Positionals

[Cetek14]

From my point of view positionals are pure annoyance. Ranged jobs can move freely, and often output higher damage per second, while melees are tied to very tight spot. Most of the time you are forced to ignore them, because newer fights are more "action combat" focused, so you can't just stand wherever you want.
For me they can be removed without changing rotation of any melee job. Only some potency changes would be required.

[ssunny2008]

From my point of view positionals are pure annoyance. Ranged jobs can move freely, and often output higher damage per second, while melees are tied to very tight spot. Most of the time you are forced to ignore them, because newer fights are more "action combat" focused, so you can't just stand wherever you want.

That´s not correct.

If we talk about trash-adds in dungeons, of course physical range will out-dps others, they can move and attack freely with their bunch of aoe abilities. But if we talk about real endgame bosses, it´s up to the players and the boss mechanics.
Overall caster and melees are pretty even in damage if they´re played well and the player behind it is able to adjust to the boss mechanics. Physical range are slightly behind in damage, BECAUSE they´ve the freedom to move anytime anywhere and dancer + bard are more "raid-supports" anyway. Blackmages are the strongest right now, but that is up to the actual content and they clearly can´t move as they want. Mostly the raidgroup have to adjust for them.

When a phys. range out-dps a melee with even equip, then it´s mostly a skill-difference between both players and in really really rare cases boss mechanics depended. But the top players will proof the 2nd part wrong every time probably even without uptime strategies.

[IruruCece]

From my point of view positionals are pure annoyance. Ranged jobs can move freely, and often output higher damage per second, while melees are tied to very tight spot. Most of the time you are forced to ignore them, because newer fights are more "action combat" focused, so you can't just stand wherever you want.
For me they can be removed without changing rotation of any melee job. Only some potency changes would be required.

Three of the top 5 ranked DPS, per FFlogs, are melee. It currently goes BLM (no surprises), SAM, NIN, SMN, and MNK. And the changes to Monk have affected it's position on that site throughout the expansion. There was a short point in time where it competed for top DPS in the game.

What hasn't changed, however, is that the vast majority of ranged jobs, magical or physical, have regularly been outperformed by every physical DPS. The price of being able to just fire off whatever from any angle without real restrictions comes in the form of reduced output. That's math, that's the game's intended design, that's how it actually is right now. And in a sense, BLM does have it's own movement restrictions due to its LACK of mobility during DPS phases. The difference between mediocre BLM and great ones is knowledge of a given fight. A good BLM knows where they can safely stand to minimize the amount of movement they need to do to survive. That is why fights that are designed to force movement are a source of frustration for them, because they deny them a comfort zone.

In a sense, that is what fights that make it difficult to land positionals do to jobs that have them. They take a basic operation of the job, and expect the player to adjust to circumstances beyond their control. A good MNK, NIN, or SAM knows that they can't always land every positional, but they can land MOST of them, and consistently more with every attempt at a fight. That's the game's design. That's part of the challenge, reacting to things the game throws at you that disrupt the intended or expected flow of your gameplay.

If you don't like positionals, play a job that doesn't have them.

[Mavrias]

From my point of view positionals are pure annoyance. Ranged jobs can move freely, and often output higher damage per second, while melees are tied to very tight spot. Most of the time you are forced to ignore them, because newer fights are more "action combat" focused, so you can't just stand wherever you want.
For me they can be removed without changing rotation of any melee job. Only some potency changes would be required.

If a ranged physical job is out dpsing you as a melee, there's more wrong with what you're doing than just positionals.

[CKNovel]

If a ranged physical job is out dpsing you as a melee, there's more wrong with what you're doing than just positionals.

I don't remember it quite well, but I believe someone tried to measure their DPS striking a dummy only on the frontside as a DRG.
The DPS difference was about 500 if I remember well, but that was during the beginning of the expansion.