How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[Erys]

Try this opener:

HT - (BL) - ID - (B4B+DS) - D - (BotD+GK) - CT - (Jump) - WT - (MD) -F&C - (SSD) - TT - (MD) - VT - (LS) - FT (DFD) - F&C - WT

I'm not too crazy about pre-popping BotD+Geirskogul while while a tank is pulling because I like to use a buffed GK for the opener. Who knows though, it's still too early to say. Also the Dragon Sight macro works great, props to the person that posted it here.

Shouldn't you like not use a offensive cd like geirskogul just after disembowel? Doesn't it NOT get buffed by it because the buff has a small delay? ALso you can hold your mirage dive after SSD and weave it with life surge, swapping it with DfD.

[AzureKoi]

I came up with an opener which works for me well, you can tell me what you think about it

Cool seeing that the openers we've been using are almost identical, the buff placements make sense to make sure that LS+FT is still buffed by B4B and DS, and everything up to there receives the effect of BL.

I noticed that you double weave GK and Jump though, I haven't tried this myself yet and can't right now cause of maintenance, but does that clip your GCD at all? Was wondering if it's safe to double weave Jump now since the patch notes had mentioned them changing Jump's animation.

I tried not to double weave abilities with long animations in my opener, and I can usually squeeze in that DFD while still having B4B and DS up, but it cuts it pretty close (can be fixed with more skill speed which is what a lot of the end game gear has). If it's possible to double weave Jump I would prefer doing that though.

[AzureKoi]

Shouldn't you like not use a offensive cd like geirskogul just after disembowel? Doesn't it NOT get buffed by it because the buff has a small delay? ALso you can hold your mirage dive after SSD and weave it with life surge, swapping it with DfD.

Thanks for pointing this out, I couldnt figure out where else to weave GK, an earlier post mentioned weaving GK with Jump but I'm worried about clipping. I will give Mirage Dive+Life Surge a try but anytime I try to weave Mirage Dive it clips my GCD, but I do need to get DfD in there earlier because at times it doesn't get buffed.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

DRG seems pretty weak right about now. What's the consensus on this? I mean, the potency buffs are nice, roughly making up for the discrepancy for what we lost. However... I've seen some pretty convincing math to show NIN and SAM above DRG far enough to undo the benefit of their piercing debuff. Aesthetically, 4.0 DRG is amazing, the theme of the Job really shines through too. But I'm wondering if it's technically at the bottom of the barrel right now.

Of course, that's not to say they're awful. They now have the ability to help out a melee buddy AND BRD, but is that enough to outweigh the other Jobs?

I have both felt and heard the opposite. Dragoon seems to be pretty strong, albeit incredibly dull in content 60 or below. Samurai is far and wide the best melee DPS though, with I think Ninja and Dragoon rounding out spot two pretty close. Without enough theorycrafting and actual testing though, it's hard to pinpoint their exact damage.

[Erys]

Thanks for pointing this out, I couldnt figure out where else to weave GK, an earlier post mentioned weaving GK with Jump but I'm worried about clipping. I will give Mirage Dive+Life Surge a try but anytime I try to weave Mirage Dive it clips my GCD, but I do need to get DfD in there earlier because at times it doesn't get buffed.

I'm using:
Sprint (5 seconds prepull)>Diversion (1 second)>HT>(BL+BotD)>ID>(B4B+DS)>Dis>(Pot)>CT>(Jump)>WT>(MD+Geirs)>F&C>(SSD)>TT>(DfD)>VT>(MD+LF)>FT44

I'm at 1300 skill speed and while clipping, the F&C after full thrust is still buffed by both dragon sight and blood for blood. The only thing I'm missing to get buffed is sadly that last WT.
Also remember you might want to skip DfD entirely depending if a fight has adds that have to be burned down. So you can skip one MD double weaved and have less clipping.

[Aeccreo]

I noticed that you double weave GK and Jump though, I haven't tried this myself yet and can't right now cause of maintenance, but does that clip your GCD at all? Was wondering if it's safe to double weave Jump now since the patch notes had mentioned them changing Jump's animation.

I tried not to double weave abilities with long animations in my opener, and I can usually squeeze in that DFD while still having B4B and DS up, but it cuts it pretty close (can be fixed with more skill speed which is what a lot of the end game gear has). If it's possible to double weave Jump I would prefer doing that though.

Well, first you need be fast and maybe have a good ping for that double weave. I haven't had any clipping with my opener but i can see your point. If you are really unsure about clipping you can double weave GK after your first Mirage Dive, that usually works too although everything is skillspeed dependent.

I can usually squeeze in that DFD while still having B4B and DS up, but it cuts it pretty close

You can cut that risk by moving DfD to after the buffed FT when you don't have an early add phase and it should be still buffed.
While I am not sure with the math you can also move DfD to after Dis instead Jump or pot to have it surely buffed by Battle Litany and other party member buffs too ( although the Dis applied question come into this). So you also can be sure that your GK and Jump is fully buffed, but I this is just a thought.

[Aeccreo]

I'm using:
Sprint (5 seconds prepull)>Diversion (1 second)>HT>(BL+BotD)>ID>(B4B+DS)>Dis>(Pot)>CT>(Jump)>WT>(MD+Geirs)>F&C>(SSD)>TT>(DfD)>VT>(MD+LF)>FT44

I do like this although it is abit situational with the Sprint sometimes maybe? xd
The main thing i forgot about but you ve remembered me is the usage of pot. This changes my opener a bit and is then similar to yours. Also you would surely avoid the Dis delay while having the buffs aligned quite good for later on.
The only thing i would change is that you use Dragon Sight before B4B since you know... always activate B4B as late as possible and gettin the last WT buffed too is possible with that.
I do sometimes prefer weaving GK with jump tho but thats just because of my skillpeed right now and being used to the cooldown alignments later on.

[Aeccreo]

F&C>(SSD)>TT>(DfD)>VT>(MD+LF)>FT44

Hmm, I really don't like the double weaving MD but thats just me and i would suggest to just put MD after FT since its lower potency than DfD what makes you wanna have DfD crit more over MD. But this is all really just crit, direct hit and fight mechanics dependent. Also yeah, sometimes you wanna save DfD for early adds or movement.

[Erys]

Hmm, I really don't like the double weaving MD but thats just me and i would suggest to just put MD after FT since its lower potency than DfD what makes you wanna have DfD crit more over MD. But this is all really just crit, direct hit and fight mechanics dependent. Also yeah, sometimes you wanna save DfD for early adds or movement.

I double weave MD because if you use it after True Thrust you are "wasting" the weavable space by using only 1 weavable skill. If you use DfD you use all the ogcd frame and then weave MIrage Dive with Life surge for max "space" efficiency. I know it is kind of stupid but I dunno, sometimes I'm fighting more my groups than anything when performing an opener, it wouldn't be the first time I die doing one so I'd rather go with all cds spent x'D

[Aeccreo]

Yeah I can agree but I think that won't be a problem when we get more gear to choose from and get our skillspeed sweet spot again. Right now it's just ridiculous overkill of skillspeed and makes double weaving with skills like Mirage Dive just clunky and inefficient.