Sigurd's Descendants: The Art Of Dragon Slaying.

My favorite part in all of this is all of the talk about the current state of the games community in regards to DRG is coming from a guy who, apparently, isn't currently subbed.

Your point is nonsense, because NONE of the heavy DDs are favored over the other currently in the majority of shout or non-shout content. I haven't seen a shout specifically asking for WAR/SAM/DRK but not DRG in weeks.

The whole concept of "content which could use any DD in that slot" is the whole point; the 5 top DDs are now treated as interchangeable in 95% of content in terms of desirability.

I already gave you an example on a previous page, but you apparently ignored it. It's not like there is content where people specifically favor DRK, either, so it's a meaningless criteria when on the topic of DD viability or popularity.

DRK solo spamming Light is just straight DPS, which can be completely replicated with any of the other heavy DDs, and WAR zergs just as well or better than DRK. Omen is doable plenty well with all of the DD jobs, with DRG possibly even being best for Kin because of Target. There is not a single piece of content in the game where people specifically ask for DRK.

The patch HAS changed DRG a hell of a lot; I'm not sure why you think that just because it wasn't all that great in that case before means it's not the best DD in that case now. Beforehand a DRK/WAR/SAM could die a couple times in a wave 3 dynamis run and still beat a DRG; now the DRG would be able to basically keep up normally, and then greatly pull ahead every time jumps allow them to live while the other DD dies.

Apparently so.

The only point you're actually continuously making is the the player base are idiots.

Congratulations, they've been idiots since release. There's no reason to use them as indicators of a jobs viability.

Also, how the *** is a ~25% overall damage buff not much of a change in a game where most BiS gear is edging out the next best option by ~1% or less

I gave you one; Dynamis Wave 3 clear when you're trying to squeeze out as much Wave 1/2 kills as possible OR your group isn't good enough to have lots of spare time after Wave 3 boss kill.

I don't see anyone specifically asking for those three in 99% of shouts either, so they're equal on that account. I don't know about recruitment threads, but I put much more stock into what people are actually shouting for and accepting in groups in-game.

It's not supposed to be more desired than those three, just on par, which it is.

If a DRG had say, a 20%/80% spread for white damage vs WS damage, the update increased DRG's damage by 26.11% from pre-patch (barring occasions where you hit 99999).

With a 25%/75% spread, it's a 23.25% increase.

You don't have to react with jumps; you can do them pre-emptively and save yourself basically every time, since you don't need to have hate for the enmity shed to work. High Jump and Super Jumps' cooldowns are low enough to use them at around 50% on every T3 NM, the ones that actually kill DDs that pull hate.

You not jumping vs jumping isn't going to affect whether another party member dies or not, just whether or not you personally live.

There isn't "loads" for them, only a very few niche fights, all of which can be done using other strategies and jobs. And again, I've given you one for DRG, which is more than DRK has.

The benefit is that the DRG lives, instead of BOTH DDs dying. The mob doesn't have a quota of DD kills before it goes back to the tank.

High Jump has very little benefit for pure DPS, and it saving your life (and importantly, your buffs) is a MUCH bigger benefit over time.

I mean, if you're going to ignore everyone pointing out Wave 3 Dynamis, sure, DRG doesn't have specific content where it's 'THE BEST'.

But let's look at the others.

DRK - There isn't a specific fight or content in the game where I'd exclusively build around a DRK over any other melee.

WAR - MS Zerging is barely stronger than Conduit Zerging and more gear/buff dependant. So that's.. not exactly a strong argument to be made for exclusively building around WAR. You'd also be missing out on Angon/Ageha if WAR is the exclusive melee DPS.

SAM - Kei, if you really want to melee it, due to obscene TP generation. Funnily enough, DRG is probably pretty competitive for this niche as well.

MNK - Qutrub Ambuscade, in which NIN/DNC/THF/BLU are reasonable substitutions. Subtle Blow party compositions. That's about it.

Man, look at all these super relevant situations in which the other 4 heavy melee's just TROUNCE the others to the point that you should be building exclusively around them.

Yes, because they were all written back when DRG did subpar damage. No one went back to rewrite them when DRGs got buffed.

Both DDs would die because, if they are equally good at DDing, they'd have similar hate and pull hate off the tank at similar times unless they're a DRG that shed their hate instead. At that point, a good portion of the time the non-DRG is going to take a 3k+ WS to the face (often with PDT) and die, causing them to have to wait for weakness and get rebuffed before they're back up to speed.

A DRG avoiding dying due to shedding hate does not "pass on" the death to another DD.

DRG can solo DD/tank stuff like Ou with absolutely no problem, and you can do stuff like Moogle with DRG and support as well. You're overestimating how different the DDs are in terms of these situations.

I'm talking about DDs dying, not the tank.

Situation 1: Tank, WAR, SAM
Tank loses hate on wave 3 NM at about 50% to WAR and SAM, which then proceeds to kill the WAR and SAM with 3k WSs. You now have 2 dead DDs which have to wait for weakness and buffs before they can DD properly again.

Situation 2: Tank, WAR, DRG
Tank loses hate on wave 3 NM at about 50% to the WAR, and then proceeds to kill the WAR with a 3k WS. The DRG never pulls hate and thus survives, giving it 3+ minutes of DPS the SAM in the other situation wouldn't have.

The more DRGs you have, the less DDs die on wave 3 to pulling hate on NMs, and this often happening several times in a run gives DRG a large advantage over the whole run.

Nah, more flabbergasted at stupid of a comment that was.

High Jump, when used under heavy buffs, is a very minor DPS gain due to JA lock and no extraneous damage modifiers.

Other jumps are absolutely gains though. Jump having a 1+VIT/256 multiplier, Soul/Spirit Jump auto critting and having multiplied TP returns.

Ryunohige DRG being an exception.