Why do the devs hate MCH so much?

[ForteNightshade]

You're citing a completely different issue and slap it on as a problem for a different issue. SE doing a bad job at balancing them doesn't mean there isn't a reason for doing them. The reality of the majority of the fight is melee has a set of constrain that range never have to worry about.

They aren't completely different issues because they overlap with another another. That poor balancing is a direct result of SE desperately trying to force a limitation that doesn't need to exist. At least not to the degree it does now.

- Why there exist melee uptime strat in literally every single tier, including this one. While there is never a range up time strat? 'Cause range don't need it.

First and foremost, you need to understand people have a terrible propensity of slapping "uptime" on something when nothing really changes. Secondly, the "uptime" strats are often better strats for a variety of reasons. Take Ruby 5, for example. This supposed "big change" has the Melee move up and hug next to the poison. It literally requires no real thought and is actually safer as you don't have three people all clumped relatively close to one another. So why didn't people change strats for reclears? Because PF sticks to week 1 strats and screams bloody murder about change. Ayatori was a downright better strat both in ease and uptime than Ilya. People simply refused to learn it because "why should I? I already know this other strat."

Even in fights where uptime is a concern and adjustments are made in favor of the Melee. That doesn't justify 600+ more rDPS. You openly admit Black Mage is among the most complex jobs in the game. Guess what? A 85% Dragoon matches it. This means a player actively making mistakes in their rotation or outright missing GCDs can still match a high tier Black Mage. It gets even more comical with the Phys Range. All five Melee could go the entire fight missing every single positional and still beat all three. Think about that for a moment. You play at the top of your game, putting in all the work necessary to reach peak performance. Meanwhile, the Monk who's missed 90% of their Snapshot or Demolish positionals does more damage than you.

Is it a small wonder why people aren't playing the Phys Range right now? You're punished for a "utility" which isn't highlight in any noteworthy way while Melee players can drop GCDs and easily surpass your damage.

- It's common to see a party of 3 range and 1 melee with a 1 range faking melee. Have you ever seen party with 3 melee and 1 range with a melee faking range? I personally never. Now there are have been a few fights where you can bring 3 melee without impacting personal performance, but that's because those fights don't have range mechanic, and they are rare. (Like P2S)

If it weren't for the arbitrary party bonus, every single fight in Endwalker, perhaps only excluding Ultimate, would have three Melee. As illustrate above, the damage discrepancy is absolutely massive, and was even worse back in Shadowbringers. A Dragoon losing ten GCDs would still widely outpace a Dancer. The Phys Range literally exist because of the 1%.

Also, you can't say SMN only have 2 casts and dismiss it as not important. The point is how many cast MCH has? None. Also SMN has 2 attack that requires them to be in melee range, how many attack does MCH has that requires MCH to be in melee range? None. There are time I misjudge the EGI order and end up with Irift when the mech require I'm away from the boss, so I either have to use a few ruin or forgo the 2 melee abilities altogether. Does MCH ever have to make such choice? Never

This is a terrible argument because you're trying to justify a massive mobility tax over two casts Summoner is never once hindered by. It can freely change the order of its Legos making it a non-issue. I should know, I played it in P4S. You know what jobs had a hell of a time optimizing? Dancer and Bard. They're actually hard jobs to play well on, especially Bard, due to how rigid the rotation is. And yet they deal paltry damage because oh boy, that mobility lets them get two GCDs during Act II and Curtain Call over the Melee.

It isn't a dismissal but a rebuttal highlighting those differences have very little actual impact. When a Melee can play objectively worse and be rewarded with higher damage for no other reason than existing, tt's a poor design choice. Going back to larger hit boxes won't change that. E6S and E8S were two of the worst Melee fights in the whole expansion. Dragoon and Monk, despite being the weakest Melee, still dwarfed all three Phys Range,

If Complexity of rotation considered arbitrarily, explain why BLM has constantly been the top DPS despite being a range? And even a good black mage still need some accommodation from the parties to perform optimistically. BLM does pay a range tax, the currency used is their mobility and rotation, rather than potency. This is simply the argument I'm making, MCH, as it is now can not just have a cake and eat it too.

Correction: Black Mage was the top DPS... until Endwalker where they were forced to reduce its contributions because they decided to more heavily tax Red Mage and Summoner for their ease of play, ability to raise and mobility. The hilarious irony is Red Mage has the least mobility this tier. The end result has been several panic buffs and having to nerf the last Savage fight because all six Range jobs were too weak. Black Mage was passable relative to the other five but that alone speaks volumes.

If we disregard both mobility and rotation, are you gonna argue a BRD or DNC should do the same damage as a BLM?

... this doesn't even make sense to what I'm saying and is little more than a strawman. If the mobility tax is removed, then jobs would be balanced around their contribution and nothing else. Bard and Dancer would still be the lowest because they have more utility. Machinist would actually get to exist since it wouldn't be weighed down in a role they can't balance. And no, it doesn't need to do Samurai damage. Just maybe enough so if that Samurai forgets what positionals are it can pull ahead.

No, that's not what they said as rectification. They said making the hitbox as big as they are this tier was a mistake, and that's not something they gonna do again. The problem they're referring to is a fight design issue, not a class balancing issue.

Citation needed. They've never said this. Don't take my word for it though.



Above is Omega from Stormblood while below is Omega in Ultimate. Notice how the hit box isn't the same.

Now they may go back on this due to the massive amount of criticism but digging through every interview Yoshida has done since Abyssos released, they have never once said they're reverting hitboxes in the future. The only acknowledgement they've made is the imbalance it caused for Phys Range and Casters. Hence the buffs in 6.25. That was their fix.