My 2 cents on ranged tax

[Reginald_Cain]

I've been here since the launch of stormblood and i gotta say since shadowbringers the ranged tax has been WAY overtuned over an irrational fear everybody will stop playing melee(They won't. melees are too fun, cool and numerous). Back in Stormblood dragoon's piercing resistance down debuff allowed for double ranged comps where machinist and bard were allowed to feel in line with other dps classes. We have NEVER had an instance where double phys ranged was viable again. Frankly as a machinist enjoyer since shadowbringers reworked it I've never understood why a job that has had near zero utility outside of two long cd party mits deals significantly less damage than pictomancer (can heal party, shield party, buff party damage) Reaper( can regen party, buff party damage) or monk(can heal, buff heals, buff party damage). It's plain stupid and what drives me crazy is the devs claim to balance around a jobs difficulty to play and utility while samurai, summoner and reaper are all easier and offer more to the party than machinist. On that note lets look at bard. Bard is a low skill floor job but the skill ceiling for optimization is pretty high. Dying and losing you songs makes it feel like one of the most punishing jobs in the entire game and its damage sucks. it's utility is nothing compared to what it was in stormblood too. Dancer is justified being the weakest job imo. Its stupid easy and its utility is pretty solid. I also think thematically it makes sense to be weak i mean who wants to be weaker than a dancer? People might think im stupid for saying melees shouldn't be rewarded for higher damage but i think the reward for playing melee should be feeling good you cleared a fight stylishly by being up close and dancing in and out of range with epic melee attacks. The challenge of movement restriction is why people play caster(not summoner). they deal middling damage but you don't hear them complaining. I swear melees (especially samurais who won't shut up about kaiten) are the biggest cry babies with main character syndrome.

[Reginald_Cain]

I feel the need to clarify this isn't exclusivley about viability in savage, ultimates or hardcore content exclusively. To all the "clear then talk " people you don't need to clear savage to notice that a pure dps has unsatisfying numbers. I have friends who have been rank 1 parsers and cleared every ultimate and they agree with everything I've said. Anyway If you think machinist should do less than non pure dps melees(reaper, monk, nin, dragoon) tell me why that's not stupid please. I do think samurai, viper and black mage should do a bit more than machinist but jeez let it shine square stop being scared.

[MaD-SkG]

Agree 100% in a group that all perform their job correctly, and by correctly I don't mean mediocre, MCH is a huge lost of dps, there's little to say, it's like this and nothing can be done. Thats why I left this game I'm honestly tired of their memes about tax etc etc when some boss does not even require directionals, in addition to having an enormous size. So yeah I can't be bothered to play some garbage job again the whole SHB was long enough.

[Mecia]

Im just gonna share this from xivdiscussion

Im well aware of party composition slots and that damage =/= complexity but come the fuck on now, VPR is egregious.

[Connor]

SE: “Yes, we hear you loud and clear” *buffs Viper even more*

[CKNovel]

Im just gonna share this from xivdiscussion
Im well aware of party composition slots and that damage =/= complexity but come the fuck on now, VPR is egregious.

It's been the case since Ninja Mudra GCD to be fair.
That tax exist as they don't want to see 2 physical ranged in a party comp.

... Despite being able to have 2 magical ranged, one of them being Pictomancer that has as much, if not more mobility and utility than MCH/BRD.

[Corwin_Sunchaser]

I agree with your points but SE won't change this situation.

Can't wait the next expansion when they try to add a new physical ranged still doing 10% less dmg than the melees, that's going to be fun to see them try to sell it...

[Eudyptes]

Yeah, the purpose of the tax is to offset the fact that when bosses move the melee can't melee and that's it. So on a striking dummy the melee should absolutely be beating the pys. ranged, but in any actual fight proper balance would put everyone at the same dps. SE never seemed to understand that fact, sadly.

[Zakuyia]

Agree 100% in a group that all perform their job correctly, and by correctly I don't mean mediocre, MCH is a huge lost of dps, there's little to say, it's like this and nothing can be done. Thats why I left this game I'm honestly tired of their memes about tax etc etc when some boss does not even require directionals, in addition to having an enormous size. So yeah I can't be bothered to play some garbage job again the whole SHB was long enough.

yeah but ppl on forum act like they are innocent when the player base had a hand in messing up classes and gameplay. So the fault lies in both the players and devs....sins of fathers. Maybe next time the player base complains make sure it makes sense?

[Stasya]

Cant wait for picto to get 10 drill potency buff