NIN FCoB DPS plea for assistance

Good evening. I am rather tired as of right now, so the post might not be the tidiest one, so pray forgive me for that.

I've been doing FCoB for about 3-4 weeks since I came back with a group that miraculously happened to need a melee dps, spoke spanish, and was nice enough to let me in their static. However, after doing some research...

...It seems the range of the average NIN on any of the instances of FCoB is around 450-500, and that talking about around IL115. Well, I am a IL123 NIN, and at the training dummy of my FC house I deal around 515 DPS sustained for 4 minutes, while on FCoB, specially today on T10... It hardly goes ever beyond 420.

Now, I don't want to write a long essay about how I looked up everything and tried to deal with it, so I'll make a list of stuff I've done so far:

-Getting re-used to my rotation? Check.
-Sharpening my opener? Check.
-Use AutoAttack? Check. I put Standard Camera mode on for that very reason.
-Leveled LNC and PGL? Check.
-Keep B4B and IR on cooldown? Check.
-Use Invigorate when at 560 TP? Check.
-Use Shukuchi? Check.
-Apply/Maintain my DoTs/Debuffs? Check.
-Use off GCD abilities? Check.
-Try not to drop mudras when doing Huton > Suiton > Raiton? Check. Though yes, I do fail sometimes, but usually I try to make the best of it.
-Use trick attack with B4B/IR? Most of the time. I also make sure that Dancing Edge is on to launch the buttsecks, and do Spinning Edge to give me time to use up a buff to do Trick Attack.
-Kassatsu? Check.
-Accuracy? Check.
-Food? Check.

-DEX Potion and poison potion? Not yet. I want to improve the DPS I can deal on my own first before going on to those.
-Learn mechanics of every boss? Check, I'm right now trying to learn T12 though.
-Have a good connection/VPN? Nope. I have only a 20mb internet contract, of which only a half and a bit more actually comes to me, and I believe that I shouldn't have to pay up a VPN to be a good NIN.
-Have a good computer? Yes, the game runs smoothly even with good quality graphics.
-Train everyday? At the dummy, yes, whenever my student time allows me to.

It needs to be said that, whenever I have to do a Mudra, if it's a Fuuma Shuriken, it barely makes it to the CGD timer to continue my rotation. If it's Raiton/Katon, my attacks must stop for a brief moment. If it's Suiton/Huton/Doton, then my attack stops for several seconds, around 3 seconds, not enough to reset my rotation. I don't know if the Eu servers still are located in Canada or whatever, but last time I tried to ping to the IP direction, it gave me 71ms, so I don't think the lag is to blame.

It is also worth mencioning that I get nervous easily, given my "special mental situation", let's call it. Usually when I get nervous, while I try to focus on one task, I'm unable to remember the process of the other task. So then I admit; If at the moment I'm focusing on evading every mechanic launched at me, I might forget to reapply my Huton or DoTs, keep using Dancing Edge, use Huton earlier (These two as some kind of self assurance). But then again, in T10 and T11 is not the usual, though I still get nervous.

I've already researched around Google and Reddit about possible performances that could be done, asked several people in and out of the game about the issue, did a lot of tries and tests, even began to get special aid related to my mental issue and nervousism. Yet, I still can't reach the acceptable DPS. If this keeps up, I'm going to be raidless again, and struggle to get through everything again, like with SCoB... And boy do I want to prevent that from happening ever again.

If you excuse me, I'll go try to get some sleep, since I wasn't able to, trying to find useful information... If there's anything that can piss me off enough to ignore sleeping, is being unable to play videogames when it's the best I can do, and I cannot figure why.

Thank you very much for your assistance. And my apologies for the several posts. I had to get beyond the 1k character limit somehow.

Could you upload a video of you doing your rotation?

Off the top of my head, I can suggest you to use some VPN.
You are right, you should not have to pay for it, but it actually helps a lot.
More over, if you're European, you are playing on a server that's in Canada, so yeah. You'd be paying for them being cheap, but it's even more worth it. Not to mention the plenty of times the infrastructure (not SE's, just the internet infrastructure) has issues, which happens quite often. A VPN often helps you avoid such issues.

Also, practicing the fight over and over is immensely helpful, and your DPS will improve as time goes on.

Plus, having a Warrior off-tank placing the combo so that you don't have to is quite helpful aswell.

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Originally Posted by FyrmurlFloerasksyn

Could you upload a video of you doing your rotation?

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I'll try to upload a video today.

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Originally Posted by Kadas

I can suggest you to use some VPN.
You are right, you should not have to pay for it, but it actually helps a lot.
More over, if you're European, you are playing on Canada, so yeah. You'd be paying for them being cheap, but it's even more worth it. Not to mention the plenty of times the infrastructure (not SE's, just the internet infrastructure) has issues quite often. A VPN often helps you avoid such issues.

Practicing the fight is immensely helpful, and your DPS will improve as time goes on.

Having a Warrior off-tank placing the combo so that you don't have to is quite helpful aswell.

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Sadly, all of that is beyond my control. People won't wait for me to practice fights over and over until I'm completely melded with them, neither internet seems to be a huge factor on DPS, given by what I've researched so far.

Internet is not usually a factor for other jobs, but as a Ninja it makes much of a difference, as you're supposed to squeeze in mudras inbetween GCDs, so the faster you are without making mistakes, the more DPS you will deal by the end of the fight.

Im unable to record any video here for the time being, even though I would like to show what do I do.

But I insist; I'm doing all I can and more, but it's still not enough. What is left to be done?

It sounds like the pressure of the situation is getting to you. Messing up your rotation, letting huton fall off, dropping mudra combos - All of these things can have substantial impacts to your overall DPS.

The best thing you can do is practice. Practice your rotation so much that you can do it without looking at your hotbars. Practice it so much that you can do it without looking at your screen at all. Learn the timing so that it becomes muscle memory. Your "mental issue" causes you to have trouble focusing on 2 things at once right? In FCoB you have to focus on both your rotation and the fight mechanics. So try and learn your rotation so well that you don't have to think about it any more and can focus on the fight at hand.

FCoB is meant to be stressful. It is meant to test your multi-tasking ability. It is meant to be difficult. Practice hard on the dummy and it will pay off.

I do not doubt that practicing might help. However, it is not 100% sure that I'll be on par with most ninjas and melee DPS if I practice more and more at the dummy right? Since so far, I haven't seen positive results, the DPS improvements I got over the 3 weeks are just result of my gear improvement, and I don't want to give effort to something that's just not working for me.

If I wasn't limited by time, it'd be a bit different, but yeah, since I'm foreseeing the worst scenario posible coming, I'm afraid I won't be able to clear T13 for Heavensward if this keeps up.

You mentioned that you're item level 123, but what level is your weapon? What are your Crit & Det values? What food do you use, if any? What does your opener look like?

There are a ton of factors that contribute to DPS.

I don't believe your connection is the issue here. I play with anywhere between 50-80ms ping just fine.

And, If you haven't already, take a look at this thread.

I use Diamond Daggers. As for food, whenever I need accuracy, I eat up Lava Toads Legs that give accuracy and critical hit rate. On other cases, I eat Black Truffle Rissotos. Both of them Hq, of course.

I already saw part of that thread, it doesn't seem able to solve my specific issue.

I honestly have a hard time choosing my openers. I know there are 2 viable methods; Begin the battle 15 seconds after Huton to take advantage of an early+buffed trick attack, or to start right as you cast Huton, throwing in all the cooldowns. However, our raid tank (Raid that, by the way, as I feared, just broke up...) would randomly rush in, even if told to wait, at unexpected times. I choose either one to the situation.

My critical hit rate is 458 and my determination is 351. My Skill Speed is 446, and my attackpower/DEX is 625. Accuracy is as low as 498, but that's solved on T10 and T11 with food. I've seen a thing or two about weight values, but I don't know what all that is about...

Considering your weapon, you're really not that far behind. I think I was parsing 530 (no pot/food/party) on dummies with i115 Nexus, but it was nearly full Crit/Det whereas Diamond Daggers don't provide anything but SS and Acc.

I'd recommend trading some of that skill speed for crit and a bit of accuracy when you can though. For Ninja, you don't really want more than 420ish skill speed. The reasoning here is that, while it will increase damage output, it's the lowest weighted stat and burns up your TP in any normal-length fight. Crit is good, but in the end it's RNG. Determination, however, will always give you results. Weapon Damage trumps all though, and by a huge margin.

It's hard to say for sure what, if anything, is wrong here without seeing you play, but there are no glaring issues in what you've posted.

It sounds to me like more experience is what's needed, not just in Coil, but with Ninja in general. I'm sustaining around 580 in T11 now with my Zodiac, and that's only possible due to the ins and outs I've learned while playing Ninja since patch 2.4. Did you know, for any duty with a super-fast start (Garuda HM for instance), you can cast Huton before you even enter the instance? It's little things like that, the timing of your healer's buffs, or how your tanks pull that you learn through experience and use to your advantage.

Learn your opener on dummies, practice it in duties, always look for advantages and never stop learning.

I find myself unable to do any more improvement to my equipment, since I just lost my job here, so to say, so for the time being, I can't replace anything.

I must say, though, thatwhile I thank all of these tips, informative stuff (Well, I didnt know you could Huton right before entering an instance, and I just learnt a few days ago Dancing Edge doesn't affect the damage on DoTs), I am honestly thick-headed: I cannot see in this very moment how practicing and learning more is going to drastically change my DPS by +100. I mean, I've said repeated times I did what I could this past month, and it still doesn't seem enough.

To me, it's like a fairy tale.

Nothing is going to "drastically change" your DPS except a higher ilvl weapon. I should have clarified. Cleaning up your opener, lining up DoTs with Buffs, and exploiting any advantages will net you small gains which can add up over time. 515 is decent enough dps for Diamond Daggers, but you should be closer to 525~ I would think. It's only 10-15 DPS, not 100.

If you want to improve, practice. The only person who can truly help you is you. If you can't push your opener/rotation any further and you're truly doing the best you can with what you have, then don't stress. There's no sense in worrying about what you can't change.

The reason I worry is because there are a lot more melee DPS better than I am, which raid groups would prefer over me. A harsh truth; people wants results, not effort. Everyone's going to give me the nay since others can provide better results. By the time I finish polishing myself, it might be too late.

Editing a post will allow you to break through the 1k words limitation per post, if you want to post something long.

Practice all the things you do at the dummy in heavy AoE instances, its not like you do Coil all the time, right?

Your auto attacks? if u are not strafing when spreading for lightning etc, ur dps drops, a lot. For adds that are going down in <20s, don't dot, use Dancing Edge and whack away.

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Originally Posted by Kuinu

The reason I worry is because there are a lot more melee DPS better than I am, which raid groups would prefer over me. A harsh truth; people wants results, not effort. Everyone's going to give me the nay since others can provide better results. By the time I finish polishing myself, it might be too late.

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I would say that is because most melees at this point have either an upgraded ironwork or zodiark if not even zeta weapon. A Diamond weapon surely is sufficient for fcob but its obviously not giving you as much dps as those other weapons.

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Originally Posted by ChaozK

I would say that is because most melees at this point have either an upgraded ironwork or zodiark if not even zeta weapon. A Diamond weapon surely is sufficient for fcob but its obviously not giving you as much dps as those other weapons.

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While I understand that the weapon I use is not the best around, I'm at a loss of what am I supposed to do. Does it suffice with training and trying to gear up, or is there something else?

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Originally Posted by Kuinu

While I understand that the weapon I use is not the best around, I'm at a loss of what am I supposed to do. Does it suffice with training and trying to gear up, or is there something else?

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Well you cant really do much more else rotationwise, if you want substantially higher dps at this point you will have to strive for a better weapon. So you can either accept that your dps will be somewhat lower than others until heavensward comes out or farm your relic weapon or try to get your ironwork via t11.

Like everyone else has stated.. Keep calm memorize your rotations and don't worry so much. I'm ilvl121 ninja using diamond daggers also.new patch gives carbontwine for beating the 3 towers once a week. Grab one and get Ironworks daggers.

Practice, practice, practice.

It took me almost a month to go from 470 to 560 DPS on a dummy. (Includes a few upgrades though i119-i124)

Even in FCOB I'm not doing great though. 470 DPS usually for most fights.

I don't play melee so I only just started to play around. I'm SMN main.

Biggest adjustment for me was to stay on the boss as close to 100% as I can. Dodging around the boss and not away from it.

Memorizing your rotation is extremely important. From what I can see there are three different rotations going on.

Dots
Mudra
Main Combos

You need to be so comfortable at knowing where you are in each rotation for swapping mobs because while your main combo and dots will change your Mudra rotation is mostly static.

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Originally Posted by Socomlord

Like everyone else has stated.. Keep calm memorize your rotations and don't worry so much. I'm ilvl121 ninja using diamond daggers also.new patch gives carbontwine for beating the 3 towers once a week. Grab one and get Ironworks daggers.

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Now, if I could get myself an encrypted allagan tomestone for that...

It only drops at T11 though...

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Originally Posted by Kuinu

It only drops at T11 though...

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I would guess that they are adding the encrypted tomestone to WoD when the part 2 from the patch comes, so hang in there.

I myself am a monk, ilvl 119ish with only the soldiery weapon (i110) but have the relic in progress, cause it was said having it done gives you some bonus for the next relic when we get it (with the expansion I'd assume) But as I changed from smn just a month ago haven't had time to complete it.

But with practising alot on my monk I've gotten to 480 dps on T10, beating our blm on dps and total dmg done by quite a marging (he has i125 weapon) Just wanted to give an example of, why practising is mentioned alot. Just practice everything you can, if you find yourself failing something in the rotation, or opener concentrate on getting that done properly. I was a ninja for a moment and I gotta say, not an easy job to maximise in a month (played approximately 1 month at lv50, monk was easier, for me atleast)

Shameless Self Plug. Here is a link to a video of a moderately high dummy attempt that I've done. This shows the rotation and a good opener that you could use (and yes, I am aware of how absoultely crazy the opener looks).

Another thing to Learn is, in fights like T10, t11, t12, you want to learn how to use the boss' positioning to your advantage - T10 - never get into charges unless you need to. T11 - Predictively move to the opposite side of the boss after a side nerve gas. T12 Learn how to maximize moving away from the boss when you get blue fire, or how to essentially stay on the boss with Redfire.

In General try to keep a 45 degree on the boss (or an add) at all times, and you'll do decent DPS alone - because of autoattacks.