Quote Originally Posted by Gserpent View Post
DRG is generally seen as the weakest melee.

SAM is similarly not a popular pick.

At high skill, MNK, NIN, and RPR are the most common picks.
You're spewing a lot of garbage but very confidently.

MNK is the best melee job we have so far. It should win most 1vs1 matches outside of Paladin and fully stacked Reaper.
MNK doesn't just have high sustain, they have one of the highest bursts. Having 90% of your HP taken isn't sustain.

NIN have absolutely no melee presence even if they are 'melee'.
You also mentioned NIN being a hyped up Paladin. Paladins can deal high damage whilst essentially casting cure 2 on themselves every 1.44 seconds. When it comes to 1vs1 literally no job can touch a Paladin. If a NIN opts to go defensive and use both defensive mudras they are essentially non-existent.

DRG still have one of the highest range damage capabilities, even beating NIN and outside of MNK they are second best at dealing with current META and future META which is basically going to be BLM, SMN and MCH. Your sustain revolves around you being gung-ho. Which is the most effective method of dealing with ranged.

RPR is still hit and miss, in a controlled dueling environment they can even beat a PLD if the stars truly align. The problem with the job right now is waiting for all those stars to align is just a big gamble and the pay-off isn't worth the rush, when you could really be doing that with a MNK at a much more consistent pace.

SAM is in a very good spot, they can make a huge difference. Don't need to be flavour of the month. They do everything above average. Obviously, they need more love with the whole casting issue. BLM have less cast than a SAM. Now that's a slap to the face. Smile.

You're also ignoring the fact that ALL melees can be kited and cc'd twelve ways to Sunday. The meta is being shifted by Square towards Physical Ranged and Casters and if any pvper worth their salty sweat, knows ranged meta is terrible.

The only thing Melee have going for them is we have LBs that can clear objectives slightly better than what ranged can do, but, if they keep buffing SMN and MCH melee will just be relegated.