Quite a few things wrong with these statements.
A. TP-Burns existed long before ToAU. ToAU only enabled sub-par equipped people to grind out exp faster, and popularized it. Many people were doing burns long before this, MNK burns in KRT, as well as NIN/WAR/MNK burns in sky on deco's/aura weaps/aura statues.
B. There is so hate control in burn parties. The use of /nin is vital so that anyone CAN pull hate, but the reason for a haste order ensure the person with the hate the most has their shadows readily available.
Claiming no one uses ichi is ignorant beyond belief...I personally use it more often then Ni.
C. Claiming a cannon party isn't team-oriented is completely bullshit. Again, perhaps a subpar cannon isn't team oriented and just wack wack wack, but it takes people who exercise their roles perfectly to make a cannon run smoothly. If you've EVER read into cannon parties, you realize its not a spam of asuran/rampage, but timing of weaponskills to further the chain, saving tp, ensuring the right songs are on at the right times, etc, etc, etc. Also not killing some mobs as fast, holding off on weaponskills to ensure the pop-rate is even. I don't know how many times I've said to myself, we're killing too fast.
Just because the strategy isn't the same as a skillchain party doesn't mean it is non-existant. Keeping up the pace of a kill while keeping select members away from danger and able to rest at opportune times doesn't come easy, nor does putting your own numbers aside for the betterment of a group. I've done both, and performing to your potential in a cannon gunning for 25k per hour is not only much more exciting, but much more challenging then holding hate on two members skillchaining.
Unfortunately, as PLD is my only job to 75 (and will remain so due to military time constraints), I've only heard about the burn parties that you speak of, primariy through Rappa and thirdhand through Draciot. The ichi comment came only from what I've heard some WARs bitching about quasi-burn parties that I've set up ("We're taking too long - the mob's still alive and I have to use Ichi"). I guess they were just scrubs.
The hate control I'm talking about is a single tank keeping a flawless hate cycle along with excellent gear that enables him to keep a hate threshhold high above what the DDs in his party would normally break. Basically, it's what a PLD should be doing at 60-70 and what a NIN (like Limi) can do through both damage, a good hate routine and very sick gear even against VT mobs at 75. In my opinion, just spreading out hate between shadowed DDs is not controlling hate - it's maximizing damage. I'm not knocking it - it works phenomenally. It's not tanking, though.
That said, whenever I see some variation of WARx3 NIN BRD RDM, (usually from the next camp over), I never seem to see a DD hold the casting stance long enough for it to be Ichi. I guess I'm just missing it. Now I am curious though... kill time for an "elite party" is what... 20-30 seconds for your average puk, maybe less? AOE moves aside, how does the mob have enough time to blow through 3 shadows on 3-4 different melee before your Ni timer is up again?
I realize burns were going on in sky, but common sense tells me that both due to weapon defense/HP and AOE stun, they weren't anywhere *near* as efficient as burning off of low-defense/HP mobs found in the ToAU areas. Also the repops on the mid-range weapons were what, 5 min each on 16 weapons in a room? I believe it's 3 min repops on the puks/colibri and 5 min on the mamool. I'll have to count sometime. Point is, I believe the ToAU areas were designed for the burn vs. sky being made for the standard party and just turned into a burn by parties with the highest end of equipment.
No question a cannon party is more exciting for the BRD. As a matter of fact, I feel sorry for those guys sometimes. Pulling at a rate so that there is always a mob ready to engage, keeping mobs slept, keeping melee songs *and* ballad on AND sometimes throwing in a cure or two is far more work than even my most strenuous times tanking. It just does not seem to me that there is as much strategy on the DD and quasi-tank side. If metering out a cannon party is more exciting, then I'd like to see it (this real canon you're talking about) sometime. Even in my best parties, we've killed no where near fast enough to exhaust a zone (unless there was another party or two on top of us), and it was never a matter of holding back.
Call me old fashioned, I just miss seeing SATA Kasha > SATA Spinning Slash followed by my own Savage to another Kasha for four magic bursts (two from the BLM and two from the RDM and maybe even a bursted flash from me). It may not be holding back on a Rampage waiting for that next pop, but it just felt good to have all that come into place.
Seeing an IT that normally took 2 min to kill drop in 30 seconds just felt good.
