Thread: BLM itemization in 5.4 is a problem.

Originally Posted by Xenitan

The issue is: traditionally the raid weapon has been BiS and in instances where it hasn't, we have historical precedent where SE will change the stats to make it BiS, see: Diamond Weapons in Stormblood.

The situation in Stormblood was a little different. The raid weapons were a whole weapon damage point lower than intended resulting in them having the exact same weapon damage as upgraded tome weapons, quite a bit more serious than simply having the correct amount of less desirable substats. To my knowledge, they have never changed the stats on properly budgeted items to deliberately nudge them into best in slot status.

Frankly, I'm not convinced the devs actually 'know' what stats are desirable for each job and plan raid weapons accordingly. Depending on the complexity of the job, often which substats that job finds desirable can be somewhat emergent and only come to light after digging by the community. Having lurked around theorycrafting spaces in the past, I do not believe the developers are 'in the know' to that degree.

I agree it's not great for any job to find out their raid weapon isn't actually best in slot, but I don't believe they explicitly try to avoid this situation, it's just the luck of the draw. I've always assumed that the process was random and that they were banking on the weapon damage difference being enough to tip the scales (evidently not so this time).

That reminds me, summoners and red mages are eyeing double tome rings as best in slot this tier too, due to the glut of spellspeed on the eden ring. There is a corresponding vitality loss there too as they are unique and one ring will have to be unaugmented. Not as big a concession as going down a tier on a weapon slot, but yeah it doesn't feel great all the same.