So...is the Ranged Role gone? Are we in a Reverse HW?

[ForteNightshade]

??? no. if people want higher dps theyll choose sam regardless of safety or whatever. most groups honestly don't care since melee have been dealing with uptime since arr. if the melee has more than 1 brain cell mechanics are nothing to worry about like that


also bard wasnt immediately best dps ever in TEA because of double dot. wasn't world first done with a dancer?

You do realize there are fights where specific strats are needed for those mechanics, yes? The standard strat for O12S was brutal on melee yet very few groups wanted to adjust because the uptime version was much riskier. With M/F, you simply lost damage with zero way to mitigate it. Eden's Gate largely avoided melee downtime but that's one tier. If Machinist did capable damage to Samurai there is zero doubt PF would begin ostracizing it. They did with Ninja and Dancer during 5.0. Even statics were opting out of Ninja because it was objectively inferior by much a wide margin. And ask any Samurai main how Stormblood felt. Dragoon and Ninja dominated the melee scene simply because they were better at nearly everything.

And no. The WF group ran Bard.