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1) I have both DRG and NIN. My survival rate is nearly 100% on both minus unavoidable damage that causes raid wipe. However, I want to say that my NIN has a higher survival rate than my DRG because my response time is faster on NIN.
2) I'm not sure. I have no dps check program and I haven't touched a Striking Dummy in over a year. I will say, though, that based on hate list, my NIN does more dps.
3) I enjoy NIN more. Not necessarily for the fun, but because of the different things I can use to damage mobs.
4) If you're just using basic attacks, NIN is easier. When you need to get Mudras into the equation, things change. When is it safe to use Suiton? Should I use Huton or Doton since I screwed up Mudras? With DRG, there's just a rotation, and I find that easier to trigger than deciding if I should use Raiton or Suiton.
All in all, I liked NIN because people don't pay me any attention. I'm kinda just there to deal damage and Goad.
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So, if you're kinda lazy, go DRG.
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Ninjas move faster, have a better defensive cooldown, and I feel like dexterity provides more defense than strength does (even though the difference is pretty negligible). Ninjas also have higher effective dps but dragoon has more burst and better aoe. I have much more experience on dragoon but I feel like the "difficulty" of each class is fairly subjective. On ninja your abilities will come up faster so you will be hitting your abilites more often, but on dragoon you have more cooldowns to keep track of and your dps has some slight positioning requirements which ninja does not have for the most part.
Also, one joy of this game is that you can play both classes and see for yourself which one you feel like you do more dps with, or survive better with, or even just enjoy playing more. For me, I like drg because there's something about doing fancy elusive jumps and raining down death with dragonfire dive that just feels right.