old player looking for advise on "top 3" now

[azagarth]

Ill keep it simple, i played well over a year ago where i had DRK, SAM, WAR, and MNK at 75. I have recently restarted as pup and am loving it! But there is a problem with pup.... i dont get to feel the raw power anymore, dont get me wrong pups are awesome and in a few levels ill be looking at getting AP, but its just not enough. I love the feel of blowing past mobs and doing 25k/hr parties.

Here lies my problem... having leveled them all i can do any great, I am very skilled player, But i have not seen how all these new updates have impacted the jobs fully and am curious on a few things.

Which of those that i listed is best DD now? Back when i leveled mnk and ridill wars where best, but i hear 2h update broke drk, sam, war gaxe, and drg.

What job gets best invites? As this will purely be a merit and "possibly" endgame job for hnms i want it to be as fast and easy as possible. Having leveled them all already i know some had more appeal than others, drgs and drks never got invited back then, but i hear this changed alot.

is mnk really worth it now? Mnk was my true love last char, but i feel it could be a waste now. It obviously is not king dd now which sucs, but oh well. I know mnks limited on hnms in general, but if it was for merits only it wouldent be a big deal. but do you use them for anything outside salvage now? I know i would co tank with a war/nin in my old salvage shell when it firsts started so i know mnk isnt really even need then, and now i hear there are chest at start so any dd can really tank now, especially with /sam.

i plan to go for full usu (i love pup) and this is what scares me.... i could have a pimp sam if i went with it due to it being able to share gear with pup in that sense. Where as for drk drg and war id need to get ares since i dont plan to go after adaberk or grounds, to busy rl nowadays. But sam when i played was not anything super special, would just med to 300% an ws a hnm.... where as drk could atleats get to stun, and war tank somedays.

my last question is how good has drg gotten? i have never tried this one and it looks cool! but with lack of gear and me not aim for limbus it would seem to be gimp. drg seems like it needs alot of gear compared to war, drk, or sam to shine... and when ur looking at speed this kinda sucs.

now by no means will i go gimp on a job, i farmed 2m just to start pup as a 37 war lol, leather + rams = fear! farmed way to many stacks lol.... but hey leathers 91 now! when i start a job i do it to the max and farm up every best item i can off ah, and once 75 i plan to get as much best gear possible for time put in, (1 yr for adaberks is not good use of time atm, sky runs for completed sets in 4~ months not bad.. plan to do salvage daily too) so me gimping a job wont be an issue. I just completed brown belt, as i was gona start mnk. Now i plan to sell it though since mnk just simply lacks from posts ive read.

Summary! for the above average but not super player, which of MNK DRG DRK WAR or SAM would be better overall for things like MERITS (main reason) some HNMS stuff, salvage, and well skys just lol so guess thats all.

sorry for so many questions, just have no clue how much the job have changed.

[BerenTebogo]

WAR/SAM or DRG/SAM are both great.

[Maxxthepenguin]

WAR with SAM and NIN subs is still probably the most accepted job
SAM with WAR and DRG subjobs
DRK with NIN and SAM subs is 3rd, and if you somehow secure a kclub you'll need a DRG sub.

DRG is now usable but not accepted
MNK is invited to merit pts, but it really shines in salvage.

[azagarth]

so war>sam>mnk>drk=drg for xp

is the same said for damage?

im kinda leaning on mnk and sam due to them sharing gear with pup (usu) but if wars really a step above them it might be worth the time to lv it, im sure haub+1 is good enough for body peice, and stuff like byakkos wont be to hard to get.. but ill never have stuff like adaberk or heca head unless se really changes ein in update alot on drops.

besides the first floor of salvage is mnk really better than sam at anything? i hear sam wipes them in xp and always has on hnms lol... be kinda dumb to lv a job when the other can do everything better.. having done salvage i know mnk isnt to greatly needed... and my friend told me u get weps unlocked now before you start making sam just that much better in it.

god decisions lol!

[Maxxthepenguin]

I'd say DRK is a bit better than MNK for merits now, but that's just me.

MNK is great for salvage not only because it requires no weapons (which is still nice) but also because it is the best balance of DD and tank for use on bosses. It can withstand a ton of damage while dealing out good amounts of it on chariots a lot better than other jobs and it does this without much need for gear thanks to counterstance, dodge, insane HP, etc. MNK/NIN is almost universally considered the best of the chariot tanks.

[Elites]

hagun sam/war or sam/drg = easily the most common broken job combo for basically everything.

[Tsuko_Asura]

WAR with SAM and NIN subs is still probably the most accepted job
SAM with WAR and DRG subjobs
DRK with NIN and SAM subs is 3rd, and if you somehow secure a kclub you'll need a DRG sub.

DRG is now usable but not accepted
MNK is invited to merit pts, but it really shines in salvage.

Really confused at what you're saying here. <_<

I mean, a lot of what you're saying is correct, but on the same token, its false advertising. People who default to inviting WAR MNK and SAM, who for some god awful reason want a SAM to come /NIN, and just skim over DRG.. Well, you just don't want to merit with these people.

As far as the realistic "top melee", at Nyzul, Dragoons, and Samurai with a good polearm build reign supreme. Everywhere else, WAR/SAM and SAM/WAR(/DRG, if applicable) are pretty much it.

[Epical]

The reason Maxx is hating on merit MNKs is because he constantly gets outparsed by them... 8)

[Howard Roark]

if it helps at all, i had a taru war/nin using polearm over her ridill at birds and busted out a friggin 2965 Penta (may have been warrior's charge -> mighty strikes etc since the rest were doing about 1200-1600 or so)

so ya, 2h is still alive and kicking, i see lotta WARs shelving their ridills

my fully merited black belt mnk still does fine but the need to sub /nin generally leaves me behind in terms of that extra 'edge'. 2h buff is nice and all but /war still tips the scale and gets me killed

[TybudX]

I like how not even a week after Rukenshin updated his LJ, people are declaring "hagun sam/war or sam/drg = easily the most common broken job combo for basically everything".

Way to discover the band.

[Obev]

The top three are Rukenshin/Warrior, Rukenshin/Dragoon, and Rukenshin/Ninja. Obviously.

[Howard Roark]

I like how not even a week after Rukenshin updated his LJ, people are declaring "hagun sam/war or sam/drg = easily the most common broken job combo for basically everything".

Way to discover the band.

eh not rly

i know a amano/relic bow sam that lieks to /drg it up, and man does he suck up a lot of mp

sure the damage is great but i can sub drk on my mnk if you want

[Obev]

Surely SAM/DRG would have equal, if not superior survivability to SAM/WAR? I fail to see how they'd die more by having 5% haste instead of Double Attack, or Jump and High Jump instead of Berserk and Defender.

[Charismatic]

Let's not mention the fact that high jump also lowers enmity...

[Khrno]

I still haven't found a decked SAM that outdamages a decked DRK, however a WAR/SAM is something else, MNKs well, they are awesome in Salvage.

[Khajit]

In my experience almost every job is about equal(in merits). The main differences in damage output are gear and how much the person playing the job gives a damn about it.

[Max™]

The most important factor at the moment is, if you put in a good amount of effort, you will do good with more than just the three "best" jobs now.

Gaxe War/Sam is kind of the ezmode choice though, if your party can ride hasso and you can 6 hit.

[Sonomaa]

my ridill stays firmly in my grasp and is only exceeded by another ridill or a relic. I like the crit

[ringthree]

Let's not mention the fact that high jump also lowers enmity...

High Jump is never going to save your ass if you are the top DD in your party.

From my recent parses, I am inclined to believe that a decently geared DRG can equal any of the other DD's except for maybe SAM. A DRK that casts spells in a party will quickly fall behind everyone else. Monk is now far more equipment dependent than in the past, while two-handers are less gear dependent than they used to be.

If I had to pick I would say that WAR, SAM and DRG are the top 3 DD's right now, but things are far more close than they used to be, and a smart player can increase their parse share in many different ways.

[ringthree]

I still haven't found a decked SAM that outdamages a decked DRK, however a WAR/SAM is something else, MNKs well, they are awesome in Salvage.

Well, thats because everyone thinks that they are the best DD in the game. LOL

No offense really, but players that actually care about what they are doing are going to parse better than those that aren't going to pay attention, no matter the job.