Physical range dps damage?

[ForteNightshade]

^THIS! It's funny how people say, 'Well I know that physical ranged can do this and that that other jobs can't, BUT... we should still be equal.' Um, NO... you shouldn't. I main MCH, and I'm fully OK with doing less damage because I can run around dodging attacks while at the same time continuing to deal out damage so basically we have no damage downtime. Casters have to interrupt their casts to dodge attacks and melee, well, they are in the thick of it all and not only have to worry about positionals but also constantly watching for point blank AoE attacks from bosses. My second job is NIN, so I understand melee difficulty quite well. If physical ranged were equal, then there would be no reason to play magic range or even melee... if you can stand in the back away from the boss doing constant damage while running all over the battlefield... honestly that idea is just downright silly. People need to accept that there is a trade-off for the job you pick... physical range have it the easiest of all the jobs... but MCH deserves to be highest of physical range DPS because they have very little utility. This is why I dropped DNC and picked up MCH... I want to do more DPS and not have to worry about buffing others. For those who WANT to be the utility player, then playing a lower DPS job like DNC and BRD are there for you.

Except nobody is asking the Range to deal equal damage to the Melee or Casters. They want enough to justify their existence beyond party bonus because as it stands right now, without said bonus, all three Range DPS would be complete dead weight in every single fight, including E6S and E8S which aren't Melee friendly. In fact, they're already reaching the point yet again where Black Mage and Summoner are so much stronger, the party bonus may not be enough. Look at the example I provided above. Summoner is dealing 1,100 more rDPS than Machinist; 2,000 more than Bard. And it's supposed to be the "middle ground" utility Caster. Worse even is Dragoon, who suffers more than any other DPS in E6S, still beats Machinist.

Basically, even with handicaps placed on them (cast interrupts or disengagement) both Melee, and especially Casters, come out ahead. E7S takes it a step further by outright removing positional requirements and making it so the tower mechanic is randomized. In other words, we have a fight where Range don't even get to utilize their free movement to bait mechanics and allow for melee uptime. Predictably, they are laughably behind every other job by nearly 1,000 rDPS or higher except Red Mage—which still beats Machinist. Light Rampant is another example of this same problem. Range cannot bait the mechanic, thus their mobility is no longer an asset. In these examples, they do less damage because reasons and little else.

[SaitoHikari]

Basically, even with handicaps placed on them (cast interrupts or disengagement) both Melee, and especially Casters, come out ahead. E7S takes it a step further by outright removing positional requirements and making it so the tower mechanic is randomized. In other words, we have a fight where Range don't even get to utilize their free movement to bait mechanics and allow for melee uptime. Predictably, they are laughably behind every other job by nearly 1,000 rDPS or higher except Red Mage—which still beats Machinist. Light Rampant is another example of this same problem. Range cannot bait the mechanic, thus their mobility is no longer an asset. In these examples, they do less damage because reasons and little else.

I also want to add, statics will naturally come up with solutions to mechanics aimed at increasing melee and caster uptime. By obvious design, ranged don't benefit from this, so the gap will only widen as time goes on.

For example, one of my friends came up with this strategy for the color portals in E7S during the second half of the fight, normally a pug killer that could make things go sideways for melee and casters especially because the party is normally expected to split up to avoid overlapping AoEs. Except they figured out that the player marker AoEs actually don't do that much damage, and their strategy to stack the same color AoEs completely trivializes the mechanic. What was supposed to be the hardest mechanic for the second half of the fight turned into free uptime for nearly everyone, and now it's the standard strategy for most statics that know what they're doing.

https://clips.twitch.tv/HyperBoringSardineWholeWheat