Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[ColdestHeaven]

Every second Blood for Blood is off cooldown is technically wasting it. Other than divebombs, I keep Blood for Blood on cooldown whenever its available, I dont think earshakers have really ever clipped more than ~8 seconds of my blood for blood.

By not holding blood for blood, you might potentially waste a bit of the buff, but by holding it, you are for sure wasting the buff

Ok then, thanks - I'll keep that in mind. Worst comes to worse, I can just hope that tanks keep the tether away from me and activate Keen Flurry for the shakers. Assuming I don't get chosen five times in a row again...sigh.

[Sleigh]

He isn't playing at an optimal level then.

Besides SMN and BRDs who don't do ridiculous damage, who should DRG beat T10, 12, and 13? While LBing of course.

[Arthuro-Ray]

I dunno, am on the same situation as Dervy, but i can't say if our BLM and BRD are playing to their maximum potential though(our monk definetely isn't).

I guess it should be top 2 at least. How big is the gap between your MNk and DRG, on theses turns?

[Sleigh]

We use NIN + DRG T10-12, MNK + DRG T13. About 30 difference in every turn while doing all LB duties, assuming equal RNG.

- As BLM I'll be damned if I get beaten by DRG (dependent on RNG of course) T10, 12, or 13, the situation's too good for BLM compared to DRG. Too much Flaring to be had. T11 my best is about 565 so yeah I'm never gonna touch DRG there.
- BRD, you'd think would lose to DRG but my group's BRD has almost done 610 on T10 (we purposefully wipe with deaths and that's what he was at this week, at 1% before we ran into a wall) so that's the kind of numbers DRG's competing against. Again though, not on T11.
- NIN/MNK, if they're not LBing, and with their higher base damage, they should never lose to DRG unless the RNG situation's too bad IE Wild Charges or deaths or Earthshakers etc, or you manage to give DRG AoE.
- SMN, DRG should beat in all but T13 and T12 in slower groups ... RIP SMN

[Szhinji]

Hi guys!

Decided to pop here and ask a question from all of you handsome and gorgeous fellows. I have been playing DRG for a while now and main it in my static, and recently I decided to go next step with my dragoon trying to increase my DPS beyond what I am currently able to do.

Now while the normal rotation for DRGs is same always, the openers are quite different, especially the one that I found out recently (month of so back) in the Hwo to train your dragoon document. And that being quite enforced and widely accepted rotation I should of course change mine to match that one, but I ran into a wall with it. Mainly because the part where PS and BFB are used together between a single GCD. I have been trying left and right but it seems I can't time the skill fit in between without having them to clip into my next GCD, which in return seems to lower my burst a bit compared to my "old" rotation that I got from here when I first started playing long time ago. I do have about 127 - 150 ping depending time of the day (sometimes it might shoot up even higher but that's like really rare lag spike).

So any suggestions should I just follow the rotation in "How to train your Dragoon" and learn to be better with oGCDs, move the PS or BFB one step forward thus moving all the oGCDs one step forward in the rotation or do you think that my old rotation is still valid and doesn't cause any huge problems with cooldown usage?

"How to train your Dragoon" -rotation that I can't fully do wihtout clipping into the GCD while trying to active two oGCDs

HT -(Internal Release)-> ID -(Leg Sweep)-> Dis -(Power Surge + Blood for Blood)-> CT -(Jump)-> Phleb -(Dragonfire Dive)-> TT -(Spineshatter Dive)-> VT -(Life Surge)-> FT —> HT —> (continue rotation)

And here's the old rotation that I am using, (I do switch BFB and IR around time to time, usually I'd like to use it as second oGCD and start with BFB so I can more easily align it with PS for those jumps)

HT (Internal Release)->ID (Blood for Blood)->Dis (Power Surge)->CT (Jump)->Pleb (LegSweep)->TT (DFD)->VT (LS)->FT-(SSD)->HT -> (continue rotation)

Also am curious of how to use PPP and X-potion of strength most effectively in the rotation. X-potion I usually would use after BFB but before CT and then push all the other GCDs one slot forward (after attempting it few times I don't seem to be able to do it completely withing the GCD). PPP I'd normally use either before I start my rotation or after my opener when I have first open slot between two GCDs.

DPS-wise I don't have any numbers on me currently but with what I normally do I am the highest DPS in the group when we do FCoB (composition - NIN, DRG(me), BRD and BLM), we are average I'd say not the best around but we do quite fine have T10-T12 on farm and started progressing on T13 last week.

So if any of you generous, handsome and gorgeous fellows would be kind enough to give me some pointers where I should be moving towards I'd be one happy DRG! Gearwise I am going towards the non-crafted BiS and here's Ariyala of my current stuff http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/Q3T4. Shouldn't matter much but decided to pop this down here as well!

[Arthuro-Ray]

Must be one hell of a BLM and BRD then, to be so close to a Ninja on coil...

I can understand on t10 depending on strat, but losing to a bard on 12, and t13 doesn't seem ok to me...

[Sleigh]

Must be one hell of a BLM and BRD then, to be so close to a Ninja on coil...

I can understand on t10 depending on strat, but losing to a bard on 12, and t13 doesn't seem ok to me...

I've never seen a DRG (without a NIN) who had to LB do above 500 on T13. Between LB, Earthshakers in final phase, and the massive amount of downtime, sounds hard. On the other hand I've seen BRD and BLM do 510, with room for improvement if they were in lower DPS groups where they got to attack more of the adds.

I could see it in mid-level DPS groups only. I'd be keen on seeing other high DPS group's DRG's numbers in each turns, with sub-6m T10, 11, sub-7m T12, and sub 11m T13 though - I did see a DRG do 600 T10 but I think that was with Doomspikes and the AoE strat.

[Dervy]

I do have about 127 - 150 ping depending time of the day (sometimes it might shoot up even higher but that's like really rare lag spike).

So any suggestions should I just follow the rotation in "How to train your Dragoon" and learn to be better with oGCDs, move the PS or BFB one step forward thus moving all the oGCDs one step forward in the rotation or do you think that my old rotation is still valid and doesn't cause any huge problems with cooldown usage?

I personally don't like How To Train Your Dragoons oGDC rotation as it's heavily latency influenced. EU players cannot afford to continuously double-pop oGDCs continuously in the opener, especially has BFB has a longer skill/ability/animation lock.


Also, download WTFast if you're a PC user. No reason why you should not be using it. It's a free download and has an unlimited free trial. I play with 96-104ms constantly. Make sure you're connecting to MTL2 sever, as that has the lowest ping + lag spikes I've noticed.

Now. Can you get 9GDCs in a Blood For Blood? If yes, you should be using a delayed BFB before CT (to ensure you can hit 9GDCs). My video here should aid you somewhat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfjU6hJC_II. If this is the case, then your opening rotation, as an EU player should be something like:

HT - (IR + PS) - ID - (X-POT) - DI - (Delayed BFB) - CT - (JUMP) - PH - (LegS) - TT - (SSD) - VP - (LS) - FT (DFD).

This is also my opener and it allows for minimal GDC clipping, whilst still allowing to maximise your opening as much as possible.

If you cannot get 9GDCs in a Blood for Blood, then you need to use it before Impulse Drive, so it would be something like:

HT - (BFB) - ID - (X-POT) - DI - (IR + PS) - CT - (JUMP) - PH - (LegS) - TT - (SSD) - VP - (LS) - FT (DFD) = Or switch the X-POT around with the IR + PS.

IR + PS both have very low animation locks (or w/e the terminology is), so you can easily double stack these two, even with a high latency.

[SunnyHirose]

Besides SMN and BRDs who don't do ridiculous damage, who should DRG beat T10, 12, and 13? While LBing of course.

The WHM ( -ヮ-);;

[Zankes]

Does any one have any bis set for i110 gear + i90 crafted accessories for savage coil? We cleared Savage (overgeared) and my group wants to do it in i110 gear.