Ranged DPS role is about to be excluded from all content

[Miralyth]

If they buff ranged DPS, and it ended up at like 500 dps, then what’s the point of bringing a Summoner/Red Mage over them? Even Samurai and Dragoon could be in danger if the ranged DPS role gets too close.

I posted this in another thread, so I'm sharing it in response to this (I edited out some writing to shorten the read slightly):

... The panic people have that no one would bring anything but ranged if their DPS were too close is a myth. The meta will still be the jobs with the best dps for the situation, and people will still follow the meta. Not to mention the loss of role buffs and LB. ...

... [regarding Stormblood] Bard and, in a few cases, Machinist weren't so strong because they had mobility, it was because they had decent damage, strong buffs, refresh (which casters didn't have) and synergized way too well with dragoon. BRD+MCH was not a meta for the full expansion, SMN & BLM overtook MCH once they had higher rDPS and not even because it was significantly higher (in the case of SMN). If casters had refresh and strong buffs and synergized with some job that gave them 10% damage, it would have been casters instead of aiming jobs.

It had nothing to do with mobility and everything to do with buff synergy and utility.

I didn't write this at the time of my quote, but note how MCH and BRD never overtook the melee. They did more DPS than NIN, for example, but NIN's utility and the synergy it brought with trick attack was too valuable.

Also, your bit about Bard is not something I agree with. I'm too tired to go on about it, but I think it's more difficult than Samurai and arguably Dragoon (I say this since you seem to be comparing them to melee). It's a job designed to force you to look at procs and timers constantly and consider where your GCD is in relation to server ticks + procs and bloodletter/empyreal arrow CD, but you're judging it on the merit of combos and positionals. That just doesn't add up to me. I also feel loathe to have to say this, but no, Bard is not my main. After it lost its Stormblood complexity I lost interest in it. Additionally, I think difficulty is an absurd reason to balance jobs around and that this doesn't matter to begin with. I think people should play easier or more difficult jobs if that's what they like, and not because they expect some kind of reward.