How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[raela]

Feel free to translate Dervy's work into French! He says he doesn't mind.



All of the advice on this thread for Thordan has been very good. Here is a video of a strong clear of mine, if it's any help, although my recording quality is poor and I have not included any audio commentary.

Thank you guys very much for the tips and this video! My DPS has been way low on Thordan, and it seems my main problem is being overly cautious.. but clearly I just need to push myself more. Too afraid of murdering myself on mechanics with jump and losing CDs..

[Greyfrost]

Thank you guys very much for the tips and this video! My DPS has been way low on Thordan, and it seems my main problem is being overly cautious.. but clearly I just need to push myself more. Too afraid of murdering myself on mechanics with jump and losing CDs..

I live by this rule, bad DPS is still better than dead DPS.

[JackFross]

I live by this rule, bad DPS is still better than dead DPS.

This is very true. Even if you're doing stellar DPS, one death causes you to drop by over 10% on average, unless you're raised immediately and it happened just before botd came off cd. Always better to stay alive than try to pump out two extra hits.

[RexMax]

Is there a reason you switched the position of DFD with SSD in the advanced opener ?

"H -> [BL+BFB] -> ID -> [IR+BOTD] -> DI -> [DRAC-POT] -> CT -> [PS+ LEGS] -> 4TH -> [JUMP] -> P -> [SSD] -> TT -> [DFD] -> VP -> [LIFES + GK] -> FT -> 4TH -> Repeat"

If I remember correct it was DFD first then SSD , as it is in dervys and your video.

[whiskeybravo]

The difference between basic/advanced is in the advance you pop life Surge and GK together so you can fit in SSD while under Potion/B4B. I don't think it really matters whether you pop SSD or DFD first except as it relates to certain fights. (like a3s where if you pop SSD first it comes back in time for wash away) I can say that Jump works well coming after the first 4th hit because then it comes back off cd in around TT/VT later on, whereas if you delayed the jump it shows up at an awkward time between 4th and HT, so it makes it harder to hit the positional in that case (or lose dps from hanging on to it until you don't have a positional attack). Considerations like that effect the rotation, it's just optimization mainly.

[RexMax]

Yeah so depending a bit on fight and mechanics, but it was DFD before SSD in the advanced opener for a while, dont know when he switched it up, in the videos for advanced opener it still shows DFD before SSD

[whiskeybravo]

I don't know. Dervy's original thread shows SSD > DFD, last time that was edited was August. I remember there being some discussions about optimizing it but last I heard (and it has been at least a month or more) Dervy wasn't too happy with the raid scene so I'm not sure if he's still at it or not.

[JackFross]

The order of those two skills comes down to personal preference. I do it DFD>SSD in every fight in the game so far - I'll be in A4 tomorrow and hopefully Thursday but I doubt it'll be any different there. Using it in that order in A3 works just fine for the first wash away for me. After phase change, my combo is always:
CT > [IR] > TT > VT > [Life+BotD] > FT > [Leg+Power] > 4th > [Jump] > [SSD]
(Sometimes I get a heavy thrust off before the wash away, sometimes not, but SSD is always back for it.)

I prefer using DFD first since it makes the combo when DFD comes back cleaner. You end up doing like... Leg+PS > DFD > Jump > SSD > gsk in your gcds there or somesuch, I forget the exact order, but it feels a lot smoother to have DFD slot in *right there* rather than a gcd later, since then it'd be coming off cd where Jump does and you'll have to delay *something* by a considerable amount to fit that gsk before the next 4th hit.


//EDIT yeah, when DFD comes back, the combo becomes:

CT>[Life]>4th>[Leg+Power]>Ph>[DFD]>TT>[Jump]>VT>[SSD]>FT>[gsk]>4th

With DFD coming off cd just after Ph hits and Jump coming off CD just before TT fills. If you shift DFD back a space, then it and Jump will come off-cd at the same spot and you'll overflow your BotD on the 4th at the end of this string or end up delaying 2/3 of your jumps one gcd.

[Zeviand]

SSD is the more valuable ability so I would prioritize using it first and getting it on cool down before DFD. Under rare circumstances should you use SSD without BOTD, which makes its potency 221 on a 60 second cd and DFD is 250 on a 120s cd.

The exception is if there's some sort of AOE phase that would somehow be affected if you delay DFD a gcd or two.

[HulveinBlitz]

I don't know. Dervy's original thread shows SSD > DFD, last time that was edited was August. I remember there being some discussions about optimizing it but last I heard (and it has been at least a month or more) Dervy wasn't too happy with the raid scene so I'm not sure if he's still at it or not.

He's still at it, xD.