Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[whiskeybravo]

Please enjoy this (satire)

Dragoon
We're hearing a lot of talk saying that Dragoon is weak compared to Monk and Ninja, but there are a couple of points I'd like to go over, so I'll go over them one by one.

First, I'd like to talk about the boss monsters in the Second and Final Coils of Bahamut. We designed them so that Dragoons would not be the optimal melee DPS even when they have buffs stacked; however, at the moment only Monk and Ninja are able to do enough damage through a method we had not thought of. Our original vision for this was that players would clear these encounters by properly stacking Ninjas and Monks or go with all ranged parties before it got to the point where players were saying "loldrg".

Since this is content that has already been released and strategies have already been established, we won't be making adjustments to these encounters. Instead we'll be looking into making adjustments to Dragoon so they can DPS this like Monk and Ninja are able to.

Next is the matter of dragoons Magic Defense. Unlike the other jobs magic defense, which is tied to their inferior cloth and leather armors, Dragoon can die at any time to a large magic-based AOE, which helps maintain their "loldrg" perception. However, there are times when you need healers to shield you consecutively, the timing is difficult due to the enormous responsibility healers are already burdened with in keeping the tanks and rest of the party alive. Because of this, it would seem that players have a negative impression of Dragoon's magic defense. We'll be making adjustments in patch 2.5 so that Dragoon's magic defense is more suitable for these types of encounters, which should help address the disparity between Dragoons and other DPS jobs.

There's also the matter of raid utility and the use of jumps. I believe that a lot of players are using jumps to output a larger amount of damage, but after using jumps on cooldown, players receive a surprise animation lock that limits their mobility and can cause instant death. So instead of using jump right after it comes off cooldown, I think it would be better to wait for a white mage or scholar to stoneskin and adloquium you before performing jumps.

In addition to the damage bonus, Blood for Blood has other benefits as well. For example, while Dragoon certainly has high vitality and HP, we've worked to balance them with other melee jobs based on the amount of damage they take and the amount of HP they'll have after a large attack. However, we've made these adjustments bearing in mind that Dragoons might have Blood for Blood active. This is what makes the job difficult to use effectively. Using Blood for Blood greatly increases damage received, which makes it difficult to use Jumps right after a combo, and then self-heal back up with the following combo. With that said, from a healer's perspective, although Dragoons can heal themselves right after taking some damage, once they use Life Surge and Bloodbath they are extremely vulnerable for 75% of the encounter, giving the impression that they lack defense.

These are a few of the factors contributing to the problems we've seen with Dragoon. While we'd like you all to continue experimenting with uses for Blood for Blood and Life Surge until patch 2.5, we feel effective use of this skill is a bit difficult, so we'll be making adjustments in patch 2.45. There are several other aspects of the job that will be adjusted, but rest assured that Dragoon will become stronger come next patch.

Look forward to it!

[Amador]

I'm returning to the game, my main is typically Dragoon but seeing all these posts, it makes me want to just start leveling MNK.
I have WAR & PLD on the side, they are geared, but no where near worthwhile to tank jack skittles...

Sad to see dragoon is in the dirt again for sure, I can see the reasoning behind it, and the logic behind people who are stating it's just not a worthwhile job to slot into the fights that matter.

Hopefully it will be re-worked, it's funny though considering the upcoming expansion has all of that dragoon flair considering people probably won't even touch that content with dragoon at this rate... Maybe they're bringing back the dragoon x6 parties from FFXI back.

<_<;

[beowulf81]

honestly, it's viable for endgame progression but like.. just not as good. I will end up killing t13 on drg since I won't have time to level/gear another class until it's down and killed t10-t12 with drg fine. The problems are that during progression, a lot of mechanics force me to skip positionals since I don't know the timing on skills. I take a lot more damage from magic aoes like megaflare, tetraflare, twisters etc. We really miss the dragonkick debuff which is actually a big deal when you're undergeared and mantras nice too. Likewise, the 10% damage increase is better for adds than "drg burst", goad is nice and ninjas don't really require positionals or take more damage from aoe.

Unless you're hoping to kill t13 this week, I think that by the time you get to it, there really won't be that much of a difference between DRG and other classes that you could if you want, play the class you want.

thank you for that ricky, i appreciate you taking the time to address my concerns on the matter. I am relieved to know that they are still viable, as will be rolling dragoon in final coil, at least until my ninja is up to scratch; the idea that my static would not be able to progress because they were handicapped by having a dragoon in their party was…. unsettling.

The rest of your post strengthens my current opinion that dragoon is a gimp dps next to ninja and monk, but i've said more than enough about that, so i'll not say any more.

Thank you for the reassurance, its appreciated.

[melflomil]

I'm a healer at heart but I have Dragoon to the side
Here is my two cents.

All jumps should get 25-50 potency added to it.

Elusive jump doesn't feel "elusive". For starters all jumps minus the standard jump got a time reduction. Why not Elusive jump? What would be so broken about it? Decrease time from 180 to 90-120. Secondly, remove the enmity reduction and give the ability to elude ground based AOE's that are avoidable ( anything that has a ground marker like Landslide, Acid rain etc).

If they do this dragoons wont have to worry ALL THE TIME about jumping at the wrong time and getting destroyed buy avoidable aoe's because most of them are magic based. Just use elusive jump and you're SAFE

I'm half on half about this next topic. I personally don't think they need it but they are the only class in the game that doesn't have one and BLM too. A utility buff that benefits EVERYONE, this will be up in the air for discussion. I say 15 second buff that increases critical hit.

[Zankes]

snip

Enmity reduction is needed! If I do anything in DF I grab aggro 100% sure.

[pompey_dan]

I have been working on t13 since the end of first reset and have to agree 100% with what Ricky said, t13 is not great for drg with the incoming magic dmg with low gear but it is do able, however my group hasn't had to work on beating the enrage just yet so it's still questionable.

It's a real shame as I have been drg main since 1.0 but I think I will be changing main to ninja come next patch if nothing changes. There is just no place for drg in its current state unfortunately.

I have considered changing now but I won't have it ready by the time my group beats t13, I also will be getting upgraded ironworks spears next tuesday reset so changing mains will be hard right now.

A simple buff to drg which I personally would like to see and is sort of in line with the last buff:
Decrease the cooldown on Jump from 40 sec to 30 sec.

This easy change would increase dps by a nice enough amount for drg to stay relevant, it would also make power surge recast time make more sense.

[SolarMisae]

snip

I see. Something HAS to give for dragoon, I love this job. :< Oh well. I'm making my transition to ninja right now but will hop right back to dragoon if they give us something to make us relevant again.

[rickyguo]

4 groups killed t13 so far

3 groups of double monks

and a group with a single monk

(((￣へ￣井)

[Gray_Null]

Has anybody checked to see what the caps are for Kirimu Breeches of Maiming?

[rickyguo]

Has anybody checked to see what the caps are for Kirimu Breeches of Maiming?

same for any i110 main left piece

relevant parts is 29 det 41 crit

do meld a det 4 then crit the rest.