What Makes You a Top DPS Player?

[luvmichan]

Stay alive and keep shooting.. at least thats what im doing as a SMN

[EasymodeX]

Dps don't give jack shit about threat. A dps pulling threat from a tank is almost always because of a bad tank, except for a few very specific situations.

That's when you pop defensive cooldowns and pull threat anyways, keke ^_^.

[Simaril]

Trying to analyze this is possible, but mostly boils down to "instinct". You're either a natural at the instinctive stuff, or you can learn it through a lot of practice. Sasukes and Narutos do, in fact, exist.

Athletes talk about "being in the zone" Yoda said "Do or do not, there is no try" which is basically eastern enlightenment... Learning can only take you so far, and I honestly dont think there's a linear relationship between what you've learned and how you preform. Knowledge and skill are very different things, and then skil =/= execution. This might sound crazy complicated and philosphical, but look at athletes who have the physical tools but don't perfom and visaversa.

[EasymodeX]

You could say it's a union of mind, body, and spirit in the sense of knowledge/understanding, reflex/mechanic capability, and then focus / determination / discipline.


Learning is one thing. Skill is another. Skill can either be intuitive, or it can be learned by a lot of practice. Some people just know what to do in order to maximize DPS or to perform their role. Some people can learn these things after a lot of practice and burning the "right action" into their reflexes and habits.

Edit:

Yeah, I'm the first person to say that time or learning != performance. Some people have inherent personal weaknesses in discipline or focus or the intelligence to make dynamic decisions. It may take them much more practice to perform at the same level as the next guy. However, I'm a firm believer that a player can get good if they really want to and are willing to practice and improve. Most just don't / are too lazy / it's just a game / aren't aware of where their actual weakness lies / are far enough behind that they would actually need to make FF14 a job to get good at.

[Judge_Xero]

It's so simple.
Left Handed = Top DPS

[Grimm08]

It's so simple.
Left Handed = Top DPS

OMG I agree with this so much!

<----Left Handed

[BrandoH]

That's why the Razer Naga was invented. RIGHTIES 4 LYFE.

[PArcher]

Dps don't give jack shit about threat. A dps pulling threat from a tank is almost always because of a bad tank, except for a few very specific situations.

This is true from what I see.

After the threat buffs in 2.1, it became really hard for me to pull aggro off tanks unless they were heavily undergeared or just bad.

As a DRG, the only time I could (normally) potentially take aggro is during my first burst phase, if the tank just isn't generating enough aggro by the time I Life Surge Full Thrust (which, again, normally only happens with an undergeared tank).
However, I've been pulling Tail aggro on Levi EX with some tanks who just Fast Blade - Savage Blade (which is, honestly, a good idea, since Rage of Halone is used to instantly grab an add) it before going to pick up adds; I'm just doing Heavy Thrust - Impulse Drive - Disembowel - Chaos Thrust (if I use Phlembotomize, I steal aggro every time unless Rage is used), then Dragonfire Dive to the adds, and have a chance to take aggro (crits are fun). If Circle of Scorn is used, I don't steal aggro, but some tanks won't do that, and I spend the add phase getting pelted with Scales and healers getting angry at me. Now, I haven't pulled Tail aggro from a WAR yet, but I've mostly just done Levi EX with a PLD OT, so I need to run with more WAR OTs to be able to say if its just i90 weapon PLD I'm stealing aggro from, or any i90 weapon tank; its also a possibility that an i95 weapon PLD would be able to hold aggro, but haven't played with one yet.

I also occasionally pull aggro off Knights in T4, but I don't really care about that since when I normally do its pretty much dead and I just don't care; same for most trash mobs, really. But they're trash mobs...



As a side-note: I've never understood the mentality that tank swapping causes DPS to take hate more often; Tanks just use provoke to get back to #1, and you just go all-out when you're #1, only holding back when you're #2. Since #1 is always generating aggro like normal, there shouldn't be any aggro "leaks" like people seem to think happens. And yes, I've done plenty of tank-swapping and know how to do it properly (and hate being paired with a tank with an i80 weapon, I have to hold back so much as a WAR just spamming Path and Eye as #2...) The only spot I can think of where there can be problems is on the Firestar node in T2, since its the first node with Slashing Resistance, and sometimes ADS if someone goes all-out a little too fast.

[Sobia]

Simple things like staying out of AOEs. I see too many DPS players too worried about getting a spell off to keep that astral going instead of avoiding a hit. Getting hit means taking more damage, and taking damage means the healer needs to make sure you don't die. Making sure you don't die means time taken off healing tank, which could put the whole party in jeopordy. I'm also not sure how "in demand" this is, but whenever the tank is kind enough to mark the targets (very helpful if any tank is reading this) I usually try to put 2 and 3 to sleep, and then start DPS on 1, for example. It seems to minimize the amount of damage taken by the tank, which makes it easier for the whole party. I usually get a compliment from tanks and healers when I use sleep.

Other than that, I usually start off with Thunder, followed by Fire. When I do switch to Transpose, I usually re-do the DOT (Thunder) and then keep the umbral going until I can use Transpose again.

[Alkimi]

Other than that, I usually start off with Thunder, followed by Fire. When I do switch to Transpose, I usually re-do the DOT (Thunder) and then keep the umbral going until I can use Transpose again.

I think you should scour this forum for some BLM rotations, because that sounds pretty terrible. Transpose should only be used during AoE rotations, between battles to regain MP to full, or if you screwed up your single target rotation and somehow find yourself without enough MP for Blizzard III.