Unfortunately for all caster dps, we've been blacklisted from raid content like this since late 3.4 and will probably stay that way till 4.2 do the SE terrible balancing for range magical dps, personally I believe that not all jobs will be meta but I'm a firm believer that all roles should have at least one shinning star. The fact, that party buffs I basically useless for INT proves my point since caster are the only one to use this stat. The fact that we had a combat "revamp" but the same jobs are buffed back into the meta is proof that SE can't balance casters or this game correctly
A couple remedies A. Nerf Bard and Machinist damage, these jobs can't have thier cake and eat it too, these jobs have so much utility that they should be very close to tanks in terms of dps to prevent buff stacking.
B. Trick attack needs to be dealt with, this buff is way too strong and while some may call me crazy, the fact that this makes ninja mandatory for even casual play only serves to prove this jobs effectiveness
C. Remove physical and magical damage categories or rework them in such a way that it is physical (tank and Melee) and ranged(heals casters and brd/mch) this way brd and mch will not have the obvious plus of just synergizing better than casters. Contagion is the only magic buff for casters exclusively and it comes from the clunkier caster. This is terrible balancing and distribution of utility. Things like trick attack should come from jobs with the lowest synergy like SMN or RDM because of how strong it is, not just the brotherhood variants that they have currently.
D. Dragoon needs to be shot, this job was buffed back into the meta king spot, why??? It was mnks chance, and I totally feel for them. Now they just fall short much like casters and mch
E. Perhaps bar entry to savage encounters unless you have one of each job type like in RF only for PF as well, or only allow lb3 when you have all 5 party buffs since str and vit are currently the only useful buffs. And try to make more instances where caster/ranged lb is mandatory like in a5s. Don't put it at the end of the fight like in o3s. These are little changes that can force role balance without the nerfing of any jobs but the point stands that a entire role shouldn't be barred from content because of poor balancing
Dragoons and ranged dps mains will probably downvote and flame me, but you don't understand what caster have been dealing with since 3.4 8mnths ago, and will have to deal with until 4.2 which is like 5-6 months from now. I'm tired of wanting to do runs in the pf and getting blacklisted from entry because of my role not my job, mnks can go to Drg and still be Melee, but me going to mch or brd isn't the same as playing a magical dps. These are my personal nitpicks but I'm sure other casters might feel the same way. Understand that just because you don't need the "meta" doesn't mean that ppl will blindly oppress in support of the meta, ppl honestly think Smn is a bad job right now, the only problem is it's clunky as hell in all places but it's damage is amazing