The absolute state of Frontlines

[Naphtha]

I've been playing FL on and off since Heavensward. I started playing mostly on Mana DC back in 2020 because I was tired of the kindergarten that is EU FL. I've played around 4200 matches on Mana and I know how they play. Since 6.1 FL on Mana has been absolutely atrocious. If you think JP players aren't abusing SMN and WHM, you're delusional. Let me tell you that every game consists of atleast 20-30 SMN and 20-30 WHM. I'm not even joking.
The only time there is some sort of normality is when I queue up with the PvP veterans because they at least mix it up somewhat, be ready to get absolutely destroyed by DRK and AST.

Honestly I don't think anybody who took more than 5 seconds to give it some thought believed the posts about "JP players don't have any issues with SMN due to superior skill" or whatever illogical claim.

In fact, if the JP servers have better players, I'd expect your post to be true, as abusing SMN LB stacking is probably the easiest way to win FLs consistently, without a single BH, I believe (Forgot the exact potency so can't check whether or not it'd work) that it takes only 4 Megaflares to kill 49,500 hp jobs, which is honestly pretty silly considering the size of the AoE.

Mad respect for AST players in FL though, shit is actually really entertaining to play and I don't even like playing healers.

[Naphtha]

without a single BH, I believe (Forgot the exact potency so can't check whether or not it'd work) that it takes only 4 Megaflares to kill 49,500 hp jobs, which is honestly pretty silly considering the size of the AoE.

I'm no longer too lazy to check, and for the sake of clarity, I will be showing the 'math' I use to see how many of one skill you need at a time to 'instagib' and what kind of BH you need. My sub is no longer running, so my knowledge of HP values per job type is a little blurry, but I don't recall any non-melee job having more than 54k hp with more than 20% DR.

Megaflare base potency = 18,000
18,000 x 0.8 = 14,400 (20% DR for non-melee jobs)
14,400 x 4 = 57,600 dmg, which is enough to kill any non-melee/tank job from full HP using FOUR summoners with no BH whatsoever.

Now, the obvious question would be, what's the minimum BH requirement you need in order to make it so 3 Megaflares are enough for an instagib?
14,400 x 1.2 (BH2) = 17,280 x 3 = 51,840 dmg. Enough to kill SOME jobs, but not quite enough, so that means you need a bare minimum of 3 BH3s in order to reduce the SMN count by 1 and still retain the same one-shot potential.
Of course, one SMN with a BH5 and two with varying BH levels could also work, it'd just take a while to list all the viable combinations.

And before anyone asks, I'm basing this off of my experience from figuring out MCH's LB limitations, I don't believe this is wrong, as it seemed to be dead accurate so far, but who knows? Maybe there's something off about it. Also, this is purely educational, I have never done SMN stacking and never will, I find it extremely cringe, personally.

[Sigma860]

Mad respect for AST players in FL though, shit is actually really entertaining to play and I don't even like playing healers.

Aye, AST is super fun now. It makes up for its lack of raw healing power with its versatility. Definitely the hidden gem of 6.1 PVP.

[Gserpent]

Aye, AST is super fun now. It makes up for its lack of raw healing power with its versatility. Definitely the hidden gem of 6.1 PVP.

AST isn't hidden, everyone knows it's overpowered as hell right now. I suppose it won't pad its stats on a scoreboard like WHM will, but it has a frankly absurd kit and the highest burst healing in the game. AST can dump 40k raw healing plus regen plus two shields into a single target in two GCDs and two oGCDs... WHM has the next-highest healing and has to hard cast a pair of 1.44s spells on 2.4s GCD to only reach 24k.

No one else comes even remotely close to AST in healing output, and AST isn't slacking in the damage department either (28k burst, all of it being AOE, and it includes heavy and bind, or 10k per typically every other 1.44s cast.) Then you add in the card buffs and Macrocosmos effect... yeah, AST's kind of broken right now. Has been ever since they increased Macrocosmos to 12k for some stupid reason, though I think its kit alone would still have made it a bit too strong even without the Macro buff. I suppose it's not King Turd of Shit Mountain in FL, though. That's probably WHM.