State of Dragoon?

[Grafeit]

Where is the DRG right now in terms of viability, popularity, meta/end game?

I used to love playing DRG but haven’t even equipped a lance since probably 3.1, when I threw one on last night I realized that soo many of my abilities are gone or change and my hotbars are a hot mess!

I know, I know..all classes are viable, play what you enjoy, don’t listen to what everyone else says, blah blah! Lol

But I want to hear what everyone says, I want to know pros and cons, the good the bad AND the ugly.

[Hierro]

It's part of the meta, what more do you need than that?

[Grafeit]

Well...so is SAM but there’s a lot of SAM hate..DRK can be part of the meta, but gets little to no credit. The general consensus of DRG is that they’re the first to fly and first to die. Where do they shine, what’s different now, what’re the cons to DRG? Are they in a great spot at the moment, basically average, or less than average?

[Hierro]

Well...so is SAM but there’s a lot of SAM hate..DRK can be part of the meta, but gets little to no credit. The general consensus of DRG is that they’re the first to fly and first to die. Where do they shine, what’s different now, what’re the cons to DRG? Are they in a great spot at the moment, basically average, or less than average?

The term "meta" means the optimal combination. Neither SAM nor DRK are part of the meta, sad to say. DRG is, and that's a big deal. Let me spell it out for you, if you're in the meta, you're more than fine, you're GREAT! There isn't any stigma surrounding DRG.

[Grafeit]

The term "meta" means the optimal combination. Neither SAM nor DRK are part of the meta, sad to say. DRG is, and that's a big deal. Let me spell it out for you, if you're in the meta, you're more than fine, you're GREAT! There isn't any stigma surrounding DRG.

So DRK isn’t meta because it has a steep learning curve? I don’t understand, anyone I’ve talked to says that DRK is just as good as the other tanks, except that it requires more effort..As far as SAM, what makes SAM non-meta? Lack of raid buffs/utility?

[Hierro]

So DRK isn’t meta because it has a steep learning curve? I don’t understand, anyone I’ve talked to says that DRK is just as good as the other tanks, except that it requires more effort..As far as SAM, what makes SAM non-meta? Lack of raid buffs/utility?

DRK as a tank is fine. It has damage on par with everyone else and mitigation on par with everyone else, but the reason it's not part of the meta is because of how LB is gained. PLD's utility allows parties to abuse LB, and DRK can't do that. If the way LB gauge was gained got fixed, then DRK could be a viable candidate for meta. It has nothing to do with their learning curve.

SAM isn't part of the meta, because if you assume you're playing with the best players, you get more rDPS by giving them buffs and utility whereas SAM has none. That's not to say SAM doesn't have merits, such as in parties where players aren't so great. rDPS will likely be higher with a good SAM in "your average pf pug" party, than a good NIN.

[Shurrikhan]

Well...so is SAM but there’s a lot of SAM hate..DRK can be part of the meta, but gets little to no credit. The general consensus of DRG is that they’re the first to fly and first to die. Where do they shine, what’s different now, what’re the cons to DRG? Are they in a great spot at the moment, basically average, or less than average?

DRG, BRD, and NIN have been the most desired jobs of Stormblood since DRG's buffs, if not before.

SAM has been relatively excluded from the meta until the very latest patch, certainly more so than DRK or generally even WHM.

A very obvious flaw of fflogs is that it compares only personal dps, not raid dps contribution, and only against others of the same job. Thus, the more rDPS you give, the higher others parses without your own percentile suffering, but the more personal dps you give, the more you need others to give rDPS just to hold average. It badly slights personal DPS jobs (as, despite their higher amounts, their percentages/averages will just shift accordingly) and those who raid with them (as they'll be denied the tools to appear to be good players).

[Jinzhu]

DRG, BRD, and NIN have been the most desired jobs of Stormblood since DRG's buffs, if not before.

SAM has been relatively excluded from the meta until the very latest patch, certainly more so than DRK or generally even WHM.

A very obvious flaw of fflogs is that it compares only personal dps, not raid dps contribution, and only against others of the same job. Thus, the more rDPS you give, the higher others parses without your own percentile suffering, but the more personal dps you give, the more you need others to give rDPS just to hold average. It badly slights personal DPS jobs (as, despite their higher amounts, their percentages/averages will just shift accordingly) and those who raid with them (as they'll be denied the tools to appear to be good players).

Check out XIVRDPS! it's a really cool website that cuts out the damage from raid buffs and gives a near accurate DPS in the form of raid dps!

[Darkpaw]

the LulDRG thing hasn't really been a thing at all this expansion. Yea if you do a derp moment you might hear in duty finder groups or pug groups. LulDRG or LULgoon. But no one is going to give you crap for playing a DRG. Balance wise it's from what I know in a pretty good spot. Definitely better than most. I haven't seen a lot of complaints about it. It does decent damage brings decent raid utility. It's fairly straightforward in it's rotation but optimizing can still be a bit tricky at times if you theorycraft yourself. There are plenty of guides to help. There's really not many cons to playing a dragoon. Still be weary of animation lock on jump it's better but not completely fixed. Be aware of your surroundings, don't stand in AoE's. You'll always find spots in groups. It's a little lacking in the AoE department with no real AoE rotation but it can still aoe, and that's just my opinion.