Jump & High Jump recasts, too long? DRG Musings.

[fantasticdan]

How about a job trait that cases melee hits, ws, and jumps to ignore a portion of the targets defense, like wyverns and other pets do? Make it scale by level like dual-wield or attack bonus, so that you can get 10% by going /drg, and 15-20% on drg main. This would make /drg a more viable sub for sam, drk, and lolgaxewar, as well as make drg main a much better DD in general, espicially on high defense endgame mobs I would think, which is where it really suffers. Maybe it would also allow drg to get away with subbing /sam or /mage in more situations, since damage without /war wouldn't be as bad.

Offensive wyvern breath damage and accuracy should be buffed up regardless.

[Michaera]

Oh snap, speaking of DRG being in the position of a support job and all, how about increasing the range of healing breath from 10 (within AOE range of every single move a mob can do ;_ to 15 or 20, like most spells? I wonder if that'd change the outlook on the job at all. Virtually hateless, cheap cures from a good range for a lot of HP.. And no more back-line mages in orange HP keeping you from healing your wounded melee!

[LD]

Oh snap, speaking of DRG being in the position of a support job and all, how about increasing the range of healing breath from 10 (within AOE range of every single move a mob can do ;_;) to 15 or 20, like most spells? I wonder if that'd change the outlook on the job at all. Virtually hateless, cheap cures from a good range for a lot of HP.. And no more back-line mages in orange HP keeping you from healing your wounded melee!

This is the kinda stuff I wanna hear, something practical and not game-breaking, or off the wall.
A bit of optimization in this area is welcome, you have to remember it's a DD at heart, so you can't go too far in that direction.

[Kkel]

I play Monk, buddy, and I picked it at a time when it had roughly the same stigma DRG has now.
The fact is every job should get equal treatment. A job should always excel in a certain area more than another, but the sum of a job's value should equal that of any other. Forgetting DRG just so you can merit better is one of the most asinine things I've heard. If you did that, there may as well not be more than one melee job. Granted, maybe PUP shouldn't exist, but it, like DRG, had a good concept that just wasn't executed properly to begin with. However, changes can always be made to make it more comparable to the top tier jobs.

I don't think DRG is that bad, I don't think it's that good either. The harping that tends to emanate from their boards has long since lost any effect on me. Even if they made a lot of good changes, I still might not level it. But how can you just forget a job? If it deserved to be created, it deserves to be improved. The fact that you disregard that and apparently use 4 other jobs says to me that you, not I, leveled the job for what it could do for you socially and not for enjoyment. The same type of person that follows what seems most powerful (useful) at the time.

I only have one 75 job as of my writing this, but I am currently close to getting my second.
The only reason I'm even bothering with another is because I made sure beforehand that I thoroughly enjoyed it, no other consideration entered my head.
Can you honestly say the same when you're essentially talking about disposing of a job you used to play?

When did i ever mention forgetting about DRG? I put a lot of time and effort into capping/merit capping my DRG and i'm proud of it. Akanei and i are probably the 2 most pimped out DRGs on Fairy. We wouldn't be if we had "just forgotten" about the job. Of all the jobs i have capped, BLU comes a lot closer to putting DRG on the shelf since it can easily handle nearly all the situations i typically went into as DRG/WHM.

The truth is, quite flatly, that in a real, endgame, merit party situation, DRG just doesn't reach the top tier. Nothing you can say and nothing you can do will change that. It's the way it is, period. All endgame DRGs come to accept this. Yeah, you can go into a merit burn on DRG/XXX, but the odds of you hitting the 28k+/hr level probably aren't worth whatever else you're sacrificing to do it. For me personally, if i'm not hitting that kind of XP/HR then it's probably not even worth it to be out merit/xp'ing anyway. When it comes to real top tier merit parties, to really maximizing the potential XP per hour, yeah, you might as well forget you have DRG leveled. You might as well forget about a bunch of other jobs too if you have them leveled. Not all jobs are equal in all things, not all jobs should be.

You mentioned that you only have 1 job capped at 75, which means you're coming from a nearly optionless viewpoint. And, no offense intended, it also means that you probably don't have a lot of experience in blisteringly fast merit parties where everyone in the party is geared to the 9's and capable of pulling down those kinds of numbers. I'm talking about real endgame merit burn here, not some BS pick up party.

I have 5 jobs capped @75. I play them all. I enjoy playing them all otherwise i wouldn't have leveled them in the first place. They all do certain things well and i enjoy utilizing their strengths and pushing what they're capable of. Yeah, i could march out to Cerberus on DRG, but why bother when my SAM can throwdown over any other job there? I could go merit on SAM, but why bother when my WAR can make XP mobs evaporate in seconds flat? I could go to lv8 Besieged on WAR, but why bother when my DRK can keep itself alive forever? I could go solo XP on DRK, but why bother when my BLU can kill Imps faster than the typical Mire level XP party. I can head into much more dangerous solo territory on BLU, but why bother when my DRG is nearly impossible to kill? Forcing a square peg into a round hole doesn't help anyone, especially if you're part of an endgame LS that is counting on you to make the right decisions and bring 110% every time.

You say all jobs should get equal treatment, but then you say PUP shouldn't exist? Your view of PUP is identical to the view other people have of DRG. You only have one job capped, do you really have the ground to stand when commenting on another?

[Kaylia]

If you arent getting 28k/hours, it's not worth meriting? >_> What kind of xp party get you a constant 28k/hours...I can't get that clearing every collibri

[Kkel]

WAR/NIN, WAR/NIN, WAR/NIN, BRD/NIN, BRD/WHM, RDM/WHM is about as fast as it gets. A merit capped Yoichi SAM/WAR can fill the spot of a WAR/NIN without missing a beat. I'd argue that the BRDs play a more important part in holding those 300+ chains than the WARs, but it's everyone working in sync that makes it happen.

I say "it's not worth it" because usually when i go out for merits, i'm out for... well, merits. It's not casual conversation or funny story time, it's not test out a new toy or build time. The people i typically merit with have the same outlook. We're out to get as much XP in the shortest amount of time possible, nothing else. These are the standards we've set for ourselves.

I'm not against casual merit/xp or anything but, in a conversation about job vs. job performance within a specific arena, you really have to look at the top bar.

Edit: Over in the "Fapworthy" thread Lok was pulling down 30k/hr with MNK/MNK/MNK/BRD/BRD/BRD, so props to that party config. XD

[Kaylia]

I know how to merit. I'm just saying I had many party that cleared the place and never got those number. Maybe back when rhino where buggard..not now.

[BRP]

I'd say the major problem with this game(well, melee jobs) is that damage mitigation is too dependent on /NIN. SE did a lot of boost /SAM, but it doesn't mitigate as much damage as /NIN does, so it won't be as popular. The plausible DD subs (/WAR, /SAM, /DRG, and really any melee sub if they did more like they did with /SAM) can't really excel unless they gain some decent mitigation.

NIN doesn't need to sub /NIN, giving them easy access to /WAR. (This is not even considering how low they can get their delay with DW)

MNK doesn't really suffer from the lack of /WAR(or whatever) because they are just so naturally powerful with a free, 100% double attack(less TP gain than Double Attack, granted) and their own decent job abilities. (This is not even considering Black Belt and Destroyers)

WAR has all the good stuff already built in, so they just sub /NIN without much lost. (This is not even considering they have the access to all best equipment in the game, especially Ridil)

There you have it, the three most popular melee jobs in the game. What I see is: lack of reliance on sub job.

Give DRK, DRG, and SAM(though they already got a lot)... even BST and PUP could use some love... some great job abilities that let them either: 1) Lower the dependance on /NIN(as main job or sub jobs), 2) Lower the dependance on any sub job really(especially /WAR).


But then again, this is only in a situation where you don't have a tank. Maybe SE is dead set on not changing things to fit the TP burn style.

[Priran]

It doesn't seem like SE is against TP burn so much as afraid of changing or adding anything that potentially upsets game balance.

I mean, they keep adding TP burn areas, but there's been little change done to any jobs except PLD.

[AzazaelFenrir]

I remember back when people said

"If I am not getting 8k an hour it isn't worth it"

and now

"If I am not getting 28k an hour it isn't worth it"

Granted I like fast xp, but being out with friends is more fun. The last LS meripo pt I went on was MNK, NIN, DRG (me), SAM, BRD, RDM. Working on birdies we managed ~16k an hour. Had a lot of fun doing it to.

I just wish they would make DRG more competitive with the other jobs. Although at the last round of gods my LS did one of the melee wet himself when he say Angon and Dia III stacked. He now wants a DRG at all endgame type stuff for that, so it is a step in the right direction.

[LD]

blah

blah

You mentioned that you only have 1 job capped at 75, which means you're coming from a nearly optionless viewpoint. And, no offense intended, it also means that you probably don't have a lot of experience in blisteringly fast merit parties where everyone in the party is geared to the 9's and capable of pulling down those kinds of numbers. I'm talking about real endgame merit burn here, not some BS pick up party. lul

blah

blah

Apparently, the word 'Monk' didn't register.
Let me lay something down for you, I'm not simply a MNK, I am what they call an OLD SCHOOL MONK. I have seen and experienced practically every exp variant this game has had to offer in the last four and a half years. Lately however, I haven't really exp that much (though I was always somewhat casual), especially not after the last exp session I had on the job. I had capped merit upgrades about a month before that and an HNM friend of mine invited me to merit with him. I had about 4 or 5 merits to begin with and full capped (10/10,9999) in the space of roughly 2 hours, and it still wasn't as ‘blisteringly’ fast as some PTs I've been in the past, which were, in fact, pick-ups.
I was allowed, or maybe forced, to take my other job's development more seriously just to use my backed-up merits.

The fact is, you're so swept up in your little HNM-onry complex that you can't understand that superiority is so dubiously defined in this game, that using TOA camp exp rates as a measure of skill is one of the most asinine things to ever conceive of. When one of the most potent jobs to have in any capacity is also one of the simplest, any claims to skill fade away quickly.
I have only ever claimed to have experience and awareness, never skill.

Options? You say that like having multiple job is some kind of standard that all people are expected to meet to be effective. Yes, I’m sure if I leveled another job, I’d be more flexible, but I don’t play this game to work at other’s beck & call, I play to have fun. I am a MNK. As a main, I have served tank and even healing & support roles. With my subs, I have blood tanked, blink tanked, nuked, cure-bombed, fuidama'd, and One-Man-SC'd, but my job, my chosen profession, is to deal damage to kill whatever is in front of me. DRK, THF, SAM, DRG, no different, they just do it in different ways. Options? I picked a job that gives me more than you’d expect, but as a Monk, a Damage Dealing Job, I only need and want one.

DRG's solo ability is decent, but it isn't anywhere near good enough that it should be considered it's main purpose, especially when the other soloing jobs are more effective than DRG in most other areas. RDM is a staple in many situations, NIN is one of only two dedicated tanks (WAR is more DD oriented and you know it), and BLU is literally a jack of all trades. Even BST has a use in some HNM situations. Solo in this game is so ineffectual compared to any kind of group play, referencing it is laughable. If you wanted to be a soloer, you would have leveled BST. You picked DRG as a DD, because that's what it is. It needs help in that area, but that's not the end of the world.

Your nihilistic view on DRG is disgusting to me, especially due to the improvements its seen in the last year or so. If you're so blind as to not see how much the job has improved since the TP-nerf 3 years ago, you're just searching for a way to rationalize your own disposal of the job. When you say that improvements on a job shouldn't even be considered, you are saying, literally, that a job should be left behind. When you say something should be left behind, it may as well not have existed in the first place. You are suggesting we forget, to take out of our minds, a job that you yourself played. If you can even suggest that, you can not have enjoyed it.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe you're just the type who gives up on things easily. I was never a fan of those who allow themselves to be toppled by the shifting tides of ill-humored fate. I purposefully didn't level another job, like say BLM, despite knowing damn well I could play it as well or better than anyone else and that it would have gotten me everything I wanted for my MNK. Why? Because I knew I wouldn't enjoy it and, in all likelihood, I wouldn't be able to play MNK again (except as a merit machine.) I want to play the game the way I want, not how anyone else wants. Ditching a job because playing on it is too tough for you is for the weak and short-sighted, because you are giving up on playing for yourself.

I made a wee joke on PUP, because that's what it is right now, a joke. However I never actually said it should be disposed of, I simply said maybe it shouldn't have been created, at least not as it is. Even that was said in jest, because it is a good idea, it just needs to be improved, and it can be. I provided and discussed many ideas to improve the job (and I actually have a mild distaste for it, because it's like a watered down MNK with a pet, but I digress.) There is absolutely no reason anything can't be improved to the point of being equal to a 'higher tier' job. It's only when you say it can't be done that it doesn't get done.
It may not be directly in our hands, but as long as there's a problem and we're paying for this game, something will be done.

This isn't about whether or not DRG is good, it's about if it can be improved, and you are saying it's not worth trying. Calling DRG weak is one thing, but saying it's beyond fixing is another. It's like putting your pet down because it's not as lively as it used to be, even when it still guards your house and keeps you warm on cold nights. "Well, I had a pet and there's his headstone. I still come out here to look at it. Awesome."
My pets may still have a spring in their step, and if a friendly new breed comes along, I'll raise that one too, but they're all gunna make it to old age, damnit.

[tornfleshofsoul]

All DRG needs is a better endgame WS. That's all. Impulse Drive is fine and dandy if you have 300TP and double attack both hits, but other than that you're not doing terribly high damage like you would with Steel Cyclone or Spiral Hell.

DRG has its application in other areas of the game. We bring DRGs to JoL and let our SAMs go nuts with SATA WS's. Even with just 1 DRG you can shed all the hate you need allowing SAMs to cut through JoL easily. As well, I add my own damage to him, averaging 30-50dmg per hit, 30-120 per jump, and 280-720 (If double attacked) per WS (Wheeling Thrust works best)

As for merit parties, penta works just fine with the right gear. As well, DRG can do as much, if not more on parse than any other job there (Though I've never parsed a MNK/WAR there that didn't die alot). I can keep on par or beat our best geared/meritted NIN and 2 seperate Ridill WARs, both with E.body/Haidate/Heca etc. DRG is almost the same as any other job, it depends on the player. You can bring a DRG to exp and he'll suck terribly even with the best gear. He simply doesn't know how to play. But the same could be said for any WAR or MNK (Ifrit Players Read: New Ilmaterrori).

Mind you I only xp with LS parties, but I keep up with or beat anyone we bring. Penta works just fine for Merit PTs. Averages around 1200 for me. 1600-1800 with Angon, and my personal best with Songs/2hr/angon/300TP has been about 2700.

If people want lower Jump timers, thats fine by me, more damage. But personally all I think DRG needs is a better high end WS for HNM. Sure you can hit 700++ with Wheeling Subbing THF, but in subbing THF you gimp your regular hit damage. Such as on JoL you start hitting for 0-5 even with songs.

However, I do believe that not only DRG needs a buff with 2h weapons, but DRK, SAM and even WAR for Gaxe does. and SE needs to give more insentive for that. It's a little disheartening when you're fighting X HNM and a WAR is doing more per hit with a 1h Axe than you are with a 2h weapon. But like I said, DRG has it's uses, as does every job. For our LS it's JoL and King V (For 2hr Melee Zerg). And as I've heard from some others, DRG 2hr makes for an easy Zerg on Baha V2. Nothing wrong with sitting out on a few HNM from time to time. Level another job and you can still fight.

I love my DRG, but I love it enough to realize it's not the best thing to be using on certain fights. Jump recasts won't do much for DRG overall. ALready pulling too much hate in Merits, and already TP fast enough on HNM. Granted they add damage, but a better WS would be more effective imo. Give a crit mod to Skewer, 3 hits with crit making it like Jin. Skewer is typical high acc anyways, where as on HNM penta would miss too much. Problem solved.

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

2h does not need a goddamn buff. I'd want one but when I sub WAR I can keep up extremely well with WARs and MNKs.

Stop saying 2h in general needs a buff. We need better 2h weapons, true, but that's it. It IS stupid that juggernaut and maneater are 1h and have better bonuses than Perdu Sickle.

Once again, play with this to see how much DMG makes a difference on normal hits.
http://killingifrit.com/page.php?al=dcalc

I also NEVER see DRG using stonesplitter. The DMG/Delay is decent, mezraq's is only about 6% better, (even though DRG tends to want higher delay for jump purposes dmg/delay still matters) and the latent is godly.

[GSDragoon]

2h does not need a goddamn buff. I'd want one but when I sub WAR I can keep up extremely well with WARs and MNKs.

Stop saying 2h in general needs a buff. We need better 2h weapons, true, but that's it. It IS stupid that juggernaut and maneater are 1h and have better bonuses than Perdu Sickle.

Once again, play with this to see how much DMG makes a difference on normal hits.
http://killingifrit.com/page.php?al=dcalc

I also NEVER see DRG using stonesplitter. The DMG/Delay is decent, mezraq's is only about 6% better, (even though DRG tends to want higher delay for jump purposes dmg/delay still matters) and the latent is godly.

I've tried Stonesplittler and didn't like it at all. 22 less damage is just too much. I tried it in limbus and dynamis for a few runs. What happened, is that Penta Thrust damage dropped a ton and I had to resort to Wheeling Thrust. While I do that a lot on harder mobs anyways, it's meele damage didn't impress me. Also, with jumps and double attacks, the good dmg/delay ratio doesn't help you much. That's where the high damge helps. Another key feature that I love about the Mezraq is the evasion down. Nothing like going up against Cirrate Christelle and having evasion down go off on the first hit to help the LS. I never did parser the Stonesplitter, though I only merit like twice a month, at most. Maybe I can pick one up and parser it soloing sea puks.

[aurik]

You do zerg fights without a thf?

[GSDragoon]

You do zerg fights without a thf?

Hrm, I keep forgetting about feint. I assume the evasion down is the same?

[fantasticdan]

You do zerg fights without a thf?

Hrm, I keep forgetting about feint. I assume the evasion down is the same?

No. The evasion down on mezraq is barely noticable when it procs, so I'm going to guess it's around -10 evasion, -20 at most. Evasion down on feint is huge, it has to be at least -50.

[Kkel]

The fact is, you're so swept up in your little HNM-onry complex that you can't understand that superiority is so dubiously defined in this game, that using TOA camp exp rates as a measure of skill is one of the most asinine things to ever conceive of. When one of the most potent jobs to have in any capacity is also one of the simplest, any claims to skill fade away quickly.
I have only ever claimed to have experience and awareness, never skill.

Just quoting to capture that you're the one admitting to not having skill, not me. I'll expand though because clearly that missing skill branches out into literacy.

When did i ever mention HNMs? I've been avoiding that subject on purpose because the main gripe was how DRG can't hold up vs. some of the other jobs in an XP party. I never said ToAU XP rate is a reflection of skill, it's probably the farthest thing from it. It's pure robot mode. I used it as an example to set a bar. A bar DRGs can't reach no matter how high they Jump.

Options? You say that like having multiple job is some kind of standard that all people are expected to meet to be effective. Yes, I’m sure if I leveled another job, I’d be more flexible, but I don’t play this game to work at other’s beck & call, I play to have fun. I am a MNK. As a main, I have served tank and even healing & support roles. With my subs, I have blood tanked, blink tanked, nuked, cure-bombed, fuidama'd, and One-Man-SC'd, but my job, my chosen profession, is to deal damage to kill whatever is in front of me. DRK, THF, SAM, DRG, no different, they just do it in different ways. Options? I picked a job that gives me more than you’d expect, but as a Monk, a Damage Dealing Job, I only need and want one.

Huzzah for you. Everyone does offbeat things with their jobs all the time, that's how people learn about and expand what the jobs can do. Again, you seem to have skipped over the part where i said i enjoy the jobs i play. Yes, believe it or not, it is possible to enjoy more than one job in FFXI. If i played at others beck-and-call (my LSs), i'd be a RDM/BRD/COR/BLM/WHM. But i'm not, i leveled the jobs i like playing.

wah wah wah
You picked DRG as a DD, because that's what it is. It needs help in that area, but that's not the end of the world.

No, i picked DRG because i enjoyed aspects of the job and it's storyline. I already had WAR capped. Saying it “needs help” is just an example of your inexperience with the job.

Your nihilistic view on DRG is disgusting to me, especially due to the improvements its seen in the last year or so. If you're so blind as to not see how much the job has improved since the TP-nerf 3 years ago, you're just searching for a way to rationalize your own disposal of the job. When you say that improvements on a job shouldn't even be considered, you are saying, literally, that a job should be left behind. When you say something should be left behind, it may as well not have existed in the first place. You are suggesting we forget, to take out of our minds, a job that you yourself played. If you can even suggest that, you can not have enjoyed it.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, maybe you're just the type who gives up on things easily. I was never a fan of those who allow themselves to be toppled by the shifting tides of ill-humored fate. I purposefully didn't level another job, like say BLM, despite knowing damn well I could play it as well or better than anyone else and that it would have gotten me everything I wanted for my MNK. Why? Because I knew I wouldn't enjoy it and, in all likelihood, I wouldn't be able to play MNK again (except as a merit machine.) I want to play the game the way I want, not how anyone else wants. Ditching a job because playing on it is too tough for you is for the weak and short-sighted, because you are giving up on playing for yourself.

Yeah, uh. You really just have no idea what you're talking about. I love DRG, like i said, it's why i started this game and i could never give it up. I leveled through that TP patch, I was 58 when they implemented it. If I didn’t love the job, I would have left it there.

For some reason, you're just unable to grasp the concept of one job being able to out-perform another in a given situation and think that every job should be able to do everything equal. Well, sorry, i play FFXI not Magical Fantasy Happy Wonder Game XI where everyone is the same and can do all things equally. You're still hung up on this one job thing. I suppose everyone with multiple jobs is someone who "gives up too easily"? They didn't believe in the heart of the cards enough? Sorry, this is where it becomes painfully obvious that you do not have the applicable endgame/HNM experience to be commenting on someone elses job performance.

I'm sorry you can't accept the reality of this game (how's that for wording) in that people can actually enjoy playing multiple jobs and abandoning one isn't a requirement to play another.

From a game standpoint, FFXI is unique in that respect. You don't have to always be the same thing. You can change jobs and have a completely different experience as you play. It doesn't mean you're abandoning any pervious work that you've done, just that you want to try something new. Maybe you'll hate it, maybe you'll love it. You won't know until you try. It doesn't mean you automatically forget about your other jobs as you seem to suggest. Again, if you actually had multiple jobs leveled, you'd know this already.

This isn't about whether or not DRG is good, it's about if it can be improved, and you are saying it's not worth trying. Calling DRG weak is one thing, but saying it's beyond fixing is another. It's like putting your pet down because it's not as lively as it used to be, even when it still guards your house and keeps you warm on cold nights. "Well, I had a pet and there's his headstone. I still come out here to look at it. Awesome."
My pets may still have a spring in their step, and if a friendly new breed comes along, I'll raise that one too, but they're all gunna make it to old age, damnit.

I believe in you Hien, use Splash Attack!

I never said it wasn't worth trying to improve the job. As for "fixing", this implies the job is broken. That’s a view held almost exclusively by Non-DRGs and it’s a whole other can of worms, so i'll just say here that you really don't have any claim on DRG since you don't even have the job capped. DRG is capable of a lot of things other jobs can't even imagine trying to pull off. If you had the experience on the job that i and alot of others here do, you'd know that. The job's not broken, it's just not the merit-machine some other jobs are. That's fine, it doesn't have to be. It doesn't need to be "fixed" to be like every other job.

It becomes pretty obvious that your viewpoint stems from 2 major issues. Lack of understanding and experience with real endgame/HNM content (square peg/round hole) and the fact that you don't even have DRG capped.

When you get DRG to 75 and have thrown it infront of all the absurd things that the other DRGs on these boards have, then maybe you can come back and say it needs to be "fixed" or whatever, but until you have some real firsthand experience you really have no ground to stand on. For years other jobs have stepped in and suggested all kinds of wonderful things that could happen to "improve" the job because of the "Aww, poor DRG." mindset. You're not different. It's a tired concept and it's compunded by your one job to rule them all mentality. I love the job, but i'm not going to force it down other people's throats. I'll go do what i do on DRG and if you think it needs fixing, that's great, sit in your corner and keep telling your non-DRG self that.

[Gerion]

One handed weapons have a natural advantage over two handed ones in DoT because of the existence of Dual Wield/Martial Arts and two handers having no similar trait, and the fSTR formula favoring lower damage + lower delay weapons. Fixing the fSTR formula to eliminate would help to even the gap quite a bit, but a two handed Dual Wield trait might be overpowered, I dunno.

[Akanei]

I also NEVER see DRG using stonesplitter. The DMG/Delay is decent, mezraq's is only about 6% better, (even though DRG tends to want higher delay for jump purposes dmg/delay still matters) and the latent is godly.

You're kidding, right? The DMG difference is so far apart that you're giving up 50-80 damage, easily, per swing. That's not even counting the difference in WS. I could see someone justifying a love halberd because of its virtue effect, but jesus christ, the stone-splitter is just BAD. If you think the delay reduction makes up for the cut in damage, you're out of your mind. That's like saying you should swing barehanded instead of using cross-counters/indras/destroyers on MNK.

Edit: Hell, I can't justify it for SAM (if they had some ridiculous idea to use a polearm), either, because they can use Gondo or Engetsuto.

Edit AGAIN: And if you want to put it in an HNM situation, your lower delay STILL won't help you because you're even more likely to swing for 0s because your damage curve is smaller.