(01-04-2014, 12:40 PM)Garryson Wrote: In my own personal opinion, I think part of the stigma with Dragoon is just its player base. We all have seen the Derpgoons. Flocks of them flooding the queues in AF gear (Not inherently evil) then standing in every sort of mechanic that can and will hurt them.
It's a good deal this, to begin with. DRG is my main and when I started playing at endgame, people were amazed I was using Fracture, Phlebotomize, and Disembowel. I was so dumbfounded that that wasn't a regular thing, but apparently most DRGs don't even bother. And sure enough, I was matching or even beating dragoons who were better geared than I was, simply because I did the full rotation. I even met someone who didn't know that Life Surge meant a guaranteed crit on his next move. A lot of DRG players apparently never research their class.
I also was shocked when I started to constantly receive the comment, "Wow, you eat surprisingly little shit for a dragoon"...meaning I was good at actually dodging things. Even in fights that go bad, I'm usually the last one standing...and that is definitely not the norm. The stereotype is that the DRG dies first, and in most cases it's true. A lot of puggers I've watched just don't dodge, or fail to dodge in time.
So needless to say, we really, really get a bad rap, and you can only really dispel it with performance. That said...
Quote:The best DRG I know of constantly out parses everyone that we group with consistently. He was a MNK main before, and according to him it's much more difficult to put out the big parse numbers that people crave compared to ranged classes due to all the issues that have been posted here, but that doesn't mean DRG isn't good for anything.
There's also this. Yes, MNK out damages us, but it's very difficult to play correctly, and they're even MORE positioning-dependent than we are. We need to flank to keep Heavy Thrust up, yes, but that's good in a way because flanks are generally safer. Impulse Drive can literally be done on the run, so we only need to be behind the mob for a few seconds to get it off, and in some fights (like Caudecus and Hydra), purposefully triggering tail swipes will temporarily ease damage off the tank. We're ideal to pull these kinds of moves off, because we can do it with little to no interruption to our DPS. If something goes wrong, we can usuallly survive the hit. More work for the healers, maybe, but living DPS is better than dead DPS.
We're also much more bursty than monks. Monks will never pull off the big, 900-point Life Surge-fueled Full Thrust crits that we will, or really any of the crits that we do. They'll probably beat us in a really long, drawn-out fight, but for trash clearing and DPS races, dragoons really shine. I've also been told (and though I do it I've been unable to confirm it) that our limit break does slightly more damage, because it takes the Disembowel debuff into account.
And while, yes, we do buff our rival DPSers, a DRG-BRD combo will MELT things like you wouldn't believe. The bards in my FC love me because we make an incredible team, and that synergy is more valuable than you'd think. Monks, meanwhile, can only buff themselves.
Yes, paladins stun better than we do, but technically we have two interrupts. When Leg Sweep is on cooldown, there's still Spineshatter Dive for emergencies (though it doesn't work on all bosses). Similarly, Spineshatter and Dragonfire Dive give us two closers, at longer range, even, than the monk's Shoulder Tackle. We can usually close gaps faster than they can, meaning less running around and more dps for us.
So on a lot of technical and utility levels, I'd argue a DRG is better than a MNK. As always, of course, the player makes the biggest difference, and most people in pickup/farming/speed run groups won't ever be able to get past the, "Hurr durr, but da forums sed dat monks do moar damage" part, which yes, is technically true.
This game is cold and cruel to melee though, and that's the real issue long-term. I really hope they fix it in the future, because it's just not fair. You know you've done something wrong when a class -- any class -- is rejected from groups. They helped warriors, so hopefully they'll help us.
