Am I doing something wrong as a dragoon or am I just looking at it wrong

So I have played dragoon since I started a few months ago. I am now ilvl 81 and feeling really underpowered. The way I see it is my rotation matters most on bosses trash mobs are just time and I just can't get in a good or well full rotation. The 3 jump skills stop you from moving making you easy to hit by aoes this can be solved with timing but finding the right timing can also stop a rotation or just lower dps quite a bit. Am I missing something or what. :(

Have you taken a look at the "A Rotation Reborn" thead? Also I've found this to be an excellent compilation and explanation of DRG info: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...kL2IClCQ/edit#

What is your current rotation?

in a perfect world Heavy Thrust, Leg Sweep, Phlebotomize, Feint(if it works at the time), Impulse Drive and combo skills for it, Internal Release, Blood for Blood, True Thrust, Power Surge, Vorpal Thrust, Jump, Full Thrust, Spineshatter Dive, Heavy Thrust, Dragonfire Dive

I get my rotation down more or less 65%-75% of the time though that's not counting in times when its interrupted.

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Originally Posted by SirVos

in a perfect world Heavy Thrust, Leg Sweep, Phlebotomize, Feint(if it works at the time), Impulse Drive and combo skills for it, Internal Release, Blood for Blood, True Thrust, Power Surge, Vorpal Thrust, Jump, Full Thrust, Spineshatter Dive, Heavy Thrust, Dragonfire Dive

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Do not use Feint. Unless it is absolutely crucial to inflict slow for some reason, BLM do it better with Lethargy. Otherwise it is a DPS loss and it will not mesh well with the DRG rotation.

A quick view of the base rotation is:

Heavy Thrust -> Impulse Drive -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust ->
Phlebotomize -> True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust ->
Heavy Thrust -> True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust ->
Phlebotomize -> Impulse Drive -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust ->
Heavy Thrust -> True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust ->
Phlebotomize -> True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust
(Repeat Rotation)

Now I know this seems long, but there is actually a pattern there I find makes it easier.

You'll notice that you will alternate Heavy Thrust and Phlebotomize between combos.
Also there are 2 "True, Vorpal, Full" combos after each "Impulse, Dis, Chaos". That is because it gives your Disembowl debuff and Chaos DoT their full durations without clipping them.

Your "Off global cooldown" skills get weaved between.

Some additional notes:
- It is best to use Life Surge on Full Thrust. (There are situations where using it on Chaos and Full can be an increase, but atm stick to using it on Full)
- Only use Power Surge on Jump, not Spine Shatter. (Not saying you aren't, but worth mentioning for any others who are new to DRG as well.)
- It is usually best to use jump after your first Chaos Thrust in your opener since you can guarantee you will have you Disembowel Piercing bonus when it goes off.

Watch dervy video case close. He gives a fine point on the drg rotation for both burst and when ogcd r down.

you owe this heaven guy a huge thank you for this, this is an example of a great rotation, i personaly like to have phleeb up as much as possible so i usually HT / PS / Phleeb / jump. but thats just me, for all i know it costs me dps but im usually top of the hate list so i doubt it. it took me alot of practice and experience to get the rotation that heaven just listed. dude hooked you up. hopefully you scrapped your orginal rotaion and started working on this asap. good luck to you.

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Originally Posted by SirVos

So I have played dragoon since I started a few months ago. I am now ilvl 81 and feeling really underpowered. :(

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One small note on this. If you are only ilvl81, then you are going to be very undergeared compared to the majority of people in the game. I am assuming you have an ilvl90 weapon? If this is the case, then your damage output as DRG will be VERY low compared to other classes. I would not expect more than 250ish DPS with that weapon. By comparison, sitting in all i110 gear with the i110 Liberator weapon, you should be easily capable of 400+ DPS if you use the rotation that was given above and time your CD's correctly. The reason for this massive DPS difference is because weapons make up the single largest contribution to damage output. This is due to how weapon damage is calculated as a stat. But basically, adding 1 weapon damage is equivalent to adding over 9 strength from gear!

So basically, start working on your weapons ASAP. Getting an i100 liberator is very very fast (only need 1300 soldiery and 1 tomestone from ST). And getting to the i110 liberator only takes one sand of time drop (also from ST). Make that your focus, and you will start feeling stronger and stronger soon.

important to note that unweathered liberator, while not terrible, is one of the poorest weapons to choose form so replacing it should be a priority once you start really pushing to raise your dps. Ideally you will finish up with a diamond or High allagan lance till you get that coveted longinus or the dreadwyrm spear. but even with liberator you will notice a VAST improvement.

Since nobody mentioned it, you use doom spike on 3+ trash. Don't single target them until you're running low on TP. Always wait for the tank to set up before starting, this allows extra TP regen between pulls.

HT->RoT->Doom Spike->Doom Spike->Doom Spike
Just refresh HT as needed, memorize pulls to know when you need to hold back on TP for future encounters, and slip B4B/IR in there if you feel you need to burn them faster.

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Originally Posted by Frozenbear

important to note that unweathered liberator, while not terrible, is one of the poorest weapons to choose form so replacing it should be a priority once you start really pushing to raise your dps. Ideally you will finish up with a diamond or High allagan lance till you get that coveted longinus or the dreadwyrm spear. but even with liberator you will notice a VAST improvement.

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In his case, the 110 liberator will be a massive upgrade for him. Sure the stats on it are garbage (all that skill speed, ugh) but it is by far the best (and easiest to obtain) weapon available to more casual players. The Diamond Spear and HA spear require Extreme Primal and SCoB Completion. Those 2 are normally not done by more casual players. The best weapon available for casual players is the Longinus, but the time commitment required to get that weapon is so high that the Liberator should be his weapon till he gets there.

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Originally Posted by Tex_Mex

In his case, the 110 liberator will be a massive upgrade for him. Sure the stats on it are garbage (all that skill speed, ugh) but it is by far the best (and easiest to obtain) weapon available to more casual players. The Diamond Spear and HA spear require Extreme Primal and SCoB Completion. Those 2 are normally not done by more casual players. The best weapon available for casual players is the Longinus, but the time commitment required to get that weapon is so high that the Liberator should be his weapon till he gets there.

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Shiva is not difficult though.

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Originally Posted by CGMidlander

Shiva is not difficult though.

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I did not comment on the difficulty of Shiva EX, just on the fact that most casual players do not do EX primals. Casual players get things like soldiery gear, poetics gear (no weapon until tomestone drop is incorporated into WoD), and zodiac weapons, since these only require content that is easily completed.

Also remember that Shiva EX is locked behind 3 other EX primals, most of which are significantly more difficult than Shiva is. If he plans to be a raider, or to get into a static, then he can consider weapons outside of the casual realm.

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Originally Posted by Tex_Mex

In his case, the 110 liberator will be a massive upgrade for him. Sure the stats on it are garbage (all that skill speed, ugh) but it is by far the best (and easiest to obtain) weapon available to more casual players. The Diamond Spear and HA spear require Extreme Primal and SCoB Completion. Those 2 are normally not done by more casual players. The best weapon available for casual players is the Longinus, but the time commitment required to get that weapon is so high that the Liberator should be his weapon till he gets there.

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yes, agreed, still worth getting, that 110 will blow his mind the first time he runs with it ^.^

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Originally Posted by Frozenbear

yes, agreed, still worth getting, that 110 will blow his mind the first time he runs with it ^.^

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haha! ya it is definitely not an awful weapon. Hell, due to REALLY back luck on Shiva EX (50+ clears, no spear drop),I cleared T10 and T11 with the liberator before getting a tomestone for the ironworks spear. It is easy enough to hit 400+ DPS with that weapon.

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Originally Posted by Tex_Mex

haha! ya it is definitely not an awful weapon. Hell, due to REALLY back luck on Shiva EX (50+ clears, no spear drop),I cleared T10 and T11 with the liberator before getting a tomestone for the ironworks spear. It is easy enough to hit 400+ DPS with that weapon.

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ouch! that hurts