Always forget my DRG rotation in raids

I'd like to think I know how to play my class. My problem though is that I always fall off my rotation in FFXIV, and from my experience I can never salvage it. I always forget to add jumps where I'm supposed to or add damage buffs when I should, and all around I turn into a really terrible melee dps. I'm starting to feel like the raiding scene isn't for me, even though it's what a bunch of my friends in my FC are doing, and I wanna run stuff with them and feel like I'm actually contributing, not when this is happening. And I thought I had made good strides after developing the muscle memory to do my rotation, when it completely falls apart in raids like Rabanastre. I already got called out for not doing enough dps in Jade Stoa EX. I'm afraid I'll just get left behind.

Any advice?

Reroll to a tank. They're always in need, have much simpler rotation and most ppl won't expect super big numbers. I started as PLD back in HW and only in 4.2 switched for DPS class. Tanking was much easier and you will contribute w/o jumping off your pants.

Keep practicing, play the job/class you enjoy most. Nobody will perform super great on the first few attempts. Once you get more familiar with the fights you would naturally get better numbers and less likely to mess up or drop your rotations.

I'm not too different when I do o7s when I die to prey into ink mechanic because of not getting healed, I tend to tilt and mess up my whole rotation and stuff for mch at least for the next minute.

All in all, don't give up and always give your best.

If it feels like frustration instead of fun, switch class. I have leveled DRG to max and don't play it either for pretty much these reasons.
Personaly I wish Squeenix would take a hatchet to DRG buttonbloat, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

For example Black Mage is much more about reactions to procs and decision-making, then keeping alive endlesly long rotations and buffs/debuffs - so that might suit you better.
As I understand, the RDM or SAM are also more accessible.

PS: you mentioned Rabanastre - the fights like Hashmal and Rofocale are notorious, because both bosses tend to become untargetable VERY often, leading to rotation problems for many DPS classes.
Luckily, Raba isn't a dps check, unless you happen upon very undergeared raidmates, so it doesnt matter much.

Whenever I get a new job to 70 I like to go to Stone Sky Sea (or whatever it's called, the dummy testing area near Rhalghr's Reach) and just look up/try out some rotations for an hour or so. By the 30 minute mark it's already all muscle memory. Obviously you don't have to do this for half an hour straight, just repeat it until you're comfortable doing it with your eyes closed (so to speak, lol). I remember I couldn't for the life of me get my Monk rotation down, then I just set aside some time to practise and now it's second nature.

Another tip I could give is to put your important buffs/jumps on your screen where it's clearly visible. I personally don't do this because my hotbar is very consistent (for example, I like to put big damage CDs like Jump or Elixir Field on F, damage-up GCDs like Heavy Thrust/Twin Snakes/Hot Shot on V, etc.), which is another tip if you're playing multiple jobs, to put similar skills on familiar hotkeys. Hopefully that makes sense, and good luck with your rotations!

You need to learn your rotation like breathing, that's step one no matter what, we can't talk about muscle memory and such if you keep forgetting your rotation mid-way, this means you simply need to practice more, there is no other way around it, sadly... after that, it's all about practicing that particular fight, as many times as you need, different players have different time required, this isn't something to feel bad about, if you're dedicated to the class/game and you want certain results you will eventually get them if you keep at it!

Once you get the fight down, you will understand how greedy you can be, how long can you wait before moving out/in, when you need to land a certain skill to not make your rotation fall off/overlap, when it's optimal to stacks buffs with your party and things like that.

This is true for every DPS and like, every other role, no matter how easier their rotation is compared to other ones.
For example, I started as DRG and then went to SAM with Stormblood because I liked the concept and how easier it felt playing compared to DRG, now I'm back to DRG (mostly because SAMs are not really that much welcome in high-end duties nowadays but that's another story) but this wasn't an issue for me because I enjoy both styles/classes very much, and I regularly swaps them depending on need... but if you like your role/class then stick to it and keep practicing until you see results, sadly there is no magic formulae that will help you get big numbers or prevent you to not screw up mid-fight, it's all about constant repetition which is different for every player, depending on their own abilities/class difficulty.

I don't really like the suggestions about "go tank" because it feels quite ignorant, mostly because tanks have a huge role in high-end duties too, they have their own damage rotation, and if a party falls short on the damage hitting enrage isn't necessary all the dpsers fault, every little amount helps (hell, some tanks do a freaking lot of damage) so that is no excuse to slack off or do things randomly because "you're a tank, it's fine as long as you hit your damage reduction CD when needed". :)

Just try to find what class/role you enjoy the most right now and keep at it no matter the difficulties, you will find it that much rewarding once you will overcome certain hurdles. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aldagrate

Any advice?

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Go to the Sigmascape V1.0 Dummy and try to beat it with this rotations... (oGCDs/buffs will be marked in between attacks with parenthesis)

Heavy Thrust (battle litany + BoTD) --> Impulse drive (Blood for blood) --> Disembowel (Jump) --> Chaos Thrust (Geirskogul + Mirage Dive) --> Wheeling thrust (Spineshatter dive) --> Fang and claw (Mirage dive) --> True Thrust (Dragonfire Dive) --> Vorpal Thrust (Life Surge) --> Full Thrust --> Fang and Claw --> Wheeling Thrust --> Back to the beginning.

As you get deeper into the rotation, you will eventually revert back to the opener with all OGCDs (for the most part) ready to be used. Unless you are in a hardcore/super optimized group, you are going to want to use most things on cool down. However, you want to save spineshatter and dragonfire for certain instances where you are forced to lose uptime on the boss.

If you can do that on the dummy, while clearing it about 5 times with no mistakes, then you will be fine.

Also, as a side note, you cannot (at least to my knowledge) use dragon sight on the dummy. I usually use it as a double weave with Blood For Blood in the opener.

The reason that using the SSS dummy is so important is because as another poster said, your rotation needs to be like breathing. You need to know what the next attack in the sequence is without batting an eye. You also need to modify your oGCD weaves slightly depending on each fight.

Dont give up!

FYI: You can summon your Chocobo while battling the training dummy and have him just stand there in idle (no skills/auto attacks) so you can use Dragon Sight! :)

DRG rotation is pretty simple. HT > Chaos Thrust Combo > 4th + 5th > Full Thrust Combo > 4th + 5th > back to HT and repeat.

If you don't have the rotation down then it's simply because you haven't spent enough time on the dummy, so work on that. When not doing that, I suggest going through this DRG guide here:

It’s a Dragoon’s Life for Me

That more or less is actually the rotation I use now actually. Hardly get called out for not doing enough dps at all. I'm still learning a few things about O5S, like holding off on my nastrond to help aoe adds in the add phase and such, and don't even get me started on parts where you need to spread whirlwinds apart while getting tethered to ghosts, but baby steps.