How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[YodaBear]

(2/2)


so currently on A6 we are up to the 3rd boss. DPS stats on average below....

ME (Drg) - 1400-1200
Mach - 1600-1300
Monk - 1600-1300
Summoner - 1700-1300

these are probably not very accurate, but the message I'm trying to get across is that I'm always at least 100 dps behind. im ilvl 225 atm, no 140 pieces yet

Also, does anybody have any tips or videos on how to manage A6 as a fight?

Also melds! what should I stack? I have a mix of Det and skill speed at the moment... is this okay? or are you going to tell me I should be stacking crit hit rate out on EVERYTHING?

I am seriously hoping i can get my dps up by another 100-200 with your help and hopefully be kept on permanently with this static!

Cheers
Yoda Noob.

[YodaBear]

It would be easier to evaluate a fight you cleared rather than a fight you're progressing on.

okay well what about rotations, opener and melds too equip?

[JackFross]

Okay just a few things to keep in mind.

The rotation you have IS up-to-date. That's how you should generally maintain DPS. There's certain optimizations here and there where you won't do that, but it's a good baseline.

As far as an opener is concerned, that is completely different based on the fight in the current raid tier. I don't use potions, and my openers for each turn are:

A5S:
[SSD]>HT>[LegS>BL]>ID>[IR>B4B]>Dis>[BotD]>CT>[PS]>4th>[Jump]>Ph>[gsk]>TT>VT>[LifeS]>FT>4th>[LegS]>HT>etc.
SSD to close because he's small with a large aggro radius. I hold DFD to drop on the snake when it spawns.

A6S:
HT>[delay-BL]>ID>[IR>B4B]>Dis>[BotD]>CT>[PS>LegS]>4th>[Jump]>Ph>[SSD]>TT>[gsk]>VT>[LifeS]>FT>4th>[LegS]>HT>etc.
Normal opener, sans DFD, which I hold to use on the Blaster Mirages.

On Swindler, it's even weirder, since I'll Life Surge the first 4th hit and use two CT combos, followed by HT>TT>VT on Swindler into FT>4th>HT>DFD on the gobwalker that spawns at the north.

A7S:
HT>[delay-BL]>ID>[IR>B4B]>Dis>[BotD>LegS]>CT>[PS]>4th>[Jump]>Ph>[DFD]>TT>[SSD]>VT>[LifeS>gsk]>FT>4th>HT>etc.
Standard opener, except I shift Leg Sweep 1 GCD forward so that I get it in before needing to dodge Hammers, because of how my group handles them. PS on the run, back in before the 4th hit GCD refills.

A8S:
HT>[LegS]>ID>[IR>B4B]>Dis>[BotD>PS]>CT>[Jump]>4th>[DFD]>Ph>[SSD]>TT>[gsk]>VT>[LifeS]>FT>4th>[LegS]>HT>etc.
I hold BL for Blaster and shift Leg Sweep earlier, since otherwise I wouldn't use it until after TT, which feels like way too long to hold a 20s cooldown.



As far as melds are concerned - lots of people ask "what should I meld?" and there's no right answer to that question. The priority order is (generally) ACC to cap, followed by Crit > Det > Sks. Crit IV is better than Sks V, Sks IV is better than Det IV, and other than that it's relatively linear with that priority.


This raid tier is all about doing DPS effectively and efficiently - NOT about burning everything as soon as it's ready. Study other Dragoons and learn when they hold and when they pop and how they DPS different phases of different fights.


//EDIT: OH YEAH AND. It's not a MAJOR gain, but Blood for Blood, Battle Litany, and Internal Release will all affect 1 additional GCD during their duration if you delay casting the buff until ~halfway through the recast of the GCD (if you double-tap ie. IR>B4B you'll absolutely get the +1 on B4B) turning B4B/BL from 8 to 9 and IR from 6 to 7. It's not major, but can help a lot, depending what that 9th GCD would have been.

[xJimmehx]

more important question - what weapon are you using?

Thanks!
Also, Brionac, the i210 weapon.

[YodaBear]

thank you for your comments they are a great help! is it important to only pop GSK before a CT or FT ? or do you just pop as and when you have enough tics left?

[JackFross]

Thanks!
Also, Brionac, the i210 weapon.

You should do one of the following:
1. Make sure you hit up A8N every week for a Midan Gear - get 7 + 1000 Lore to buy a Slipstream Partisan.
2. If you'd rather not spend Lore on that, get to work on the Anima quest line. The 240 Anima in 3.3 will be better than the Augmented Slipstream, but harder to get.

thank you for your comments they are a great help! is it important to only pop GSK before a CT or FT ? or do you just pop as and when you have enough tics left?

The best way to use Geirskogul is to hardwire it into your rotation for every fight. Use it at the same time every run. Some people learn best by not using any at the start until they get the hang of how the phases go. I tend to go for broke at the start (use first in the opener, second during the second FT or third CT, depending how things go, then third one on the combo where I'll re-up BotD.

The exact timing isn't important except for the second gsk in 1 minute - and even then it only matters when you have 2 minutes of sustained DPS (like the opening phase of A8S or the phases before Boost 1 in A5S - those are the only two spots in Midas Savage where this really happens. Brute Justice might have long timers like that - I haven't gotten far enough to know for sure. In that situation, though, you wanna use it sometime between the 4th hit and CT/FT of the combo before the combo where you'll be re-casting BotD, or you'll run the risk of clipping a GCD to re-cast it or skipping a gsk.

[xJimmehx]

You should do one of the following:

Alright, thank you very much.

[seekified]

Recently reactivated my sub after a bit of a hiatus. Turns out I still have my rotation in muscle memory, but I want to make sure I do the tweaks that need to be done in order to optimize things, and so I have a question about the opener. I don't use pots, so I usually do something like this:

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

But I see in the OP that the advanced opener puts BotD before Disembowel, which strikes me as odd. Doesn't that mean you lose a full GCD off your BotD timer?

[Garver]

Recently reactivated my sub after a bit of a hiatus. Turns out I still have my rotation in muscle memory, but I want to make sure I do the tweaks that need to be done in order to optimize things, and so I have a question about the opener. I don't use pots, so I usually do something like this:

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

But I see in the OP that the advanced opener puts BotD before Disembowel, which strikes me as odd. Doesn't that mean you lose a full GCD off your BotD timer?

You're clipping after your Chaos Thrust. Jumps should always be used on their own, else you will clip the next GCD.

You're also (potentially) missing Disembowel bonus on your Leg Sweep, but that's a minor inefficiency.

[KidSerge]

I was wondering how do trick attack and hypercharge interact when used together? How much does trick attack add to dps these days? I have not kept up with the smaller details of all this in a long time, choosing not to stress anything but my interest is growing again. Thank you for your time