What is your raid group composition and progress?

[Zenji]

Are dragoons mandatory? Does mch work with 2 casters and a melee (no drg)? Do brds /mch do decent dmg without a drg present? Is dual casters and a brd end game viable? Is 3 melee end game viable? Is war necessary if your party doesn't include a ninja? Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Sleigh]

- Are dragoons mandatory?

No but they might as well be, they contribute the most of any DPS if you include Disembowel and Litany.

- Does mch work with 2 casters and a melee (no drg)?

It'd strictly be worse than having a BRD, really bad. Not recommended.

- Do brds /mch do decent dmg without a drg present?

Definitely the lowest of all classes by default by a small margin without a DRG but not so low you would omit them from your group. You still want/need a TP/MP battery.

- Is dual casters and a brd end game viable?

Sure but worse than 2 melee 1 ranged 1 caster. Not much worse though, casters can do a decent amount of personal DPS with a BRD but considering they don't buff anyone but themselves it's not fantastic total raid DPS.

- Is 3 melee end game viable?

During progression, never. During farm, it depends on the fight, some fights just aren't designed with that many people huddled around a boss mechanically, some are actually quite kind towards as many melee as you want. This raid tier, it's actually a solid comp for A3 and A4 and I think some groups will start using NIN DRG MNK MCH once they've got alts geared, my group included.

- Is war necessary if your party doesn't include a ninja?

WAR's necessary period. Groups using DRK + PLD are gimping themselves. That said if you just straight up will not bring a WAR ... yes, you must bring a NIN, or you will lose a whole lot of DPS.

[Jim_Berry]

I don't have one. I'm not raid-ready nor will I push to get into it. For fun after it's nerfed, maybe. But right now, nah!

[AlphaDragoon]

My group is basically the most unoptimized it can be due to having to replace a member (lost our WAR right when we started learning A2S). It's DRK/PLD/NIN/MCH/BLM/SMN/AST/SCH. We are starting on A3S. We're aware of the unoptimization, but our group is more casual so we don't push for people to switch jobs unless they want to.

[rappa]

Tanks: DK + WAR
Healers: WHM + SCH
DPS: MNK + DRG + BLM + BRD

Progress: A4S cleared.

Our monk should use a ninja instead their actual job because trick attack, goad, smoke bomb and shadewalker, improve the utility than mnk and our dk puts INT debuff on enemy.
Prolly 3.2 he would change with EU servers.

[Zenji]

Thnx for the replys you guys, it really helps, having party comp issues on my team, hopefully we can get it resolved soon, dps is not there despite being decent players.

[Meimi_chan]

My 'group' is my FC. ^^'
Healers: WHM + SCH
Tanks: WAR + DRK
Dps: MNK(me) + DRG + SMN + BRD

I've been leveling my NIN just in case.
We cleared A1S and doing well on learning A2S but our bard decided to take a break because school started so we are stuck. xD

[ChalupaBatman]

Healers: WHM + SCH
Tanks: WAR + PLD
DPS: MNK, NIN, MCH and SMN.

We have cleared A4 Savage.

Dragoons are not mandatory but they do help with earlier clears, I think we would have cleared a week or two sooner if we had that extra 150 ish dps that they add to ranged due to all those 3-4% wipes.

Composition is definitely a thing, ut if you don't mind early clrears you can take whatever classes you want.

[PheonixCain]

DRK/PLD, WAR, DRG, MNK, MCH, BLM, WHM/AST, SCH

stuck in A3 add phase :/

[Inferiae]

PLD, WAR, MNK, NIN, BRD, SMN, WHM, SCH.

Currently on A3 adds phase.


Edit:

This far in the game, with the gear we have available, party composition shouldn't be what's holding your progress back, to be honest. Maybe the players are not as decent as you think they are.