Quote Originally Posted by Infindox View Post
I'm confused what is so "job identity breaking" about it when you're still forced to do the other melee attacks in melee range when it's not up, and did nothing to the rest of the kit. I personally like it; if I know a fight well enough I can choose to save it for when a mechanic forces me away from easy melee range.
Like StriderShinryu said, it's mostly the worry about what comes next.

If this was the very first change for a job or if others hadn't be handled so extremely in the not so distant past, then you would see far less outcry and defensive voices about it.
The problem is that the job designers have a horrible track record of keeping job identity alive and given how other jobs have been handled, the next logical step would be for RDM to loose it's melee range identity and skill expression of it next.
It also doesn't help that the devs are again far too secretive as to what they even plan in 8.0 or what they themselves see as job identity so this change seems like the first step to what they want to do.

The only thought they have shown for the jobs lately was to adjust them for fight designs.
One can like or dislike that but it's a clearly one sided direction without even listening to the other side or giving them alternatives.