Dragoon's Future as DD

[Reichleiu]

Also I want to add, Polearm has the weakest of the updated weapon skills.

Great Sword has Torcleaver which is 10.0 fTP at 300%
Great Katana has Tachi: Fudo which is 9.0 fTP at 300%
Great Axe has King's Justice which is 7.0 fTP at 300%
Scythe has Insurgency which is 10.0 fTP at 300%
Hand to Hand has Howling Fist which is 8.0 fTP at 300% and Raging Fists which is 9.0 fTP at 300%
Dagger has Rudras Storm which is 8.0f TP at 300%
Club has Black Halo which is a 7.0 fTP at 300%

At best, Polearm has Impulse Drive which is 6.0 fTP at 300%, and Drakesbane still has a massive attack penalty. Not only are Polearm weaponskills very weak, but DRG doesn't have many JA, stances or traits to boost their weapon skill damage like WAR DRK MNK SAM do and Wyverns are not going to close the gap because they can't be targetted with songs or rolls so their damage output is miniscule, unless the next update is going to increase their damage output by like literally 1000%(then maybe they would parse 5-10% damage and not 0.5-1% in a Delve).

I have this funny feeling that the Devs don't test this game in the same manner we, as players, actually play it. The only way they can think that buffing the wyvern is going to do anything is if they don't play with any BRD + COR buff combo at all. If no one had any buffs, our wyverns might actually do half-decent damage comparatively. But when the DRG Master, SAM WAR MNK and DRK all have capped or near capped haste, +1237193781231 Attack, and capped/near capped accuracy... buffing the wyvern a little isn't going to mean squat.

But who knows.. I have very low expectations but the "Offensive Buff" is another update away.

They do need to give us a better WS though. Our WSAVG is way too low compared to other jobs with the similar/better WS frequency, specifically SAM.

[Watts101]

Not only are Polearm weaponskills very weak, but DRG doesn't have many JA, stances or traits to boost their weapon skill damage like WAR DRK MNK SAM do and Wyverns are not going to close the gap because they can't be targetted with songs or rolls so their damage output is miniscule, unless the next update is going to increase their damage output by like literally 1000%(then maybe they would parse 5-10% damage and not 0.5-1% in a Delve).

I recently reviewed the amount of Job traits that Dragoon has compared to other damage dealing jobs and I want it noticed that, even when including multiple tiers of a job trait, Dragoon has only 11 Job traits compared to the 20 even 30 job traits (including successive tiers) of other DD jobs. We get: Attack Bonus II (22 attack), Accuracy Bonus III (33 Acc.) and Conserve Tp (which is more of a random bonus than a reliable Damage trait.)

Everything else that we receive, as far as damage improvements goes, is obtained through jumps and maintaining the bonuses that come from having your wyvern present. With the coming Sept. update I'll be the first to express gratitude to the development team for implementing the coming changes into Dragoon's array of benefits. I also enjoy the connection of those benefits to the wyvern.

Giving dragoons job traits that improve the strafe ability I feel is a step in the right direction, but it's only a baby step. Naturally the dev. team wants to maintain balance of the battle mechanics and so changes are going to be gradual.
My suggestions for continuing along the path of improving our side by side companionship of our wyverns includes the following:

1. Please allow the Item level or +skill of our main hand weapons to also improve our wyverns attack and accuracy or implement something of a similar nature. As I understand it, Our wyverns are essentially Level 99 without any accuracy or attack bonuses (unless using food and Lancer's Plackart +1/+2 full time.)

2. Please give Dragoon Teir 4 access to both Attack Bonus and Accuracy Bonus job traits. Considering the new adjustments to improve atk% I would be satisfied with ACC bonus IV.
Please also consider giving dragoon the "Critical Attack Bonus" Job trait. This would also be a welcome adjustment, it would improve the Damage output from jumps, while the wyvern is present, and it would also begin to address the lacking power of Drakesbane.

3. Please improve the amount of control allowed to players over their wyverns actions. This may include:
a) controlling when the wyvern will use its TP for improved function of spirit link.
b) Implementing a physical alternative to the wyverns TP actions, allowing for controlled use of magical damage. "This was a problem with multiple delve monsters where no magic damage was allowed, which also meant the Dragoon's DPS suffered heavily dropping them in terms of priority for DD positions"
c) Improve the power of a wyverns damage breaths, we've been asking for it nicely and not nicely. The use of job abilities and gear to improve the capabilities of our pet comes at the price of reduced DPS yet again, improving the damage from the wyverns breaths reduces the negetive side effects of Job ability delay and gearswapping side effects.

4. Please review and improve polearm weaponskills. As has been stated in this thread; Polearm Weaponskills are currently under-powered when compared to other weapon skills. I think the majority of players using Dragoon will agree that polearm weapon skills have been lacking for awhile, we would like to be considered among the top DD choices. Currently, We find minor niche use when fighting monsters weak to piercing damage, a perk that is shared and overshadowed by Ranger (Jishnu's Radiance, Coronach: Need I say more?)

[Bebekeke]

After having a play with DRG since the September update, using Spirit Link once seems to be enough to cap your wyvern, as my attack is going from 1000 to 1199 with a single Spirit Link. (19.9%) Cap is supposedly 20%, though it will be done as 51/256 or something that doesn't quite work out, hence it being less.

So this is good news^^

[Martel]

After having a play with DRG since the September update, using Spirit Link once seems to be enough to cap your wyvern, as my attack is going from 1000 to 1199 with a single Spirit Link. (19.9%) Cap is supposedly 20%, though it will be done as 51/256 or something that doesn't quite work out, hence it being less.

So this is good news^^

How many empathy merits do you have? If you're at 5/5, then yeah it'd cap in one go. 200 wyvern exp per merit(including the first.) 1k cap. 200*5 = 1,000. If you aren't at 5/5 then.. weird.

[Bebekeke]

How many empathy merits do you have? If you're at 5/5, then yeah it'd cap in one go. 200 wyvern exp per merit(including the first.) 1k cap. 200*5 = 1,000. If you aren't at 5/5 then.. weird.

Yeah, apparently I'm 5/5. It's certainly a nice att/def boost, though it's hard to notice the haste when soloing and not specifically parsing the difference.

Time to upgrade my gear now that DRG is worthwhile once again...

[Xsilver]

Dragoon is actually a solid DD now, on par with MNK DRK WAR I'd wager. Still nowhere near the damage of SAM, but I think SAM is unintentional strong due to the recent SC adjustments which favors SAM and their SC bonus abilities greatly.

[Bebekeke]

Dragoon is actually a solid DD now, on par with MNK DRK WAR I'd wager. Still nowhere near the damage of SAM, but I think SAM is unintentional strong due to the recent SC adjustments which favors SAM and their SC bonus abilities greatly.

The SC bonus is completely irrelevant. A SAM can do more damage in 1 WS than a DRG can do in a WS, 2 jumps, then another WS, or 2 sekanokki'd WS with SC.

[Reichleiu]

The SC bonus is completely irrelevant. A SAM can do more damage in 1 WS than a DRG can do in a WS, 2 jumps, then another WS, or 2 sekanokki'd WS with SC.

Not in Incursion.

Our WS damage is significantly closer than before.. and lets be honest, no SAM is self-skillchaining at an event with 2-5 other DDs fully buffed. Not to mention DRG should be spamming Camlann's Torment in Incursion which opens and closes skillchains with whatever Samurai go on the run.

So far it seems that SAM and DRG are pretty equal in Incursion, and then there is everyone else. Of course.. I am talking from the standpoint of Koga and Ryu DRG.

[Bebekeke]

Not in Incursion.

Fair enough, I haven't tried that yet. I haven't managed to get enough Acc to set my DRG upon top level content yet ><

no SAM is self-skillchaining at an event with 2-5 other DDs fully buffed.

Konzen-Ittai

I am talking from the standpoint of Koga and Ryu DRG.

I very much doubt that non-mythic sam and non-mythic drg are so close though. Mythic has almost always been much closer to other DDs than non-mythic.

[Xsilver]

Kozen-Ittai can be 'stolen' by the next WS from any player hitting the mob and 99% of the time it will be during that 1 sec JA delay window if there's other DDs with HasteII/Marches.


Stardiver is very inconsistent in Incursion, it average ~3-5k depending on Angon, although sometimes I get inexplicable 10ks. Att is very important, so GEO makes or breaks stardiver's consistancy. That being said, as pointed out before, Camlann's is better for a variety of reasons; namely because it opens/closes light which works for Fudo/V.Smite.

Also on boss, with AM3 I like to:
Sekkanoki>Jump>High Jump> Camlann>Camlann>Fly High>High Jump>Camlanns>Jump> Camlanns> Jump> Camlann>High Jump Camlann etc

Get off a lot of light skillchains in that period of time if lucky on DA/TA procs on Jumps.