Shouldn't DRG be top DPS?

[Sanguisio]

No way. SMNs > ALL *troll face*

[Ultear_Milkovich]

Should DRG

No.

Believing that one job outclasses the others is plain dumb.

Monks / Nins will stay godlike on single target dummy style fights.

Bards (damn bards xD) will remain immuned to most of the mechanics thanks to their mobility.

Us (good) Blms will keep the title of undisputed kings of AOEs and burst damage.

And Smn and Dragoons will remain versatile, usefull and awesome in most cases even if our Smn friends deserve a MP buff for long ass fights.

Job balance is working as intended. Please look forward to it.

[Ephier]

Missing or using mudras require no skill. AS it stands, Ninja is the least skill oriented class... well technically all 3 melee have a very specific rotation to obtain maximum DPS... so the only skill needed is memorizing the rotation.

You sir must not play ninja, cause mudra lag can cause some real dumb stuff to happen.

[Judge_Xero]

You sir must not play ninja, cause mudra lag can cause some real dumb stuff to happen.

True story - Sometimes Ten -> Chi -> Jin = Hyoton. Because apparently Chi got lost in cyberspace since you can actually watch that it registered. Fuma -> Raiton -> Hyoton -> FML

And if your click doesn't register right away.....should you risk clicking it again. (FU Rabbit) - There goes like 2 GCD plus your Mudra Skill.

No way. SMNs > ALL *troll face*

I was going to say that SMN is probably the easiest, but didn't want to get Flamed.

4 Main dots. No proc system. You can even put your pet on auto-pilot if you want.

Priority System

Are Dots up? - Yes -> Ruin

Are Dots up and you have to move? - Yes - Ruin II

[4gotmypassword]

For the record, before I start, I just want to say that anyone who says "but DRG was just buffed it doesn't need buffing again" is a fool; DRG was very far behind the other two melees and the buff may not have been enough.

Anyway.

This is an interesting topic, and in short, I think yes, for perfect balance it should have a small-medium buff, either to have the same DPS as a MNK, or to have the same team contribution as a NIN (which I'd prefer).
Let's look at everything these classes have (except direct DPS buffs as they can be summarised by looking at DPS numbers), not including anything they all have (e.g. pre-trait Mantra):

MNK:
++ Blunt resistance - 10% on target; affects Ifrit and other monks
++ Intelligence - 10% on target
+ Stun 4s
+ Traited Second Wind
+ Traited Mantra
+ 10% damage resistance (and -5% damage) during Fists of Earth
+- Awkward to use silence aoe, long-range-only stun (and relocation), slow effect, traited Featherfoot, Bloodbath
- Positionals

[4gotmypassword]

NIN:
+++ The extreme value of Trick Attack (very close in value to Mage's Ballad, the best): 10% damage increase on target from all sources for 10s every minute
+++ The extreme value of Goad: Large (400?) TP regen on a single target
++ 10% slashing resistance decrease on target; affects both tanks and can be used by warriors as well, affects other ninjas
+ 1s silence, 2s stun
+ Perfect Dodge
+- Minor self healing (Mug), easy teleportation

DRG:
+ 3s stun
+ 10% piercing resistance decrease on target; affects Bards (does not affect dots- not as large an increase for them as any other resistance debuff is for the other classes), does NOT affect other dragoons (other dragoons not using this will miss out on Chaos Thrust and will decrease their DPS)
+ Long range 2s stun and relocation (kind of irrelevant, but slightly less so than the +- abilities)
+ Enmity halving and relocation (Elusive Jump) (kind of irrelevant, but slightly less so than the +- abilities)

[4gotmypassword]

DRG (continued):
+- Relocation (Dragonfire Dive), 80% parry rate cooldown, Bloodbath, traited Invigorate, traited Blood for Blood (15% extra taken instead of 25%), slightly larger health and defense stats
- Positionals
--- Three half-second self stuns



If we have a fair look at these, we can see that MNK has decent team contribution, NIN has extremely good team contribution (really closing in on that given by Bards) as Trick Attack is literally the definition of team contribution, and DRG has extremely negligible team contribution and very significant self devaluing through jumps' self stunning effects.

[4gotmypassword]

Assuming that what Square say is true- that MNK is the best DPS, and NIN is on par with DRG, who are behind MNK, and taking into account the trade-off that MNK has in the form of Greased Lightning (which I've not included above as parses show the true effect of this), it's acceptable for MNK to have the best DPS and good team contribution. What is the problem, however, is that NIN can get away with the same DPS as a DRG but incredibly good team contribution (even to the point of their standard debuff being better, despite the common consensus that Disembowel is great, it's actually worse), while DRG has not only practically none, but also negative value. In this sense, DRG should have the same DPS as a MNK so that, like MNK, it has its own self-devaluing trade-off, albeit zero real team contribution, or should have the massive team contribution that NIN has while having the same DPS.

tl;dr
MNK: 1st DPS, 2nd team contribution.
NIN: 2nd DPS, 1st team contribution.
DRG: 2nd DPS, 3rd team contribution.

[hellmach]

If Ninja needs to reapply a slashing debuff we have to burn through 3 skills to get it, assuming no WAR to apply Storm's Eye. If Huton falls off for whatever reason, that's a massive DPS decrease. Missing TA is a big utility loss that we don't have for a minute. DRGs don't have this risk.

[4gotmypassword]

If Ninja needs to reapply a slashing debuff we have to burn through 3 skills to get it, assuming no WAR to apply Storm's Eye.

Not only does your assumption make your argument weak, but if a dragoon had their piercing debuff drop, not only would they lose the piercing debuff, they'd also lose the strongest single target attack in the game and then reapply them both with the same three attacks as you, at a much slower global cooldown..

If Huton falls off for whatever reason, that's a massive DPS decrease.

This is true, that's why you have a 10 second safety net so this never happens.

Missing TA is a big utility loss that we don't have for a minute.

Yup, but at least you have access to such an ability. Better to have it than to not have such a thing at all.