Dragoon Changes

[Itseotle]

I too agree that Elusive Jump has it's uses, it's great when you are neck deep in some big AoE and wouldn't have the time to run out of it, but it's also nice as a gap closer.

For instance, in Turn 9, when Nael jumps off before the beam and lands somewhere behind you, Elusive Jump is super useful to quickly get to her and sneak in a Impulse Drive > dodge AoE > getting back in and using Disembowel > Leg Sweep > Chaos Thrust.

Doesn't have that pesky animation lock either. I would vote for shorter CD though.

*high fives* slightly better is holding Spineshatter then instantly following her with your jump as she jumps. Fun as hell and u can get that same attack in, dodge the aoe, get 2 more attacks off on her, then Elusive Jump back to her as she lands on the tanks head =)

Afterwards, laught it up to your groups MNK about how he dipped below 400 xD

[Sessurea]

EJ from arbiter right to the fackin chaotic strike stack position. BOOM. A HOLE IN ONE!

Feels satisfying ^^

[Shurrikhan]

All that being said if they changed elusive to work like Shukuchi I would be so happy.

I would outright hate that, tbh. The biggest advantage for me is that it requires no second click. Just run, jump, spin the camera, EJ the rest of the way.

For those that hate spinning their cameras though, it wouldn't be too bad if the /camerareverse function were able to be put into a EJ macro, as to basically make it forward by default (or as one of two options on your bar, original and macro'ed boom-forward-leap).

As for buff ideas... (my few cents... in some strange sort of currency)
- Keen Flurry (1.0 style) as a free combo move w/o combo setup per 30 seconds (60 or 90 xclass) - an extra nuke or long-DoT every half-min.
- OR Keen Flurry as a short speed buff, much larger advantage for DRG than for other classes; enough to fit another Thrust combo into a 30s window if paired with Fey Light and some Skill Speed; aids perfect DoT upkeep despite long-Mudra use for Nin and helps with rush a single rush rotation per minute for Monk; fits in an extra Heavy Shot for Bard -- plateaued dps increase, a bit less important than IR to most)
- Give Heavy Thrust an attack speed component (worth about .15 off the GCD, a little less than half of the Mnk/Nin bonus), partly to support Keen Flurry??
- Change Power Surge to something more than just a Jump buff... 40-second CD. Have it grant AP based on damage dealt over the next 4 seconds which lasts for 75 seconds. Using the ability with Power Surge's AP buff already up will consume the long-term buff but will double its effects over the next 4 seconds. If used ideally, will gradually increase damage dealt (de-exponentially) over the fight. I.e. first burst, roughly 5% more AP from Life-Full-Jump-Phle or whatnot under BFB. Next, without BFB but with bonus AP, about the same. Bonus AP + BFB, further increase. So on and so forth. [If possible, Chaos Thrust probably ought to continue trickling in dmg-to-AP returns over its duration if dealt during the 4 seconds, making it a viable but not necessarily best choice]
- Increase Jump potency to 220. If Power Surge gets changed as above, make it a variable cooldown, increasing damage for another 20 seconds after refresh to a maximum of 330 potency (50% at 1 min, as per Power Surge use).
- Increased critical strike bonus on certain moves??? E.g. Disembowel and Chaos Thrust direct damage? Or maybe tie this into Disembowel, perhaps effecting DRGs only? Bigger LS-FT crits.
- Invulnerable to (auto-dodge) cleaves and ground effects while mid-jump/dive. Can change landing location of Jump about the origin while in flight. Becomes an advantage, rather than disadvantage, of the DRG arsenal.

Edit: ?? Can advance one combo-move further, use a combo move of equal combo position without breaking current combo, or a combo move of one greater position from another combo, after any GCD critical strike. (Heavy/Phlebotomize-->Disembowel; True-->Full; Disembowel-->Vorpal-->Chaos Thrust; Disembowel-->Full Thrust) <Limitations mean to normalize proc rates to a predicable outcome within, say, 15 or at maximum 30 seconds.>


The above Power Surge change is a pretty weak attempt to add some ramping dps to DRG. I'd still like to see more opportunism in its regular rotations, something that gives it some rotational risk rather than solely carrying the fear of a single misclick in going about an absolute rotation. I'd like to involve procs as well, but I don't like the idea of randomness affecting CD-usage (only between CDs instead, all things shorter than 30-seconds). Being able to consume lingering Chaos Thrust duration for burst or having reason to use Disembowel without Chaos would be nice, for instance, or having each combo string (Drive/Chaos vs. Thrust/Full) being able to affect each other or cross under certain circumstances.

[SoundMatch]

WHAT? There are LOTS of times where I needed to use EJ to get the hell out of stick situation. E.g. The Adjudicator boss battle when he spawns the AoE Sands attack. There have been times where he marked me with the sand sphere and I EJed the hell away from my group and Spine shattered right back to the boss. I'm sorry I understand that you believe it's your opinion but the fact is there are a multitude of situation that EJ can be USED PROPERLY (Titan Ex when I'm marked with the granite goal, Garuda Ex, Labyrinth Phelngeton boss or something, when he starts to charge his astral flare). Even if there weren't these examples to show that EJ can be useful in normal situation why should the way an ability be designed for limit it's potential? It doesn't matter if I've only been playing for 2 months. Its not about how an ability is supposed to be used, its more of how you can use it to do your job better. I'd rather dodge and live to deal out DPS than die. Cause a DEAD DPS is no DPS.

[SoundMatch]

Also about the SpineShatterDive mechanic. Why would you want to LIMIT the amount of damage you do. You need that Heavy Thrust to deal out more damage. The range for Piercing Talon is the same for a Spineshatter so you can just deal damage that way. It costs alot because you're not really meant to deal damage from afar. Whereas EJ doesn't punish you for using it in any way (other than faling off the Arena in Titan Ex).

.

DoTs should be improved drastically. I mean cmon, the damage per second is pathetic it should be at least 100 per 2 seconds even if it means the DoT duration is nerfed. For Dragoons there should be some I frames for the normal jump if they plan to keep the animation lock, that way if we are skilled enough we can be rewarded with avoiding powerful AoEs and dealing damage at the same time. If they really wanna buff up Dragoons they can do it without increasing any base stats for Strength, Determination aka Damage dealt they should revamp the gameplay.

[SoundMatch]

I also think they should buff the recast timers to less than a second, therefore we can just pump out more damage (DPS) at the cost of TP (which they should nerf). Obviously that would be too broken, but the way to balance that would be to negate any damage that could hurt an enemy after cancelling. For example I go into True Thrust> Voral (2 hit) and cancel the 2nd hit early with Life Surge into Full thrust. In that example a Life Surge cancel on Vorpal thrust was mis executed which results in a loss of damage. While this is a small thing, over time if the DRG isn't careful they will lose more DPS. With this approach I believe a new layer of gameplay can be enjoyed by DRGs. Our positioning isn't as mentally demanding as Monks from the people I've played with. So I believe the gameplay skill cap for DRGs should rise along with the ability to deal even MORE damage. Albeit a fair trade. What do you all think?

After all I'm kind of a Noob.