Quote Originally Posted by SargeTheSeagull View Post
Balance. Doesn’t. Matter. Every job is viable. People whining about job balance (which literally doesn’t matter in everything except week 1 ultimate prog) is how we got to this abysmal state of job design with every job being identical give or take two or three abilities.
Balance does matter. No matter how many times you say it doesn’t, it absolutely does.

Viability =/= balance. Just because a job is viable doesn’t mean that it is balanced against the others within its respective role. We have seen this time and time again with all roles, but healers and physical ranged especially. WHM has always been viable, but AST has always pulled ahead of it in prior expansions when you consider the overall contribution both bring to a party. The two have struggled with finding balance between them for years. Likewise with MCH versus BRD (and now DNC). MCH was 100% viable in SB, but it was not balanced against BRD; the latter was straight up better (although I do believe they were closer to one another then than they are now). In ShB and EW, MCH is viable and can clear all content, but it is not balanced against the other two. You bring nothing to the party as a MCH that BRD and DNC don’t already bring. All MCH has is its damage—which is lower than BRD and DNC when you consider how much those two bring to the raid as buff jobs compared to MCH’s selfish design.


When people make statements like the one I quoted, it’s clear that they don’t understand the difference between a job being viable and a job being balanced against its direct competition.