Physical ranged strike!

[Hanzz96]

they should just bring uptime management back to melees. then phys ranged can keep their low dmg

That's not true either, like at all. Right now there's the question of whether or not it's worth ditching the 1% and bringing double Caster over phys because damage is so low. So even making melees fight for uptime (which they won't do) isn't a complete fix

[Asari5]

you dont have to bring double melee though

[Hanzz96]

you dont have to bring double melee though

But they will for more damage and leave out phys ranged all together

[Oizen]

I feel like MCH should be doing selfish DPS numbers up there with SAM, VPR and BLM.

Instead of just being the potd job

[Lyth]

There are a lot of reasons why the 'natural order of things' has always been to let Magical Ranged DPS outperform their Physical Ranged counterparts.

The biggest point is utility. Physical Ranged DPS bring a lot of non-raise utility to the raid. They bring raidwide defensives, for example. It's not like you would ever see a high damage Magical Ranged DPS with a 90s recast raidwide barrier. Physical Ranged are also far more mobile. Could you ever imagine a Magical Ranged job with a 20s recast fixed distance gap closer with 5 seconds of sprint per use (25 seconds of total in-combat sprint per minute)? Perish the thought. Compounding this is the fact that Magical Ranged jobs have to deal with 'casts', which is a mechanic unique to the role. A lot of players struggle with these 'casts' because you have to stay in one spot to get the attack off. It's not like you can just pop out a hammer or use stockpiled instant attacks to move around the arena freely while attacking. You also have to manage MP as a resource. And it's also worth remembering that bringing a Physical Ranged job even gives you a 1% damage buff. That's like what, 1.5k extra DPS? That has to be balanced out as well.

I can't see how this expansion could possibly have introduced a balance problem around this.

/s

[mallleable]

The free movement is super overrated, the only thing that actually matters is being able to hit the boss from range which like magical ranged can do, and they do a better job. Legitimately, the safest way to play phys ranged is to be on the boss's butt to be in position to be in range of party buffs, and heals, and to be ready to resolve mechanics, and to minimize your movement like a caster. Fights are not actually designed so that free movement has an advantage -- not even super chaotic fights like m2s. BRD may as well have cast times for how little I have to move even during something like the bullet hell heart phase. Give BRD, and MCH walking casts like they do in PVP. I'm sick of phys ranged not being treated like real dps job by the devs.

[Hanzz96]

The free movement is super overrated, the only thing that actually matters is being able to hit the boss from range which like magical ranged can do, and they do a better job. Legitimately, the safest way to play phys ranged is to be on the boss's butt to be in position to be in range of party buffs, and heals, and to be ready to resolve mechanics, and to minimize your movement like a caster. Fights are not actually designed so that free movement has an advantage -- not even super chaotic fights like m2s. BRD may as well have cast times for how little I have to move even during something like the bullet hell heart phase. Give BRD, and MCH walking casts like they do in PVP. I'm sick of phys ranged not being treated like real dps job by the devs.

Phys ranged is barely treated like a real dps job by some other dps players. It's in an awful state

[Connor]

I have posted my many, many…many grievances with Bard in others so I won’t go off on another rant again lol (too much) But I stopped considering my ‘main’ job after Stormblood/Shadowbringers, so I guess you could consider that a ‘ranged strike’.

Tbh though I do enjoy still enjoy Dancer (dps issues aside) and Machinist, but I’ve not even got them to level 100 yet so maybe that’ll change when I do.

And honestly I’m gonna say it lol I’m jealous of Red Mage and Summoner getting so much valuable support (healing, raise, buffs) then Bards are still sat there watching the entire party die sadly strumming their harps. How come they get all the fun stuff and we get… 45-second cool-down Esuna??? . I mean, even Dancer has Waltz and Improvisation. Unfair!

Steaming hot take but I’d honestly be ok with healer/tank level damage if we had more ways to support the party than being a ‘passive rDPS vendor’ with an Esuna nobody wanted and a heal boost that nobody knows what it does lol.

Tl;dr save us Yoshi-P! Phys ranged are so bad right now they’re driving people* insane!

*it’s me I’m the people

[Alice_Rivers]

I think I would probably target about 10-15% less damage than melee for phys ranged. The fact there is zero need for planning around cast times factors in and the utility would factor in more if it were actually called for more often (why is my interrupt so rarely called for anyway, it's like the whole mechanic died in SB), I don't think the party buffs phys ranged brings is a valid argument for reducing their damage much though, DRG, NIN and RPR all have party damage buffs. I'd then suggest for MCH, that if phys ranged party buffs add 10% to rdps then MCH should receive that same 10% to it's basic dps.

Really though I think they need to give us more to do rather than just more dps.

[Sililos]

lol Phys ranged can be summed up by DNC promotion going into Shadowbringers.

SE: "Hey guys check this out! Its Gunbreaker! Isnt it cool!? It zooms around with a big sword gun! You can be all like Bang bang bang slash slash slash! So edgy, So cool! You can be Squall now! Hey looks its Thancred! Hes a GNB now! So cool right? Hes such a great character and now hes the best tank job too! So great! And hes looking after a girl who looks like Minfilia! Max dad vibes to boot! Dont you just want to play a Gunbreaker so badly now? You can be cool like him! Oh and were going to have this zone, Bozja, you probably wont like it but it will be totally full of Gunbreakers as will Garlemald in the next expansion! Their so amazing!!!!"

In small text you can barely read: "Oh yeah Dancers here too but nobody will care about them, we dont, none of us at SE are even going to play them."

Then in large text and all caps: "Iiiiiits guuunbreeeeeaaaaker! SO much cool! So much edge! So zoomy! It even has a shield you can freak your healers out with! And look at these glams!" Small text: "Were going to share their Neo Ishgardian tank style glam with bullet belt with aiming like we did with the Late Allagan because we cant be bothered to give Phys range something fitting, none of us on the Dev team want to play them anyway so why put any effort into giving the role good things?" Big text again: GUNBREAKER!!!!!!!! Sugoi!