How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[raela]

So I could use some insight/help too, though perhaps not strictly DRG related (though I am the DRG in this case). I'm in a static that just formed last week, with at least half of us without A5S clears/experience going into it. We're still learning the mechanics.

One of our members is sure that we should be skipping the first prey based on our gear, but we're not, so he's thinking the DPS are having issues with rotations. I'm of the opinion that it's more an issue of party comp/gear and not as much directly the DPS. No one has pentamelded i220, and only two DPS have A5S clears/drops. All do have i230 weapons (I'm at i224 overall on my DRG). Best parse of tonight here: http://www.fflogs.com/reports/wT1mMQ...e-done&fight=2

We're generally hitting 91~92% as the MT starts getting stacks, and get to the 90% before the tank buster goes out. Some of us feel like we should just forget the push for mechanic skipping for now, so that we can set up ideally for prey (and learn mechanics enough for a clear). But hey - does anyone spot anything glaringly wrong at this stage?

[aleph_null]

Best parse of tonight here: http://www.fflogs.com/reports/wT1mMQ...e-done&fight=2

I can only comment on the warrior and dragoon since I only play those two jobs for savage atm. It seems that your dragoon's heavy thrust and blood of the dragon uptime is quite low, but since you're still practicing it might be inevitable that you drop buffs here and there.

As for the warrior, I think since your party has a dragoon and a ninja he shouldn't build up 4 abandon stacks before using berserk since the buffs won't align well. I usually use berserk after my first storm's eye and settle with two fell cleaves during berserk. Also if I remember correctly to skip first prey you need to get the boss to 89% at around 30s mark, so if your warrior builds up 4 stacks before using berserk, that'd be around 16s after pull, he only gets 3/4 of the berserk duration before 30s mark.

[SunnyHirose]

One of our members is sure that we should be skipping the first prey based on our gear, but we're not, so he's thinking the DPS are having issues with rotations.

Correct on both counts. Now how important is that...? Eh, I don't want to single anyone out, but some of you could improve in big ways, and all of you could improve in minor ways.

Now, mechanics is why you're not clearing, it's true, but posing the question in a DPS forum is like asking a plumber to fix your car; they're gonna start by looking for leaks....

[raela]

Correct on both counts. Now how important is that...? Eh, I don't want to single anyone out, but some of you could improve in big ways, and all of you could improve in minor ways.

Now, mechanics is why you're not clearing, it's true, but posing the question in a DPS forum is like asking a plumber to fix your car; they're gonna start by looking for leaks....

Which is why I am asking here. I challenged him to point out exactly who is doing what wrong, and he fell back on "well maybe everyone should review their job rotation to make sure they're doing it right." If I'm the problem, be blunt and that's fine.

I checked HT/BOTD, and one gap was from being a bird for boost, and the other was from mechanic juggling (bombs I believe - so yeah I can improve there).

[SunnyHirose]

Which is why I am asking here. I challenged him to point out exactly who is doing what wrong, and he fell back on "well maybe everyone should review their job rotation to make sure they're doing it right."

Just because he was bluffing doesn't make what he said wrong. Usually when someone says "rotation issues" and can't elaborate, they've just seen what other groups can do with worse gear, but they don't know the actual source of low DPS. What I'm saying, having at least a passing familiarity with all the jobs, is that everyone in your party, 8/8, has some "push all the buttons and stick to the boss" issues. That's beyond just rotation problems; a competent rotation that isn't optimal isn't going to be more than a couple percent worse than optimal.

But you guys are letting your some buffs and debuffs fall off that should be very high uptime, not using certain cooldowns anywhere near on cooldown, and spend a remarkable amount of time just plain not hitting the boss. All of you, to some extent. There's not much I could or should say in terms of openers, rotations, and situational tricks as we usually talk about in this thread when the real problem is bare minimum basics that have less to do with rotation than they do with just plain using skills as much as possible. Remember, uptime is the best buff. If you aren't hitting, you're not doing damage.

Some people are holding on to oGCD buffs, sometimes for longer than their cooldowns, which is inexcusable. That's disgraceful, like straight up not attacking. I hope you can understand why I don't want to talk about that.

Some people aren't using GCDs as often as they could. Improving on this is not easy to explain, but it is the bulk of all damage whether you use the right or wrong skill; just aim to get it right >99% of the time so you can shrug off the mistakes. This is why people say "always be casting" (it's a reference to a movie scene where Alec Baldwin aggressively explains to a bunch of salesmen how they are very bad at their jobs because they're hardly even trying). All raiders need to know when and how to do this effectively. This is why we talk about gap-closers in the dragoon thread. This is why BLMs talk about what openers they can get away with in the BLM thread. Tanks and healers are not exceptions, either; some very good healers have talked about how GCDs are the real resource limitation on them, not MP. Particularly because of bird mode, there's no real reason both healers can't be dishing out serious DPS.

For a look at oGCDs and DoT uptimes, consult the buffs and debuffs tabs on FFLogs. You can isolate it to each player's contribution. If you do not know how a buff is used, compare it to how a good player performs in another browser window.

For GCD uptimes, you can check the casts tab and check whose casts aren't happening when other players' are, but it's only easy to diagnose that there's a problem that way, not how to fix it.