Dawntrail Dragoon Feedback

[HikariKurosawa]

The oGCD job that somehow gets less and less oGCDs to press, and person who says it still doesn't have lvl 100? Baits used to be believable.

Also, M6S add phase really shows how bad that decision to cut Dragon Gauge was. While RPR and VPR can nuke Yan with their Enshrouds as soon as it appears, DRG can just sit and wait at least until 2m burst window, while barely dealing any meaningful damage to it. Thanks, Square, it truly was a rework of all time.

Oh wow dude you got to level 100 and did some endgame content in an mmo that totally makes your opinion more relevant than mine. Bait used to be believable lol. Good one.

DRG is one of the top damage dealers right now and it is not a selfish dps. It already has enough oGCD at level 95, and it gets another one at level 100. I think that if you want to serve an argument, it's best to just do it rather than to try to gatekeep opinions on something that is entirely subjective in a game that takes little to no skill to begin with. It's an mmo. You're not playing something hard, you're playing an mmo. Even the best players of mmos take tons of attempts to get an encounter down. It's a memorization game. Trial through failure. Stop talking like you're an elite gamer. Nobody playing an mmo is elite. If they were elite level skill, they would be playing a game that actually demands elite level ability.

[MatchaokaCha]

They really should've just re-done the animations for jumps too instead of shortening them as a quick fix. It feels so awkward to look at your character just jump-slapping the enemy with a noodle. Mirage Dive also feels so bland and awkward now.

[Valence]

Jump animation locks actually used to be skill based and part of the job's identity, and I'll die on that hill.

[Carighan]

Jump animation locks actually used to be skill based and part of the job's identity, and I'll die on that hill.

Exactly this. In fact, people put so much word into this "but oGCD weaving is skill expression", and IMO it's the opposite: GCDs are. GCD with animation and movement locks truly are.

[Aco505]

DRG for essentially its entire history in FFXIV: long GCD string with oGCD focus, including the jumps.

Those who don't play the job and want jumps/oGCDs to feel "weighty" (i. e. have more potency): make the job GCD-focused!

These claims would continue even if stuff like RotD didn't exist and Dragonfire dealt 1050 potency instead (which is closer to 1500 during burst BTW). Like those at the JP forum asking for the job to have 1000 potency attacks because otherwise "it's not a true DPS". That's also what got us into the 1-Nastrond change that created this thread and others.

Go read that one over again to see what plenty of DRG players want or dislike.

Stardiver is the weightiest jump with its visual and animation lock, yet the developers decide to keep the potency as it is instead of swapping it with Starcross'. It's what it is. They could raise the potencies of DFD and HJ as well, but then the job is even more ninjafied and crit-reliant. It's never been a job with a GCD-focused burst or super high potency attacks but one with the damage distributed across many actions and whose burst is almost exclusively oGCD management.

A unique trait by the way. Didn't we hate homogenization?

Even in the olden days of HW, the main goal was to keep Blood of the Dragon up through FnC/WT to use as many Geirskoguls (oGCD) as possible. It's sad that we lost that kind of GCD/oGCD interaction, however, as we need more than just Life Surge and WWT.

[Carighan]

DRG for essentially its entire history in FFXIV: long GCD string with oGCD focus, including the jumps.

Yeah I didn't say the job was ever good or fun so far. But it has the potential to be!

[Valence]

Exactly this. In fact, people put so much word into this "but oGCD weaving is skill expression", and IMO it's the opposite: GCDs are. GCD with animation and movement locks truly are.

Eeeeh, that's not really what I had in mind and I don't think I agree with this at all. Both GCD and oGCDs are variables around which any job identity can be built, not just the former. Else it's like saying BRD is shit because everything relies on its oGCDs, and as a rphys player I couldn't disagree more with this either. Even during HW with cast times on rphys they were filled to the brim with oGCDs, because that's the role fantasy. It's the same for DRG, and I like and respect it about that job too, albeit missing that some of those oGCDs used to be heavy jumps that didn't leave room for double weaving and required to think a bit more how to use them properly, much line Ninja's Assassinate used to be a single weave with a long animation.

[Carstien]

Don't have much to say about the differences in the way you play the job, I've liked all iterations of DRG so far and this one is no different but there is definitely a DT problem with the weight of some attacks just not feeling like it's there. I honestly feel like the entire job of VPR feels weightless with the exception of uncoiled fury, like when I compare the feel of using Awaken to RPR's Unshroud it feels like night and day, it's like you can feel the impact of every attack with RPR and none with VPR.

And yeah, DRG goes through the same thing on it's new GCD's and OGCD's. Starcross and Rising Dragon should have been jumps. Give DRG more jumps, DRG players love that stuff.

Also, while on the topic of Starcross it's almost certainly Midgardsormr themed which is why it's a different colour. I think the speed is meant to be so fast you don't see yourself hit the target, you perform a light-speed jump attack after jumping up, then land back down. The name "Starcross" hint's at it being Midgardsormr based considering his lore of crossing the stars with his brood. I don't hate it but would have loved it to be a jump still. Change winged glide to a jump too, just a hop to the target, make it feel nicer.

[CidHeiral]

Don't have much to say about the differences in the way you play the job, I've liked all iterations of DRG so far and this one is no different but there is definitely a DT problem with the weight of some attacks just not feeling like it's there. I honestly feel like the entire job of VPR feels weightless with the exception of uncoiled fury, like when I compare the feel of using Awaken to RPR's Unshroud it feels like night and day, it's like you can feel the impact of every attack with RPR and none with VPR.

With Viper you're attacking lightning fast with lightweight weapons so it makes more sense there, but a lance is a large unwieldy weapon. Even if our character has mastered the lance we should still see them throwing their weight into moving the weapon around as the older animations portrayed very well. The newer animations feel more like we're wielding a thin cardboard tube.

And yeah, DRG goes through the same thing on it's new GCD's and OGCD's. Starcross and Rising Dragon should have been jumps. Give DRG more jumps, DRG players love that stuff.

Agreed. Rise of the Dragon is awful (and makes no sense) and replacing Spineshatter Dive with a goofy slip-n-side maneuver is truly a mystery for the ages. We should be attacking with our lance and jumping, not summoning giant heads somehow and sliding around. It really feels like the designer for DT DRG never actually played the job and has no sense of what made it cool.

Also, while on the topic of Starcross it's almost certainly Midgardsormr themed which is why it's a different colour. I think the speed is meant to be so fast you don't see yourself hit the target, you perform a light-speed jump attack after jumping up, then land back down. The name "Starcross" hint's at it being Midgardsormr based considering his lore of crossing the stars with his brood. I don't hate it but would have loved it to be a jump still. Change winged glide to a jump too, just a hop to the target, make it feel nicer.

You're probably right but I think the fact that multiple people in this thread have had multiple different theories on what it's supposed to be demonstrates that it's ultimately a failure. Whatever the theme is supposed to be isn't the most important bit anyway, the animation looks, sounds, and feels very lame. Whoever was responsible for the DT DRG animations dropped the ball pretty hard. Shout out to Drakesbane, one of the worst animations in the entire game.

All that being said, I would happily accept bad animations if it meant the job was reverted to being fun again like in EW.

[Shadyshawty]

If you're struggling with the changes, it's likely because you’re not adjusting to the new style. Do you even raid high-level content? These changes were made to improve the experience, not reduce the job’s effectiveness. Include this animations are designed to keep the pace of combat flowing smoothly.

These updates were made with top-level performance in mind, while ensuring the job remains engaging and fun for everyone.