same ilvl - monk or dragoon

[Griffeth]

It depends a lot on your group setup and what content you will be raiding:

Are you the Only Melee?
Is there a BRD or MCH in your group?
Are you looking for raid utility or personal number gain?

If you are the only Melee, you may want to go Monk for the personal DPS gain

If there is a BRD or MCH in your group, you may want to go Dragoon to apply the Piercing debuff to assist in their damage

If you are looking for a bit of raid utility, you may want to go Dragoon for the Battle Litany buff for that extra crit rate and crit damage.

[Kitano123]

Dragoon maybe slightly more valuable for raiding, but any mid-core group would be happy with a monk.

[whiskeybravo]

Our raid group originally wanted a NIN but got a monk and never looked back. Both DRG and MNK are in very good spots, they play differently tho so pick the one you like playing more. They are both close DPS wise.

As for BRD/MCH, both are in high demand for raids. They are both really well balanced in respect to each other, again it just comes down to play style and which you like more. It also depends a bit on the composition. If 2 casters go bard, Foes will wreck. If 2 melee I think Hypercharge slightly wins out.

[GunsBlazing]

And a little bit more versatile too. They can Buff Physical DPS and Reduce Damage taken (5%) every 90s

I wouldn't say Machinist is more versatile.

Machinist can, as you said, buff physical DPS a bit and reduce the damage the party takes.

Bard, in turn, can buff magical DPS and also reduce the enemy's evasion by 10% with a 100% uptime. Rain of Death is critical if you have a scholar who actually DPSes well. It allows them to get a lot closer to the accuracy cap than they ever could, otherwise.

They're about equal in all fronts, they just contribute in different ways.

[Griffeth]

I wouldn't say Machinist is more versatile.

Machinist can, as you said, buff physical DPS a bit and reduce the damage the party takes.

Bard, in turn, can buff magical DPS and also reduce the enemy's evasion by 10% with a 100% uptime. Rain of Death is critical if you have a scholar who actually DPSes well. It allows them to get a lot closer to the accuracy cap than they ever could, otherwise.

They're about equal in all fronts, they just contribute in different ways.

This is correct. Selection of BRD vs MCH will depend on the rest of the group comp. If you have 2 melee (our group is MNK and DRG) then its good to have the MCH for the 5% physical. If you have more casters (only 1 melee and a BLM/SMN) then it may be better to have a BRD for the 10% magic.

[PheonixCain]

Mnk is easier to play now since Drg got random positional to apply after 3.0

the reason everyone wud tell u the same thing "play what u like" is bcuz dev team has done reli good job at differentiating this 2 melee jobs, such as Mnk is more positional based and Drg is rotational based

BUT

after a certain point of time when u hitting something, mnk's rotation wud become a complete close-end loop, the whole thing will just repeat until u have no tp
on the other hand, Drg's main rotation is always the same but the cd management will always shift around and bcuz Drg doesnt deal sustain dmg as good as Mnk, the timing to burst, per se ur cd management, wud be the most significant thing to keep in mind. so BECAUSE they are so different, a good Mnk may not always be a good Drg too, or the other way around (for example, i have known Drg stuff very throughout, but i have never been a very good Mnk), that's why u need to pick the one u like better, so u can be very good at it

[Aeliott]

MNK v DRG - Just choose whichever you like more. We can go into all the itty bitty details about hardcore raiding value where DRGs were more desired but that was at a low point in gearing. As someone else said earlier, job desirability changes over time so just pick something you'll be happy to play or feel you play better as. Honestly almost every job is balanced well at this point.

As for BRD/MCH both are highly desired right now, and it doesn't really matter which of the 2 you go with. Do you prefer bows or guns? :P

[Kahnom]

On my server,even mediocre DRG still in need for static But for Mnk to have a spot in static you have to be more than just mediocre.