Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[Ayvar]

Due to all the AE talk over the last couple pages I've added an AE section to the end of the guide so people have some numbers for comparing RoT and DS. It's all pretty intuitive stuff, but I figured people might want the fully worked values.

[HoolieWho]

Due to all the AE talk over the last couple pages I've added an AE section to the end of the guide so people have some numbers for comparing RoT and DS. It's all pretty intuitive stuff, but I figured people might want the fully worked values.

I didn't look over your AoE section in detail, but I have a couple of comments.

1. DoomSpike (DS) is our highest Potency Per Second (PPS) GCD skill or combo starting at just TWO targets. It destroys our TP but helps our DPS in multi-target situations to the extent the TP cost is affordable.

2. Ring of Thorns (RoT) out of combo is more PPS than HT-RoT when there are FOUR or more targets. So it's not strictly correct to say that RoT is useless outside of combo, just TP costly and probably not competitive with other options.

3. Buffs. With Single Target (ST) damage, when exactly you apply buffs like Blood for Blood (B4B) and Internal Release (IR) is not very important. With multiple targets comes the possibility to spam AoE abilities (namely Doomspike) in your buff window. This makes Doomspike (or even RoT out of combo) spam attractive compared to HT-RoT because of the potency you can pack into your buff window.

Good to see an AoE section added to the OPs. I've begun looking into what my AoE options are with the rise of dungeon speed runs and Turn 4 on the horizon for me so I'm glad to see the recent discussion addressing this topic. So far it's opened my eyes to the power of Doomspike.

[Ayvar]

I didn't look over your AoE section in detail, but I have a couple of comments.

1. DoomSpike (DS) is our highest Potency Per Second (PPS) GCD skill or combo starting at just TWO targets. It destroys our TP but helps our DPS in multi-target situations to the extent the TP cost is affordable.

If something isn't worth doing, such as Doomspiking two targets, there's no way I'm going to suggest anyone actually does it. Single target damage is quite good vs. two target packs, and there is no situation currently in the game where you need to AE two mobs.

2. Ring of Thorns (RoT) out of combo is more PPS than HT-RoT when there are FOUR or more targets. So it's not strictly correct to say that RoT is useless outside of combo, just TP costly and probably not competitive with other options.

That is indeed a fair point. Though as you say, when considered in terms of TP cost for damage you'd be better Doomspiking than using unbuffed RoTs, so it does render them pretty useless. An argument I could see for unbuffed RoTs would be if you could fit more mobs in with a circle AE and you don't care about TP conservation, so that I'll probably add in later.

Thanks for the comments though, I'll be editing that section over the next couple days as I evaluate what is missing.

EDIT: I've added the unbuffed RoT numbers. I don't feel it should ever be used over Doomspike or HT-RoT when all is equal, but it is definitely much better if there is a difference in the number of mobs you can hit with a circle vs. line AE