Skaw, i really want to try to understand your position on this. You are someone i admire and one could almost say a semi-role model for me as a monk, you have a wide reputation as an asskicker extroardinaire, and can by no means be described as useless in endgame or anywhere else.
I know the power of a monk in 75, and you do have full god set, and i would imagine basically everything a monk would want, black belt excluded, so i take your numbers (mellee, chi blast) for granted as phenomenal. As you said, pre-patch, right up there with rangers.
But what i do not understand is, if you yourself could do as much damage as the "overpowered" rangers.... how can you say monk is not in line for a nerf, nor needs to be? A ranger, who could do X amount of damage, needed to be nerfed, while you (and i) can do same damage but not need a nerf? Is that what you're saying? that is a real question, not a rhetorical one.
You made mention of endgame viability of other mellees vs ranger, and im wondering if this includes mnks. as you stated a monk such as yourself can indeed chi blast kirin for 12-1600 every 3 minutes, so why Would it apply to monks? Thats some pretty nice damage. So shouldnt Mnk take a hit to even the playing field as well? And what about BLM? Their aeroga on kirin frequently tops 800, while slug/side usually hit 500-700.... and blm achieve greater numbers on a burst... sure it can be resisted, and is often, but rangers also miss..... and miss ws's. same diff.
So there we have the top 3. Rng, blm, mnk. Coincidentally, all 3 are the most common Cannon PT jobs, and all hnm ls's stack themselves with as many BLMs as possible, and then as many rngs. But. If only 2 rngs show up to Kirin....But 8 blms show up, kirin still goes down.... If 6 rngs show up, and only 2 blms....... Kirin is cancelled. I have witnessed it. The hierarchy of HNM of all kinds goes BLM>RNG>PLD/NIN. So by what i see you saying, by your theory BLM needed to be nerfed more than rng, and mnk needs to be nerfed next, to give all the other mellees (war drk drg etc) a chance at greater participation. I am not sure if this is what you are getting at, but it is what i gather from your posts here. And coupled with the paradoxical point made about mnk = rng pre patch, confuses me.
The reason i am focusing on your opinion here is that, familiar as i am with your sky ls and the people in it, i would have expected someone who spends so much time standing shoulder to shoulder, fighting alongside some of our servers finest rangers, to be a bit less harsh to those who have contributed a great deal to everyones advancement, not just in the ls but in the game itself. Now granted, they didnt contribute More than anyone else necessarily, but think of what it would have been like without them....would it be a 70% Blm ls? Or would they all still have been there, and the queus would just have taken longer to empty? Considering Haidates drop rate lately, i cant help but wonder how long the line would be. I know very well that everything you have is more than well-earned, but you didnt earn it alone. Being denigrating to rangers (especially considering the OP) was not something i would have expected, and i would be very happy to hear that i am misenterpreting. Some of your posts sound very angry and dismissive to me.
The truth is, this nerf will indeed effect everyone, but consider for a moment a rangers point of view as a human being, not just as a job. You have been playing, and having a great time, for 2 years, always on the same job. By this time, you are lvl 75 and have any number of commitments, responsibilities and priorities that fill up most of your time online. But there are days when no events are scheduled, noone needs help with anything, and nothing interesting is in the works. So you have some things you like to do when you log on, just to pass the time and to have Fun, same as everyone else. Like farming (killing orcs is rediculously fun), or maybe camping a favorite nm you have a grudge against like nussnacker, or eastern shadow. Not on the expectation of any huge money, but because its become a holy crusade. And because its something fun to do to pass the time while you chat with your friends. Maybe you're like alot of other people and like to play ballista! [Ballista] [Incredibly tough]! Its good times, you get to whack your friends, hang out with the guys, and scare tarus. Laughs all around, you win some, you lose some, you own, you get owned. Good times. Or hell, maybe you just like to ride the boat and poke the sea horror, cause he killed you when you were a noob.
These are things that Everyone does, or Can do if they feel like it or if theyre just bored. Heres the catch:
Now, log on one day. Download an update. Discover that not only can you no longer solo Nussnacker (nin thf mnk hell rdm hell even a drk can), you cant even kill his placeholders who rate ep. Eastern shadow would own you, while a drg/whm could kill him with ease. Sea horror would slap your ass back to hell without 2 other people helping you, both of whom could solo it on their own. There is no longer a point to participating in ballista. sure you Could, but a taru WHM could straight up melle you to death if he just ran in your face. You cant even really farm anymore, not if you liked anything bigger than lvl 20 mobs. A Gobbue farmer in Zi tah half kills you now (17 bloody bolts to kill).
In fact, the only thing you really CAN do at any lvl of effectiveness that even comes Close to any other mellee, is XP/Merit. But ask yourself, isnt that the part of this game that most of us love the least, and have the least fun doing? Rangers are not "crying" because theyve been nerfed in damage..... they are "crying" because this nerf has basically denied them the ability to do many of the things they enjoyed in this game, without at least half a pt, activities that all of their Non-RNG friends may still enjoy at will, any time and under any circumstance they please.
Btw, just a quick note in closing. I have now seen a ranger outdamage his OWN ranged attack with a franciska swing. Shigeto bow +1 and demons. I would also like to call attention to a 3 (yes 3, not 300) damage Eagle Eye Shot. Does that sound at all right to any of you? let me put this in perspective:
Shigeto Bow +1: Dmg 76, delay 582, ranged attack +16
Demon Arrow: Dmg 34, delay 90, ranged accuracy +5
Total: Dmg 110, delay 672
Fransisca: Dmg 44, delay 288, ranged accuracy +7, ranged attack +7
The axe swing did 15 more dmg. How is that "evening the field"? Skaw, you now outdamage a ranger farming with 1 fist. Drg can be happy about this nerf all they want, they suffer enough to have earned a little gloating. But dude.... YOU are the top dog now.... in mellee, blm is top dog in HNM..... Both of you should be very very worried, not happy. And as far as stacking for hnms go, it wont mean anything but this: fewer rngs, more blm and chi blast, no more rng cannon pts, more people lvling blm/mnk..... And any of you that have ranger friends will have to ask alot more than just 1 ranger now to help out with certain things. But dont get too worried: Anything youd need 3 rangers for now, Just 1 mnk or nin or rdm can still handle for you just fine. Sound fair?