How we determine balance and its flaws.

[Gruntler]

Imagine pulling numbers out of your ass for stuff when we have access to actual data.

What a timeline.

Okay, so, while the dataset's small, it's actually looking like an interesting tier. Casters are absolutely dominating some fights, but on another, melee are absolutely wrecking house. Which job is the best is actually -fight dependant- in terms of raid dps contribution.

THIS, right here, is a desirable situation for casters and melee; a properly balanced mmo won't have one class consistantly on top on all fights, then another, then another, in lockstep order. You should expect to see variation where one class will be strong at one fight, but another will be strong at another. This makes class choice simultaneously meaningful, while also maximizing viability. Make it that there's one fight where ranged DPS destroy the house and you'll have dps balance pretty much nailed down perfectly--we're very close to, but not quite at, the ideal.

Another thing to consider is that in today's world, raid dps contribution isn't theoretical, it's now measured. We know how much contribution each job's buffs are, on a case by case basis. In past expansions, it was not measured, and so we literally guessed at it. Having access to this information has changed what the meta looks like because we no longer relegate buff strength to the theoretical; we know selfish DPS are strong and by exactly how much; we know how strong healer duos can be and we can analyse this a lot better than before.

So, we've gone past talking about theoretical raid dps contributions; we can actually directly compare buff strengths with data, not theorycraft.