My suggestion for how to fix the current "Synergy Stacking" meta.

[Myon88]

The only problem with 'synergy stacking' is the perception of the players who think it defines the whole the game. The solution to that is to correct your perceptions instead of trying to fix what ain't broke.

The reality is that this game has a wide variety of content and is balanced holistically with that in mind. The optimal strategy for progression isn't necessarily the same as the one for speed, even light party and open world content have their own favoured jobs. In this context you can see that the game is actually pretty balanced with a niche for almost every job, I think it's folly to take something only 0.001% of the playerbase does seriously and try to shoehorn the entire game around that.

I think that the sooner people make their peace with that, the happier they will be because it's clear to me the game isn't going in that direction anyway. If you recall Yoshi-P's comments on why RDM's damage is fine, or why SMN's physick isn't on the level of vercure, you can see that things like job identity, and the big picture are a lot more important to them than narrow balance for balance's sake.

Personally as someone who grew up with fighting games and RTSes, I don't understand why some speed-oriented players are so insistent on having SE balance the game for them. If you operate on the cutting edge, your job is basically to find ways to break the game to your advantage, and you should expect to have to find and have to use all kinds of outlier strategies. When it comes down to it, this isn't really a performance oriented game either, even the hardest content it offers is structured around execution instead of raw numbers. Speedrunning is basically a community organized alternative activity that occurs outside the bounds of normal play, there is no obligation for them to balance around it. I mean, imagine if the whole community suddenly decided that open-world footraces was the new big thing, and people started clamouring for everyone to get the same level of mobility as dragoons and ninjas. Don't you think that would be a bit silly?

[Nominous]

Don't you think that would be a bit silly?

I'd agree with you if it weren't for the fact that they literally already do balance based on those things you're describing as folly to balance around. Like I said, it's not the amount of people that take advantage of it that matters, it's the visibility and perception that does. You can't fix the latter, which is why they do make changes to Jobs in the first place, aside from general QoL adjustments.

Why do you think Disembowel got nerfed, and NO other resistances got nerfed coming into 4.0? Because of Job identity? No. Because of the double-ranged meta in 3.4. And just like now, any Job could clear anything just fine. It's a tired argument, because just like then, it is incredibly strong. For that matter, PLD could clear any content in 3.x too, but people still complained about not being in the Meta, and being mostly ignored for changes in 3.x and where do we see PLD now? You think that's a coincidence? It's the community's feedback, which is usually based on the upper limit of a Job's performance, and group strengths. So you say the community's perception is at fault, not the game? The community's thoughts (including about the meta), and game balance are directly tied to one another, and we have tons of evidence of that.

And since you bring up fighting games, me too. And frankly, it's not a 1:1 comparison. Fighting game 'meta' has far more variables, and can be overcome by even more variables. Good match-ups, match-up knowledge, player matchups and knowledge, and just generally being better with your character. In XIV, you can't really overcome a "Top Tier", because they factually are just stronger, or as a fact, just offer more to the party. Some of it comes down to what is being emphasized as important, too, which is partly the community's issue. Part of the onus is on the developer there to emphasize what's important in their own game too though, since of course they're the ones creating it. Right now, they've emphasized party synergy elements. 3/4th of the present Jobs have something significant to offer the party, with about 7 of those (almost half the existing roster) receiving these elements in 4.0. They're pushing this aspect of the game hard, while leaving some Jobs untouched in hopes of creating diversity, but instead, those Jobs are just viewed as lacking, and rightly so. They're in the minority (only about 3 of 15 Jobs).

Now, it's not that you need to overcome the "Meta". You don't. But it's important that if one exists, it's one that is based more around auxiliary elements (like cross role) than it is anything else.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Personally as someone who grew up with fighting games and RTSes, I don't understand why some speed-oriented players are so insistent on having SE balance the game for them.

Because they recognize the trickle down effect. Less skilled players are going to look at the better players and structure their own groups around them, thus you see certain jobs locked out. This also impacts recruitment. You see less and less groups willing to accept Samurais right now because they're woefully inferior to any of their melee counterparts, assuming equal skill. Furthermore, you do not have to be a speed kill 99% static to care about your performance. Currently, Bard and Machinist severe immensely without a Dragoon. I certainly cannot begrudge people who play those respective jobs feeling disappointed when no other job suffers such a damage loss with no trade off. Despite the meme, most players complain do not necessarily want certain jobs to be meta, they want them to be more competitive.

"Job identity" is a poor excuse. Samurai's "job identity" was supposed to be high damage yet all three melee contribute more than an equally skilled Samurai. The devs have an entire different perspective on how we play than how we actually do. Hence Yoshida's recent lament over how infrequent Warrior's use Defiance. They've given us virtually no reason to touch it outside pulls. Therefore, we don't.

Making a new meta changes nothing people will get on that train leaving any classes that fall out of that meta behind. There's no fixing a meta because in this game there's nothing wrong with it. Your issues with it are community based the game is pretty well balanced

If this were true, why has Summoner clawed its way into speed kill groups? Why does Monk has a pretty decent representation despite Dragoon and Ninja being superior? People will accept jobs which are close enough to one another that a slight loss won't be as noticeable.