That aside, idk wtf SE is doing with job balance now. Balance rn feels like the worst it's been in years.
It is, and based on what I've heard coming down the grapevine I think I know what's gone wrong and where I think the devs have lost the plot.
In short, SE has tried to balance damage in this game around I'd say three main factors: In role comparisons, raid utility (not dps buffs, those are part of damage), and ease of use (which is partially applied to in role see: Casters vs Ranged).
The problem in those latter 2 don't really matter anymore outside of really low end play, most jobs are relatively the same level of difficulty outside of autismo min maxing and melee in particular have a very easy time in P8S due to the bosses fat ass hitbox and the content is tuned so that defensive utility only matters at all in maybe Ultimates because tanks/healers have so many fucking tools for everything that having stuff like Passage of Arms or whatever just make it so your healer feels a little bit safer if they fuck up and it spares them a GCD maybe. So Pld having all this utility and their ranged phase means fucking nothing when Drk maintains uptime like its nothing anyway and Pld's utility only matters if you're fucking up pretty much.
They've effectively focused so much on everything being accessible and not overly stressing people out, even BLM is far more accessible now then in say SB, that those three pillars don't matter. This is why "Ranged Tax" is/was a thing, but uptime is so relatively free compared to HW/SB that Ranged Tax doesn't make anymore sense when melee can keep uptime quite easily and casters are easier to play then they used to be. I used to think "Ranged Tax" made sense and just Mch was too weak, but from what I've observed, it doesn't fucking matter in P8S. That's why Mch is so fucking bad.
Also I think the Trick Attack 2 minute adjustment was probably a mistake overall, as it makes jobs with good 1 minute windows feel bad to play because they can't hit their burst phase within much of anything raid buff wise every single rotation which is another reason Pld feels bad as they're a 1 minute burster while Gnb/Drk are a 2 minute burster. While I think streamlining burst windows into 60 second intervals was a good idea, I think the sole focus on 2 minute windows kind of sucks and that they need to bring in more 1 minute stuff again.
This is still better then HW, double ranged meta golem was hell cancer and nothing in EW is that bad, PLD was almost nonfunctioning in some fights, and BLM was fucking garbage for how much effort it demanded of you. EW as of now might be the worst balanced expansion since HW though from what I can see, which is unfortunate. Still better then a good amount of MMOs, but 14 has a fairly high standard for balance given its generally good history.
I do think nerfing the fight, assuming their story is true about it just being a miscalculated tuning in their arbitrary adjustment, is the better move then rebuffing everything in the short term but I think they need to really try to fix/rework whatever they need to. Pld has been hinted at potentially getting a mini rework, so that'll be interesting to see what they do with it.
