DRG is unbalanced and desperately needs a buff.

[Altena]

yada yada

BLM's Fire has potency of 150.
Under Astral Fire 3, the damage is multiplied by about 1.5...
So a Fire 1 that does 300 damage now does about 550-600 non crit, no buffs.
An unbuffed full thrust does about 550. Vorpal does about 400, and True does about 300. (Gear depending of course).
So after that initial Fire cast, BLM is doing on average 300-400 more damage per 3x casts then a DRG. (This is also based on a BLM with worse gear then the DRG)
In addition to this, you have a 40% chance that you will proc a Firestarter which has a potency of 220 + the damage bonus from Astral Fire. (Which does about 800 non-crit, about 250-300 more damage then an unbuffed FT).


I didn't compare raw potency simply because I have NFI what the equation is for Astral Fire, I am simply eyeballing numbers. However please keep in mind these numbers are based off a near-full i90 DRG with 476 STR, vs a gimpy relic/AK BLM with only 402 INT.

If FT crits, unbuffed you will get around 750.... If Fire crits, you will get around 1k. If Fire 3 crits, you will be hitting for 1300. This is true Spike damage. Therfore as I said earlier - DRG's spike is low in comparison.

Chaos Thrust isn't really "spike" as the damage is over 30 seconds. As an example - trashy mobs in a dungeon generally don't last the full duration of CT.

Thorns is only worth it if used in combo, and there are more then 2 mobs. After using it once, you might as well be spamming doomspike anyway. While their AoE isn't terrible (and I never said it was), it certainly isn't the best either. Especially when resources are being considered. Turn 4 coil is a great example of this.

DoT's are actually DRG's highest potency combos. While you may not be able to spam them due to their nature - they have the highest potency for the amount of steps. You said it is wrong to be doing most of DRG's damage in DoT's, while I agree with that, I only agree with that due to their nature (being unable to spam them), however they are still the strongest skills you can do in the same amount of steps/GCD's.
Example:
180 + 220 + 360 = 760 (Chaos combo, 3-step)
vs.
150 + 200 + 300 = 650 (FT Combo, 3 step)

So simply comparing the 2, the highest potency you can achieve in 3-steps is due to a DoT.
In addition to this, Phleb has a potency of 290 and is not combo'd. The only comparison to this is a power surge > Jump, and you can do that even less then Phleb.
While the damage is immediate, the CD on a PS>Jump is 90 secs.

So sorry to say, but DoT's are actually DRG's strongest skills. While they may not be spammable like FT, and on a parser it is not their "primary source of damage" due to the nature of a DoT, and the sheer number of immediate damage skills, the potency is much higher per combo/step then a raw damage skill. Therefore DRG's true strength does indeed come from DoT. I am not saying "the majority of my damage comes from DoT". I am simply saying that "the strongest potency per step comes from a DoT, therefore they have better sustained damage then they have spike damage". Even when their sustained damage isn't that crash hot.

DRG was designed(stated by yoshi-P) to be easier to play than other classes. It's intended to be weaker because it's a class for lesser skilled players. What's weird, though is how much damage BLM does. They need to reduce BLM's damage if that is truely the reason for DRG doing less damage, because BLM is much easier than DRG. SMN as well, SMN is probably one of the least interesting DPS I've ever played in a video game.

I don't think DRG is "easier" then any DPS really.. I am not saying it's "the hardest" either though.
I just think that it is more penalizing if you do stuff up, as your DPS simply plummets.
MNK is actually a lot more simple then people make it out to be.. While people can argue with me on this one - simply using a flank only rotation pushes you ahead of practically any other DPS in the party. I barely ever play MNK, yet can get close to matching my DRG in DPS even though my DRG's gear is substantially better.

I don't agree that BLM should be nerfed, nor should SMN though. DRG just needs to be comparable.