Balance, Homogenisation and Encounter Design: The Problem.

[linay]

Also I've seen plenty of wipes over the past 5 and 1/2 years in EX and Savage fights where the group could do the mechanics perfectly but they just didn't have the dps to kill the boss

That said, sometimes doing mechanics perfectly means doing it while keeping up high uptime. It's not really doing mechanics perfectly if you don't do anything (or do less than you should) while "doing" the mechanics.

That isn't on the players though. When jobs are this imbalanced, the fault lies squarely on the devs for allowing it to occur. The players are simply taking the jobs which best help facilitate a clear. You can argue Ninja is perfectly viable but when a 20% Monk is better than a 50% Ninja, well...

And just for reference sake. You don't see this happening with the tanks despite Warrior being clearly weaker than its counterparts.

It is on the players when there is nothing in the game that tells the players to take that 20% monk over that 50% ninja. That is purely player preference. Sure, that preference is influenced by the state of the game, but it is still a preference rather than the game telling you that a ninja cannot work on so-and-so fight regardless of how good the player is.

[ForteNightshade]

It is on the players when there is nothing in the game that tells the players to take that 20% monk over that 50% ninja. That is purely player preference. Sure, that preference is influenced by the state of the game, but it is still a preference rather than the game telling you that a ninja cannot work on so-and-so fight regardless of how good the player is.

They know FFlogs exists, and thereby know most raiders will have this knowledge. There is no excuse for any jobs to have that large a discrepancy. It isn't player preference, it's basic pragmatism.

[linay]

It isn't player preference, it's basic pragmatism.

Pragmatism is why I said I don't blame people for being picky about jobs. But this is a video game, not a matter of life and death. Being pragmatic is still player preference. As you've said yourself, a group of friends could very well be cool with not having the best jobs. As long as people are skilled enough (to at least make some progress), they could still have a good time running any content.

[ForteNightshade]

Hard Enrages are one of the main issues with this game when it comes to endgame to be honest. Why everyone only cares about DPS. Just pure stupid game design.

Should make them soft enrages. 10mins or whatever hits. Bosses get a stack of dmg taken -10% and damage dealt +10% then an additional stack for each 30secs - minute after that, to the point where it is impossible to kill.

Not the oh well you are at 5% guess what though... you had a Ast, nin, and rdm in your party so you timed out. Do not worry though you can wait 3 weeks longer then groups of equal skill to clear it or play the meta jobs.

While I do like soft enrages, they functionally serve the same purpose. In fact, they're more likely to encourage a DPS focused mentality. After all, if you lose the DPS checks or fail a mechanic, the boss just became even harder.

Regardless, seeing enrage has nothing whatsoever to do with the job selection you pick. Your odds may be better with jobs like Monk and Black Mage but none are so bad they literally cannot clear.

Pragmatism is why I said I don't blame people for being picky about jobs. But this is a video game, not a matter of life and death. Being pragmatic is still player preference. As you've said yourself, a group of friends could very well be cool with not having the best jobs. As long as people are skilled enough (to at least make some progress), they could still have a good time running any content.

The difference being you know those seven other people, and know they can compensate for your preferred job's shortcomings. A random pug does not, which is why you see certain jobs being locked out, albeit not nearly to the extent people like to insinuate. No matter how you slice it, the onus lies with the dev team to make each job competitive within its own category. Player preference does play a factor, but that preference comes from how each job performs.

Wow, so are we really down to cosmetics and pushing buttons in a slightly different order?

To be fair, certain aspects of a job need to be uniform. Otherwise, people prioritize the superior option above all else. I mean, why wouldn't they? Case in point, when Paladin was the physical tank and Dark Knight magical. You saw less and less Paladins because practically the entirety of Alexander was magic heavy.