ZephZaeora discusses job balance and how it's gone downhill in Endwalker. Thoughts?

[Deceptus]

Just an anecdote from Reddit: (emphasis mine)

THE WORST PART OF P8S IS WHEN EVERYONE DOES MECHS CORRECTLY, NO DEATHS, NO DMG DOWNS, BUT WE STILL CAN'T MAKE PHASE 1 DPS CHECK.

XIVANALYSIS SAYS EVERYONE HAD NEAR FULL UPTIME (98-99%) AND NO NOTABLE MISSTEPS IN THEIR ROTATION

ALL BUFFS WERE ALIGNED AND HIT EVERYONE

EVERYONE POTTED TWICE

WE HAD SNAKE FIRST

BUT EVERYONE HAD SHIT LUCK WITH LOOT THIS WEEK AND THE HIGHEST ILVL IN THE GROUP WAS 613 (ONLY ONE PERSON HAD A SINGLE 630 ACCESSORY).

OUR COMP WASN'T META, BUT DESPITE DOING NEARLY EVERYTHING RIGHT, THE FACT WE STILL COULDN'T MAKE THE CHECK (AND JUST BARELY! 500 DPS UNDER) SHOWS HOW BROKEN THAT PHASE IS IF YOU'RE NOT IN A META COMP. WE SHOULDN'T NEED TO BE 615+ ILVL AND/OR A META COMP TO DO A 610 FIGHT.

EVEN DSR (WHO'S SYNCED ILVL IS 605 AND BIS RIGHT NOW IS 600) WASN'T AS BAD AS THIS. P3 NIDHOGG'S DPS CHECK HAS NOTHING ON PHASE 1 P8S

THIS WAS A PUG IN PF BTW, NOT A STATIC

[dapperfaffer]

also when somebody outright bars jobs from joining their pf it affects all players of that job the same way regardless of how "good" they are. Granted anybody does this probably wouldn't be any fun to raid with anyways but still

Paladin dps is absurdly low in comp to other tanks.

[Marxam]

Paladin dps is absurdly low in comp to other tanks.

ironic when you consider that it was buffed in 6.1.

[Payadopa]

In my opinion, this is more of a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" type issue.

Before every job was designed to fit in the same 2 minute burst window, we had some jobs that fit in that burst window, some that had out-of-phase burst windows and some that didn't have their buffs line up well at all, so they just sort of used these buffs when they saw fit.

The playerbase started lining up buffs like Trick Attack along with Chain and Battle Litany and found they were powerful. In turn, players began to move away from the "non-lining-up jobs." Players that didn't want to move away from these jobs started providing feedback to SE that their jobs are now out of favor because they don't fall into those windows. So SE began making more jobs (all jobs?) fit in that 2-minute window. And that's where we are today.

So as per usual meta slaves make jobs more boring. I think it's gotten to a point where SE obliges that mentality too much and what's left is very samey jobs in each role.

[RyuDragnier]

Just an anecdote from Reddit: (emphasis mine)

Expect a PLD/WAR damage buff soon then.

[ForteNightshade]

So in other words, only relevant to less than 1% of the playerbase...which is nonsense and you know it. You're incorrect on job balance discourse going to be irrelevant if you're not part of that small group, anybody who uses fflogs and runs EX/Savage notices when something is under/overtuned.

Job balance is relevant to everyone, especially the midcore and casual raid scene. People often forget that sizable DPS differences like what we're seeing now will impact PF significantly worse due to the inherent inconsistencies of that environment—where mistakes are far more likely an occurrence. Therefore, the extra DPS provided from DRK, GNB, BLM and DNC will be invaluable to compensate for that. As it stands right now, and for the next several weeks despite tome tier, it's better for PF to take a subpar BLM than a stellar RDM unless the RDM is geared. Hence why we're seeing parties lock out PLD, RPR and MCH. There's simply no reason to risk letting those jobs in when you're gambling on the type of player you'll get, regardless.

Better to take your chances of a subpar player on a meta job over a top tier player on a woefully underperforming one.

[Supersnow845]

On top of of what nightshade said even if balance actually did only affect the top 1%; isn’t that literally the entire point, the game isn’t balanced around the 620 cure 1 spammer in fell court of troia, it is balanced around week 1 savage clears, if week 1 savage collectively derides that balance as crap then who is this balance working for, day 1 savage subs out jobs to avoid it, later week savage outgears it to avoid the problem and the casual playerbase still thinks SCH is the worst healer so they don’t care

[Rayne6665]

Who?
/derp10

[EnigmaticDodo]

Jobs kinda went downhill during Shadowbringers, but nobody really said anything...

People that played during HW said it was bad during Stormblood, but I quite enjoyed what we had then compared to what we had now.

I in particular miss DRKs ability to regain MP on being hit, Blood Weapon giving you a haste (that you could extend by burning another ability), ability to Augment essentially every single attack it had with Dark Arts, and I really miss it's ability to chain Abyssal Drain. Blood Weapon also gave you MP per enemy hit, so pair this with Quietus and you essentially had infinite MP and Sustain with Dark Arts + Abyssal Drain. Oh, also had Sole Survivor for 30/20% Max HP/MP restored on top if you defeated an enemy/didnt defeat an enemy before it expired.

Instead, I get to block damage, summon a guy, and shoot the same version of a blade beam. -flaccid ff victory theme-

I understand that Warrior is the sustain tank now for w/e reason. I believe it used to focus on critical hits. Oh well.

[Absurdity]

I understand that Warrior is the sustain tank now for w/e reason. I believe it used to focus on critical hits. Oh well.

A bit off-topic but people seem to constantly mix this up. There is sustain dps, which is doing damage over long periods of time, and then there is self-sustain, which is just keeping yourself alive through a bunch of your own abilities. Warrior is the latter as it has high self-sustain, dps-wise it is still absolutely a burst dps job with a focus on crits (even if they're automatic).

Paladin would be the example of a sustain dps tank, sure it has a "burst" phase with Requiescat but the damage is still mostly spread throughout a 63/61 second cycle, which is also what makes paladin pretty bad in fights with a lot of downtime and doesn't synergize all that well with the "cram everything into 15 seconds every 2 minutes"-meta that is enforced by SE.