DRG is unbalanced and desperately needs a buff.

[Airget]

You are comparing it to Bard now and it is a known issue that because they don't have to worry about moving and not being able to deal dmg like most DD they can have higher output.

Though to be fair DRG has a slight edge, they have jumps and also Piercing Talon, they can fight from afar or on the run if needed so if you haven't add that to your rotation you might want to give it a try, since every little bit of input helps. Can also consider how often you use Invigorate, it's 500TP regain is decent so if you find yourself not using it often or at all then you can try out Piercing Talon as an on the run WS when you are unable to get within range of the boss.

And, people are just trying to give input, it doesn't help to call the rotation "not rocket science" if you can take the time to give a detailed explanation over your rotation it is possible that there is something you are doing that's causing you to lose dmg output. Such as you don't explain when you use Life Surge for an ability which grants instant critical, you don't relay if you have ever tried it on Chaos Thrust or if you have also saved it for Full Thrust.

You don't explain how you keep the DoT up, do you time it so that all your buffs are up such as you open with, Heavy Thrust, Impulse Drive-Disembowel, Blood for Blood-Life Surge, Chaos Thrust, Phlebotomize, Heavy Thrust, Vorpal-True-(maybe you Life surge here)- Full Thrust. etc etc

It's simple enough to say you put the buffs up but if you don't explain the exact rotation players can't help you in determining whether or not you are utililizing them for maximum potency. And of course I know there are also jump abilities and such but being as I'm not a DRG main I'm only taking a stab over what a maximized dmg rotation might look like.

Also while you might see the MNK DoT as "stronger" DRG's are actually stronger when you take base dmg into account, since MNK DoT base potency are 0 and 40 while DRG's base potency are 170 and 160 which give them an edge compared to the MNK's DoT.

MNK DoT overall DoT is about, 250/240
DRG's is 290/360

With greased lightning III, Touch of Death can be comparative to phlebotomize but in the overall scenario DRG has the edge.

[Altena]

snip

Heavy > Leg Sweep > Impulse > B4B > Disembowel > IE > Chaos > Power Surge > Phleb > Jump > FT combo > Heavy

Keep Heavy up.
Refresh Disembowel / Chaos as it wears.
Refresh Phleb as it wears.
Leg Sweep whenever it's up.
Power Surge > Jump whenever they are up.
FT or Fracture when you have nothing else to do.
Fracture when you can't get a FT combo off before refreshing one of the above.

As I said, keep buffs up, keep DoTs up, use filler when there is nothing else to do, not freaking rocket science.

It is not a rotation issue, it is a balance issue.

People are ignoring the one major point of this thread..
DRG has no utility.
It is a DPS class, and can do only one thing - DPS.
BRD, BLM, SMN all have a lot more utility.
They can also deal as much or more damage then DRG. (Fight depending, as I said in OP).
They don't have to worry about AoE's.
Why should any of them even be close to a melee DPS class that can't do anything but DPS?

MNK was an example of where DRG should be sitting. MNK is currently in a good place.

[ChaozK]

Heavy > Leg Sweep > Impulse > B4B > Disembowel > IE > Chaos > Power Surge > Phleb > Jump > FT combo > Heavy

Keep Heavy up.
Refresh Disembowel / Chaos as it wears.
Refresh Phleb as it wears.
Leg Sweep whenever it's up.
Power Surge > Jump whenever they are up.
FT or Fracture when you have nothing else to do.
Fracture when you can't get a FT combo off before refreshing one of the above.

I think you put too little emphasize on your DoTs. Really CT, PH and FR should have as much uptime as possible on any fight that is longer than 30s. Also dont use 2 off GCDs in a row, they should always be weaved in between two GCDs or you lose a bit of dps. Just my 2cs

[Altena]

I think you put too little emphasize on your DoTs. Really CT, PH and FR should have as much uptime as possible on any fight that is longer than 30s. Also dont use 2 off GCDs in a row, they should always be weaved in between two GCDs or you lose a bit of dps. Just my 2cs

Please read before you post.
We are talking about anything worth a damn - so presumably these fights are longer then 30secs.

In addition, if you read correctly - I do not use 2x off-GCD skills in a row.

[ChaozK]

Please read before you post.
We are talking about anything worth a damn - so presumably these fights are longer then 30secs.

In addition, if you read correctly - I do not use 2x off-GCD skills in a row.

Nice ninja edit, i saw what you did there.

[Altena]

Nice ninja edit, i saw what you did there.

Ninja edit? I edited it before you posted actually..

Please note your time of post, and my time of edit. This is also evident by the text that you quoted from my post - Nothing of relevance was changed.

I also didn't edit what you claim. I actually simply added:

People are ignoring the one major point of this thread..
DRG has no utility.
It is a DPS class, and can do only one thing - DPS.
BRD, BLM, SMN all have a lot more utility.
They can also deal as much or more damage then DRG. (Fight depending, as I said in OP).
They don't have to worry about AoE's.
Why should any of them even be close to a melee DPS class that can't do anything but DPS?

MNK was an example of where DRG should be sitting. MNK is currently in a good place.

[Hanemakikaze]

DRG has no utility.

Um...buffing all piercing damage in the group isn't utility? Completely wiping all your threat with press of a button along with perfect zoning thrown in? Monk has what, mantra? One buffs damage for themselves along with the bards in your party & the other buffs healing. I run coil on my drg and believe it or not that debuff is pretty huge with all the bards we have in my coil group, especially for turn 2. Anyway, I don't find drg to be anywhere near as weak as you're making them out to be, it's not unnatural for black mage to be over the top strong as that's how it's always been, and as a monk myself I know they have to work extra hard to put up their numbers and those are the only two classes that I've seen show up drg in coil.

[Altena]

snip

By all piercing damage, you mean their own, and the 1 or 2 BRDs in the party? Hmm let's compare this for just one second.
+10% piercing damage is equivalent to Foe Req, Ballad, Paeon, AOE Attack down (RoD), an extremely short animation interrupt (the fastest in game currently), Shadowbind.

Ok so DRG's job is to buff the BRDs and do mediocre damage. So the already useful BRDs can be more useful.
Sounds balanced.

Enmity is a non-issue in end-game when playing with any decent tank. Not that their mediocre damage can pull hate to begin with unless your tank truly is garbage.

Please read your statement about BLM back to yourself and tell me why this is not a bad thing? Why should BLM be "over the top strong", offer the utility of multiple CC's (Sleep, Blizzard 2, Freeze) and buffs/debuffs (Apocatastasis, Lethargy). As well as superior AoE DPS and very high single target DPS.

Once again, sounds balanced.

As for MNK, while doing "the most optimal" rotation means running around like a madman, simply doing a flank only rotation can push far ahead of a DRG in a tank and spank - which is actually far less effort then what you have to do on DRG to get even close to those numbers.

Yes they are weak.

Anybody who says MNK is harder to play to keep top dps compared to DRG is delusional. I have both to 50 and MNKs are easy mode and it's extremely easy to keep up greased lightning in all fights except Garuda. MNKs are also the only class that can use brute force macros for all their combos which makes it 100x easier to maximize their skill speed. In order for DRG to be comparable to any DPS, they have to get close to their 27 hit rotation as possible. DRG also more often than not dies while trying to maximize dps due to jumps being not invulnerable, but i prefer it that way because it separates me from the bad DRGs.

This is a highly accurate statement.

Poor spike damage? I do over 1,000 dmg a lot, what are you doing 500?

A standard combo'd FT without B4B hits for around 600 with my gear.
A lucky crit hits for around 800-850. Sometimes a touch lower.
A buffed crit hits for around 1050.

A Fire 1 on my extremely gimp alt character's BLM hits for 600 with Astral 3.
Crit anywhere around the 1100-1300 mark.