Let's talk about the upcoming DRG rework...

[ZiraZ]

Who the hell asked for an ability never used during active combat and what makes you think a pve skyshatter would last more than 5s like it does in pvp? If anything if used in downtime, it would be super niche like current flamethrower fishing a tick before a boss comes back for true tryhards...

I don't know about you but if it's as potent as it should be, I would try to fit this in my burst or something.

I don't care how potent it is, if it has downtime it breaks the flow of combat its shit.
and if they speed it up then that's just stardiver, we don't need another stardiver.

[Reldhir]

Mmmm, I personally think a downtime skill is exactly what we need for DRG. We already have a very busy 2 minute window. The 1min window is pretty chill and could probably use some love. But outside of a targetable/reachable opponent we have jack all to do.

All the other melee have their mini optimisations to do during that time. If we're talking about being bored and breaking the flow of combat, then the twiddling of thumbs when being forced away breaks my flow of combat lol. Theres a reason why we all feel so compelled to stick to the boss like glue. It feels like shit when the boss goes away or we're forced to back off or eat death or worse... damage down. Having a downtime filler like flying into the air only to return like YO, you jump I jump B**** would feel fantastic.

It would create flow in and out of combat. Which is exactly what DRG's jump is and has always been about. We've just been groomed into thinking the solution to jump's janky accident prone nature is to make it faster as evidenced by jump repeatedly recieving updates to increase its speed and double-weave-ability. And it has worked up until this point, don't get me wrong. But now we have a super jam packed 2min window and stardiver that now feels comparatively out of place. We should fill out the other parts of DRG's overall rotation and kit.

I get it, we all want the shiny new skill to feature in the most prominant position of the DRG rotation. But at least as it stands, that position has no vacancies xD (I understand theres a rework on the way)

Now... IF... I were to try shoehorn Skyshatter into the active portion of the DRG rotation. My 1 DRG braincell would suggest: Make Skyshatter the trigger for Life of the Dragon instead of gierskogul. You drop down from the sky and suddenly you're all red glowy nidhoggy and angey.

Next, make it so you can fire off all your buff skills while in the sky (no offensive skills) This way it would aleviate some of the double weaving issue during the burst because instead youd be quadruple weaving while in the sky xD. You'd fall out of the sky super buffed and ready to go. It would also be much harder to misalign buffs this way since theyd all be esentially tied to the skyshatter cd.

We would get our super big hit, we would get our cool active time skill, we would maintain our flow in combat. Problem solved.

Should SE actually do this? Ehhh I dunno how it would ACTUALLY translate in an actual fight and also this was just a spur of the moment one braincell idea xD

Anyways... anyone got a spare braincell? I think i just used up my last and only one :/

[Valence]

I don't care how potent it is, if it has downtime it breaks the flow of combat its shit.
and if they speed it up then that's just stardiver, we don't need another stardiver.

Right, so your problem isn't it being used in encounter downtime, it's breaking the pace of combat. That I can agree with.

It's so trivial to fix, if there is even anything to fix to begin with considering you can trigger the fall 2.5ish seconds after using it in its current form, it would just remove a weave slot in that GCD segment, which is probably not even a problem if you finish a burst with this. I do feel it would be the most satisfying though on AoE mob packs.

Either way, getting pvp LBs as lvl100 capstones is something that has crossed my mind a couple of times and considering how cool and unique those are, they'd bring a lot of flavor to their respective jobs (and they're flashy as well, and people like flashy on their jobs). I'm not exactly pushing for DRG to get a pve skyshatter though, I was mostly just musing.

[Aco505]

but the fact that our character just sticks their spear in the sky and looks like theyre casting magic is sooooo un-dragoon

I get your point and I kind of agree that the animation should've been snappier or pointed the spear upwards in a more fierce manner but GSK and NAS follow similar ideas of "casting" through our spear so it's not that far-fetched.

[ThorneDynasty]

Mmmm, I personally think a downtime skill is exactly what we need for DRG.

I think we need it across the board in encounter design, really. Like there are skills that are just sitting there with no use at all or only really usable before opener because for some stupid reason the devs decided no more breaks between phases OR they just wrest control from you completely so you don't get to utilize all the downtime abilities already in the game, ever.

I personally blame the devs somewhere along the line starting to design the game for meta slaves, who want literally every enemy to be just a glorified training dummy.

[Lyth]

Fairly easy to make a DRG downtime action. When your DRG player is on the floor, they have a passive trait called 'Brumation' that shortens their recasts in preparation for their next raise. Thematically appropriate.

[Ancalagon_Blacktalon]

I get your point and I kind of agree that the animation should've been snappier or pointed the spear upwards in a more fierce manner but GSK and NAS follow similar ideas of "casting" through our spear so it's not that far-fetched.

so anyway here's an image of Freya FFIX using Dragon Crest



if "spectral dragon rising up to hit an enemy" is too caster for DRG, then I guess DRG was not stabby enough back in the PS1 era lol

[ThorneDynasty]

I mean yeah? That's not really a typically Dragoon thing, just something that was thrown in there in FF9 specifically.

And in 14 you do have spectral dragon motif already, it's just always following along a physical action, and it seems pretty weird to take a huge departure from DRG job aesthetic at this point. It's one of the two melees with MNK that really stick to the, well, melee class fantasy, with every attack being an actual physical attack.

[Reldhir]

I get your point and I kind of agree that the animation should've been snappier or pointed the spear upwards in a more fierce manner but GSK and NAS follow similar ideas of "casting" through our spear so it's not that far-fetched.

Gierskogul and Nastrond aren't quite as bad? Because you're still thrusting with your spear just the dragony energy magic flies out. Would I still prefer if the spear made contact instead? Yeah I would. My least favorite DRG animation is Mirage dive because you kinda just wriggle and a ghosty dragon comes out of you and flies into the target. The spear isnt involved which is a little disappointing. Likewise, the new skill doesnt really involve the spear either. Would maybe have been a middle ground if perhaps you do a rising sweep with the spear flicking upward and the dragon follows rising out of the ground.

I know it seems nitpicky and it kinda is xD but i dunno I just like stabbing with the stabber in my hand and not kinda just forgetting about it xD

if "spectral dragon rising up to hit an enemy" is too caster for DRG, then I guess DRG was not stabby enough back in the PS1 era lol

I mean, yeah... xD Also, id argue that Freya was Freya first drg second. Kain is more the quintessential DRG, Freya is her own thing based on DRG, at least thats how it felt to me. Same with Cid he was a pilot mechanic guy first and just happened to also use a spear in combat and have some jump skills.

Also, also, it's not to say we can't have ANY magicky type skills. I mean we already have the one in the benchmark whether we like it or not, its more hoping that its more exception than the rule. I really do personally prefer a spear user using a spear xD.

[Aco505]

My least favorite DRG animation is Mirage dive because you kinda just wriggle and a ghosty dragon comes out of you and flies into the target. The spear isnt involved which is a little disappointing. Likewise, the new skill doesnt really involve the spear either. Would maybe have been a middle ground if perhaps you do a rising sweep with the spear flicking upward and the dragon follows rising out of the ground.

I personally like Mirage Dive because it's a little dragon that comes out of you as you perform a roar-like animation. That's very dragon-like in my opinion. I hope it stays after the rework, at the least with a different purpose.

Like, don't get me wrong, I find the animation of the new action a tiny bit underwhelming and the Nidhogg head a bit random* but I know I'll get used to it and come to like it more.

I'm sure though that we're getting more spear-based animations, given how the vast majority of our attacks involve it anyway.

* I think we should have more links to Midgardsormr or especially Hraesvelgr instead considering that LotD and its related abilities are already inspired by Nidhogg.