How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[Thendiel]

As for what values of skill speed are too high or too low... I think the 480s are too low. So yeah, doesn't matter a bunch, if you ask me. After all, A4S Just Kills You™.

Fair enough, but I'm less worried about SS being too low (although I do like HT and Ph clipping) and more worried about SS being too high. If you have a GCD of 2.38s or shorter, then, assuming 100% uptime, then you're going to end up with an outright DPS loss because of sub-optimal Geirskogul use.

I much prefer the one Dervy put together for sure, because of the higher consistency and less worry of TP issues. Though I'd like to see if he can slap together a good set that makes use of the Antiquated Brionac for A4S, outside of the ones I made, since I'm sure he could do better and it's kinda a useful thing to have for clearing A4 in the first place.

Dervy presents you with the following:

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL7H

[SunnyHirose]

Fair enough, but I'm less worried about SS being too low (although I do like HT and Ph clipping) and more worried about SS being too high. If you have a GCD of 2.38s or shorter, then, assuming 100% uptime, then you're going to end up with an outright DPS loss because of sub-optimal Geirskogul use.

I must have missed that discussion. But what I will say is that I raid A4S with a 2.38s GCD and any Geirskogul timing tricks one might wish to employ in A4S will probably backfire. I'd argue it's more important to be paranoid about keeping Blood of the Dragon through phase shifts and Quarantines.

[Aiurily]

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL7Z

was the set i head in mind from a long time ago; 2.41 gcd. some people would swap the weapons out (31 crit 71 sksp vs 97 det) for more sksp, personal preference

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL84

what ariyala spits out if you lock pipira

[Thendiel]

I must have missed that discussion. But what I will say is that I raid A4S with a 2.38s GCD and any Geirskogul timing tricks one might wish to employ in A4S will probably backfire. I'd argue it's more important to be paranoid about keeping Blood of the Dragon through phase shifts and Quarantines.

Sorry--it's not a point that I've raised before. What I've found (assuming 100% uptime) is that when you reach a GCD of 2.31 to 2.38, your BotD will come off cooldown just after you land a Full Thrust or Chaos Thrust. In short, you'll end up with a situation like 4th-(GK)-Ph-TT-VT-FT-(BotD comes off cooldown)-no 4th. This means that you'll either have to delay your last Geirskogul by a full combo, or delay your GCD slightly in order to get the usual VT-(BotD)-FT transition. Either choice would represent a substantial DPS loss.

I guess, though, that if we're using the ideal opener, your first BotD comes a GCD earlier, which means that your first transition will be fine. However, your second transition, at about the two-minute mark, will suffer from the issue I've described.

That said, this is all ideal Striking Dummy navel-gazing on my part, since I've yet to set foot in A4S. If there's inevitable DRG downtime built into the fight because of mechanics, then this won't be a problem at all.

[Sleigh]

If a 2.38 GCD messes with BotD, wouldn't a 2.39 or maybe even 2.40 GCD get screwed over if Fey Wind is used at the start of the fight?

[Thendiel]

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL7Z

was the set i head in mind from a long time ago; 2.41 gcd. some people would swap the weapons out (31 crit 71 sksp vs 97 det) for more sksp, personal preference

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL84

what ariyala spits out if you lock pipira

The second set gives me a secondary stat weighting of +135.806 strength, which is about 2 points lower than Dervy's sets.

The first set is actually better than any other combination we've talked about over these last dozen posts or so, if one doesn't mind the very low SS; it weighs in at 139.634 strength from secondary stats. If you swap in the Brionac, it becomes identical to the set that Jack linked to a few posts ago, which gives us +138.557 strength.

[JackFross]

Dervy presents you with the following:

http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/RL7H

\o/ Tell him I said thanks! That's actually really helpful. He's a wizard of gear sets something fierce. Now I'm accidentally smart for buying the wrist!

Even with no upgrade items spent at all and just those 4 drops, the set sits at 595 SS along with 652 ACC, both good enough to use. C:

The first set is actually better than any other combination we've talked about over these last dozen posts or so, if one doesn't mind the very low SS; it weighs in at 139.634 strength from secondary stats. If you swap in the Brionac, it becomes identical to the set that Jack linked to a few posts ago, which gives us +138.557 strength.

And yeah, I saw that set when I was messing with the "best" one that I linked. I didn't like the 579 SS and the Brio hit 900 crit on the nose, so I couldn't say no, because I'm a nerd for numbers.

[Thendiel]

If a 2.38 GCD messes with BotD, wouldn't a 2.39 or maybe even 2.40 GCD get screwed over if Fey Wind is used at the start of the fight?

Possibly. Like I mentioned, the ideal opener gives us a little bit of leeway for this problem, so I'd guess offhand that a low 2.39s GCD might become problematic with Selene or (God forbid) Arrow.

[Thendiel]

P.S. - I totally agree with your description of the limitations of stat weights, Sunny.

[crmzon]

Hi guys, I have 732 skill speed (2.35 gcd) at ilvl 204. I was wondering if the dps loss from high skill speed mentioned earlier is substantial enough to warrant gearing down.