[Feedback] DRG changes for 7.0 from the LXXXI PLL

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Originally Posted by HikariKurosawa

SSD is old and janky with bad sound design. DRAGONfire dive, "spineshatter dive" lol. The same people who talk about homogenization being a problem in this game will ask for two of the same abilities on one job.

But dfd is from 1.21?

Homogenisation is a problem where eg scholar and sage (two different jobs) have so many interchangeable skills and little differentiation that they may as well be animation swaps, not when a job is leaning into its own established niche.

I'm getting 5.4 MNK vibes from the changes, but I'm kinda weary. I think it's gonna really hinge on how often you enter Life windows. Maybe Geirskogul's cooldown becomes 40 seconds to minimize the amount of downtime between windows.

Now that we know the extent of the changes due to the media tour, we can further comment on the points outlined in the OP:

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Originally Posted by Aco505

1. Eye management being gone greatly reduces overall optimization and flexibility options for DRG.

Life of the Dragon has become more streamlined for casual players of the job but at the same time more rigid, as drifting due to player mistakes will incur greater DPS losses. The inherent GSK drift has been eliminated though, which is good.

Additionally, our gauge is pretty empty now compared to the other DPS jobs. Eyes should be returned to the gauge in some shape or form in the future.

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Originally Posted by Aco505

2. LotD should last 30s so that we can keep some flexibility when it comes to burst in encounters with downtime.

With LotD becoming another personal 15% buff, GSK having a 60s cooldown and LotD lasting 20s is logical due to balance reasons.

Allowing the use of 3 NAS within 20s is a welcome change (particularly in level 70 content) yet also strange, as it basically turns LotD into an oGCD Enshroud but without the ability to end the state.

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Originally Posted by Aco505

3. The DRG kit now feels disconnected. More actions just deal damage and have little synergy between them.

This remains true: only GSK, Life Surge and Wyrmwind Thrust are connected with other actions in some way.

Consider having Mirage Dive give a scale per use so that we can have some extra interaction in our kit. Additionally, increase the maximum amount of scales from 2 to 3 and keep WWT's cost the same while reducing its CD to 5 seconds.

This way, Mirage Dive will be less awkward after losing its key role in our rotation.

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Originally Posted by Aco505

4. The reduction of positionals after simplifying the job's main gauge feels unnecessary.

I still think this is the case, especially since the filler phase is less involved now. Having the new 5th GCD Drakesbane getting positional status would help with this.

However, fitting True North (as well as Feint and Sprint) in 120s bursts might become a problem again whether we have 30% or 50% of our GCDs as positionals due to the high amount of weaving we will have to do and because DRG is the only melee job in the game that doesn't have extra GCDs in the rotation to move or delay positionals around.

One solution is giving either LotD or Battle Litany the True North effect that Dragon Sight had or to have Drakesbane alone become omnidirectional during our buffs. The aforementioned TN issue mentioned earlier would remain but at least we'd have some extra thinking to do between bursts.

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Originally Posted by Aco505

5. Make Raiden Thrust and Draconian Fury full permanent upgrades to True Thrust and Doom Spike.

We still have True Thrust and Doom Spike at max level. Why not have the scales be granted by Drakesbane instead so that those two actions can be permanently upgraded past level 76 and 82?

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Originally Posted by Aco505

6. Make Dragon Sight an upgrade to Lance Charge so that we keep the visual of the former.

Lance Charge's animation should be combined with the swirling dragon from Dragon Sight around the DRG so that we get to keep the cooler vfx and more thematic ability. It'd all remain exactly the same game play wise (i. e. a personal 60s buff).

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Originally Posted by Aco505

7. Being able to use LotD in the opener is appreciated, but I think it's more detrimental to the job than good.

This point has not changed: consider revising this for 8.0 to recover and preserve job identity.

Not every job needs to have the exact same damage profiles or have access to every single resource from the start. Building up to our damage was an enjoyable element of the job, and not having LotD in the opener wasn't always an issue due to the existence of double, delayed or rushed LotD windows.

Additionally, one of the most fun things DRG could do was stack our gauges in duties were we could, such as Alliance raids, dungeons or the second part of the fourth floor of a Savage tier, whereas now the only thing we can accumulate beforehand are the scales.

Closing thoughts

In the end, most of the points I made in the OP are still true although several of the changes to DRG in Dawntrail are quite strange. Everything that was communicated did not happen and burst windows are still as packed as they were.

The third NAS in buffs is appreciated and our 1-minute bursts are strengthened but at the cost of an emptier filler and a lower potential for damage optimization due to having no gauge to stack or manage.

LotD became more streamlined but the job also lost any flexibility it had while becoming more rigid at the same time. It's all a bit contradictory.

All in all, I love the fact that it's still quite busy during burst because that's what I personally like but at the same time I wish we had more interaction in our kit besides actions just dealing damage when pressed. Mirage Dive should get something to account for the role it lost.

However, DRG has basically lost all of its optimization now and will feel quite similar regardless of the content played due to the lack of a gauge and the loss of options such as double, delayed or rushed LotD windows. This should be fixed in the future: jobs should have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling to appeal to both casuals and veterans.

Please, consider this feedback for 7.x and beyond!

I feel like Dragon sight could have been reworked into something similar to DP but obviously less potent and not always active (I personally liked Buffing someone with dragoon I know it's not important to most people though).

If Dragon sight became a Upgrade for "lance charge" they could have added a additional skill (for the sake of it I'm just going to call it "battle bond"), Where your selected target would benefit from the new "dragon sight" It could also tie in certain effects such as any "defensives" Dragoon could have got (which I don't believe they did get any lol), or even second winds/blooth baths effect could be given through Battle bond; Maybe it would be at 50% of the power to keep it in line with current dragon sight.

Imo it's a shame that they're removing a target buff, I think target buffs are actually cool and more interesting then 120 raid buffs... Ast is also getting less buffing aspects; I guess if you wanna buff a friend your option is Dancer and only dancer lol.

Honestly I always felt as if DRG was the "support melee" job, it filled a niche that was unique to itself with Dragon Sight so I'm sad to see it go.
I understand that it may have been finicky for some but they could've fixed that if they made a Dance Partner analogue on DRG and had the Dragon Sight effect apply when you hit Battle Litany as then you remove how finicky it was, remove the need for macros, and remove button bloat all in one.

Instead they axed it and compensated by increasing DRG personal damage (which still needs buffs, it's the second worst melee RDPS in the game now, right near current NIN). I would've liked if they at least kept the spirit of buffing team mates around more beyond Battle Litany, a skill that certainly exists but the effectiveness of each use is wildly impacted by RNG.