Speaking as someone who died the least in my tenure in my raid group, my advice is similar, but I say. "You get in a rough segment, you stop dps and focus on dodging. Only try to skim mechanics for cut time when you're confident in them."
I can't think of a single fight in which piercing talon made a wink of difference above any of my 4 jumps.
As far as Ninja goes, even for a gamepad, they have almost zero excuse. They have built in movement increase, even while in combat. A cool-down that guarantees evasion of a physical attack. On top of a re-positioning skill (That's not as useful for gamepad players as quickest dodges will always be forward due to it be a camrea based, not mouse based, targeting.) I say almost because this is also counter acted somewhat by Mundras.
It will be interesting if your overall assessment of dragons change over time, Hio, with the new magical defense tweaks. Dragoons were at a much lower margin for error when it came to magical damage. Now they're not. I used to get why Dragoons bit the dust more often between that and the fact that jumps can freeze or force-relocate in very bad timing with no recovery window. A Dragoon has to have a bit more caution and forethought on average due to this. One bad jump can end you, and you jump frequently.
Ninja's I don't get as much. For all intents and purposes, they should be evading much better than Dragoon. Mundra's don't lock you in place until activation, which is often a smaller freeze window than any jump. Maybe it's the distraction from the input? I haven't gotten my Ninja high enough to see as of yet.
Monks. I understand completely why they have a perceived low death ratio. They a SINGLE positional lock that's rarely used, and their combinations have them highly mobile to begin with. Hit-move-hit-move-etc. That sort of pacing lends itself well for instinctual evasion as opposed to the staggered moves and forced-stops and moves from Ninja's and Dragoon's skills.
Edited, Jan 24th 2015 12:26am by Hyrist