Do you think any DPS jobs are in a good spot right now?

[OliverQ]

I feel like Dawntrail did so much damage to jobs that people really liked, I'm curious which if any people think is actually a well done change?

For me, the only job I think is an improvement is Samurai. Double Midare/Tendo Midare every time is very satisfying.

BLM is a total disaster - imo the worst remake they did of any job. People loved EW BLM, and DT is just garbage. Flare Star is such a bad capstone ability with a dumb sound effect.

MNK: I enjoy new Monk, it's one of my main melees. However the rework is odd. Replies feel pretty disjointed and I miss the DoT. I also want more positionals.

DRG: I don't necessarily mind the Eye change to make burst windows easier, but it feels like it broke the entire kit. High Jump/Mirage Dive serves no purpose other than just another press and forget button in an otherwise very double weave heavy rotation. Removing spineshatter dive was dumb. Starcross range is bad. Overall the job feels worse.

RPR: Haven't played this one too much. Doesn't feel like much has changed. Always found it a bit boring.

NIN: Not much changed and overall doesn't feel too bad rotation wise, but it does feel pretty weak compared to the other jobs with how busy the burst is.

VPR: Switched to this for DT, did it in Savage. While I like the animations/Reawaken burst, it feels too auto-pilot and simple. There is absolutely nothing engaging about its rotation. It's just high damage and flashy - nothing else.

BRD: Not sure how to feel about Bard. Some of the changes were good, like no target for songs (although I personally don't notice this much - maybe i'm not doing encounters where this was an issue? I always seem to have a target available anyway.) To me, BRD just feels like it doesn't do much. Its personal damage is really low (all Physical Ranged are), and the buffs just don't feel like you're adding anything even if numbers wise you are. It's a pretty frantic, press tons of glowing buttons as they recharge/come off cooldown/proc type job, but it just feels meh to play.

Haven't played the other DPS jobs enough to really give any input.

[mallleable]

All melees seem pretty good right now, maybe with some slight annoyances here and there, but you can't really go wrong with any of them. Ranged as a whole, both magical, and physical are a mess right now. It genuinely feels like this is the last expansion where they can sustain their ranged design philosophies. The roles are falling apart. They really need to rethink where resurrections fit with casters --if at all, and make walking casts a thing for phys ranged so they can overcome the uptime tax. Also PCT just outclassing every DPS still.

On a specific note, I pretty much share your feeling s with BRD. The QOL changes it got at launch were great, but it still has fatal issues. It needs buffs to its personal damage, it needs charges on Empyreal Arrow, and cool down adjustments to its songs to relive it of janky timing issues. It still has death recovery issues where you are barely playing a job after getting rezzed. It's not the rock star I was hoping for before the launch of Dawntrail.

[Ramiee]

Going through Jobs I have mained in the past few expansions.

BLM = Abysmal, way too rigid
MCH = Fun but underpowered
MNK = Disjointed mess especially with replys
DNC = Burst became rigid, slowly becoming BRD 2.0 with it's busy burst but lack of rewarding damage

Now for jobs I haven't mained but play casually in the last few expansions

RDM = Just more of the same though the new impact move can be a bit annoying, pretty good place besides that
BRD = song timers change was bad and every expansion after it has made it worse, I hate the job with a burning passion and want it to go back to SB days.
SMN = boring
SAM = Rocky launch but I think that it's changes have actually been excellent and I love the new Tsubame-gaeshi. The only thing holding me back from playing it more is the incredibly rigid and busy burst but I would actually probably play this for old ultimates.

[Supersnow845]

I agree the melee are mostly balanced (with the exception of VPR being too powerful for how simple it is. It’s doing PCT damage while having a SMN level rotation) and have decent burst differentiation. They do have a problem with their filler being excessively similar but making filler interesting is definitely a struggle

The ranged classes are a complete mess. The phys ranged are excessively taxed for little reason at this point (this is made worse that you can functionally play VPR as a physical ranged these days) and BRD especially is incredibly harshly taxed when it’s more complex than half the melee and most of the casters. The casters I don’t actually mind there being some damage discrepancies as they are they are the best differentiated by their utility of any of the 5 roles. Their biggest problem right now is that raise is excessively taxed and that BLM gets in the way of allowing PCT to be top DPS while still having utility, being top DPS and having utility shouldn’t be that controversial but if it’s in that position it’s functionally eclipsing BLM in every category. I’d honestly fix this by giving BLM utility. Selfish DPS (as in no utility not doesn’t have a raid buff) is outdated and constricting to design

Also I’ll note that the “melee being mostly fine casters being a mess” mantra also extends to the support roles but this about DPS so I won’t go into detail

[Connor]

I’ll comment on the dps jobs I play:

Bard (I’ll try to keep it short lol): Definitely agree that Bard feels like you’re bringing nothing to the table (regardless of the actual numbers). The support is all so passive and ‘set-and-forget’ that there’s very little enjoyment to be had from it anymore. Plus they’ve stuffed so much stuff into the 120s burst cycle that it feels like there’s barely anything going on with the class between them. Like they could’ve at least made Resonant Arrow 60s so it could be used during mini-burst. The DoTs feel like an afterthought since they don’t interact with any of the toolkit anymore. Radiant Encore looks perfect, but it’s just another 120s button, so it doesn’t feel good to use at all.

Dancer: The burst phase feels like a bit of a mess now. Between Finishing Move, Starfall Dance, Last Dance, Dance of the Dawn, Fan Dances, Tilana, Sabre Dance, and Flourish proc, it feels like you’re trying to squeeze every single ability you’ve ever learned into that one 15 second Technical Step window lol. Then everything in between is desperately trying to deal with Flourish/Step drifting…

Summoner: Solar Bahamut would’ve been fine if it was anything other than Bahamut. Lux Solaris raises so many questions. It feels like it barely got anything else this expansion lol.

Red Mage: I’m actually mostly positive on Red Mage, the Moulinet changes made melee aoe much more straightforward. Grand Impact feels like a genuinely good addition to Red Mage’s toolkit with the mobility it affords (plus it’s nice to get a high potency instant-cast to weave Prefulgence with lol). Oh and it got that one with the thorns after Embolden. That’s, there I guess lol. Not sure why it needed to be lol. Also it’s kinda weird to me that Summoner and Pictomancer got AoE heals but not Red Mage. Wasn’t that meant to be their thing lol? Not that I’m against Summoner having similar capabilities

[EthanXdeath]

Ninja needs some buffs as does Dragoon, they're both imo underperforming for being melee dps, a great machinist shouldn't be doing as much or nearly as much damage as a great ninja or dragoon. I think rotationally both Ninja and Dragoon are fine they just both need buffs a 5% buff since we don't have the freedom to run around like a machinist does away from all manner of AoE's and maintain uptime at the same time. Though Machinist also needs a buff as well if it's going to be a selfish non-support DPS.

[Azurarok]

Red Mage: Also it’s kinda weird to me that Summoner and Pictomancer got AoE heals but not Red Mage. Wasn’t that meant to be their thing lol? Not that I’m against Summoner having similar capabilities

It got Vermedica II, just as an Alisaie exclusive

[Supersnow845]

Ninja needs some buffs as does Dragoon, they're both imo underperforming for being melee dps, a great machinist shouldn't be doing as much or nearly as much damage as a great ninja or dragoon. I think rotationally both Ninja and Dragoon are fine they just both need buffs a 5% buff since we don't have the freedom to run around like a machinist does away from all manner of AoE's and maintain uptime at the same time. Though Machinist also needs a buff as well if it's going to be a selfish non-support DPS.

Ranged uptime doesn’t mean much when mechanics factor in uptime considerations anyway

Melee are barely losing 10 GCD’s in a fight this tier but they can afford to drop like 60 before they are at risk of dropping below MCH

You shouldn’t balance a bad uptime melee against a perfect MCH then give melees more on top of that

If you are dropping 15-20 GCD’s in a fight you should be doing less than the physical ranged

[Palladiamors]

No. I resubbed because I was in the mood to grind some levels and none of them are keeping my attention right now. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they are all bad but right now jobs just seem to be missing that spark that made playing them enjoyable before.

[Aco505]

Melee are barely losing 10 GCD’s in a fight this tier

Melee uptime requires effort in this tier (besides M1S), in a similar way to Criterion in EW.

While a lot of it can be mitigated with skill and knowledge, you will find plenty of players using several ranged attacks per fight to avoid griefing their party, whether they play on PF or not.