DRG has been broken for far too long. Fix it SE

[HeavenlyArmed]

Okay, so for the most part, everyone agrees that DRG is in need of a buff. For those of you who don't understand why that is, it's really quite simple. A DRG doing its maximum damage potential will not be doing the same level of damage that a Monk or Ninja being played to its maximum potential will. In addition to that, our only utility is in the form of a piercing damage debuff we can place on mobs to buff damage done by ourselves and Bards, but even with the added damage that Bards get from this our effective DPS is lower than that of a Monk or Ninja. The only other utility abilities we really have access to are Feint, which due to being on the GCD is not viable in any endgame scenario even when by some miracle the mob being fought isn't resistant to Slow entirely, our stuns, which we use primarily for damage and when used as stuns are more of a hindrance than a help due to being so much less effective than tank stuns, and a weak cross-class Mantra from Pugilist for anyone who felt like leveling that all the way to 42. Compare that to a Ninja's Goad, Trick Attack, Jugulate which can both silence AND stun, and Dancing Edge, or a Monk's full Mantra, access to both a stun and a silence, and Dragon Kick's INT reduction, and you'll see why it is that DRGs are unhappy to be doing so much less damage with so much less utility.

There are a few ways this could be remedied. First, find some way to buff DRG utility. There was talk of making less-used skills more desirable back as far as 2.3, yet skills like Feint have still seen no change, despite clearly being offenders of this. The easiest solution I see here would be to make it an off-GCD skill, while leaving its damage and effect untouched. Alternatively, give DRGs a reason to use it in our standard rotation by buffing its damage, and reduce the effectiveness of the slow it applies in some way, or even change the additional effect entirely. I also think changing Spineshatter Dive from a stun to a silence would help boost our perceived utility, though I acknowledge that this would cause its name to make less sense.
Another option is to boost our damage output. One suggestion I've seen for this is to boost the Heavy Thrust buff from 15% to 25%. I personally don't like that idea, as it's essentially giving us Greased Lightning 3's damage output for a single skill, and not only that, but then the effect of that suddenly dropping is even more catastrophic to our DPS than it is right now. That said, while a lot of people seem to think removing the positional requirements for Heavy Thrust and Impulse Drive in some way would help balance things out, I disagree. Moving around is not only not an actual DPS loss (as in not part of the real problem), but it's part of the job's playstyle that makes it feel different from the other melee jobs. Spreading out the buff among different abilities makes more sense in my opinion. Boost potency of the Full Thrust combo a bit, buff damage on our jumps slightly, and most importantly boost the piercing debuff from Disembowel to at least 15%. Disembowel is currently our only real utility, and in buffing it we'd be receiving both a buff to our own damage potential as well as our utility.
The third buff we could receive is slightly different in nature, as it addresses a different problem we as a job have had for a long time, and as such should not be done instead of the other buffs mentioned, but in addition to them. Most people by now have likely realized I'm referring to our Magic Defense. Due to our naturally higher Physical Defense, I don't believe that our Magic Defense needs to be on the same level as the other jobs, but it definitely needs a buff to some degree. The fact that I as a DRG can die so much more easily to magical abilities, which make up a large portion of aoes in endgame content, that no other job struggles with, especially with our increased proneness to be hit by them due to animation locks like Jump's, is nearly insulting. Yes, Disciples of Magic have decreased physical defense in the same vein. However, unlike how DRGs are likely to get hit by magical damage, there's virtually no chance of, say, a BLM getting hit by a physical attack unless something else has gone seriously wrong in that fight. This has been an issue for far too long and needs addressed in some way as soon as possible.

[Tyrn]

our Magic Defense.

Yeah it's pretty bad when as you said most party damage that goes on someone other than the tank is magic, almost makes me think the people who decided on this were thinking like this.

[RiceisNice]

lolwat

I always knew DRG's magic defense was pretty miserable...but wow.

[kyrios91]

I always knew DRG's magic defense was pretty miserable...but wow.

Which is very absurd. Lore-wise we are elite knights trained with the sole purpose to fight dragons and dragons wield magical powers! Technically we should have high MDEF (My i110 DRG has around 680 DEF now so at least we should have 600ish MDEF). But in-game our gears' MDEF is lower than a crafter body? "Oh yeah that wool apron that you can buy in the market has better resistance against magic compared to this cuirass that was made by the Allagan engineers for their lancer unit".

[Kyrosiris]

I always knew DRG's magic defense was pretty miserable...but wow.

Yeah, it's fucking dire. When Ramuh EX first came out, if our DRG was charmed, two Thunderstorms with one or more balls on the field killed him. Point blank. Like, if he didn't have Apocatastasis or I didn't Virus and we didn't notice a stray ball or an overlapping Thunderstorm, he was smoked.

It's not as bad now with more gear but jesus.

[Krr]

Yeah, it's fucking dire. When Ramuh EX first came out, if our DRG was charmed, two Thunderstorms with one or more balls on the field killed him. Point blank.

Back when I mained DRG I honest to god thought that having even a second thunderstorm on you meant hard-coded instant death no matter what and that there was no avoiding it, because of how much damage they do to us even with one ball out. I also thought Ancient Quaga in ST was designed to instantly kill people instead of severely damaging them. After I switched to NIN I realized I could actually take a second thunderstorm and live, among various other things. This is NIN, which we're told frequently is the 'most fragile' melee DPS of the three by NINs who desperately don't want to get nerfed.



That's how bad DRG's MDef is, people.

[Felis]

Back when I mained DRG I honest to god thought that having even a second thunderstorm on you meant hard-coded instant death no matter what and that there was no avoiding it, because of how much damage they do to us even with one ball out. I also thought Ancient Quaga in ST was designed to instantly kill people instead of severely damaging them. After I switched to NIN I realized I could actually take a second thunderstorm and live, among various other things. This is NIN, which we're told frequently is the 'most fragile' melee DPS of the three by NINs who desperately don't want to get nerfed.



That's how bad DRG's MDef is, people.

But this is a gear issue, not a job issue.

[HeavenlyArmed]

But this is a gear issue, not a job issue.

It's a job issue because it only applies to the gear which is specific to that job.