding. I do not believe that this goal is possible without some homogenization, though I am a staunch believer that complete homogenization would be a disaster. Balancing these 2 factors is not easy, but I believe a happy middle ground could be formed. With that in mind, here is what I would do to encourage class diversity within team compositions:


Step 1) Remove all current 100% uptime resistance debuffs from the game. Piercing, slashing, and blunt resistance downs are inherently imbalanced because there are not even numbers of classes that benefit from those damage types. 5 classes benefit from slashing down, but only 1 benefits from blunt down?? Who thought that was a good idea?

Step 2) Introduce 3 new 100% uptime damage resistance debuffs: Magic resistance down, Physical Ranged resistance down, and Melee resistance down. These generalized resistance downs would greatly simplify how debuffs work and allow these debuffs to benefit more classes.

Step 3) Give EVERY DPS class one of these resistance downs as a normal part of their optimal rotations. The debuffs would be assigned as follows:

All Melee DPS => Physical Ranged Resistance Down Debuff
All Physical Ranged DPS => Magic Resistance Down Debuff
All Magic DPS => Melee Resistance Down Debuff

*These Debuffs WILL NOT STACK with a debuff of the same type (I.E. if you bring 2 magic DPS, the party will not get double melee resistance down)

Step 4) Rebalance class potencies to make up for the losses and gains in pDPS. Some classes would lose a lot from a change like this, while others would gain a lot. A simple potency rebalance would be all that is needed to bring these numbers back in line.



Reasoning - The Good
This setup highly encourages parties to bring at least 1 of each of the 3 DPS types. In fact, (assuming good DPS balance) this setup will make that composition mandatory in order to achieve maximum rDPS.
Using this idea would completely alleviate the imbalance caused by Disembowel, and would put all DPS on a more even playing field when trying to find parties.
This setup also allows parties complete freedom with the 4th DPS slot, since the group will already have access to all of the resistance debuffs.
This setup also allows tank and healer damage to benefit from the debuffs, though the healers and tanks will not be able to provide the debuffs.
Using this methodology, individual job abilities like BRD utility, Trick Atttack, Battle Littany, etc. do not need to be removed or shared, so jobs can still maintain distinct identities.

Reasoning - The Bad
This is yet another step towards homogenization, and it also completely trivializes game mechanics like damage types (piercing, blunt, etc.). Personally, I think these are trivial mechanics to begin with, but this could be a downside.
This type of setup makes having one of each of the DPS types basically mandatory for end game raiding. While I see this as a good thing, forcing players to play a game one specific way will undoubtedly turn some players off.
One imbalance to this idea is that Melee players get the short end of the stick when it comes to the rDPS provided to the party because of this change. Their debuff would only affect the physical ranged DPS (maximum 2 people, but more likely 1 person), while the other debuffs affect not only the DPS, but the healers and tanks as well. To balance this, the debuff that melee players give could be increased to compensate (say from 5% to 8% or something like that). There are multiple ways to address this, but I feel it is an extremely minor issue.


Conclusion
In my opinion, this solution would go a long way towards balancing classes and encouraging diverse class compositions, while leaving the identity of FF jobs intact.