How to Dragoon Per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[HoolieWho]

According to that it seems like you'd be able to use Geirskogul just about twice per Blood of the Dragon, or roughly 400 potency extra every minute in single target before buffs. I don't imagine 3 would somehow fit in, looking at the timelines?

You get two Geirskogul per BotD without doing any time extensions. Extending BotD with Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw will give you three Geirskogul per minute easily. It would take a lot of skillspeed to get four though.

[Thendiel]

Based on how I understand the rotation, I think Krypkins has the correct approach. We want:

HT -> ID-Dis-CT-F&C -> Phleb -> TT-VT-FT-WhT -> (repeat)

...or, alternatively:

HT -> Phleb -> ID-Dis-CT-F&C -> TT-VT-FT-WhT -> (repeat)

These both involve a lot of CT clipping (we're clipping off 5 seconds or more, depending on Skill Speed). However, the only other viable approaches that I've thought of involve 5 seconds or less of CT downtime per use, which sounds pretty sub-optimal by comparison.

[ErzaScarlet77]

gonna be switching to DRG main from MNK come 3.0
those new skills are ridiculous

[Krypkins]

As i look over the sheet again, im pretty sure i didnt stay consistent in the way i did the timers. I'll have to redo them at some point

I'd like to think the rotation itself should be solid more or less tho

[Sleigh]

Okay, so, it looks like:

Ger costs 10s of time.
A rotation is roughly 12.5s (4 moves + HT or Phleb).
You gain 2.5s of BotD per rotation, technically a bit more with some SS/Selene
You have exactly 5 rotations at 0 SS between BotD uses (gets funky with SS)
To last from extender to extender, you need 12.5s. To last extender to extender with Geir within it, you need 22.5s, which means there are rotations you are unable to do Geir even if you have enough time to do X amount within 5 rotations. As long as you never dip below 0 BotD duration you're fine. If you dip below 0 BotD duration within the last rotation, and can activate BotD before your next extender, that should be fine too.

Napkin rotation, might not be true just making it up as I go along a rotation in my head:

If say you start before CT4, you have 27.5s left as of CT4. Can use Geir there and survive to next rotation, for a total of -22.5s, or 5s left + 15s = 20s left. Can't Ger yet before next extender or will drop. Can Geir after next CT4/FT4, as you'd have 22.5s left. At that point you will survive to the next BotB and can just blow Geir right before the next BotB regardless. Should be able to loop that, although the next Geir would be delayed by a little.

You get two Geirskogul per BotD without doing any time extensions.

You only get 1 without extensions, it's a 10s CD on Geir, and a 15s base on BotD. You'd have 5s after your use before you run out, less than the 10s you need.

[Thendiel]

Here's a theoretical model for Geirskogul use that I threw together, assuming a GCD of exactly 2.5 seconds.

HT -> ID-Dis-[BotD]CT -F&C -> [Geirskogul] Phleb -> TT-VT-FT-WhT (17.5 seconds remaining) -> HT -> ID-Dis-CT-F&C (20 seconds remaining) -> Phleb -> TT-VT-FT-WhT (22.5 seconds remaining) -> HT -> ID-Dis-CT-F&C [Geirskogul] (15 seconds remaining)-> Phleb -> TT-VT (one minute has transpired; new BotD is available) FT [Geirskogul] (BotD expires) WhT -> (entire pattern repeats)

While this squeezes in 3 Geirskoguls in just a little over a minute, it also involves BotD downtime at the very end of the move set (between Wheeling Thrust and the next Dis-CT opening for BotD). But it seems like there might be some awkwardness in reapplications of BotD in general, since the buff (I suppose) would have to wear off before you reach Disembowel or Vorpal Thrust in your rotation. I'm not sure how we'll work around that.

Off the cuff, I hypothesize that a GCD of 2.3 seconds or less might enable us to better optimize Blood of the Dragon, since we could reach the final Wheeling Thrust and extend the cooldown timer before 60 seconds have transpired.

[Leananshee]

Sweet work on the Thread hun Gief 60 naow!! So hyped for tomorrow #inlove

[seekified]

For GCD clipping and such, remember that it's been said that they're reworking the animation locks on jumps again to make them more fluid.

[Dervy]

If I've calculated Geriskogul and BotD ticking correctly with my updated model, the rotation should go like this. You guys are gonna be shocked at the DPS numbers this is gonna spout out. This might seem confusing, but bare with me.


My model calculates BotD with increases/decreases depending FC/WT/GK. Now, the timer also takes into consideration the "Animation lock", as the timers aren't updated until after you've activated the skill, not prior. Let's use a GCD of 2.40, as that's on the tooltips of the images shown and one can only assume that will roughly be the levels of Skillspeed we'll be working with.

The first BotD will be activated at 4.80s, with a 60s duration, the next time BotD will be available will be at 64.80s, naturally. 64.80/2.4 = 27GCDs between this period. 27th ability with a GCD of 2.4 is a Vorpal Thrust. So the second you use Vorpal Thrust, you should (tightly), be able to weave in your next BotD.

Because of this fresh reset of BotD, you'll have 26.7s left on your timer, when you activate your next Wheeling Thrust, after the Full Thrust combo, allowing you to execute another Geirskogul. Because of this, you have a unique relationship where you'll first use Geirskogul after FC, then each BotD refresh will rotate GK after the alternate combo, kinda like what we do with Life Surge and CT/FT.

Because of this, the rotation will go like this:

HT - ID - DI - (BotD) - CT - FC - (GK) - PH - TT - VP - FT - WT

Then the next application of BotD, at 64.80s would look like this:

HT - TT - VP - (BotD) - FT - WT - PH - IDCF.

Then again at 129.6s, it'll go back to the beginning. You will also end up with 1-2 GCD downtime of BotD when you approach the refresh window.

As for the rotation numbers.... Using my stats of:
WD: 58
STR: 646*1.03 = 665
DET: 422
CRT: 572
SS: 46

2.55:
PPS: 179.5596718322
DPS: 632

3.0:
PPS:206.9941142740
DPS: 689 (With a 1/3 hit to AA's DET scaling)

That's with Battle Litany, Jump Buffs, Geirskogul abuse, BotD uptime, not missing any WT/FC positionals and playing it perfectly in a vacuum, not accounting for Critical Hit Damage, Life surge, or Skillspeed DoT adjustments. Just, broken. I hope I've messed up somewhere, because that's too much DPS...

Again, this is all just theory and we'll have to see the actual numbers when we get in-game. But if this is all correct... Dragoon is one scary Job.

EDIT: SquareEnix have done a fantastic job literally squeezing every last drop out of this rotation. It's so fragile when at high-skillspeeds. I think the highest we'll ever go is 2.40... Anymore might/could break us, to the point we might consider using BotD before Disembowel instead... Idk. I'll have to go over and check all my timers are correct.