Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[Ayvar]

You sure about that?

Assuming HT buff:

HT-ROT (3 targets): (170+150*3)/(70+120)= ~3.26 DPT, 310 DPG
CT combo (4 out of 10 CT ticks): (180+220+160*1.11+20*4)/(70+60+60)= ~3.46 DPT, 219.2 DPG
FT combo: ((150+200+300))*1.11/(70+60+60)= ~3.42 DPT, 216.7 DPG
CT combo (10 out of 10 CT ticks): (180+220+160*1.11+20*10)/(70+60+60)= ~4.09 DPT, 259.2 DPG
FT combo (Dis. debuff): ((150+200+300))*1.11/(70+60+60)= ~3.80 DPT, 240.5 DPG

It seems like all CT/FT combo variants are superior per TP (for 3 targets) and if you're aiming for damage/global for bursting (BfB, etc.) you may as well use 3-target DS (3 DPT, 480 DPG).

I think you're looking at how AE works from the wrong angle (also some of the numbers are a little off since if you're assuming HT buff is up then you need to apply it to HT-RoT). You might get slightly higher damage for your TP from single target abilities, but you're only applying that damage to a single mob. For example, take a fully buffed set of single target moves, and compare those to a buffed AE moveset.

HT must be refreshed if down, and DE must be applied to each mob, so you'd get this:
170+198+242+181+242+363

HT buffed HT-RoT gives a potency of:
170-165 followed by 187-165


We'll consider a pack of 3 mobs, each of which requires 1000 potency to kill. With Full Thrust the process would look like this:
HT-ID-Dis-TT-VT *switch* FT-ID-Dis-HT *switch* ID-Dis-TT-VT-FT *done*
170+198+242+181+242=1033 *mob 1 dies* 330+198+242+187=957 *mob 2 dies* 198+242+181+242+363=1226 *mob 3 dies*

Give or take some autoattack damage (such as on mob #2 which I cut at 957 cause an autoattack would make up the difference), it'll take somewhere around 12-14 GCDs to kill all 3.

With HT-RoT it looks like this (M1=mob 1):
HT@M1-RoT | HT@M2-RoT | HT@M3-RoT | HT@M1-RoT | HT@M2 | ID-Dis@M3
170-165 | 187-165 | 187-165 | 187-165 *mob 1 dies* | 187 *mob 2 dies* | 198-242 *mob 3 dies*

Most of the mobs were dead after 9 GCDs, with two extra used to kill off the final mob with single target damage.

You might get slightly more damage for your TP on a single target, but the overall group damage is much lower and so everything will take longer to kill.