GREATREDSPIRIT'S PROFILE

The very concept of Berserkers makes them a terrible class. You can't control them so you can't focus fire with them which is the core of most RPG strategies: A dead guy can't hurt you so kill them one at a time. At least, that's mine. The options you have with a berserker are very limited because of this. They can't use any abilities given to them (like White Magic) or Items, meaning you have fewer characters to work with if you need to heal in emergencies. They can use passive abilities such as the Knight's TwoHand ability which is handy since Berserkers can't use shields but any class can use these abilities so it isn't much of a pro as it is a not-a-con. FF5 also has a fair number of gimmick bosses where mass/random attacking is one of the worst things you can do. If you're playing the game for the first time and don't know when these bosses come up you will likely find having a Berserker very fustrating and its better for them to be dead than to actually contribute and if a class reaches that point its a complete failure. The gains you get from being berserked are meager and I think it slows the character down since once their action gauge fills up there's a pause for the AI to decide what to do.
In short: Not having control sucks seriously.

Now the Berserker only learns two abilities: Berserk and Equip Axes/Hammers. Berserk is a waste of 100AP for the reasons stated above, losing control is awful. Equip Axes/Hammers is also awful. Any class that has the strength to do physical damage can use a similar weapon and axes don't stand out compared to other weapons. They're even worse than Swords/Knifes since you can't use MagicSword with them. Mastering them for the max stat bonus to Bare/Mimic is also useless since other classes provide better bonuses and abilities. They only cost 500AP to master which isn't too expensive but that's 500AP you could put towards something useful, like the Hunter class. Or Ninjas.

Using a Berserker can only really be suggested if you know what you're doing and there's no upcoming dungeons/bosses where a Berserker is a very bad thing to be using. They can use the Death Sickle which random inflicts Death which is very useful in the early game (some bosses are even vulnerable to it!) but its a somewhat rare drop from an uncommon enemy that you'd only know to farm if someone else told you/you read it up specificly. Something most first time players won't do.


Dragoon's aren't as bad. You can control them and Jump can deal a lot of damage with the character being invulnerable during the 'charge up' time. Its not all happy and roses though, while the Dragoon can't be spammed by high power magic while in the air, the other characters on the ground can now get hit making any sort of tanking the Dragoon provides (simply by being a possible target that can take a physical hit) impossible. Not a significant issue since backrow mages can take a few physical blows and if the Dragoon avoids damage by jumping healing magic to the rest of the party is that much more effective as its spread across fewer targets. Also if the entire party jumps then nobody is a target on account that there are none which is nice if the party is setup that way. The big con with Jump is to do its x2 damage and make the jump worth it is that you need to have a Spear equipped. Spears are unremarkable weapons that can't be MagicSword'd and throughout the game Spears don't ever stand out like the Death Sickle does for Axes. Using Swords you can replicate the x2 damage of Jump with MagicSword->Flare late in the game or RapidFire earlier on. Jump is pretty unspectacular and its the only real move Dragoons have.

Ability wise, the Dragoon class is a dead end. They learn Jump, Lancet, and EquipSpears. Jump is learnt quickly which could make it an easy way of doing x2 damage late in World 1 but you need spears to do x2 damage. Too bad only two classes can use them: Dragoons which natively have Jump and Bare. So for Jump to be useful you need to learn Lancet and then get another 400AP to learn EquipSpears. Wait, you need EquipSpears to make Jump effective, but both take up your one ability slot. Jump has no use except to Bare and if you're using Bare odds are you have access to better abilities like RapidFire/MagicSword. Lancet recovers MP and HP at no cost and deals damage, but the amounts gained are trivial that you'd have to keep an enemy alive and incapacitated to make it effective. It'd only be useful for recovering MP but any class with a good magic score has a lot of MP and short of burning it all before a save point you won't run out of MP. Plus later in the game Osmose is a far more effective means of cheap MP recovery (or even better MagicSword->Osmose).

So in short the Dragoon class is, while handy for its x2 damage jump, gives you nothing over the 550AP cost to master it. Its abilities are useless for other classes and none of its stats contribute to the best Bare stats. The Dragoon class has one use in the mid-late game: To mass jump with dual Dragon Spears on that optional dragon boss.