Why do Bards have the highest DPS?

[Reika]

Simple answer to this question is that ARR bards aren't really bards, they can just pretend to be bards for a bit. They are Support Rangers in clown costumes.

Is it possible that your melee aren't as skilled/geared as your bards? Or that particular encounter is tailored more towards ranged utility? I haven't participated in the endgame of ARR yet, but in 1.0 I ran into a few instances where a good brd could be comparable to average drgs and mnks. HM Garuda for example, the typical brd would finish as the lowest DD, but occasionally I would get brds that would be competing for the top 3 spots. (Most likely a combination of the brd being on the ball and the drgs/mnks moving around more than needed) Then there was HM Nael van Darnus where drg would just outshine everything no matter how good the brds, blms, or mnks were. Again. I haven't gotten around to doing endgame in ARR yet, so I could be completely misguided here.

And drg is really at the bottom of the barrel in ARR. Every other DPS has either traits to increase all damage/healing done, or in the case of pugilist greased lightning and fists of fire. After getting 3 greased lightning stacks with fists of fire mnk is a beast. DRG however, has only its short duration heavy thrust buff and risky blood for blood. Cooldowns wear off, and I dont know why heavy thrust buff is weaker than warriors maim buff... If they put power surge back to how it was in 1.0 to match mnks damage increase but not speed increase, dragoon will do better.