Dragoons feeling left out?

[Krr]

DRGs do less damage than MNKs and have less utility than NINs, and aren't actually any more survivable in spite of higher HP due to pitiable magic resistance. Their only real purpose from a group minmax perspective is to enable a solo tank-DRG-BRD-BRD-BLM/SMN setup, which isn't viable in all encounters due to the need for a second tank. Essentially, NIN has made DRG a niche case at best.

And, DRG is the only melee DPS that doesn't stack well. Two NINs (or NIN/WAR) can put one on slash debuff duty while the other uses only their highest potency combo sets, and two MNKs can have one on Dragon Kick duty so the other gets to use higher potency combo strings. DRGs, on the other hand, are forced to overlap Disembowels because Chaos Thrust is their highest net potency attack.

On top of this, the old argument of "Burst vs. Sustain" for DRG/MNK is no longer relevant, because NIN offers one of the best DPS burst cases available by opening burn phases with Trick Attack's partywide 10% damage debuff as well as the (potentially-auto-critting) off-GCD two-step ninjutsu nukes. This only gets better as you add more NINs to a party to extend the TA debuff. Oh, and did I mention that NIN also plays well with BRD, because Ninjutsu attacks are considered magic damage, and their highest potency attack is Raiton?

Now, is DRG viable? In almost all cases that aren't extreme bleeding edge meta raiding, yes. But the release of NIN shows us that - once again - no matter how much you 'fix' the animation lock on Jump, Dragoon's numbers are just plain undertuned, and its skill design, while fun and interesting to play, is prohibitive without benefit.