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Endgame is definitely not defined by burst and although it certainly is needed there are many classes with burst potential. I personally have always liked raiding with a well balanced group.
It's hard to tell who does more damage because the parsers are so spotty. For example running brayflox on my 36 SMN the parser showed I ended a boss fight at 146 plus my 17 ifrit dps. I seriously doubt I was doing 150+ dps as a lvl36.
I do believe both toons are incredibly competitive and both are played in a good volume.
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Go SMN, they can put out top DPS in many fights.
Melee are getting the shaft right now.
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I went with lancer/dragoon for my first class to level because I've always liked them in the various FF games, I like melee dps (usually) and it didn't hurt that the gear set looked pretty darn cool. After having run some instances and primals with my brothers though I wish I had gone with a ranged dps instead. Seems like too many of the fights punish you and the healer as well since he has to throw more heals your way, because of being stuck in melee range. Fun class overall though and I still enjoy playing it.