Quote Originally Posted by Turtledeluxe View Post
Dropping SAM a tiny bit to make it more in line with BLM does not mean it suddenly becomes more useless than all the other melee.

These are selfish DPS classes.

I don't buy your theory that BLM having competitive DPS with SAM (whether that means nerfing SAM or buffing BLM) suddenly makes BLM the most popular class over. Imo, that's why the BLM gameplay is what it is. It isn't for everyone. As far as making other casters more valuable aside from maybe RDM I just don't see it. I'd also say that if the modeling that you use requires all kinds of asterisks and explanations, then why do we use it?

I see no reason why a new player whose priority is playing top DPS wouldn't choose a SAM over a caster.
Reducing SAM damage makes it less desirable compared to the other melee DPS, so it is picked less and FYI, 1%-2% is actually quite a large difference in this context.

Yes, they are selfish DPS classes, so is Machinist, should Machinist also do competitive damage alongside SAM?

Just because you do not buy the theory does not mean the theory is invalid. However, I never said it would be the most popular, it would however become more desirable because it brings more to a fight than the other casters. As for how FFlogs displays data, yes, there are caveats and nuances in how the data is displayed, this is why it is important to understand the pros and cons of each data representation as nothing is going to show the whole picture in a clear light. Welcome to the world of balancing DPS. If you have a better model to accurately represent what each job brings to a fight, feel free to let everyone know.

I could say the same about any job. If we were having this same discussion but SAM and BLM were switched, why should I play SAM when BLM is higher. The argument for making BLM stronger (or reducing SAM) is not a good one. If all they care about is doing the most DPS, then they do not care which job it is.

Also, as a reference, Ultimate fights tend to be very skewed in measuring DPS, in any sort of way. With so many phase transitions and therefore downtime, it tends to favour jobs that can build resources when there is no target present. To give some examples, BLM can prepare 3 Umbral Hearts and have Polyglot charging up, SAM can build Kenki and Meditation stacks, Monk can generate Chakra, however, Ninja cannot generate Ninki, DNC gets no Four Fold feathers etc. Generally, when people look up job balance, they tend to look at the latest Savage tier as those fights have far far fewer downtime phases and so that advantage is minimised.