So, I see this topic a lot. People seem to dislike the idea of speed runs, as well as class stacking. I was chatting with a friend, and we sort of stumbled upon a few ways that things could be done better. I don't know how the Garuda fight is being made to make melees more desirable as was mentioned, but that shouldn't exclude these suggestions I don't think.

[Speed Runs]
This seems to be one of those hot topics; people think speed runs are a lame way of doing things, and that it encourages class stacking. Also, the content ends up being dull because you're striving to finish each run as fast as possible, so the job setup is stacked to accomplish that goal (another issue entirely, but I'll address that too)

Personally, I think the speed run concept is fine, it's just not being done in a way that is exciting in the least. My suggestion is this; instead of having 60 minutes on the clock to finish the run, and having to finish it in under a certain amount of time in order to get that 5th chest we do something like this. We set our own time limits, not over 60 minutes. The 5th chest is present at the end of every run regardless of the time you finish in. The droprate of the "good" items (i.e. Darklight) though, is purely based on how much time you gave yourself to finish the run. A group that wager's they can beat the run in 10 minutes will have a greater chance of getting that higher quality gear than a group that wagers they can do it in 40 minutes. Both groups, though, still get that 5th chest and a chance at the gear. This would hopefully quell those complaints on the drop rate of Darklight gear.

I have no idea how difficult something like this would be to implement, but this would quell a lot of complaints around the current method in place. Also, being close to a time limit increases the excitement level for the run - being 1 minute from failure when you kill the last boss is more exciting than having 30+ minutes remaining on the clock. This would potentially server to make the dungeons more exciting and enticing for more people, as they wouldn't get so stale so fast.

[Class Stacking]
The problem with class stacking in FFXIV will always be present in the current system. Making one fight where melees are more desirable just excludes the BLM's and BRD's as much as the fights where ranged DD's are more desirable excludes the melees. I realize we don't know how the Garuda fight will be, and what reason we may have to use melees but I imagine it will make melees the best option for the fight.

A simple solution to encourage players to vary their types of damage rather than stack them would to put a sort of defense boost or defense down "triangle" in place. The two ways this could be done to actually discourage class stacking:
  1. Method One (Reward): Each type of damage gives a "defense down" debuff to the attacked mob specific to a different type of damage. Ex: Melee DD's attack a mob, it gets "magic defense down", which boosts the nukes done by other party members. Nuking in this way resets the "magic defense down" effect in a manner similar to how berserk/rampage work. The nuke also provides a "projectile defense down" effect. Basically, as long as you have 3 different kinds of damage going on, they synergize together to do more damage.
  2. Method Two (Penalty): A mob has it's defense split three ways: magical, projectile, and melee. stacking damage of one type slowly increases it's defense against that type, while reducing the defense of the other types. So, if you stacked BLM's, the mob may alter it's defense from 33%/33%/33% to 50%/25%/25% (Magic/Ranged/Melee) over time. This way, rather than rewarding players who stack classes because "X is the best DD to use on mob Y" they are forced to vary their forms of damage, otherwise they suffer a penalty on all their DD's.

Method One seems better to me, as it doesn't punish class stacking but rewards varying classes. Method Two is less game-breaking though, as Method One could increase the DPS of a well-rounded group immensely.

At any rate, I realize this is quite a long post but as I said, these seem to be topics that come up a lot. Personally, I hope something is done to discourage class stacking for 2.0, so rather than complaining I figured I'd post some valid methods to counter it.