Which is best Drg or Drk?

[Nikanoru]

I can't decide on what to make my main job. Incomparison for a high level prty, which is the most useful, dragoon or dark knight? I plan on subbing my war and I am a hume. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Murphie]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Best is which ever job you prefer. If you're looking for a job that parties will want, I guess I'd suggest DRK, but really it's all about playing what you like.

[Mog]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

A better question would be, what role do you want to play? Do you want to deal ungodly amounts of damage, or would you rather have more accuracy and have a pet fight by your side? The choice is yours alone.

[pearlsea]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Drk will generaly get more invites and looks alot more fun with absorb-TP but play the job you enjoy and dont be discouraged by others who dislike the job, i sugest playing both but you realy dont get the feel of what your job can do till about 65 for drk and im not too sure about drg >.>; bearly level with them but id imagen its around the time you get penta thrust.

[eticket109]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Neither is best.

Both are effective melee jobs and have solid abilities and two-hours. Both can sub WAR or THF effectively for melee parties as well. In the later stages neither is exactly an instant-invite. Both have viable roles in mission BCs, but neither is a sure-bet fit in every BC like a BLM for instance.

Beyond the basic melee functions of the job there really aren't as many similarities between the two as you may think. The main function of a DRK is to do damage, which it does very well. While debuffing comes into play, the primary focus is pure damage and lots of it.

Dragoon on the other hand does not have quite the damage curve that DRK has. However, Dragoon allows for more diversity in how the job is played. A DRG/WHM or DRG/RDM is a very capable solo class for instance. When subbing mage, Healing Breaths can be used for backup healing in specific situations, though such a setup is rare in traditional experience parties.

So, essentially it comes down to doing one thing very well, or a few things decently. Like everyone said though. Try both out and see what you like. Just stay open minded and realize they both have merits. It's very easy to fall into the Job A sucks or Job B sucks debates.

[Icemage]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

If we're talking about the differences between the two jobs:

DRG Pros:
- Lots of damage over time, fantastic in XP party situations.
- Pretty good solo capability when using a mage subjob.
- Good hate control tools (High Jump, Super Jump, Spirit Surge)

DRG Cons:
- Weak weaponskill damage beyond early levels.
- Only one viable weapon type (polearm)
- Low defense rating (which is why those hate control tools are important)
- Not very good at end-game due to reliance on easily-killed Wyvern.

----

DRK Pros:
- Good weaponskills available at nearly all levels.
- Two good weapon choices (Great Sword, Scythe)
- Handful of extremely useful spells (Drain, Aspir, Stun, Absorb-TP)
- Currently good at end-game in some situations, though this is a somewhat recent phenomenon.

DRK Cons:
- Damage per hit is high, but slow swing speed and unspectacular accuracy.
- Low defense rating, made worse by some DRK job abilities (Last Resort).
- No hate control tools.
- Can be hard on healers and support jobs due to heavy reliance on MP restoration and HP restoration effects (Souleater, spells).
- Relatively weak solo ability.

I'd say in the long run, DRK has a slight edge at the moment, but since Square-Enix is constantly tweaking the game every few months, the balance of power can change at any time (DRKs got a significant boost from the last update, for instance). If you're just considering levelling either job on this basis, don't, since things can do a complete about face long before you reach 75.


Icemage

[nickofearth]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

You are wrong on a few aspects Ice.

1. "Weak weaponskill damage beyond early levels."

I easily do 700-1K+ Penta Thrusts in xp Pts. I've done 600-800 Impulse Drives in Luf. Meadows even Breaking 1k. Wheeling thrust is not as nice damage wise but is VERY reliable to do that 500-600 damage. Sub thief and wheeling thrust goes up (useful on Gods. Y helo thar 860+ SATA wheeling on Seiryu.)

2. "Not very good at end-game due to reliance on easily-killed Wyvern."

False. DRG/THF is good on Gods (have brutal earring? even better) 800 Wheeling on Seiryu as I said earlier) New addition of Angon? 20% def down for 30 seconds on Gods? What is NOT to love about that? All melee jobs benefit from that. Get 3 Dragoons with maxed Angon and you got 24/7 Def down. It' 100% accurate too.

3. "Only one viable weapon type (polearm)"

Not as important because if you are geared right Penta Miss will become Penta Pwn. But We have a pretty decent skill in Staff. Useful for fighitng mobs like Skeletons. (Granted we do have a "blunt" lance that does not work on Weapon skills without a mage casting Banish.) SATA Full Swing or Retribution is nice.


Anyways. >.> Don't level a job based on what others say. Try unlocking both and leveling both a bit and see which one you prefer. I prefer DRG...think it was destiny. >.>;; I did level DRK to 37 to sub with my RDM and it was ok swords so Great Swords are fun too ^^ Other then that I didn't enjoy DRK much outside of... dun dun dun SOULEATE! XD playing DRG/DRK in die-namis is cool too >.>;;;

I lost myself >.> Both have draw backs and both can be fun. Try both and see which one you like best.

[eva00r]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

1. "Weak weaponskill damage beyond early levels."

This is true man. DRK can SATA+WS for ~2k damage while DRG at most ~1k. But it's not that important since DRG deals more DoT than DRK. So, the damage output is pretty much the same.

3. "Only one viable weapon type (polearm)"

If you do mean any A/B type of weapon, then DRKs have 6 choices (Sword, GSword, Scythe, Axe, GAxe, Club - Kraken only) while DRGs have 2 choices (Staff, Polearm).

Well - who cares on multiple choices while you can have only one max merit weapon ...

[nickofearth]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

1k damage from a weapon skill is weak? What are you smoking?

[eva00r]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

1k+ always ??? no, I don't believe you or .. perhaps T/VT bird mobs. I've been PTing with a lot of end game DRGs, they can just do only 500-800 damage in XP PT. If you think you're "elite" DRG, so you have to compare yourself with the "elite" from the other job as well.

Telling you that the elite from the other jobs could always do more than 1k or 1.5k damage with WS - WAR's Rampage, RNG's Sidewinder, DRK's SATA Spin or Spiral, BLU's SACA Death Scissor.

Compared with this 700-1000 damage Penta is considered "low". I didn't say DRG is weaker than the others but DRG's WS damage is low. Good DRG can outdamage the other jobs without being MP sink at all. Defensive/Hate controlling capability is the real advantage of being DRG.

[eticket109]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

1k+ always ??? no, I don't believe you or .. perhaps T/VT bird mobs. I've been PTing with a lot of end game DRGs, they can just do only 500-800 damage in XP PT.

Out of curiosity, could you point out where he said he did 1000+ every time? One of the big problems in these job vs job threads is when people get derailed just arguing one point of a larger argument.

I agree though overall with what you're saying. DRGs do not typically put up omgwtfpwnd weaponskill damage, but in most cases the overall DoT is higher.

[nickofearth]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Eticket is right, where did i say 1k+ always? Not all jobs constantly do 1K+ damage. I've seen plenty of DRKs, MNKS, and WARs only pull off 700-1k weapon skills just like me. But i take it anyone who doesn't constantly do double the ws damage of a DRG is gimp right? (yep i can put words in your mouth too! :D)

[Liquidedust]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Eticket is right, where did i say 1k+ always? Not all jobs constantly do 1K+ damage. I've seen plenty of DRKs, MNKS, and WARs only pull off 700-1k weapon skills just like me. But i take it anyone who doesn't constantly do double the ws damage of a DRG is gimp right? (yep i can put words in your mouth too! :D)

Then for the sake of the arguement and playing Devil's Advocate, why would you even tell us anything other then your average/norm damage?

Since honestly your highest spike damage in one pt is just a one-shot thing and wont do anything for the overall performance of the pt itself. However your average/norm damage is a far better way to judge your damage.

And on Polearm weaponskills, they do have less potential when crunching numbers compared to for example Scythe, Great Sword, Axe or Great Axes. And with equally well geared melee's the DRKs and WARs will outdamage the DRGs weaponskill-wise.

However DRG is not a bad melee DD, far from it, it is just not as massive total damage output as for example a WAR or MNK (which in exp are just massive powerhouses at basically all levels). But DRG has the ability to have reduced hate from their damage compared to WAR or MNK which gives them greater utility.

Then again the sad thing about DRG really is that they are balanced and not specialized towards any specifics which also make them appear as a slightly pale choice when it comes to choose between them and other melees when forming a pts.

Or in short, DRG is not the best at anything they do in an exp pt but rather decent at everything - Doesn't shine in any single role but good at any.

For example (assuming 60/66+) IMHO:

DRG: Good accurate damage and TP gain, good WS
DRK: Decently accurate high damage and good TP gain, massive WS
MNK: Fast, high and accurate damage/TP gain, good to massive WS
SAM: Decent damage and very high TP gain, massive WS
THF: Decent damage and TP gain, massive WS.
WAR: High, accurate damage and TP gain, good to massive WS

[Lmnop]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

Monk

[Skoal]

Re: Which is best Drg or Drk?

I have a question for pretty much every DD. What is your normal damage with weapon skills on the besieged mobs? I was doing SA Wheeling Thrusts the other day and was curious to what kind of damage other jobs subbing thf do with WS to the mobs. This includes the lesser mobs and lesser nms, I couldn't get close to Medusa w/o getting charmed.