How to Dragoon Per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[Dervy]

May we cherish our old shrine forever.
R.I.P 02/09/13 – 19/08/15
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...otation-Reborn

Contents

• Introduction
• What is the Dragoon?
• The Abilities
  - Global Cooldown Skills
  - Off-Cooldown Skills
  - Buffs
  - Cross-Class Skills
• The Rotation
  - Understanding the GCDs
  - Rotation with no BotD
  - Area of Effect Rotations
• Cooldowns
  - Cooldown Management
  - Geirskogul
  - Blood for Blood
  - Life Surge Usage
  - Basic Opener for Dragoons
  - Blood of the Dragon Cooldown Usage
• Advance Dragoon Off-Cooldown usage and tips
  - Advanced Opener
  - Geirskogul Usage
  - Blood for Blood and Geirskogul Relationship
  - Dropping abilities in favour of Blood of the Dragon up time
• Number Crunching mess hall
  

Introduction

This thread is your number one resource for the Dragoon. Originally written by Ayvar Bjornstad as a basic guide for the Dragoon, the thread has evolved into something much more since the release of this game. It’s not just a guide on how to play the Dragoon, nor is it just a Q&A Session for new players to ask questions, but a place where all Dragoons can discuss and be free to talk. Whether it be rants about loot, miscellaneous chatter, or in depth theorycrafting, all discussion is welcome here. Think of this place as your second home, rather than just a thread on a forum. We’re a community; you may even call us a family.

This rather lengthy post is the best summary of all information collected within the past year of discussion about the Dragoon and will continuously be updated for many years to come as we progress through more patches and expansion Packs.

What is the Dragoon?

The Dragoon is a melee DPS job which focuses on a lengthy priority system and combo bonuses, to deal heavy amounts of damage to our foes. It consists of maintaining juggling around two combos and weaving in powerful off-cooldown skills, 3 of which are Jumps, a completely unique mechanic for our Job. However, as you improve as a player and gain experience with certain raid bosses and mechanics, the priority system of the Dragoon becomes extremely fluid and will inevitably allow you to follow a predictable rotation.

Us Dragoons also have the highest HP pool and defences of any DPS job in the game – That’s what separates us from the rest, being rather defensive and also dealing incredible amounts of burst damage.

The Abilities


Global Cooldown Skills

• Heavy Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100. 170 when executed from a Target’s Flank. Additional Effect: Increases Damage Dealt by 15% – Duration: 24s
• Phlebotomize – Delivers an Attack with a Potency of 170 – Additional Effect: Damage over Time – Potency: 30 – Duration: 24s

• True Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 150
• Vorpal Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100. Combo Action: True Thrust – Combo Potency: 200
• Full Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100. Combo Action: Vorpal Thrust – Combo Potency: 360 Combo Bonus: Grants either Fang & Claw or Wheeling Thrust

• Impulse Drive – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 180.
• Disembowel – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100. Combo Action: Impulse Drive – Combo Potency: 220 – Combo Bonus: Reduces target’s piercing resistance by 10% – Duration: 30s
• Chaos Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100. 150 when executed from behind the target Combo Action: Disembowel – Combo Potency: 220 – Rear Combo Potency: 250 – Combo Bonus: Damge over Time - Potency: 35 - Duration: 30s Combo Bonus: Grants either Fang & Claw or Wheeling Thrust

• Wheeling Thrust – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 200. 290 when executed from Targets Rear. Can only be executed under the effect of Blood of the Dragon & Enhanced Wheeling Thrust - Combo Bonus: Extends Duration of Blood of the Dragon by 15s, up to a maximum of 30s
• Fang and Claw – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 200. 290 when executed from from Targets Flank. Can only be executed under the effect of Blood of the Dragon & Sharper Fang and Claw. - Combo Bonus: Extends Duration of Blood of the Dragon by 15s, up to a maximum of 30s

• Ring of Thorns – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 100 to all nearby enemies. Combo Action: Heavy Thrust – Combo Potency: 150
• Doomspike – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 160 to all nearby enemies in a straight line before you.

Off-Cooldown Skills

• Jump – Delivers a jumping attack with a potency of 200. Returns you to your original position after the attack is made. Cannot be executed while bound - Recast time: 30s
• Spineshatter Dive – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 170 - Additional Effect: Stun – Duration: 2s Recast Time: 60s - Cannot be executed while bound
• Dragonfire Dive – Delivers a jumping Fire-Based attack with a potency of 250 to all nearby enemies - Recast Time: 120s - Cannot be executed while bound.
• Leg Sweep – Delivers an attack with a Potency of 130 - Additional Effect: Stun – Duration: 3s Recast Time: 20s
• Geirskogul – Delivers a Straight Line AOE attack for 200 Potency. Can only be executed under the effect of Blood of the Dragon. Reducdes duration of Blood of the Dragon by 10s Recast time: 10s
  

Buffs

• Blood of the Dragon – Increases damage dealt by Jump and Spineshatter dive by 30%. Grants Sharper Fang & Claw, and Enchanced Wheeling Thrust when completing a combo of Full Thrust or Chaos Thrust. Can be extended through "Fang and Claw" and "Wheeling Thrust". Duration: 15s Recast time: 60s
• Battle Litany – Increases Critical Hit Rating for you and all nearby allies by 15%. Duration: 20s Recast time: 180s
• Blood for Blood – Increases Damage Dealt by 30% and damage suffered by 15% – Duration: 20s Recast time: 80s
• Life Surge – Ensures critical damage for first non-magic action used whilst Life Surge is active. Damage dealt will be absorbed as HP, up to 10% of Maximum HP.Duration: 10s - Recast time: 50s
• Invigorate – Instantly restores 500 TP - Recast time: 120s
• Keen Flurry –Increases parry rate by 80% – Duration: 20s - Recast time: 90s
• Power Surge – Increases the damage dealt by a single Jump or Spineshatter Dive by 50% – Duration: 10s - Recast time: 60s
• Elusive Jumps – Executes a jump to a location 15 yalms behind you, while removing any Heavy or Bind effects – Additional Effect: Halves enmity – Duration: 20s - Recast time: 90s

Recommended Cross-Class Skills

• Internal Release – Increases critical hit rate by 10% – Duration: 15s Recast time: 60s *** MANDATORY
• Second Wind – Instantly restores own HP.Cure Potency: 450. Cure potency varies with current attack power - Recast time: 120s
• Foresight – Increases defence by 20% – Duration: 20s - Recast time: 120s
• Bloodbath – Converts 25% of physical damage dealt into HP – Duration: 15s - Recast time: 120s
• Mercy Stroke – Delivers an attack with a potency of 200. Can only be executed when targets is HP below 20% – Recast time: 90s

Abbreviations

• H = Heavy Thrust
• P = Phlebotomize
• IDC = Chaos Thrust Combo
• TTT= Full Thrust Combo
• IDC4 = Chaos Thrust Combo + 4th Tier Ability
• TTT4 = Full Thrust Combo + 4th Tier Ability
• 4th/ 4th Tier Ability = Either Fang & Claw, or Wheeling Thrust
• BotD = Blood of the Dragon

[Dervy]

The Rotation

How does Blood of the Dragon Work?

Blood of the Dragon is a new mechanic for the Dragoon. The ability has a 15 second duration, which grants you the ability to use three new skills: Wheeling Thrust, Fang & Claw, and Geirskogul. Blood of the Dragon also increases the Potency of Jump and Spineshatter Dive by 30%.

Wheeling Thrust and Fang & Claw are two new 4th tier combo GCD skills, which extend the duration of Blood of the Dragon by 15s, to a maximum of 30seconds. Each skill also has their own positional to deal maximum damage.

When you use Full Thrust or Chaos Thrust whilst having Blood of the Dragon active, you have a 50/50 chance of proccing either a Wheeling Thrust or a Fang & Claw at random. You must pay attention to which skill is being procced whilst playing the Dragoon and remember what positional each skill has.

Geirskogul is an off-cooldown ability which can be weaved in between your GCDs, but reduces the timer of Blood of the Dragon by 10s.

Essentially, you're juggling your two main combos, Full Thrust and Chaos Thrust, to proc either a Wheeling Thrust or Fang & Claw, to ensure maximum up time on Blood of the Dragon, then using a Geirskogul for additional damage.

The trick is to use Blood of the Dragon before either your Full Thrust or Chaos Thrust so you always have the highest timer available to make sure you do not fall off on Mechanics.

Thrusting the Rotation

The Dragoons "Rotation" is a hybrid Priority system, where certain skills have a priority over others. Essentially, If A is down, use A, If it's not, then use B. If B is is down, use B, if not, use C. Therefore, skill A has highest priority, followed by B, C, D, E etc. Having said this, the Dragoons skill usage can be written down in a very specific order to follow which will always loop. This is why the Dragoon is a Hybrid between a Rotation and a Priority System. If you wanted a pure priority system, you'd want something like a Summoner.

The Rotation for the Dragoon consists of 3 core components:

• Juggling skills, maintaining Blood of the Dragon to enable 4th tier combos for maximum damage
• Managing Heavy Thrust, Chaos Thrust and Phlebotomize up-time
• Using our Full Thrust combo as a filler in between our skill timers

Before we start getting into managing your off-cooldowns, we'll first learn the Global Cooldown Rotation with Blood of the Dragon.

There's one important rule that you must follow. The Dragoons new rotation only works with a Global Cooldown of 2.4s and below to play efficiently. This means, you need to have approximately 590 Skillspeed to make this rotation work.

Heavy Thrust has highest Priority, followed by Chaos Thrust, then Phlebotomize, then using Full Thrust as a filler, we get a rotation like this:

Heavy Thrust -> Impulse Drive -> Disembowel -> [Blood of the Dragon] -> Chaos Thrust -> 4th Tier Combo -> Phlebotomize -> True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust -> 4th Tier Combo -> Repeat

Abbreviated as:

H -> IDC4 -> P -> TTT4 -> Repeat

Let's break this down. Both Heavy Thrust and Phlebotomize has a duration of 24 seconds. With a Global Cooldown of 2.4s, 24/2.4 = 10. So this means you can fit 10 GCDs in between each of your Phlebotomzie and Heavy Thrusts.

IDC4 = 4 GCDs
TTT4 = 4 GCDs
P = 1 GCD
That's 1 GCD left over, which can be used to keep a fully buffed Heavy Thrust up. This also means you have no downtime on Heavy Thrust, giving you a full 15% damage boost to your DPS.

The same applies to Phlebotomize:
IDC4 = 4 GCDs
TTT4 = 4 GCDs
H = 1 GCD
This means you will never lose HT, nor clip a Phlebotomize tick at 2.4 GCD.

H-P-IDC4 vs. H-IDC4-P

However, you might now ask yourselves, why don't I go for HP - IDC4 over H - IDC4 - P? This is a very good and valid question. Before with our 2.0 Rotation, using HP-IDC was equivalent to trading 1 tick of Phlebotomize for 1 tick of Chaos Thrust + 1 GCD 10% buffed via Disembowel.

This time, as we have an additional skill we need to put in between Chaos Thrust and Phlebotomize when we go H-IDC4-P, we're only trading 1 Tick of Phlebotomize for one GCD 10% buffed by Disembowel. If we do the math:

30/24 = 1.25 PPS.
(170*0.1) = 17/24 = 0.7083 PPS

So if HP-IDC4 is 0.5417 PPS more, why do we use it? The reason are the Off-Cooldown abilities. But as we're only discussing the GCDs in this post, we'll leave it till later. For now, you need to understand that H-IDC4-P-TTT4 is superior to H-P-IDC4-TTT4.

To Clip or Not to Clip? That is the question

If you've been playing around the Rotation I've suggested, you might of realised by now that you're clipping Chaos thrust 1.9ticks earlier than usual. But Dervy, isn't this also a PPS loss? Why don't we go back to our old roation of IDC x2 TTT? Well, who else better to explain it than the fabulous Thendiel Swansong, who's done an in depth analysis for us already:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3057963

In this post, I want to compare a rotation that involves Disembowel and CT clipping:

HT - ID-Dis-CT-4 -Phleb - TT-VT-FT-4 - (repeat)

...to a rotation that does not involve Disembowel and CT clipping:

HT - ID-Dis-CT-4 -Phleb - TT-VT-FT-4 - HT -TT-VT-FT-4 - Phleb - ID-Dis-CT-4 - HT - TT-VT-FT-4 - Phleb - TT-VT-FT-4 - (repeat)

Basically, I was wondering if and when it would be useful to clip Dis and CT vs. letting them fall off for a few seconds.

On the one hand, if we clip, we maximize our ticks of CT, which weigh in at 35 x 1.15 raw potency per tick, plus extra damage from getting the Disembowel buff on Disembowel and/or Impulse Drive, which comes to 220 x 1.15 x 0.10 (possibly + 180 x 1.15 x 1.10) = 25.3 potency to 46 potency.

On the other hand, if we don’t clip, there is a loss of CT ticks, but with the advantage of favoring our TT-VT-FT-4 combo--which has higher initial potency values--over our ID-Dis-CT-4 combo.

The initial hit damage of our clipping approach is, (170 + 180 + 220 + 250 + 290 + 170 + 150 + 200 + 360 + 290) x 1.15 x 1.10 = 2884.2 potency across 10 GCDs.

The initial hit damage of our non-clipping approach is ((170 x 6) + ((180 + 220 + 250 + 290) x 2) + ((150 + 200 + 360 + 290) x 4)) x 1.15 x 1.10, or (1020 + 1880 + 4000) x 1.15 x 1.10 = 8728.5 potency across 30 GCDs, minus the loss of Disembowel’s bonus on Dis and/or ID’s hits. I’m guessing that, for typical levels of Heavensward Skill Speed, ID gets the Disembowel bonus but Dis itself does not. As we saw, that’s a loss of 25.3 potency per Disembowel, of which there are two. So, 8728.5 - (25.3 x 2) = 8677.9 potency across 30 GCDs.

SO. We should be able to construct an equation that tells us when clipping is or is not worth our time, based on Skill Speed:

((2884.2 potency / 10 GCDs) x (1 GCD / X seconds)) = [(8677.9 potency - ((40.25 potency / 3 seconds from an HT-buffed CT) x ((15 GCDs between CTs x (X seconds / 1 GCD)) - 30 seconds of uptime))) / 30 GCDs] x (1 GCD / X seconds)

In other words, we want to take the potency per second of the initial hits for clipping, then compare it to the potency per second of the initial hits for non-clipping minus the penalty we get for missed ticks of Chaos Thrust. Let’s solve the equation for X, which should tell us the threshold of GCD length underneath which NOT clipping Chaos Thrust (rotation #2 above) will be a benefit.

When I solve for the equation, I end up with an X-value of 2.1257 seconds. In other words, holy poop, we are never going to have enough Skill Speed for a non-clipping approach to be worth it. (A rudimentary check of the numbers does suggest that ID’s initial potency receives a Disembowel bonus at this GCD length, whereas Disembowel itself does not, which is consistent with my mathematical assumptions.)

Now, to beat a dead horse even further: keep in mind that Disembowel buffs our auto-attacks, in addition to the damage of any bard(s) or machinist(s) in our group. This means that those tiny pockets of downtime, even the ~1 second or so that we would have at a 2.13 second GCD, would cost even more than this equation suggests.

Conclusion: HT - ID-Dis-CT-4 - Phleb - TT-VT-FT-4 - (repeat) is officially our new GCD rotation.

The 2.4 GCD conundrum

Every 24s you're doing a Heavy Thrust/Phlebotomzie. 24/2.4 = 10, so that's 10 GCDs Heavy Thrust will buff. It just so happens that the 10th GCD is Heavy Thrust.

It makes it so Heavy Thrust will never drop off, so you're not continuously losing 170*0.15 = 25.5/24 = 1.0625 Potency Per Second.

The biggest question is though, is us sacrificing other secondary stats, such as Determination and Critical Hit Rating, worth this investment?

Now, these are rough approximations, as Determination is linear, where as Skillspeed and Critical Hit Rating are exponential, but roughly:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So 2.39GCD is our Skillspeed cap, a number which we will not want to go over.


Rotation Of Shame

Of course, no matter how ever hard we try, at some point, we will eventually let BOTD drop. What now? Should we revert back to our old 2.X rotation, or is there something new we can do?

H - IDC - P - TTT - TTT -> Repeat is the best rotation we can do when BOTD has dropped.

Math will be provided soon.

Spinning the AoEs

Under Construction

[Dervy]

Cooldown Management

H-P-IDC4 vs. H-IDC4-P

In the above post, I briefly touched on this. The PPS calculation demonstrated that H-P-IDC4 was a very slight PPS increase over H-IDC4-P...



This image above is the primary reason why we use H-IDC4-P over H-P-IDC4.

Look at the amount of skills which aren't buffed our 4th Combo in the end. On top of that, due to the forced Draconian-Pot placement, Phlebotomize isn't being buffed either. You'll want Full Thrust over Phlebotomize as it's 10 Potency Higher.

H P IDC4 has 1835 Potency * 105 STR (Pot on ID)

H P IDC4 has 2045 Potency * 105 STR (Pot on DI)

H P IDC4 has 2115 Potency * 105 STR (Pot on CT)

H IDC4 P has 2105 Potency * 105 STR (Pot on DI)

H IDC4 P has 2175 Potency * 105 STR (Pot on CT)

There's a huge Potency difference just from the Pot alone.

And not only that, as IR + BL aren't buffing your Wheeling Thrust, that's around (1+0.5*35%)= 1.175% of damage that you could potentially be missing out on.

Geirskogul

The first oCD we need to discuss is Geirskogul.

If you do not reach 21s when you use a 4th Combo, then using Geirskogul at any point in your rotation is risky and will make you lose BotD. 21s is your indicator that it is safe for you to use a Geirskogul. It doesn't matter if you hold it for 8 seconds or so, as long as you hit that threshold, you're safe to use it.

Blood for Blood

Blood for Blood usage is slightly different than it was in 2.0.



In this chart, we can see all of the optimal places to use Blood for Blood. In order of highest PPS, you should use BFB before this skill:

1) Vorpal Thrust
2) Impulse Drive
3) Disembowel
4) Full Thrust
5) Chaos Thrust

Now, you might be wondering to yourself, "isn't it best to use BFB before VP then in the opener?" No. The reason is pretty simple. Using Blood for Blood before Impulse Drive allows you to have a fully buffed Chaos Thrust, which is also being buffed by a Potion. Using Blood for Blood after the Potion application (which is also after Chaos Thrust) is very heavy hit to potential DPS output.

The next Column shows you the potential PPS if we delayed BFB by 1 GCD usage, to check that there isn't a situation where we should hold this skill.... And there isn't.

So the general rule of thumb is:

• Use BFB before Impulse Drive in Opener
• Use BFB on cooldown

Life Surge usage

With the introduction of Wheeling Thrust and Fang & Claw expanding the overall GCDs being used, it throws off the timing of Life Surge rather dramatically over our old 2.X method of CT/FT rotating.

One other problem is our GCD has reduced quite significantly, changing the total amount of actions being used per Life Surge cooldown duration.

50/2.5GCD = 20 GCD actions
50/2.4GCD = 20.83 (21) GCDs per
50/2.3GCD = 21.7 (22) GCDs per
50/2.2GCD = 22.7 (23) GCDs per.

As we're only ever going to be operating at 2.4 GCD, we'll talk about that.

Click the spoiler, as the mathematics are rather long:

If I land a Full Thrust without Life Surge--assuming that Heavy Thrust and Disembowel are both active--I end up with a raw potency of 360 x 1.15 x 1.10 = 455.4 potency. However, there is a chance that we might get a critical hit on that FT. Let’s use a Critical Hit Rate of 593, which is what we end up with using full i180 Law gear plus one i170 Law ring and a Hive Spear. At 593 crit, we have a 10.5% chance of getting a critical hit, and critical hits deliver a bonus of almost exactly +50% to base damage.

So, that 455.4 potency hit becomes 455.4 x 1.50 = 683.1 potency, 10.5% of the time. A little number crunching tells us that the average potency of your Full Thrusts over time (crits and non-crits averaged together, across infinity uses) comes out to 479.31 potency.

(455.4 x 0.895) + (683.1 x 0.105) = 479.31

By using Life Surge on a Full Thrust, we get a bonus of 683.1 - 479.31 = +203.79 potency.

Next, we’ll turn our attention to Fang and Claw/Wheeling Thrust.

Base potency for a 4th combo hit with Heavy Thrust and Disembowel comes out to 290 x 1.15 x 1.10 = 366.85 potency. Potency with a critical hit reaches 366.85 x 1.50 = 550.28. The average potency in the long-run with our Critical Hit Rate of 593 comes out to (366.85 x 0.895) + (550.28 x 0.105) = 386.11 potency.

By using Life Surge on a Wheeling Thrust or Fang and Claw, we get a bonus of 550.28 - 386.11 = +164.17 potency.

Now, let’s put those numbers to use. Obviously, a crit Full Thrust is better in absolute terms, but the real question is: How long, if at all, should we be willing to save Life Surge for Full Thrust for that pairing to be worth it?

Consider our rotation: HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th - Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th - (repeat)

Now, if Life Surge becomes available between Phlebotomize and Vorpal Thrust, there’s no question that we’ll want to pair it with FT. But there are two other, more complex situations: we can potentially decide to use Life Surge immediately after Chaos Thrust, or after Full Thrust, if it is available at these moments. I’ll label these two decision points (A) and (C).

HT - ID - Dis - CT -[Life Surge? (A)]- 4th - Phleb - TT - VT -[Life Surge! (B)]- FT -[Life Surge? (C)]- 4th - (repeat)

One thing I’ve noticed while practicing and using the rotation is that, at a 2.4 second GCD length, each Life Surge will be available to buff an attack exactly one GCD later in the overall rotation. (This is only for a 2.4 second GCD. More on that later.) Thus, if I buff TT-VT-[Life Surge]-FT-4th in my opener, LS is next available for TT-VT-FT-[Life Surge]-4th. There is, in other words, a 21 GCD gap between Life Surges becoming available, and this slightly staggers the GCDs we can pair it with.

One approach would be to pop Life Surge with the soonest possible Full Thrust, Wheeling Thrust, or Fang and Claw, regardless of whether we’re at point (A), point (B), or point (C):

HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT -[use Life Surge (B)]- FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT -[Life Surge becomes available]-[use Life Surge (C)] 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th -[Life Surge becomes available]
HT - ID - Dis - CT -[use Life Surge (A)]- 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
(entire pattern repeats)

A second strategy would be to only use Life Surge immediately before or after Full Thrust. That is, we could pop LS at points (B) and (C) without ever popping it at point (A). After all, maybe point (A) is close enough to Full Thrust that saving Life Surge for a few GCDs is actually advantageous.

HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT -[use Life Surge (B)]- FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT -[Life Surge becomes available]-[use Life Surge (C)]- 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th -[Life Surge becomes available]
(entire pattern repeats)

Last of all, we could use Life Surge exclusively with Full Thrust, on the assumption that it delivers enough added potency to be worth the wait every time.

HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT -[use Life Surge (B)] 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th
HT - ID - Dis - CT - 4th
Phleb - TT - VT - FT - 4th -[Life Surge becomes available]
(entire pattern repeats)

In the first case, across the course of 70 GCDs, we end up with one LS+FT and two LS+4ths. That’s a bonus of 203.79 + 164.17 + 164.17 = 523.13 potency.

523.13 potency / 70 GCDs = +7.47 potency per GCD, or
(523.13 potency / 70 GCDs) / 2.4 seconds per GCD = +3.11 potency per second

Under the second approach, we get one LS+FT and one LS+4th every 50 GCDs. That’s 203.79 + 164.17 = 367.96 potency per pattern, giving us…

367.96 potency / 50 GCDs = +7.36 potency per GCD, or
(367.96 potency / 50 GCDs) / 2.4 seconds per GCD = +3.07 potency per second

Under the third and final approach, we end up with +203.79 potency across every 30 GCDs, for a benefit of…

203.79 potency / 30 GCDs = +6.79 potency per GCD, or
(203.79 potency / 30 GCDs) / 2.4 seconds per GCD = +2.83 potency per second

In the end, approach #1 (using LS as soon as possible with any FT or 4th hit) has the edge. It’s also a nicer approach in the sense that it frontloads Life Surge use, which could mean that you land an extra LS-buffed attack before an enemy jumps away or dies.

Conclusion: At a 2.4 second GCD, we should burn Life Surge on the soonest possible Full Thrust, Wheeling Thrust, or Fang and Claw (except during the opener).

HT - ID - Dis - CT -[Got LS? Use it!]- 4th - Phleb - TT - VT -[Got LS? Use it!]- FT -[Got LS? Use it!]- 4th

TL;DR: At a 2.4 second GCD, we should burn Life Surge on the soonest possible Full Thrust, Wheeling Thrust, or Fang and Claw (except during the opener).

HT - ID - Dis - CT -[Got LS? Use it!]- 4th - Phleb - TT - VT -[Got LS? Use it!]- FT -[Got LS? Use it!]- 4th

Basic Opener for Beginner Dragoons

This is a basic opening rotation for new level 60 Dragoons who want a feel of how the Opener and the Rotation works. The GK management in this opening oCD rotation has been set up for much easier play for players to understand the GCD, BotD and GK relationships.

H -> [BL+BFB] -> ID -> [DRAC-POT] -> DI -> [IR + BOTD] -> CT -> [PS+ LEGS] -> 4TH -> [GK] -> P -> [JUMP] -> TT -> [DFD] -> VP -> [LIFES] -> FT -> [SPD] -> 4TH -> Repeat

A few alternatives to this opener are:

• Precasting Battle Litany before the Pull
• Withholding Legsweep until after your Full Thrust Combo

In this basic opener, GK has been set-up to be used after the first Thrust combo, or Chaos Thrust. Using GK in this manner will always ensure you're using GK with 21s+ on your BotD timer, alleviating all pressure from the new Dragoon from knowing where to pop BotD.

BotD coming off cooldown

The biggest issue many people have is when, or how, to use BotD once it comes up off cooldown. If you used the above beginners opener, timing of everything been perfectly set-up so BotD is back up off cooldown in between a Vorpal Thrust and Full Thrust at exactly 64.8s into the rotation, resetting the BotD timer.

So, at 48 seconds into your rotation, you have approximately 17 seconds left on your Blood of the Dragon. You're also landing your Heavy Thrust at this point. You'd want to go like this: http://puu.sh/iJZUs/688fd3a27f.png The seconds of the rotation are in relation to you having a 2.4 GCD.

You essentially:
Burn your Geirskogul right after your next IDC4 Combo
Continue until you hit Vorpal Thrust
BotD comes off cooldown
Hit BotD in between Vorpal Thrust and Full Thrust.

You can now decide whether to use Geirskogul right after the TTT4 combo, or, hold it to use after your next IDC4 combo. The choice is yours, but personally, I'd pop it.

Due to the placement of the Gierskogul on the above Opening Rotation, BotD application in the linked image, you'll find that you're now placing Geirskogul after each of your TTT4 combos.

The trick is to rotate the placement of Gierskogul after each BotD usage.

BotD #1 = GK after CT combo
BotD #2 = GK after FT combo
BotD #3 = GK after CT Combo
BotD #4 = GK after FT combo

So on, and so fourth.

This makes it brain-dead easy for Beginners to start playing and practising the rotation, on top of learning the timings of BotD and the interactions between Geirskogul and your 4th Tier Combos.

A step by step rotation for a full "cycle" is:

HT - ID - DI - [BOTD] - CT - 4TH - [GK] - PH - TT - VP - FT - 4TH

HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - [GK] - PH - TT - VP - FT - 4TH

HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - [GK] - PH - TT - VP - [BOTD] - FT - 4TH - [GK]

HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - PH - TT - VP - FT - 4TH - [GK]

HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - PH - TT - VP - FT - 4TH - [GK]

-> Repeat

[Dervy]

Advanced Opener, Cooldown Alignment and tips for more Experienced Raiding Dragoons

You may of noticed a few things odd about the two posts above if you've been playing Dragoon at level 60 for a while now and gotten used to how the job plays out.

1) You can fit a maximum of 3 Geirskoguls a minute
2) Your PPS is not affected by the placement of Geirskoguls, meaning you can place it anywhere and delay Geirskogul usage, as long as you hit 3 per min
3) Geirskogul has such a short animation lock, allowing you to double-weave it with every single oCD, with the exclusion of your Potion.
4) The opener is 1 GCD from your potion being able to hit a Wheeling Thrust for additional Damage
5) Blood for Blood and Geirskoguls cooldowns are pretty closely tied together
6) There are moments after a Geirskogul usage, there's only 1 second to spare between BotD dropping and applying your 4th combo

Advanced Opener

The issue with the basic Dragoon Opener is that

a) Your Potion, depending on your skillspeed, won't buff up your Wheeling Thrust
b) Your GK placement, being used right after the first combo, makes it rather risky for next "4th" to keep BotD up, with only 1 second to spare
c) Internal release is buffing an ability which is already affecting Life Surge

And so, here's an even better opener:

H -> [BL+BFB] -> ID -> [IR+BOTD] -> DI -> [DRAC-POT] -> CT -> [PS+ LEGS] -> 4TH -> [JUMP] -> P -> [SSD] -> TT -> [DFD] -> VP -> [LIFES + GK] -> FT -> 4TH -> Repeat

A few changes.

Firstly, IR + BOTD and your Potion Placement has been switched around. This will allow, with enough Skillspeed, for you to buff your Wheeling Thrust by your Potion and Internal Release to buff your Disembowel, for a very big Potency Increase.

Geirskogul has been moved to the end of the rotation and weaved with Life Surge. Yes, Life Surge will still buff your Full Thrust, but moving Geirskogul away allows you to fit Spineshatter Dive into main bulk of the rotation and makes it generally safer.

The burst capabilities of this Opener is a lot stronger than the basic opener. That is for certain.

Geirskogul Safety Net

Using Geirskogul each time your BotD timer when using a 4th combo reaches 21s, gives you very little wiggle room when handling mechanics. That 21s rule was a very simple way to explain the Geirskogul + BotD relationship with your Global Cooldowns. I now want you to forget everything you know about Geirskogul, as we're now going to delve into more complex ways to use Geirskogul for additional safety and how to time it perfectly with Blood for Blood.

The only difference? In your first Blood of the Dragon cycle, do not use Geirskogul after Combo 3. Each "Combo" is one of your 4-stage combos. So Combo 1 = your first IDC4. Combo 2 your first TTT4. Combo 3 = your second IDC4. Combo 4 = your second TTT4.


HT - ID - [BOTD] - DI - CT - 4TH - PH - TT - VP - FT - [GK] - 4TH

--- DO NOT USE GEIRSKOGUL HERE
HT - ||| ID - DI - CT - 4TH - PH ||| - TT - VP - FT - 4TH - [GK]

HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - [GK] - PH - TT - VP - [BOTD] - FT - 4TH

So let's do the maths.

15 - (2.4*2) = 10.2s
10.2s + 15 = 25.2s on BotD after the first combo.
25.2 - (4*2.4) - 10 = 5.6s wiggle room, approximately, to land your 4th.
5.6 - 2.4 + 15 = 18.2s + 1-1.5s after your opener. The reason why we have +1, is we're not casting BotD right at the beginning of the GCD when we use Impulse Drive. As we double weave this skill, add an additional 1s to make up for the actual cast duration.

So after the first line, we have 18.2s on BotD. Let's continue to the second line.

18.2 - (4*2.4) = 8.6s - 2.4 = 6.2 + 15 = 21.2 + 1-1.5s = 22.2 - 22.7s

Now here's the deal. You could technically use a Geirskogul after the 4th combo, but doing so will leave you with 12.2s - 12.7s to get to your next combo. 5*2.4 = 12, so depending on when you exactly casted BotD, you'll have between 0.2 and 0.7s left to land your 4th combo. This, is very, very risky in deed and is the reason why many people are failing to use Geirskogul properly. So, let's skip this combo, AKA combo 3, and move onto our next combo.

21.2 - (4*2.4) = 11.6 + 1-1.5 = 12.6 - 13.2s - 10 = 2.6 - 3.2s to land your next 4th combo.

So delaying your Geirskogul usage and not using it during Combo 3 in the first cycle of your BotD will give you approximately 3 additional seconds to use your 4th ability, granting ample time for it not to drop off whilst handling mechanics.

This is why the 21s rule is very lackluster compared to this method of skipping your 3rd combo after BotD usage.

Geirskogul and Blood for Blood relationship

However, let's get stuck into Geirskogul and how it works with Blood for Blood.


Credits to Outfoxed for this image.

HT - ID - [BOTD] - DI - CT - 4TH - PH - TT - VP - FT - [GK] - 4TH

--- DO NOT USE GEIRSKOGUL HERE
HT - ||| ID - DI - CT - 4TH - PH ||| - TT - VP - FT - 4TH - [GK]


HT - ID - DI - CT - 4TH - [GK] - PH - TT - VP - [BOTD] - FT - 4TH

------- DO NOT USE GEIRSKOGUL HERE
HT - ||| ID - DI - CT - [BFB] - 4TH - PH ||| - [GK] - TT - VP - FT - 4TH
Explanations and mathematics are under construction

[Dervy]

Number Crunching Mess Hall

Dragoon Weights - 22/07/2015
WD: 10.625
STR: 1
DET: 0.139
CRT: 0.162
SS: 0.104


Current Dragoon Models - Last Updated: 02/08/2015

Weapon Skills:
((Potency/100)*(WD/25+1)*(STR/9)*(DET/7290+1)*BUFFS)-1 (Remove all Decimals)

Auto-Attacks DPS:
(((WD/3*AA_DELAY)/34+1)*(STR/6.8)*(DET/6795+1)*BUFFS)-1

Skillspeed Mod for DoTs:
(1+(skillspeed-354)*0.0000724) - Note, this fits into the Buffs section.

GCD Calculation:
2.50256-(0.01*(SS-354)/26.5)

Critical Hit Chance Calculation: Converts to a percentage
((CRT-354)/(858*5))+0.05

Critical Hit Damage Calculation: Converts to a multiplier
((CRT-354)/(858*5))+1.45

Gearing up the Dragoon

Accuracy Caps:

Ravana EX: 572
Alexander A1S: 590+
Alexander A2S: 605+
Alexander A3S: 635+

Skillspeed Softcaps:
Maximum : 652
Minimum : 590

WORK IN PROGRESS

Alexander Floor 1 Savage
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/R5YK

WD	STR	ACC	CRT	DET	SS	GCD	DPS	        Weight
76	1079	596	828	510	620	2.402	1432.82492	1731.508

Alexander Floor 2 Savage - Accuracy Unconfirmed for Front.
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/R5YE

WD	STR	ACC	CRT	DET	SS	GCD	DPS	        Weight
76	1079	624	858	442	634	2.396	1426.592979	1728.292

If you want A2S Flank accuracy, then use A1S set.

Alexander Floor 3 Savage
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/QZFW

WD	STR	ACC	CRT	DET	SS	GCD	DPS	        Weight
76	1079	639	869	415	637	2.396	1426.293533	1726.608

Dragoon Media Corner


Dervys Videos:

• Basic Dragoon Rotation Video Guide for Newbies
  Advanced Dragoon Rotation Video Guide

Thendiels Videos:

• Advanced Opener
• GCD Rotation
• Using Geirskogol

Raid Tips

[Mibhas]

Is this Dragoons per second but not per second?

[Dervy]

It indeed is.

[HeavensSword]

It's here! GJ Dervy.

[ArtificialxSky]

Time for the new Dragoon thread mainstay. Look forward to all that the community has to say come HW; and thanks for all your hard work.

[Aiurily]

dps? more like deaths per second

--

assuming phleb and ht 30s is accurate, we're gonna have awkward gcd rotations

ht at 30s will last 12 gcds after it before wearing off. ht at 20s lasted 8 gcds after it, and the rotation was set up to refresh it on the 8th gcd before it fell off.

so assuming we start with BoTD and 4th hit combo is a must it will be like this

H>(IDCF>P>TTTW)=9 gcds after HT. so either we refresh it on the 10th gcd, or this happens
H>(IDCF>P>TTTW>TTT)>W; you'll likely lose heavy thrust on the 4th hit of the full thrust combo, and then it won't be on for the HT reapplication either, so 2 gcds of HT downtime

assuming that you let HT drop off for wheeling thrust and HT refresh, you also run into another problem in that disembowel and CT will start dropping off for 2 GCDs before being reapplied

H>ID(CF>P>TTTW>TTTW>H)>ICDF>P

but then if you decide to refresh HT early at 9 gcds, you will either be forced to clip dis/ct early, or do TTTW and miss the dis/ct for more gcds.

H>ID(CF>P>TTTW>H>I)DCF>TTTW>P =clip early by about 6-7s
H>ID(CF>P>TTTW>H>TTTW)>IDCF>P =lose for 2 gcds

so, so far with a 30s ht/phleb, things look like they'll be pretty messy