It honestly depends on what you're looking to do. Do you want to be a meta player where you choose a class that is known to be better than another (SE balancing problems), or do you want to play a class you enjoy and do your best? I do not have SMN or SAM knowledge enough to tell you what is best. However currently, SAM can dish out the pain if you play them efficiently, and as far as SMN goes I believe they are still viable DPS, though it's hard for me to comment on that. I am sure someone else can explain it better but I figured I'd chime in since no one replied.