Quote Originally Posted by ForsakenRoe View Post
Couple of people I've talked to said something similar actually. If they were to implement a Support role, it'd actually help fix the disparity in the DPS classes right now (apparently). What they said was to split the DPS not based on melee v ranged v caster, but selfish and support.
I really don't think theirs is at all a solid claim.

Neither support nor selfishness have a consistent complexity factor. Nor is the one necessarily harder than the other, especially in any context with both.

Without automatic sync, an exploiter would have to play around buffs just as much as a single-target buffer would want to play around that exploiter. Takes two hands to clap, and buffer and exploiter each have only one function hand, so to speak.

Limited range is consistently an additional factor of difficulty compared to unlimited range, even if to variable/contextual effect. Having cast times is consistently an additional factor of difficulty compared to not have cast times, even if to variable/contextual effect...

...But as long as you have a buffer, getting buffs out before potency and getting in potency after buffs... are just mirror images of each other.

Pseudo-exceptions: If you have single-target, unsynced buffs but a large disparity in average potency to be dealt within n seconds, the buffers decision can be made much more immediately and automatically, while the exploiter's decision (e.g., when to spend gauge and procs) can be a bit more tracking-heavy. Of course, if that best recipient varies, then the buffer will usually have more to be aware of, while the exploiter need only bank as able and up to the point they'd waste larger raid cycle potential.