Don't put thief in the same box as pup or pld.... I have good gear, not the best, but I do at leat as much more dmg as drks sams and the like ( pre 2H update though)... Thats one point I'll aggree with necrosis.
I had many merit pt on thf , usually 2-3 war/mnk/drk/sam, 1 rdm or whm, 1 smn or rdm, which most people would say is a shitty pt. Guess what? only chains 40s. Who were pulling? Me.
Last melee burn I had: ( right after 2H update) with friends. Colibri camp.
mnk ( badly geared, my mule!), drk (dayner), pup ( pchan), mdkuser (thf), uzor (rdm), roe (brd). I didn't parse or anything but we got chains 40s, so yea its not the bad jobs that make bad exp, just bad players.
As for PLDs, I had a PLD pt with chain 20s so chain 6-7 on occasion is really meh.
The key is to have a a good puller. Yea people. Brd is not the only job that can pull ( pld was pulling in that pt).
Now I hate meriting because I hate seeking period. Its boring. Only thing I do is go solo 4k exp every time I can for 30 minutes, usuing exp ring and on thunder/ice day, pudding camp. Yes there is a Life beyond merits!
Other than that, yea don't give a damn to what Necro says on pup/pld etc. Necrosis is the same as always, full of shit, on my blist for a looong time, everyone should do the same!