seriously contemplating.Follow

So here i am, yet another one. Contemplating retiring my dragoon. there are a multitude of reasons why, the main reason of course being that there is a horrendous lack of pt invites. I would just bite the bullet and solo if i had my full AF or looked like i'd get it anytime in the reasonable future.
Now, my question out there to everyone. WHY is it that there seems to be a complete lack of knowledge as to what it is a Drg can bring to the pt? And why do very few people ever feel like braving the stupid sheep mentality and actually, get ready for the shock of your life *INVITE A F'N DRG* you know, that guy that's been lfg the last 4 hours while everyone else has picked one up?
And don't even tell me to start my own. been there. done that. either get automatic refusals due to the stigma of my being a drg, refusal due to there not being a full pt (no ****** isn't that what i'm trying to make???) or just lack of anything that would make a semi coherent pt.
I realize that this is kindof a dead horse, and I'm going to kick it to death and then do it even more damnit, because this means something to me. This is my absolute favorite job to play, it's the one that i can see the most value in a pt while i'm playing it, yet for some reason noone else seems to. I would really love to play it, but the frustration behind finding ppl to exp with is just insane.






Actually, now that i think of it. I already am retired since i can do very few constructive things to advance it.

Retired, just not by choice.
-Inuleki

most people are just stupid :p thats why drg doesn't get a lot of invites.

But, the most important factor to getting invites is your reputation.

The only real problem I have ever had with dragoons is that the darn dragon keeps blocking my camera view. :D Since that is a petty and stupid excuse, I would never tell a party not to get one. As another random, easily replaceable damage dealer who finds it hard to get parties, I feel for you. SE needs to make a new patch where a sam, drg, drk, thf, mnk, and smn make one hell of a kickass party.

I've ran into quite a few drgs who took awhile to fit into the party structure. I honestly think it's because they get rusty. When you go for weeks without invites and every party you get into is different, it is going to take a bit to find your role in it.

I staved off quitting dragoon until it came to the point where I was no longer having fun... and that's exactly it.. It wasn't fun anymore.. It was frustrating..

Although at times i regret leaving dragoon, deep down I feel it was the right choice... There isn't much I can do now to change the decision I made.. and let me tell you, it's not an easy decision to make.. Think things through thoroughly before making that choice.. It took me months..

Whatever road you take, I bid you good luck.

The only problem I have with the reputation aspect is that I take a long time to farm items for things I want and after farming for haubergeon, the majority of people I use to know at my lvl were not 5 or 10 levels above me so I had to start making a reputation with people reaching the level I am now. And now I'm slowing down again because I have final projects, final exams, etc that I need to get done so I'm falling even farther behind. On top of that, I do my job and rarely talk a ton to people unless it's about random things. I normally pay too much attention to what's going on because I generally have to make sure I pull the mob off the puller so I can be the trick partner.

Also, I agree that drg get a bad rep...friend was an awesome drg and after the tp "fix" people out of no where disregarded drg because they couldn't penta spam. Oddly enough, I NEVER was in a pt with him where they made him penta spam, normally it was just us chaining skills so mages could burst. Also his accuracy was just insane. But like other drg he put it on the shelf and now levels war/nin which he likes probably as much if not more and he levels a lot faster.

Dragoon. the fun yet not so fun job. fun when in a party, not fun when looking for party. I don't know what to tell you my friend. you know i gave up my DRG for the same reasons.

IT's a sad state of affairs but DD classes are horribly broken. It's not your fault it's SE's fault.

(Disclaimer: I invite all jobs on an equal basis but from a strictly logical point of view this is how it stands)

I see no reason to invite any other job other than rangers and warriors as DD in a party. I know it sounds harsh but its kinda true. Rangers are the main DD in this game they get the job done and in a hurry, add to this a /nin and they will be alright untill aggro comes back to the tank. Warriors have no problems taking hits if aggro goes their way they can dish out loads of damage and take it as well. SAM, DRK, DRG, MNK are all paper thin and collapse if something goes wrong. Like i said before it is not your fault it's SE's fault.

But like Lenwei said if it is still fun then by no means should you give it up. You should keep playing. I know if i make a party the first DD i look for is DRG, because i'm just biased after playing one for 52 lvls. But on the other hand i know that pain of waiting for an invite (one time i left my computer on for 2 days straight with my LFG up and came back and not one /tell for party or party invite).


As for reputation. I don't think it even matters. reputation only really matters between your LS and your friends. Pick up parties will take who ever is there even if you are the best player on the server. I have never seen a party kick someone to invite that uber good player... ever. So if you log in 2 minutes to late...

>< all I have to say is I've heard a lot of dumb stuff about this class not being as good as another one and frankly, if the person knows what he/she's doing, the party goes well. We had a drk in our party yesterday, Tialys, and he was awesome. And as I've heard before a lot of BS about them not being good enough or missing too much or whatnot, I'm inclined not to take these things at face value.

DRG's have been having an identity crisis since the patch that altered the TP gain rules for Weapon Skills. Before the patch, Dragoons were looked at as extremely powerful damage dealers, due to the ability to spam Penta Thrust. That ability was taken away, and since that was the only thing many people understood about Dragoon, a lot of people think that the class is completely useless now.

On top of that, there hasn't been a lot of effort, or at least not a very visible effort, on the part of Dragoons to redefine themselves. The only thing I see DRG's doing most of the time is complaining about party invites, complaining that people don't understand what a Dragoon can bring to the party, or talking about switching to another job. There seems to be little pride in the remaining Dragoons. I haven't seen any Dragoons stand up, explain that Dragoons do not suck, and explain the ways that a Dragoon can benefit the party. I've seen Dragoons complain that people don't take their Wyvern into account, but I haven't seen actual parser logs that show just how much damage their Wyvern does, or shows just how much their Wyvern can benefit the party if it is a multipurpose or healing Wyvern. I also haven't seen any Dragoons address the issue that sometimes their pet dies, and explain why not having access to their Wyvern doesn't ***** them over for the next 2 hours while they wait for the timer.

The other problem is that Damage Dealers in general aren't given enough respect by the majority of players. Many people follow the standard party setup. PLD or NIN, RDM or BRD, BLM, WHM, and 2 DD's, and often one of those DD's is given to Thieves, who deal great Skillchain damage, but deal rather poor damage throughout the rest of the fight. If you look at the number of damage dealing classes in the game, and the ridiculous amount of HP that many mobs have, it's quite clear that damage dealers are supposed to have a more central role in the party. The best parties that I have been in have always been damage-heavy.

This is exactly what I mean. This, coming from a former Dragoon, who perpetuates the notion that DRG's are nothing but Damage Dealers who can no longer deal damage.

I've spent a bit of time in the Dragoon forums. I've played Dragoon a bit myself. The job seems like an extremely flexible job. One that is intended to deal decent damage while using a wide array of support jobs to benefit the party. It actually seems like a very flexible, and quite powerful class if played correctly, and adapted to suit the particular party makeup. Yet all I ever see is DRG/WAR (and the occasional DRG/WHM, though those are relatively rare), complaining that nobody understands them because they don't do enough damage, and can't spam Penta Thrust like they used to before.

The problem with Dragoons, and the main reason that nobody gets invites, is nobody understands them. I don't think that will change until some Dragoons who still have a little pride in their job make a concerted effort to explore the class, find out just what a DRG can do, and explain it to everyone else in a way that makes people truly understand the job and how it can benefit the party. Until Dragoons are able to redefine themselves and prove their worth, the view of Dragoons as nothing more than a "gimped DD" will continue to plague the class.