Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[EasymodeX]

Does Fracture have a duration of 30s or 18s? I had used 18s in my spreadsheet based on one source but I just saw another that had more detail, clarifying that the duration is changed to 30s after level 28. Is that right? If it's 30s then it is efficient.

Edit: Nevermind, that's the traited Fracture. Silly websites listing traited MRD values for DRG.

On a separate subject, I double checked and the TP regen is 60 per 3s, not 30, so yeah I'm guesstimating roughly 30 burn, 20 regen per second. 100 seconds of burn without Invig., 150s with. Only able to use about 75% of GCDs after you run dry.

Edit:

Apparently I can't make another post. So:

So I looked at the rotation in the OP in detail and it has 89% HT uptime (assuming HT does not buff itself, which is a safe-ish assumption based on the "snapshot" behavior for DOTs), 89% DE uptime, 89% CT uptime, and 80% PH uptime.


Another way to write your rotation is:

HT FR PH ID DE CT TT VT FT
HT FR PH TT VT FT ID DE CT
HT FR PH TT VT FT TT VT FT

The HT buff does not time neatly with the ID/DE/CT (herafter referred to as IDC combo or IDC), so you are using HT to anchor the rotation and shifting the IDC to accomodate the timing. The issue is that this full rotation does not overlap with itself. The third line of that rotation has no IDC sequence, because you used it at the "end" of the second line. The problem is that when you repeat this rotation, the first half of the "4th" line will not have the DE debuff or CT DOT, resulting in 89% uptime only.

Assuming we stick to strict-ish 2.5s GCDs (e.g. no/low skill speed), I drafted a rotation based on using IDC as the anchor (because it's the largest and most awkward part of the sequence):

IDC HT ttt PH ttt HT
IDC PH ttt HT ttt PH

This is a 2-line rotation that's anchored by IDC, and alternates HT-PH-HT with PH-HT-PH. This results in 100% uptime for DE, PH, HT, and CT. The "ttt" refers to the True/Vorpal/Full Thrust combo filler. The main difference in my rotation is that the staggered HT/PH and PH/HT allows the HT-PH 20-second timing to interleave with the IDC 30-second timing without conflict. The problem is that the rotation is susceptible to clipping the CT DOT (everything else doesn't matter much) if you have any skill speed because it is exactly 100% uptime (this is a bad thing). The solution to that is some combination of "use Jump before CT" or "use off-GCD buffs before CT" or simply stutter the CT by a half second (make sure CT ticks down to 1.xx before you press the button). The other issue is that with a lot of skill speed the whole rotation's borked because it's pretty tight.

[Ayvar]

Does Fracture have a duration of 30s or 18s? I had used 18s in my spreadsheet based on one source but I just saw another that had more detail, clarifying that the duration is changed to 30s after level 28. Is that right? If it's 30s then it is efficient.

It's an 18s duration, but I find it's better to think in terms of potency. Both Fracture and Phlebotomize have a 120 potency DoT (18/3*20), and Chaos Thrust has a 200 potency DoT.

[xyaie]

Does Fracture have a duration of 30s or 18s? I had used 18s in my spreadsheet based on one source but I just saw another that had more detail, clarifying that the duration is changed to 30s after level 28. Is that right? If it's 30s then it is efficient.

Edit: Nevermind, that's the traited Fracture. Silly websites listing traited MRD values for DRG.

On a separate subject, I double checked and the TP regen is 60 per 3s, not 30, so yeah I'm guesstimating roughly 30 burn, 20 regen per second. 100 seconds of burn without Invig., 150s with. Only able to use about 75% of GCDs after you run dry.

Ahh. 60 every 3 sounds much better to me

Ayvar (multi-quoting sucks from my phone) arr you sure? I thought ours had a 160 base potency to fracture's 100. Not posative.

[Ayvar]

Ayvar (multi-quoting sucks from my phone) arr you sure? I thought ours had a 160 base potency to fracture's 100. Not posative.

By "ours" do you mean Phlebotomize? If so I am quite sure, it's 170 initial potency with a 20 potency DoT over 18s

http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Phlebotomize

[Narcariel]

Ahh. 60 every 3 sounds much better to me

Ayvar (multi-quoting sucks from my phone) arr you sure? I thought ours had a 160 base potency to fracture's 100. Not posative.

Phlebotomize has 170 base potency and Fracture has 100. However, he was referring to their DoT potency only, which are equal at 20/sec for 18sec (120 total).

[Ayvar]

So I looked at the rotation in the OP in detail and it has 89% HT uptime (assuming HT does not buff itself, which is a safe-ish assumption based on the "snapshot" behavior for DOTs), 89% DE uptime, 89% CT uptime, and 80% PH uptime.


Another way to write your rotation is:

HT FR PH ID DE CT TT VT FT
HT FR PH TT VT FT ID DE CT
HT FR PH TT VT FT TT VT FT

The HT buff does not time neatly with the ID/DE/CT (herafter referred to as IDC combo or IDC), so you are using HT to anchor the rotation and shifting the IDC to accomodate the timing. The issue is that this full rotation does not overlap with itself. The third line of that rotation has no IDC sequence, because you used it at the "end" of the second line. The problem is that when you repeat this rotation, the first half of the "4th" line will not have the DE debuff or CT DOT, resulting in 89% uptime only.

Assuming we stick to strict-ish 2.5s GCDs (e.g. no/low skill speed), I drafted a rotation based on using IDC as the anchor (because it's the largest and most awkward part of the sequence):

IDC HT ttt PH ttt HT
IDC PH ttt HT ttt PH

This is a 2-line rotation that's anchored by IDC, and alternates HT-PH-HT with PH-HT-PH. This results in 100% uptime for DE, PH, HT, and CT. The "ttt" refers to the True/Vorpal/Full Thrust combo filler. The main difference in my rotation is that the staggered HT/PH and PH/HT allows the HT-PH 20-second timing to interleave with the IDC 30-second timing without conflict. The problem is that the rotation is susceptible to clipping the CT DOT (everything else doesn't matter much) if you have any skill speed because it is exactly 100% uptime (this is a bad thing). The solution to that is some combination of "use Jump before CT" or "use off-GCD buffs before CT" or simply stutter the CT by a half second (make sure CT ticks down to 1.xx before you press the button). The other issue is that with a lot of skill speed the whole rotation's borked because it's pretty tight.

I had considered this rotation before initially posting, but it runs into two main issues that made me decide against it. First let's compare how much extra damage you receive from complete uptime of HT/Disembowel vs. the slightly lower uptime of my own rotation, it's always best to consider potency and I'll use your notation to keep things simple.

Mine:

HFP IDC TTT
170-110/132-187/132-198-242-193/220-181-242-363

HFP TTT IDC
187-121/132-205/132-181-242-363-217-242-193/220

HFP TTT TTT
187-121/132-205/132-181-242-363-181-242-363

The Heavy Thrust buff falls off prior to its reapplication, as does the Disembowel prior to its own, which has been accounted for in the potency numbers. You also have to add on an extra two moves (so 29 moves total) for coming back to the beginning of the rotation as the initial Heavy Thrust and Fracture are now buffed by Disembowel, so +187-121/132 . Now the same treatment for yours:

Yours:

IDC H TTT P TTT H
180-220-176/200-187-181-242-363-205/132-181-242-363-205

IDC P TTT H TTT P
217-266-193/220-205/132-181-242-363-205-181-242-363-205/132

And then +217-266-193/220-205 for coming back to the start as these moves are now buffed by the end of the previous rotation (so 28 moves total). In total potency per second mine produces 109.1 potency/s (7594/69.6s) and yours produces 111.9 (7525/67.2).

So the potency is extremely close. This resolves our first issue, which is that you don't actually obtain any more damage by sacrificing Fracture for increased buff uptime. You could argue for increased autoattack damage in the very brief downtime of the buffs, but I doubt this would account for much extra damage.

The second issue is that the first rotation benefits from (1) boss downtime (such as moving out of AE) since you have more DoT damage ticking (MORE DOTS), and (2) it gets significantly better as we acquire more skill speed. As you remarked, the second rotation gets worse with added skill speed (which is inevitable given the future of the game), and since there are only two DoTs being applied instead of three, it starts falling behind as soon as you spend any time away from whatever you are hitting.

However, it deeply warms my heart to see people taking the dragoon moveset and trying to optimize it in ways I may not have thought of. I've been really pleased by how this thread has progressed (compared to say the "lol who is best dps" thread) and I've referred back to everyone's comments continually for useful information. So thank you all, let's keep doing the job that we love (no matter where we might fall on some unknown parse) and optimizing it in every way that we can!