Why is Ninja always the weakest melee?

[Kyofu]

Why did Square Enix decide to make ninja the weakest melee dps? They already are the weakest for solo content. Say you're wanting to farm or do fates, you won't have as easy of a time as any other melee class. We mostly benefit the group with our trick attack buff, but even when considering that damage bonus our overall dps contribution is still the lowest.

Why is the class punished in solo play and in group play? While things that accel in solo play for some reason get to be the best in group play as well. There's no give and take. One style just reigns supreme and I think that's unfair. I saw talks of how they intend on buffing some other classes but didn't really see any mention on ninja while it has the lowest class representation for melee, on top of the worst dps. I really do hope it gets some more improvements.

[Ramura_Sono]

Always? Lol? Pretty sure this is the only time it's actually been the weakest melee to any considerable degree.
They don't balance for "solo" play. They never have, nor should they ever.
They balance pretty much solely for full party 8 man content.
They've also said just because they haven't mentioned a Job doesn't mean it won't see adjustments.

[Duskane]

pretty sure Ninja did more than DRG in ShB
but Ninja has support (trick) Tax so generally on lower side but EW ninja is a mess at the moment.

[Duskane]

Also Ninja has generally been the best for solo content out of the melees
hide is very good in potd and HoH and its ability to consistently burst down enemies

[SpeckledBurd]

Always? Lol? Pretty sure this is the only time it's actually been the weakest melee to any considerable degree.
They don't balance for "solo" play. They never have, nor should they ever.
They balance pretty much solely for full party 8 man content.
They've also said just because they haven't mentioned a Job doesn't mean it won't see adjustments.

pretty sure Ninja did more than DRG in ShB
but Ninja has support (trick) Tax so generally on lower side but EW ninja is a mess at the moment.

Since we commonly frame conversations around DPS as there being taxes on DPS for bringing support, Ninja probably needs to be audited by the IRS and pay back taxes given how strong it has been historically for how much DPS it's been able to provide the party.

[Fourbestintoner]

SE don't play their own game and think TA is still 10%, since nin is 5% behind the other melees.

[Quyn]

I dont know why some players equate trick to utility. In the end, its a different form of added rDPS. The difference being that Ninja is more reliant on party buff alignment for their own rDPs parses than other melees.
What I fail to follow is the conclusion that therefore Nin should be balanced lower than the other melee dps in the charts.

[Vatom]

NIN was never suppose to hit the hardest it was to be the fastest

But things changed each expansion from what I remember

ARR when it first came it was pretty nasty (medium utility + high dmg + High dps)
HW SE realize that it shouldn't be that good and gave them the hard nerf turning them in to batman (High utility + extremely low dmg + medium dps)
StB SE realize they should bring more eastern classes to the forefront Nin got a slight buff and still had a tab of aid (Medium utlity + Medium dmg +high dps)
ShB SE realize people love the class but meta was kinda getting in the way- looking at you shadeshift- and with the tank changes some of them didnt have a use
so the drop alot of them (low utility + Medium dmg + High dps)

to clearify dmg= pots dps= damage per second

Overall ShB was the best iteration of NIN in my opinion and so far from what i got with this its a bit janky but when I finish grinding I will look more into this
Just wanted to clarify on the NIN history

[CKNovel]

Ah yes Ninja.

The "meta" job. Remember when "Trick attack up" used to send pleasuring shivers in your spine?
During SB it was even better as using tank stance or not was mostly decided by the presence of a Ninja in the group.

And during ShB it was strong. Also one of the jobs that profits the most of downtime since it just meant more Trick Attack on the uptime.

Right now Ninja is the weakest melee, sure. But it's not that low. Job had no chance to shine because there is not enough downtime to increase the value of Trick Attack.
It's still far from the physical range discrepancy.

[Absimiliard]

Ninja is where it should be.