Encounters need to be designed to let people play the class they want to.

[Rydin]

While it is true that this game suffers from a serious ranged predilection...

Should we perhaps consider that content being implemented now is more probative and experimental (As well as being placeholder content) and doesn't represent long term content?

The dungeons and battles we have now don't necessarily represent post 2.0 content
Maybe current content is purposely skewed to expose inherent weaknesses in the armoury system.
I am confident the battle designers are carefully monitoring the situation and have seen the videos where WAR, WHM, WHM, BRD, BLM, BLM, BLM, BLM seem to be clearing everything more often than other combinations

Has anyone stopped to consider that maybe the developers are smarter than we think?

[Malakhim]

They are.

It isn't the devs fault that your LS event organizers and leaders are a bunch of asshats.

[Edgecrusher]

Utter lies.

You can't blame SE for the fact that players will ALWAYS find it easier to stack jobs instead of risking everyone knowing what they should be doing. This is the communities fault not SE's.

^this.

The only place one may even be allowed to "experiment" with different combinations, is within one's own LS...and even then it's maybe one good try...then back to formula.

[Rydin]

Utter lies.

You can't blame SE for the fact that players will ALWAYS find it easier to stack jobs instead of risking everyone knowing what they should be doing. This is the communities fault not SE's.

Is it really the communities fault though?
Let's examine the extreme

Yoshi makes an "Jynx Masamune" encounter that takes an hour of hard fought battle to complete, but rewards us with some SUPER EPIC GEAR
But if you go in with all Monks and do the /blowkiss emote... the boss dies instantly....
Could you really blame people for
/shout Jynx Masamune /blowkiss burn 4/8 MNK onry

In fact... you would DEFINITELY say it's SE's fault for not balancing the content...
Is that the extreme... yes... but you see the point
People would be defending SE saying "Any job can complete it" like thats really the point

I stand by my previous statement that this content is experimental and doesn't represent post 2.0

[Nuinn]

The elemental (or otherwise?) resistance of mobs in raids almost doesn't factor at all at this point. Spam it with melee dps or magic, whatever gets its hp down. What about pierceing/slashing damage (lance VS sword/axe). . . .

They could also penalize parties for stacking jobs (not a huge penalty but one that would at least nudge people into trying other combos).

Then there's the mechanic of the fights itself. Princess tactic? Clump together -___- huge arena that serves for nothing. Chimera? Clump together and range kill it -___- These aren't the only tactics but are among the easiest and it's SE's fault directly for giving us means to go cheap this way. Could almost stretch it and argue it's not even a proper tactic. . . .

Maybe they're just testing the waters or simply don't have the time to go more in-depth, hope they do find a good balance before V2.0 goes live.

[Elexia]

Is it really the communities fault though?
Let's examine the extreme

Yes. Just like in FFXI you didn't need PLD, SMN, SMN, BLM, BLM, WHM setups to beat most CoP BCNMs.

[Rydin]

Yes. Just like in FFXI you didn't need PLD, SMN, SMN, BLM, BLM, WHM setups to beat most CoP BCNMs.

ok... then ask yourself this?
If 2 people were shouting 7/8 cutter's cry, Chimera...

One was WAR, WHM, WHM, BRD, BLM BLM BLM

and

the other was PLD, WHM, WHM MNK, MNK, DRG, DRG

which one would you choose to run with?
And so I'll ask again... is it really the communities fault?

[DoctorMog]

ok... then ask yourself this?
If 2 people were shouting 7/8 cutter's cry, Chimera...

One was WAR, WHM, WHM, BRD, BLM BLM BLM

and

the other was PLD, WHM, WHM MNK, MNK, DRG, DRG

which one would you choose to run with?
And so I'll ask again... is it really the communities fault?

Simple,

People who suck at FFXIV pick the BLM stacked group for easymode.

People who don't suck pick the other group.

[Rydin]

Simple,

People who suck at FFXIV pick the BLM stacked group for easymode.

People who don't suck pick the other group.

I think the non-stacked one would be more fun... for sure... but I don't think someone sucks because they go for the easier win... many people don't like to take risks
If it takes a highly skilled party to speed run Aurum Vale with every class present but a mediocre party can do it when stacked a certain way... you already know what everyone will do...
I think both SE AND the community can share blame for that

But I do feel like content at 2.0 will be much more varied and diverse....
So I try not to be too hypercritical of things right now

[Welsper59]

This is ALWAYS going to be an issue in games that don't want to make every character made homogenized. There will always be some form of efficient setup as a result. Short of a debuff to power for overusing one specific class in a party, or requiring use of specific classes to do something, it's almost impossible to guarantee balance for any one thing.

Doing any of these things to prevent the "preferred" setup just makes the game overall less fun for everyone. Sure it'll get you into that event/fight/whatever easier, but it'll exclude others at the same time, almost to a degree of necessity. "Sorry, we can't invite you because we already have a <insert your class>" or "LFM need <least used class> so we can start the fight".

From the developers standpoint, you ask for the impossible when you ask too much. You don't want homogenization, you want there to be prevention of preferred setups that excludes your preferred playstyle (even though outside of the preferred, you still do fine), yet you still want them to treat things as though it were.

I would not be surprised if folks actually think it can be done in one days work to balance the game out. Thinking that it takes no thought at all for developers to, for example, make any fight in the game automatically adjust the difficulty according to party member classes, levels, gear, etc. That it's just a simple matter of typing "balance" in a single line of code. That'd be awesome, and probably would put a large number of people on an unemployed list, but that's not how it works.