I am Brunor of Lakshmi. Galka and Level 75 Dragoon.
I picked Dragoon as my class after obtaining Level 30 Warrior, mainly because I loved Kain from Final Fantasy 4, I also loved using the Jump command in Final Fantasy 6. When I first picked up the Dragoon Job it was considered THE job. Spamming Weapon Skills with /SAM, doing massive damage to Mandragora and Crawlers, busting out that huge damage Penta Thrust, meditating, then using another - that was the life of the original Dragoon.
Alas, because of the Dynamis introduction Relic Weapons came available. Because of this some jobs such as Monk could spam a Weapon Skill like Asuran Fists when subbing Samurai and get back 100% TP and do the Weapon Skill again. By doing this these jobs were over powered immensely. After the destined "nerf" as the GameFAQs community likes to say many people considered Dragoon a gimp because of the lack of the Power of the Samurai sub. This patch did three major bad things for Dragoon.
1. Samurai's Meditate was a 3:00 cast now.
2. Samurai as a subjob only gave 60 TP.
3. TP gain from Weapon Skills was "nerfed" into only giving back 1 TP for each additional hit
While these things could be considered a job breaker, it did not make the Dragoon job horrible as many people consider it to be. Dragoon is still a powerful class despite popular belief.
From Levels 1-50 Dragoon can be the most powerful Damage Dealer in your EXP Party easily. During this time most mobs are weak or neutral to the damage polearm deals (Piercing). Also, these mobs are either weak or not resistant to the Distortion Skillchain, and Dragoon are basically pros at opening Distortion. Generally you'll fight:
Lizards 10-12 (Neutral) Distortion = OK
Crabs 13-15 (Neutral) Distortion = Good
Damselfies 15-18 (Neutral) Distortion = OK
Pugil 18-20 (Neutral) Distortion = Good
Crab 20-23 (Neutral) Distortion = Good
Pugil 23-25 (Neutral) Distortion = Good
Mandragora 25-33 (Weak) Distortion = Good
Bats 33-36 (Weak) Distortion = OK
Crawlers 36-43 (Weak) Distortion = Good
Damselfies 43-45 (Neutral) Distortion = OK
Bats/Beetles 45-48 (Weak/Neutral) Distortion = OK
Antican 48-50 (Neutral) Distortion = OK
From 1-50 Dragoon is a very powerful Damage Dealer to have in your party. Your strong Polearm Damage, Distortion Capability, and Wyvren will be sure to deal major damage to any mob in that range. You are a Great Damage Dealer in this period.
From 50-60 You'll be fighting Monsters again that aren't strong to Polearm or Distortion, but aren't exactly weak against them. In this stage monsters are still pretty weak to a Dragoon's power. Your Wyvren should be fine because Crabs really don't have much of an AoE, and neither do mobs like Raptors. In this range inviting a Dragoon will actually help you greatly because us Dragoons are Great Distortion openers, and a strong Distortion Skillchain is basically the key to 50-60.
The main problem people have with Dragoons is from 60-75, I am here to strike down these flaws people say.
"Dragoon's are Weak to monsters from 60-75, Polearms suck against them."
The major monsters you'll be fighting in this range are: Flies, Crawlers, Goblins, Dhalmel, Weapons, and maybe Bones, Demons, and Spiders. I ask you this question? Are any of these mobs strong to polearm? No. Are any of these mobs super strong to Light? No, with the exception of Flies. A Lance is much like a Great Axe or a Scythe or a Greatsword verse any of these monsters. It's not the greatest thing against them, but it does respectable damage. Saying Piercing is Too Weak to any of these mobs is stupid. Ok, well there is one trick: Skeletons. Skeletons are a tough one, but wait Dragoon's get a weapon that deals Blunt Damage? WHOMG guess what we can do good damage to Skeletons. Also guess what? Skeletons don't resist light at all. WHOMG guess what? Dragoon's are light opening monkeys.
"Dragoon's cannot Pull Hate from a monster for the Skillchain Closer."
Hahahahahaha. No. Anyone that says this is a total noob. Wheeling Thrust or Impulse Drive easily do 400-500 Damage. Combine that with a Provoke and a Jump and you've got yourself a crapload of hate there. Jump + Provoke + Weapon Skill is going to get the attention of any mob. After 70 Barone Legs and Feet will give you an addition +3 enmity to further increase your hate stealingness. This is absolutely wrong.
"Impulse Drive and Wheeling Thrust SUCK!"
Wheeling Thrust is a respectable Light Opener, it will probably deal more damage than Mistral Axe. For me Wheeling Thrust was doing an average of 400-500 Damage. Ask any Dragoon or look on any serious Message Board and you'll find this to be true. 400-500 Damage isn't exactly a great thing, but its a good amount of damage for an Opener. Impulse Drive can be kind of weak, at 100% TP it's only going to do 300-350 damage probably. Usually to help this out you're going to wait till 150% TP to use the Weapon Skill, this isn't a hard thing to do when you have a few jumps to back you up. By waiting to 150% TP you'll do 400+ Damage Easily and pulling the mob won't be a hard thing to do. Not a great weaponskill again, but it can get the job done. REMEMBER THAT THESE ARE LIGHT OPENERS NOT CLOSERS.
"Your Wyvren Will Die!"
Yea it will. This will make your damage lower a bit, but your goal is to keep your Wyvren alive as long as possible. To do this it isn't a hard process. Use Super Jump when you don't need to pull hate in that battle, it has a fairly large time to use it, but by using it you will save you Wyvren from dying that battle. This will probably be 1/3 battles. Also, you gotta realize Stun is going to be happening to mobs often too, that's going to save your buddy in those other Battles from dying. When your wyvren starts to get low on health use a Spirit Link and he's good to go. Macroing in Stoneskin for him occasionally is good, and the new ENM Item will also help keep him alive a bit. Usually if you're good you can keep your wyvren alive 40-50 minutes.
"You suck in Merit Parties!"
Heh, not really. Penta Thrust (yes whomg pentra thrust) + Sushi (omg taboo) is an easy 800+ damage if you are well equipped. Ask around any forum for proof and i'll also post pictures of me doing 1000 damage Penta Thrusts when I find them. Your wyvren is gunna die, yea, but that's not anything to bug you about. Your normal hits should be pretty good, matching a DRK or WAR with Great Axe, or so with Polearm on them. Your Penta Damage should also be about the same as their WS. Sure, you're not the best damage dealer in these, but you're respectable.
"You suck in End Game."
I don't have any experience against Nidhogg, KB, or Aspid, but vs. gods not really. On Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryu, or Byakko Dragoon/Thief + Wheeling Thrust is a good way to pluck 800 damage or so onto that god in the beginning of the battle, pretty decent if I do say so myself. After you've done that you have Jumps to help you get some more TP and your normal hits will be about the same as other melee DDs. You're OK on them. On Kirin, yea all melees suck. Dragoon has a bit of an Advantage against him though. Usually you're going to be Dragoon/Samurai for 400 Damage Wheeling Thrusts on him. Jumps will give you a nice TP bonus, especially with SAM sub. Your 400 damage with Wheeling Thrust is going to be not the best, but it will be respectable considering other melees are going to take longer to get the TP than you.
"Dragoon's can't equip good gear!"
OK, this has _got_ to stop. Seriously. The only major Flaw of Dragoon is that we cannot equip Haubergeon or Hauberk. Assault Jerkin does just fine in replace for this though +3 ACC and +18 ATK is good enough for normal hits in most cases. We get a few less accuracy, but our trait makes up for that. The attack is beaten with Assault Jerkin, but we don't get STR and DEX bonuses. This isn't going to do anything for normal hits, but our WS suffer a bit. Our Accuracy is probably better than yours, from 60-70 you're going to have an Accuracy Advantage on your Weapon, AND don't forget that Dragoon get a natural +10 Accuracy bonus or so, yea our Accuracy is fine. Not having something like the Thick Set doesn't bug a dragoon. Barone Legs and Feet offer good STR, ATK, and some Enmity for pulling the mob, better than Thick really. For gloves Gigas Bracelets or Tarasque Mitts +1 are excellent to have, these are an awesome hand equip. In other slots we don't really have a problem with anything.
I hope this cleared some stuff up!
Cya.
~Brunor.