Parsing
Many Galkas, Pandas and Nanas were sacrificed to make this for me ^_^ Thanks.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/forums/83 (test server notes)
Not really sure where they're going with nerfing restraint and buffing Helix. They should just make Modus 100% acc so we're not stuck on HV SCH abilities (or make Libra actually proc and remove Modus from the proc table). And its not that easy for a WAR to just walk into Abyssea (or WoE), get Ukko's Fury and faceroll. If they're nerfing restraint in regards to the 99 job ability (or abilities) that WAR may be getting then I guess its fine.
Lately I've been parsing to get information on which DDs are good for which fights. The whole deal with parsing in FFXI isn't to say "oh damn I got 50% of the damage done, what's up I'm awesome." No, lol. It's more like why did so and so do so much damage? What food, who died, how many procs did we get etc.
Anyway, every DD can "win the parse" or "pull their weight" on favorable encounters. The three jobs I have hardly any information on are PUP, DRG, and BST, although I do have 4 sets of parses that had a DRG actually meleeing the mob so I'll get back to that later.
Dark Knight, in particular, kinda concerns me. I mean if you need an Apoc to do average damage then they need a little(lot) of help. Also when looking at the parse, you have to see what the set up was, what buffs, etc. It's a little hard to state "oh DRK isn't that great" when the conditions for the parse change 99% of the time.
On the other hand, Terru's Caladabolg parsed fairly well (18-20%) on Qilin. So I guess this leads back to my main theory that if you try hard, do your best, you can get good results regardless of what job you're playing. Just believe that you're contributing to the damage. If you go from doing 2% of the damage, try hard on the next one and do 6% of the damage, that's an improvement, just keep working on it.
For consistency, and overall rankings on the current VW T3, I'd say the strongest DDs atm (in no particular order) are WAR, SAM, RNG, COR (barring Qilin), and MNK (with support).