Most difficult DPS class to play?

[Vire]

Dragoon is much harder than monk its laughable to hear some of these monk players say monk is the hardest.

1. Dragoon
2. Summoner
3. Monk
4. Black Mage
5. Bard

[Selli]

Dragoon is much harder than monk its laughable to hear some of these monk players say monk is the hardest.

I know several people who play both MNK and DRG at end-game and they all tell me the same thing: Monk is harder. And I've played both so I can see exactly where they are coming from.

There is a significant difference between the amount of positional attacks that are possessed by DRG and MNK. MNKs will spend lots of energy moving around to get their crits, while DRGs spend a fair bit of time at the rear. So on stationary bosses, both are going to do well. But when it comes to big pulls where the Tank is constantly moving things to avoid AoEs and MNKs have that pretty derpy AoE skill and a bunch of positional attacks, MNKs going to have a hard time and DRGs... not so much. Not to mention if MNKs are not constantly cycling through their skills, they're going to be losing their stacks which means their DPS is going to drop like crazy.

[Orlandeu]

Difficulty, I think, is based on each individual. One person might think that this class is harder than this class or vice versa. Every answer here is an opinion and people will disagree and argue over and over.
For example, a majority of people rank Summoners to be below either a Monk or a Dragoon but to me, I find Summoners to be the hardest class to play simply because I don't want micro-managing any critters to help me do my thing.

Bottom lines is, It's all subjective and it's up to you to decide which you think is the most difficult class to play.

PS Only one thing here is a facy, Bards are the easiest to play (:

[ChaozK]

I think out of BLM, SMN, MNK and DRG, each comes with its own inidvidual challenges and its very hard to make a reasonable argument on what is the most difficult because you cant compare apples to oranges. Do you find it more challenging to time your cast for most uptime? Having a long rotation with lots of skills to use? Having to micromanage a pet and all its abilities on top of your own? Keeping up stacks of a buff on top of a multide of positonal attacks?

Each persons opinion will greatly differ here and there can be points made for each dps to be the hardest.

That being said however, from the sounds of it, the op is looking for a very specific kind of challenge, mainly having a complex rotation. In that regard i would think MNK would be the most fitting class, as in my opinion it has the highest entry skill barrier, due to having to learn forms and positions on top of the usual business. BLM, DRG and SMN by comparison, will give you an easier time when starting out and the challenges will shine through only at the higher lvls of play.

Just my 2 cents.

[KingSora]

Being a main Bard myself I have to be honest, from a pure DPS standpoint, it is easy. You can be mobile and still do damage, and the pressure is not on you to deal loads of damage because you aren't expected too. However, there is an aspect of Bard that sometimes gets overlooked. I was doing Ifrit HM the other day and both WHM started running out of MP and we wiped. Who do you think took the blame because he didn't pop up Mage's Ballad? This guy. While not entirely my fault that they weren't managing their MP, it still didn't make me look good. No doubt the DPS aspect is easy peasy. Just don't forget everything else with it.

[LetBloodline]

Being a main Bard myself I have to be honest, from a pure DPS standpoint, it is easy. You can be mobile and still do damage, and the pressure is not on you to deal loads of damage because you aren't expected too. However, there is an aspect of Bard that sometimes gets overlooked. I was doing Ifrit HM the other day and both WHM started running out of MP and we wiped. Who do you think took the blame because he didn't pop up Mage's Ballad? This guy. While not entirely my fault that they weren't managing their MP, it still didn't make me look good. No doubt the DPS aspect is easy peasy. Just don't forget everything else with it.

Where the "everything else" is watch WHM's MP?

[Selli]

-text-

As a WHM main, I can tell you that if you have to raise 2-3 people within about 10 minutes. You're mana is going to be incredibly low, even with proper use of Shroud. Raise is incredibly costly.

However, as a DPS, you shouldn't be babysitting the MP party list like a healer looking for something to esuna.

If a WHM or a SCH or whoever else needs a song played, they should be asking. If they were spamming a macro asking you to play Ballad 20+ times in the chat with those annoying twinkly sound effects; then yes, that's 100% on you for not paying attention. But if they're not saying anything at all even when their MP is in the triple digits, that is on them.

[Inkarozu]

If as a bard with so little to normally have to worry about you can't manage to watch your healer's MP... then why should they bother to watch your HP? As a healer I absolutely hate it when I have to shout for manasong, you should be able to pay enough attention to what is going on to see when its needed. If manasong isn't needed and there are mages in the party, then you should use foe's requiem. The only one that is tricky and I don't blame bards for is the TP song in melee heavy parties since you can't see what their TP is at.
As much as you may want to be just a ranger, your are in fact a bard. Your songs are a key part of your job, so please use them! D:

[AlexPayne]

In general, Yes, Bards should be using songs. But in all fairness to King Sora there, if not one but both WHM ran out of MP on a HM primal, the party had more problems than just a mana song.

[KingSora]

If manasong isn't needed and there are mages in the party, then you should use foe's requiem. The only one that is tricky and I don't blame bards for is the TP song in melee heavy parties since you can't see what their TP is at.
As much as you may want to be just a ranger, your are in fact a bard. Your songs are a key part of your job, so please use them! D:

I did forget to mention those and I do try to use them. I just have to be careful not to run out of MP on something like Foes Requiem and then not be able cast Mages Baalad when we really need it. And yes I try to get Army's Paeon out there but it is hard to judge and again don't want to waste MP. Like I said in first post DPSing as a Bard is easy, and using the songs isn't that difficult as well. some people just forget about that part. I'm in no way trying to argue that Bard is difficult. We all know it isn't. It just isn't always a complete snore feast either.