Best DPS class in the game?

[VayneSolidor]

The one that does their job properly

[Jingai]

I've not made it past PGL yet, but I'd be inclined to say MNK for sustained DMG and DRG for the harder hitting bursts. Although, THM/BLM would most likely out dmg both in just sheer raw bursting power.

[Brevity]

I think archer would come out on top for the average player because it requires less work to play near optimum dmg, than a pug fx. The work involved with regards to positioning, maintaining dots and also avoidance during ae phases seems, at a glance to imply that you'd have to work at close to 100% optimum all the time to wring top dmg out of the pug. While Im sure the Bard requires skill to play well, it just seems like a less stressfull experience overall. I am currently aiming for pug, but during the betas I felt I had the same dps on the archer with much less effort involved.

Also, did they really remove conj from the bard feed? Because that would be awesome.

[Subucnimorning]

Monk obviously because of glowing fists

[Risingstar]

Wow is monk really all that low? Yeah positioning, blah blah blah, but greased lightening mach iii, Fists of fire and good gear should widdle mobs out pretty fast.

[Subucnimorning]

Wow is monk really all that low? Yeah positioning, blah blah blah, but greased lightening mach iii, Fists of fire and good gear should widdle mobs out pretty fast.

In my opinion of what I saw in phase 3 I would say no. I played pug to 35 and lancer to 30. I didn't notice a big difference. Then again comparing these before max level I'm not sure is worth the debate.

[Monkeytarget]

Now does Bard still count as DPS or is not just support class?

[Powercow]

Now does Bard still count as DPS or is not just support class?

Bard is a DPS class. Their songs are nice but they're still DPS.

[NoctisUmbra]

Phase 3 DPS Ceiling testing at lv 50 suggested the following order:

MNK >> DRG > BLM >= BRD.

Nothing got even close to matching the DPS values MNK could put out in Phase 3.

We'll see how the balance is at Launch.

[Nazrakin]

From what I've seen, Monk is the big loser and might require some big adjustments in 2.1. A Monk can certainly keep up in a straight up tank+spank scenario. The issue is that Monk DPS is very fragile and cumbersome.

1. Fragile because it is the most dependent on positioning and the buff timers for GL+TS are super tight. Encounter design has potential to be super punishing to Monks. Losing 3 stacks of GL because you had to run out of a PBAoE will do nasty thing to your output. Its also the only class that is 100% useless outside of melee range.

2. Cumbersome because of AoE mechanics. A Monk's spammable AE attack is both the weakest and expensive. Its hard hitting AE attack requires 2 GCDs (one has to be a single target attack) and its only a conal. Comparatively, DRG has a spammable AE that does twice as much damage and combos nicely with Heavy Thrust (increases the difference to 3x).

That said, Monk is probably worth bringing just for the super buffed Mantra.