trying to choose a dps.

[Ragnar_is_god]

I got pld to 60, brd to 52. bard was ok at first, but not sure its my cup of tea. are the dps all pretty comparable? or are there a few that stand out damage wise? besides dragoon. like a top 3 damage wise dps. thanks

[AskaRay]

Well if you want top deeps, probably Monk or Dragoon.
SMN also gets high deeps with multiple enemies.

If you're going for fun, go bard

In the end, it's a "which do you find more fun" type of thing.

[MagiusNecros]

BLM. All the Fire 4's. Ifrit in a can.

[Ragology]

The devs try to balance things such that the more the more personal DPS a job hasd, the less raid utility it has. Like when Choosing between the 3 Melee DPS, Monks damage is the highest while Ninja's is the lowest, but Ninja has more tools for helping out the group than Monk does.

At this point I don't think any of the DPS are too weak to compete though, so you don't have to worry about bringing your team down if you decide to play as Ninja instead of Dragoon or Monk.

[Cipher_Zaabiz]

If you have to choose, take the one with your favorite playstyle :

Summoner = DoTs + support (eye for an eye and resuscitation)
Black mage = heavy burst damage
Dragoon = heavy single target damage + Dots
Monk = highest dps but almost no utility besides mantra
Ninja = lowest dps but a lot of supporting tools like steam and trick attack
Bard = lower dps but great support due to their songs
Machinist = more dps than bard with less support, but a great help for mp and tp recovery.

[Phileas]

I tried them all and i ended up in machinist. I had the following reasons:

I hate watching and refreshing a key buff (BLM or DRG)
Watching debuff timers were annoying in raids (SMN and BRD)
I just hated mudras (even post NIN mudra lag update)

That really leaves monk which i havent really played seriously yet. I like machinist not because its top dps but i like the style and it does not have to watch timers like a hawk.

[gumas]

Well as mch you still need to watch over you hot shot buff and 1 dot but yes, it was 30 seconds or so i think, thus you dont need to glace over your buff/debuff bar as much as bard.

i main bard and mch and all i can say is if you prefer a nice smooth rotation? Go bard, mch is all about priorities

[Greedalox]

Well as mch you still need to watch over you hot shot buff and 1 dot but yes, it was 30 seconds or so i think, thus you dont need to glace over your buff/debuff bar as much as bard.

i main bard and mch and all i can say is if you prefer a nice smooth rotation? Go bard, mch is all about priorities

Once you become comfortable with machinist, you notice that your cooldowns are a well oiled machine and don't really need to keep an eye on your Lead or Hot shot at all, just something you'll know when to toss out again.

[gumas]

I agree on the hot shot part, i tend to forgot to reapply it again lol. 5% just seems miniscule to me, 1000 damage = 1050? Is that how it work?

[Nekotee]

Mch got hot shot and 1 DoT, bard got 2 DoT... pretty much the same for me and bard now have one skill to regen both DoT

To add for cipher about smn and Blm

Smn got EfaE and virus (alongside with the power of raise... which is Unfortunately widely forgotten by smn that only see big deeeps....)
Blm get huge burst (6 x 12k damage at the opener make me happy... not the tank) and they got lower version of virus and EfaE as well