upcoming rdm changes?

[Gruntler]

It's not correct for a very simple reason. You know what is an equally important if not more important part of prog? Meeting the dps check. Technically this is not a part of prog, but still before overcoming the challenge. And you know how each job's dps can be measured? With dps percentiles.

No, this is a part of prog and this is reflected in clear rate data as well. Notice, that I am not saying dps output is not important, but the dps output at 95% doesn't tell you anything about the dps output in prog; it's the wrong data for the wrong story.

Again, not denying that prog is unimportant. But here lies the heart of the debate, that the "utility" of these powerful prog-heavy features come with an unjustified dps cost.

A question which will never be answered looking only at mastery-level parses; you can never answer whether a job is a liability or a benefit in prog through balance when you're not looking at the entirety of data, when you deliberately exclude prog from the data specifically to only look at one vector. That's my point; you pose an important and valuable question, and looking at 95s only will not get you any closer to an answer. Looking at prog data does.

How RDM has a reputation for being a "prog job" and is often swapped to a higher damaging caster when the damage is needed.

Which is actually not what the data is showing. The data is showing that more people are not bothering to prog with RDM at all, and that's the biggest issue facing the job. It's not making it in the door to prog, so there is a problem there. RDM should be stealing clears, it's kit is about stealing clears. If it's not stealing clears, then it's paying too much dps cost for its utility. If it IS stealing clears, then it's actually fine, because it's doing what it's supposed to do.

See? The data has some value in answering these sorts of questions, if we just look!

Or how in the current Ultimate, death is extremely punishing and unrecoverable (for a good portion of the fight), rendering battle raises to have little value. Or how SMN is also able to provide a raise, albeit not as powerful, but also providing much higher damage output at the same time. There is a balance that can be achieved, but in whichever way, it's clear that putting so much value in prog and claiming it to be standard for balance is a misleading mindset.

Untrue. It's a PvE game--the balance is first, and foremost, in the struggle. Mastery tells you nothing about the difficulty in getting there. And I want to be clear: My standpoint is not 'look only at prog' either. It's look at ALL the data. It's ALL important. It's not about deciding 'which data points are more important than others' blah blah blah. It's not about deciding 'which percentile' is best. It's about not restricting your data point and looking at a broader picture; it's about being holistic in examination, and not trying to force compromise data examination where it's unnecessary and detrimental.