DRG media tour build feedback

[Freezaen]

I don't think Dragoon needs a megathread, as most of us DRG players are pretty happy with the upcoming changes, I assume.

With that said, after having watched footage, listened to commentary and digested the ability previews from the media tour, there are a few things that I want to bring up as points of feedback for the devs and I'd like to know what fellow DRG players think about them. I've divided my points into visual and mechanical.

Visual:

1. WE WANT TO KEEP OUR BLUE AURA!

This seems to be a point of consensus. When we gained Blood of the Dragon and it's blue aura back in the day, it was one of the coolest visual upgrades in the game; it SHOWED us how we were infused with draconic power. I hope the devs will find a way for us to keep it, either through the opening of our eyes with Mirage Dive or through the Power Surge buff.

2. Chaotic Spring is terribly out of place.

I know that the flowers are meant to reference Chaos Thrust, but I think they should have given us some nice mean red particles like the ones seen when Estinien casts Ala Morn in the Nidhogg EX fight. After all, that's what the animation is drawn from. I think it would have been really cool to have some red PEs in there to balance out the blue ones we get from the new Heavens' Thrust. The flowers are Samurai's thing. Ours is DRAGONS.

Mechanical:

3. Giving us a second charge of Spineshatter Dive will not produce what I assume to be the devs' intended results.

Having a second charge of SSD, to me, simply means that we'll be holding those charges and then using them both during our 120s burst window, which is extra damage and more OGCDs, but also a higher risk of dying to AoE attacks. It's restraining, in a way.

If the devs' intention was to offer us more mobility, then I suggest they give us a new engagement tool at some point in the future; a sort of forward-flipping Elusive Jump that would let us jump towards our target instead of away from it. It could share EJ's cooldown and be called "Sohm Al Assault". Koji Fox would love that shit. It's like somersault, but Draconic... Get it?

4. Heavens' Thrust could do with a flank positional bonus.

True Thrust never had a positional bonus. I realize that. Just hear me out.

Heavens' Thrust is a new ability and that means it's an opporunity for the devs to add a bit of complexity to our rotation or at least to reward good DRG gameplay. I think that a flank positional bonus on HT would round out our rotation nicely by having us go from rear->rear->flank to flank->flank->rear.

I know it's a fickle idea, but I'd like to feel that sense of symmetrical flow in our rotation extend beyond just Wheeling Thrust / FAC.

[Kyser96]

Yeah I definitely agree with that point about the blue aura. It's super cool and they could definitely tie it to Power Surge or opened eyes, like you said. I always felt like it separated us, the Azure Dragoon, from some common lancer. It's minor, but it's definitely one of the things I'm more disappointed about.

I also agree with the point about Spineshatter. We're never using that for mobility since it has damage on it. As is, it'll always just be another ogcd crammed into a damage window.

Chaotic Spring is definitely a bit more "flowery" than I'd like, but overall I wasn't too mad about it. I *definitely* think they could tone down that frolicky harp sound though. It's cool on Chaos Thrust, but for some reason the new one really doesn't work

I also wish they didn't remove the positional proc to unlock Raiden, and heavens' thrust having a positional is kinda in that same boat. It really feels like it should be there. Dragoon is already a simple job with a strict flow, I think they should give you more opportunities for optimizing your play, but a lot of these changes make it seem like they have the opposite idea.

[Duskane]

I find it a bit annoying that nothing was really done about Mirage dive
was hoping it would automatically take effect after high jump and not be a separate button

2 charges of spineshatter is ok but as said its not gonna be used as a real gap closer just as damage much rather added a version of elusive that sends you forward instead of backwards
would have been nicer to have charged High jump instead to get into life of the dragon faster in the opener

[Kahnom]

I find it a bit annoying that nothing was really done about Mirage dive
was hoping it would automatically take effect after high jump and not be a separate button

2 charges of spineshatter is ok but as said its not gonna be used as a real gap closer just as damage much rather added a version of elusive that sends you forward instead of backwards
would have been nicer to have charged High jump instead to get into life of the dragon faster in the opener

I agree with your mirage drive.
Automatically get a stack the moment it lands
I like 2 charges spineshatter. Use one, hold one like MNK’s shoulder tackle.
This means we will have a gap closer skill ready all the time except from any burst window that we need to use all the charges for max dmg.
Overall its better than one charge for sure.

[Freezaen]

I'm glad to see that other players mostly agree with my points so far.

Chaotic Spring is definitely a bit more "flowery" than I'd like, but overall I wasn't too mad about it. I *definitely* think they could tone down that frolicky harp sound though. It's cool on Chaos Thrust, but for some reason the new one really doesn't work.

I also wish they didn't remove the positional proc to unlock Raiden and Heavens' Thrust having a positional is kinda in that same boat. It really feels like it should be there. Dragoon is already a simple job with a strict flow. I think they should give you more opportunities for optimizing your play, but a lot of these changes make it seem like they have the opposite idea.

The flowers on Chaotic Spring don't say "Dragon" or "Dragoon" to me at all. Heavens' Thrust has a very similar visual identity to Raiden Thrust, but Chaotic Spring comes out of nowhere with lots of petals and harp sound effects. I hope they'll eventually back-track or tone it down a bit. If they didn't go the route of Nidhogg-inspired red particle effects, maybe they could do something orange like what Fang and Claw has.

I don't agree about the Raiden Thrust positional requirement, because RT now serves to build a resource. I believe that unless we mess-up our combo, we should get a stack of Firstmind's Focus. It wouldn't be fun otherwise. That being said, they could find a way to keep the spirit of the old positional requirement by increasing RT's damage if both WT and FAC are properly executed. With that, same as adding a positional bonus to Heavens' Thrust, we'd gain room for some skill-expression while still be able to use our new ability every 2 full rotations regardless.

I find it a bit annoying that nothing was really done about Mirage Dive. I was hoping it would automatically take effect after High Jump and not be a separate button.

I know what you mean, but I enjoy Mirage Dive. I like that it's OGCD, I like that it's ranged and I like that it shows using using magic drawn from our Blood of the Dragon. With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if they removed it in a future expansion to make room for new abilities.

[Imragarn]

Chaotic Spring feel like someone see the DRG NPC in Bozja with all the flower effect and say "I WANT IT FOR MY DRAGOON IN ENDWALKER !"

[Nothv13]

I don't agree about the Raiden Thrust positional requirement, because RT now serves to build a resource. I believe that unless we mess-up our combo, we should get a stack of Firstmind's Focus. It wouldn't be fun otherwise. That being said, they could find a way to keep the spirit of the old positional requirement by increasing RT's damage if both WT and FAC are properly executed. With that, same as adding a positional bonus to Heavens' Thrust, we'd gain room for some skill-expression while still be able to use our new ability every 2 full rotations regardless.

It is just them continuing to lessen the effect of positionals without outright removing them, so I don't see them backtracking on it at all. It seems to be that if you want positionals to have more impact, they want you to play monk.

[Xiu_Ye]

3. Giving us a second charge of Spineshatter Dive will not produce what I assume to be the devs' intended results.

Having a second charge of SSD, to me, simply means that we'll be holding those charges and then using them both during our 120s burst window, which is extra damage and more OGCDs, but also a higher risk of dying to AoE attacks. It's restraining, in a way.

If the devs' intention was to offer us more mobility, then I suggest they give us a new engagement tool at some point in the future; a sort of forward-flipping Elusive Jump that would let us jump towards our target instead of away from it. It could share EJ's cooldown and be called "Sohm Al Assault". Koji Fox would love that shit. It's like somersault, but Draconic... Get it?

The issue is the SSD still has damage, and a very fair amount of damage. The goal will absolutely be to use both charges in buffs at the 2 minute mark along with 2 LS charges if the timer lines up for it. The solution they gave is worse than simply removing the potency and/or removing LS (Could have made heaven thrust auto-crit or positionally auto-crit.)

Its kinda wild to me that the job that is jumping all over the place has the worst gap close options. Also its basically been made to where you either don't put all your stuff in your buffs like you did before or have to have 10 ping to not clip while you doubleweave with your jump actions. (You start clipping at like 15 ping or so)

SSD is damage so its a loss to use as a gap closer. Elusive Jump has animation lock thats long as well as being something you have to aim and is most often used as a gap closer despite barely being faster than sprinting.
Mean while monk has 3 charges gap close to any target or team member, Sam has an incredibly fast in and out dash actions with low animation lock, ninja has shikuchi, reaper has a 30s ability that allows you to teleport in and out.



Also a few people i think commenting about merging highjump and mirage dive into a single action. This loses us the ability to delay life which is one of the few real skill expressions left for dragoon.

[Freezaen]

It is just them continuing to lessen the effect of positionals without outright removing them, so I don't see them backtracking on it at all.

We can all ask and hope. Skill-expression seems to be a point of concern for some DRG players.

[Freezaen]

SSD is damage so it's a loss to use it as a gap-closer. Elusive Jump has animation lock that's long, as well as being something you have to aim and is most often used as a gap-closer despite barely being faster than sprinting. Meanwhile Monk has 3 charges to gap-close to any target or team member, SAM has incredibly fast in and out dash actions with low animation lock, Ninja has Shukuchi and Reaper has a 30s ability that allows you to teleport in and out.

Yep, that's exactly it. Either they give all melee a unique gap-closing ability like the one Monk has or they remove the damage of Spineshatter Dive. If they did that, though, it wouldn't be very Spineshattering anymore, would it?

I hope we'll get a forward-moving Elusive Jump at some point.