Why do the devs hate MCH so much?

[Raven2014]

First and foremost, you need to understand people have a terrible propensity of slapping "uptime" on something when nothing really changes.

First, a few thing:

As someone who raid on 4 char:

- A healer since 2.0.
- A SMN from the start of this Expansion, in PF
- A BRD since HW (I cleared Omega as a BRD)
- A DRG since SB.

Only the healer char is a static, all others are PF char.

So why am I mentioning all this? Because it feels half of your post seem to assume I'm "ignorant" of what the terms and reality of the game, or that I'm making my points based of 2nd-handed information. And my "real experience" in game say that your approach to this argument seem to fudge over a lot of detail, or try to assert a warp-ed view by inserting just a small grain of truth. Starting with the above. I have seen (and do) enough melee uptime strat that knowing they're a real thing and not simply just a label. I also think you hold too much of a prejudice against PF adaption strategy.


Sometime the strat is a result of solving a puzzle and with it come out a simply better strat to accommodate melee with no down side. In my experience PF has no issue to eventually adopt it. Literally half of the PF I'm in these day are using the Ruby 5 uptime strat. But also there are time where a melee uptime strat will introduce a significant risk to the party (like the uptime for P6S), this is what PF tend to reject. In my experience, which strat adapted in PF as mainstream only come down to safety-ease of execution, aka a smooth brain experience.

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?

And guess why that has become an issue this tier in particular? While range still have to pay a range tax, the hitbox size of this tier basically nullify any levelarge range have over melee. Range class has always been behind melee, that itself is not a problem. The issue this is the margin and also how consistent across the board it is this tier. This is the first time I see it happen so I will see if the situation get fixed next tier. The dev already they would, and I will defer my judgment instead of making an uninformed conclusion atm.

This is a terrible argument because you're trying to justify a massive mobility tax over two casts Summoner is never once hindered by.

Not my experience as playing SMN. Maybe I'm not just that good as SMN, I'm only a mid 80th percentile SMN. What I can say though, out of the 3 DPS class that I play often, DRG took the cake in term of difficulty.

But before I move on I would have to ask, what statistic we're using as the base line of the argument here. As a statistician by trade I know it when someone fudging and switching around different stat to make the argument more convenience, and that's exactly what are you doing here.

Are we talking about percentile rank, which I consider a metric for class mastery.
Are we talking about raw damage output, which I consider a metric for class prowness.

Yes, they are related in someway, but the context they're used and compared must be clear to present a fair argument.

In my own experience, range has a much lower mastery level. As long as I have knowledge of the fight, I have no problem coming in on a range class and do well with it. In fact, I usually tell people I know that whenever I play BRD/SMN, it's so chill and relax that I feel like I'm missing something or doing something wrong. Again, not that I play amazing or anything, but I can still casually mid 80th on SMN and low 90th on BRD, but the point stand.

When I play DRG though? Hustle up and burst your ass, and even then I still gonna suck ... most of the time. Not only in term of output, but it usually take me while to not messing up the fight mechanic itself due to putting too much focus on my own rotation, an issue I never have playing a range class.

The last few years I had also play with a very competitive melee. He's the type who can regularly be in the 95th+ percentile with a few 99, 100 here andthere just doing weekly clear and not even optimize run. And seeing the shit he pulls to play at that level, I don't have the nerve to attempt as a melee, and not even an option I have to consider while playing a range class.

... 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.

And this is the crutch of the problem. You're lumping BRD/DNC/BLM/MCH into one single package. But for me:

- BLM losing their crown is a fight design problem. They still pay tax but their main competitor (melee) are now tax free.
- MCH has always been shit, but they have an identity problem, until SE decide settle into what they want MCH to be, it still gonna shit. The range tax is something that exaggerate its issue, but that's not the main cause.
- BRD/DNC has a "SUPPORT" issue. They don't suck because they are range, they suck because they're the designated "support" classes in a game where the design have forgo such role all but in name.