Best DPS class in the game?

[Aicasia]

a dummy is useful for testing rotation... there is no fight where you can tunnel like that, so what you can do on a dummy does not matter in a raid.

I never even claimed anything of the sort. If you want to test what class can straight up do the most DPS, you do it under OPTIMAL CONDITIONS for all classes. A target dummy provides those conditions. What raid bosses do is irrelevant when the question is "What class does the most DPS?". The only other valid target to answer the question is a boss like Patchwerk. A fight with no movement, minimal armor and resistances, a long enough duration, and equal opportunity.

If it was "what class does the most DPS in a raid environment" then you would have a point. But it isn't and never was. Considering you think yourself hardcore I had assumed you, of all people, would have known this. Obviously I should have known that self-appointed titles rarely hold up. Though who am I to call someone on that? I haven't raided seriously in many years. Either way boss mechanics are irrelevant.

I think that is what most people in this thread aren't getting. None of this discussion is relevant to the OP's original question, but the question has been posed and discussed for the majority of this thread. It is not answered by a fight like Garuda or Ifrit. It is answered by target dummies and absolute tank and spank fights. This is how it has ALWAYS been answered.

I will, however, give you that the question is fairly vague. But even then an equal comparison would have to be done on a dummy, because fights like Garuda are punishing to melee much more than they are to a Bard. Especially a monk. There cannot be an equal comparison when using the majority of dungeon/raid bosses and that is why target dummies are so useful for questions like these. I can come off like a dick, I know, but I am just trying to clear things up for everyone because the discussion has gotten muddied.