Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[EasymodeX]

Chaos Thrust and Phlebotomize seem to be far and away the best attacks after which to use a "big" OGCD (Jumps). It's somewhat variable, but I've seen Jump clip like half the CT or PH animation. Like they only animate for a half second. They both result in very little "cost" for using the Jump (although it's still there). It's pretty extreme. Sometimes I even get worried that the damage of those 2 attacks didn't even land (but they do, you can see the big "+PHLEBOTOMIZE" debuff floating text) because so much is clipped.

Full Thrust is an ok backup -- better than most animations, but once you try out PH or CT for your jump, you'll want to use it on those every time.


In terms of macros, no sequence of multiple attacks are effectively macroable for Dragoons. First off, DRGs have no exclusive condition attacks (like Monks do for example). The only way to macro attacks is via the /wait command which is terrible for combat. Just say no. Don't.

However, what does work for macros are a few of the OGCDs.

I have 1 macro:

/macroicon "Full Thrust"
/ac "Full Thrust"
/ac "Life Surge" <me>

When I use Full Thrust, I mash the button so it uses LS during the OGCD before FT, then FT on the GCD.

Note one critical limitation of macro'd attacks: it breaks the ability queuing. Normally, when you press an attack 0.5 seconds before the GCD, the game will queue it up and execute it right on the GCD.

Macros don't seem to work this way. If you press the macro 0.5 seconds before the GCD is available, the game does not seem to queue the attack. As a result, a macro that actually works for attacks (e.g. a Monk), will have a slight delay/stutter before executing every attack. In other words you'll tend to lose 0.1-0.2 seconds on every GCD using an attack macro. This is a lot, for every attack.

This is all my casual observation though, so don't take it as 100%. However, I don't like using on-GCD attacks in macros in general because of it.

Anyways, this can even happen for a "1 attack" macro like the FT one I listed above. If you press the button lazily, the FT may go off 0.1-0.3 seconds after the GCD is available. This is obviously bad. Optimally, I'd have the LS on a separate button entirely. However, I personally can't afford the hotbar/keybind space or attention (although maybe I will in a few weeks), so YMMV. I'm posting it as an option, with tepid recommendation. My bandaid is to mash the button hard to try and minimize the time loss. I'll probably separate the macro at some later date.

My second macro, however, is more useful:

/macroicon "Blood for Blood"
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Power Surge" <me>


I'll probably add /ac "Mercy Stroke" when I get it (sidenote: I might add it above PS).

All the problems with delay after a GCD I mentioned above? Does not apply to most OGCDs because they have a "lot" of slack time between GCD animations. The only thing to note is that Power Surge has a short time limit, so only bust out all 3 when you're ready to use jump very soon.

Personally, I have this macro for all my buff execution. I actually have a separate hotbar that has all 3 buffs individually (but the bar has no hotkeys assigned) solely so I can see their timers. This allows me to slow down and save my Power Surge if I need to wait for Jump to cool down.

Note: once in awhile, Internal Release will fire before BFB. GG macro coding. This is another reason NOT to use an attack macro for Monks.

In terms of pressing the button and result attacks, my general opener ends up looking like:

H - bfb -
I - ir - D - ps - C - jump -
P - sweep

Note: in this perfect situation, it would be slightly more optimal for IR to be first. However, in many situations, I am too busy finding the back to start my buffs, with the following result:

H - none
I - bfb - D - ir - C - ps -
P - jump

Note: I still get a PS'd jump on a good animation (PH), which is nice.


Actually based on this re-assessment, I may switch around IR and BFB in my macro. IR is weaker so I want to use it first before my other buffs are necessarily up (DE). I want to save BFB to sync with stronger attacks (post-DE).

if youre fighting a boss where stuns landing is important, the dps increase of leg sweep is not worth the higher chance of wiping. its selfish to increase your DPS at the cost of a raid-mate's life

Which is super annoying because Leg Sweep is a straight ~5% increase in DPS or so. Le sigh.