Meleewalker to Meleetrail

[MaaryZeleste]

Last expansion, with very few exceptions, it was better to bring 3 melee and 1 ranged. That ranged being blackmage. The 1% buff from bring a pranged wasn't worth it until the very end of the xpac when BRD caught back up after rDPS scaling. So I guess at that point, it will be a taste of their own medicine?

There literally wasn't a single savage fight last expansion where anyone brought triple melee. You can look at the speed kill logs, every single rank 1 had double melee and one physical ranged/one caster (as it should be).

[Supersnow845]

There literally wasn't a single savage fight last expansion where anyone brought triple melee. You can look at the speed kill logs, every single rank 1 had double melee and one physical ranged/one caster (as it should be).

Why does the 4th DPS have to default to a melee (PCT has slightly altered it this expansion)

Why are they actively trying to dissuade you from bringing more than one phys ranged or more than 1 rezz caster. That 4th spot should be free for any role but the devs seem intent on making it specifically a melee slot that PCT and BLM can sometimes fill because they need compensation for not having a rezz

[GoatOfWar]

Why does the 4th DPS have to default to a melee (PCT has slightly altered it this expansion)

Why are they actively trying to dissuade you from bringing more than one phys ranged or more than 1 rezz caster. That 4th spot should be free for any role but the devs seem intent on making it specifically a melee slot that PCT and BLM can sometimes fill because they need compensation for not having a rezz

I'm guessing it's role popularity.
We have 6 different melee jobs and 3 different phys range jobs.
It's reasonable to tax the ranged advantage in a game like this, but i do think it's too much for how little it actually comes into play.
If BLM can do the same dps as a melee then so should a Machinist, but only if it loses it's mits and gets a more complicated rotation. Because utility and ease of use should 100% be taxed.
If you just let all phys range do the same dps as a melee then you're strongly discouraging people from playing melee, because ranged uptime is completely free.
You don't have to take risks to get that extra GCD in, learn how to play at a sweet spot during mechanics and you don't have positionals.

[Lanvaldear]

There literally wasn't a single savage fight last expansion where anyone brought triple melee. You can look at the speed kill logs, every single rank 1 had double melee and one physical ranged/one caster (as it should be).

Let me rephrase that then. There was no noticeable difference in output bringing 3 melee and a BLM. There was/is when bringing 3 ranged and 1 melee.
And, no, forced metas are not a good thing and not something that "should be". In fact, this wasn't even a thing until EW. In ARR, HW, SB and ShB, you could bring any composition you wanted and it wouldn't effect output noticeably.