Marauder DPS build?

[Shinkyo]

Hi all,

I'm going against Titan HM with my FC and since we already have PLD, I'll be contributing as a melee DPS. I'd want to try going in as a Marauder with DPS build.
Do you have any recommendation in terms of cross class skills and rotation to maximize DPS?

BTW, I already went as WAR without defiance (with VIT acc) and was suprised that my DPS wasn't too far behind a DRG. We were both in full DL with Garuda weapon and I parsed 70 DPS while the DRG did 78 (DoTs were pretty much the same).PLD was at 62 with ifrit sword, BRD and BLM were at 110-120 DPS.
I find weird that DRG was so low, is that normal?

[Tronic]

What parser were you using? I've clocked ~130 dps on ffxiv app for Titan as a war w/o defiance, and that was before I swapped my 30 vit for str and got 4 str DL accesories.

[ZDamned]

Honestly, put Defiance back on, and just don't use Butchers block if your above 80@ on the Aggro meter. Just remember to use IB every chance it's up, AFTER a heavy Swing, and you will do MORE damage than without Defiance. (This has been tested and parsed by a friend when I had my Bravura)

If you are going for Marauder with cool downs as a supplement, then I would say go for it, and see. I have yet to obtain the Garuda Axe to try this, and I don't want to do it with the Ifrit one.

The Dragoon in your FC was performing VERY poorly, he should be pushing out at least 100 DPS in order to sit on that spot. He is definitely not keeping up all his DOT's, heavy Swing/Disembowel, and Chaos Thrust. If he's not, his gear is bad, or his weapon is bad, or he is bad. =/

[Gamemako]

DRG DPS is a bit low right now, and will likely be buffed according to the last live letter. It should be about 10% above MRD DPS using equivalent equipment, though. MRD DPS is pretty decent.

Cross-class skills you'll want: Raging Strikes, Blood for Blood, Quelling Strikes, Invigorate, Internal Release. If you're having accuracy issues, bring Hawk's Eye as well. Rotate your abilities as follows:

Raging Strikes -> Berserk -> (attack) -> Blood for Blood -> (attack) -> Quelling Strikes -> (attack) -> Inner Release -> Go to town until Berserk ends -> (Normal attacking for 90s) -> Raging Strikes -> Berserk -> (attack) -> Inner Release -> Go to town until Berserk ends -> (Normal attacking for 90s). You'll get more out of waiting for burst cycles for Inner Release, and for the love of Menphina, use Quelling Strikes in the main Berserk cycle or you will make your team very, very angry with you. You will steamroll right over tank enmity without it unless you wait all day.

WS rotation: SE -> BB -> SE -> BB spam gives best DPS -- additional 20 potency on second BB combo isn't worth losing SE bonus at any time (goal is damage, not enmity; for enmity, you'd do two BB combos). Keep up Fracture all the time. Don't bother with Venomous Bite, it's a waste to use. Straight Shot is really only worth dropping before a burst cycle, but do use it then (right before Raging & Berserk). Do bring some skillspeed bonuses, you'll want them for fitting in that last attack under Berserk.

//EDIT:

Honestly, put Defiance back on, and just don't use Butchers block if your above 80@ on the Aggro meter. Just remember to use IB every chance it's up, AFTER a heavy Swing, and you will do MORE damage than without Defiance. (This has been tested and parsed by a friend when I had my Bravura)

300 potency every 20 seconds isn't nearly going to make up for a 25% damage reduction, especially when your base alternating combo does 206.67 potency per attack. That's a loss no matter how you slice it. The tiny STR bonus on WAR isn't going to nearly make up for the loss of Raging Strikes and Blood For Blood, not to mention the use of Quelling Strikes to keep from overtaking enmity.

[Shinkyo]

Thanks for your inputs.
I'm using FFXIV app and I was surprised at the parser results. I find the results aren't always consistent so I don't know how reliable this is.
Maybe our DRG need to work a bit because he is in full DL acc and full gear from WP/AK :-)

I'll try staying in defiance, spam IB and see the results.
On a funny note, I did a few pug runs and got trash talked about how I was wasting a party slot but then many DPS kept dying mid-fight... Was happy to reply that I contributed much more than those dead DPS
all of Titan's AoE are a joke for a Tank if you're not being main targeted :-D
Even if I get hit, I can easily recover on my own and the healers don't have to worry about me at all.

[Shinkyo]

Oh, didn't see that post!!!
Thanks a bunch, I'll try that tonight! I don't necessarily have all those skills but I'll accommodate.

[Hachiko]

Just keep in mind that it's really only worth going MRD until you get Bravura / Bravura +1, at which point WAR will be better for DPS until you get to the Allagan greataxe, at which point you can go MRD again. So going out of your way to get a bunch of MRD cross class skills seems like a waste to me, for now.

With that said, if you're DPSing you probably should be careful with butcher's block combo. IMO if you are going for DPS (i.e. 30 STR stat allocation and all DPS accessories), you should not ever use Butcher's Block as using it will skyrocket your enmity and it's only a 3.33 potency gain across the combo versus storm's eye.

You definitely should not stay in defiance, but if you eat an AOE popping into defiance, hitting Infuriate + Inner Beast + Thrill of Battle will basically be a full heal once you drop out of defiance.

Also 79 dps for a dragoon is ridiculously low, but XIVAPP is notorious for not parsing party member damage very well.

As a MRD IMO you should roll straight shot.

This seems like a lot of effort in terms of getting cross class skills (unless you already have them) for something you will really only be doing once (when you kill titan for your relic).

[ZDamned]

You neglected Unchained, along with the potential added Critical chance, which negates up to 10% of the Damage reduction from Defiance. (In the long run)

Only reason I'm even bringing this up is because I want to test this myself. I also think that this added power from Cross Skills is only based on using Damage Boosting cool downs a ton, but the titan fight intrinsically removes their effectiveness by forcing a lot of movement, and I don't think they will be as effective as you can show on a training Dummy. Where as Defiance with Berserk/Inner Release/Unchained are short enough bursts, to get their effects used up 100% of the time. + Using Inner Beast also Ignores the Defiance penalty as well. So during Unchained toss up an Infuriate, and go to town, then back to IB Spam.

OP Please follow Gamemako's advice here, I'll do some more testing when I have time to log back in, since my advice is not based on using Marauder.

Also, what is the added Strength from the Warrior Crystal?

[Hachiko]

You neglected Unchained, along with the potential added Critical chance, which negates up to 10% of the Damage reduction from Defiance. (In the long run)

Also, what is the added Strength from the Warrior Crystal?

10 STR is added from the crystal. And unchained is only closing the gap between non-defiance and defiance. In essence to get the unchained buff all you need to do is drop defiance.

The 10% crit is okish, but, it doesn't compensate for the 25% damage reduction, even remotely. It's, at best, a 5% increase in damage. So it's .75*.05. Unchained is such a long cooldown that its actual contribution is really weak as well. (it's just slightly above raging strikes). Honestly, unchained is just plain a poorly designed skill, and its basially just a 33% damage increase skill on a 180 second cooldown that causes you to lose the opportunity to self heal for a while and makes you harder to heal.

If you want to look at the math for damage, in defiance your modifiers are: -25%, +20%, +11% This puts you at 93% modifier for your damage (+some crit, depending on how you use Wrath), while outside of Defiance you're at 133%.

You're hoping to make up the difference in modifiers by using the potency of Inner Beast, but it doesn't modify the rotation that much. You can only use Inner Beast every 8-10 GCD's (realistically with fracture). Your rotational potency OUTSIDE of defiance averages out to about 214 (with fracture averaged in). Inside of Defiance that is modified to ~93%, which puts it at ~199 potency per GCD. Outside of Defiance it's modified to 133%, which puts it at ~284 potency per GCD. Inner Beast, basically will replace one of those 199 potency hits for a 400 potency (modified with the +20% / +11%) hit every 22.5ish seconds. That's a 200 potency difference, averaged over 9 GCD's, or ~22.22 Potency per GCD, which puts the Defiance number at ~221 potency per GCD.