Quote Originally Posted by CorbinDallas View Post
Red Mage vs Summoner, for one. Red Mage is completely brain dead to play at an acceptable level, and nobody can change my mind on that. Compare it to Summoner, which has a rotation that is literally giving people hand cramps. Why should Red Mage do more damage than a Summoner? Give me one good reason.
I play both. Haven't really noticed that Red Mage is completely brain dead to play. Can't speak to the damage either, as the Red Mage is still stuck in the mid-50s. The game play of Summoner is more like that of Bard in that the priority-list can be relatively complex. I'm used to that after more than four years of playing it. I suspect for me it is now what you might call brain dead to play, whereas I have to pay attention with the Red Mage.

Can't give you a good reason behind damage, but then again, why should the relatively simpler Black Mage do more damage? Or the 'strictly by the book" rotation of the Dragoon? Heck, why doesn't Bard do more damage as a DPS than any other DPS, given its complexity. I suspect the answer is that (a) you don't do damage in an instance if you can't pay attention to mechanics and end up dead (b) complexity of play style appeals to people who don't really care if they do 500 less damage per second in the instances where they hang out (c) some jobs appear to do more damage because they have more highly skilled players setting the trend for 'DPS of the expansion?