How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[CookieMonsta]

PLD recorded a single miss at 698 ACC in A8S from the front today in Sword Oath, I kept a record of the data dump.

[JackFross]

What are some very commonly asked topics/misunderstood concepts about the Dragoon which haven't, or have been poorly addressed thus far? Dervy is doing a complete overhaul of his original guide and wants to make sure that every possible topic has been covered; and yes, AoE rotations/DoT management will also be included.

AoE stuff is a big one that's asked for a lot, as well as potionless openers. A lot of people basically take the advanced opener, remove the potion, and shift everything up one GCD, which I think is an overall pps loss, but I haven't tested it. My current favorite actually leads with HT>LegS>BL>ID since Leg Sweep will be back after the FT/4th and before B4B drops off. And credence/a nod/calculations for the H>IDC4>P>IDC4 opener would be nice, as well.

Another thing I'd like to see explained is how long you should realistically hold off-gcd skills (primarily DFD) in order to line them with buffs (or add spawns in DFD's case) without taking pps loss.

Something that's also not very well-explained is those semi-rare circumstances where you have 2-3-4-5 GCDs left before a mob dies, and the optimal rotation to use in such a scenario. Also missing is the actual duration that your clipping CT needs to last before it's actually effective.

[AaronHughes]

0 misses recorded at 699 acc as DRK without grit at times

[PrincessBusty]

Howdy! Figured I'd ask you guys here since I've run into a roadblock D:

character stats + item info: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...cter/13218863/

I'm debating whether or not to wait 2 additional weeks for my belt or if I should go ahead and grab the bracelet now. I've also purchased my lore earrings (but I'm not sure how I should meld them until I figure out what piece I should grab), and I'm driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to maintain the magic numbers regardless of the path I choose.

Any input on item/meld suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[JackFross]

Get the belt. You'll have 2 more weeks of drops to look forward to getting one of the two items you need, plus the belt is a drastic gain over the Lore, whereas the Midan Bracelet isn't really significantly better than Lore without other pieces to compliment it.

PLUS. Belt is Vitality. Vitality is ++++++++++++ compared to any gains in secondaries for Midas.


As far as suggestions are concerned:
1. You're using a lot of g5's in slots where g4's are more efficient. Anything 230 will lose its materia when it upgrades to 240.
2. You have a LOT of accuracy - you need 699 for A8S and, assuming you've had 4 kills of A5S, you're definitely not progressing on that fight. If you're on A6, you don't need much more than 680 or so, so you're focusing quite a bit too heavily on Accuracy.
3. Upgrading to the Midan Belt and Primal Bracelets floors the shit out of your Accuracy because you've done a lot of silly melds (DET V's EVERYWHERE where you could be melding Accuracy instead to run 0 ACC pieces with Crit on them for more overall gains).

Personally, what I would do is aim for the Midan Belt asap and buy the Primal Earrings when you get it. Those two pieces together will keep your SKS where it needs to be and, if you drop some DET melds for ACC melds, you'll also get a much larger overall gain. Melding 1 Acc 4 into the ears and 2 into the head would bump you up a solid ~10-12 points of stat weight and drop to 689 ACC which should be enough for even A7S progression, by which point you should be hopefully sitting on some Midan Gloves or Midan Boots - both of which make the whole situation significantly more manageable.

[ColdestHeaven]

A quick question concerning A7S which I'm sure was said at some point, but since I wasn't training it yet I didn't pay much attention: should I hold B4B for the second cage in P1, in case first one is healer/tank? Because whenever I forget to hold it, I can't kill the alarum in time (and it's usually a matter of one-two more skills, too); however I feel that ilvl 233 should be more than enough to actually make it. What I do is HT-ID-TTT and I repeat TTT4 (I activate BotD on the first FT) till I kill it, or I don't, depending on whether B4B is off cooldown or not. Is there a better way to deal with them?

[JackFross]

What I do is HT-ID-TTT and I repeat TTT4 (I activate BotD on the first FT) till I kill it, or I don't, depending on whether B4B is off cooldown or not. Is there a better way to deal with them?

If the bolded is a typo, then yes. You forgot to press Chaos Thrust.

My group has our WAR taking them, now, but I have my first kill with two jails. I never held anything for them and never had a problem killing it, so long as I didn't fuck up and forget to hit a button. Especially for the second one. :0 You shouldn't hold B4B for it, but you should have offgcd skills.

This is how I usually did the second Jail in the first set, if I got the Alarum. After that FT comes SSD onto the boss followed by the 4th hit.

Those skills should all be up there, using them on cooldown. I only use most of my skills on the boss, especially during that phase of the fight. There's very little reason to burn jumps and such outside of the boss phases (aside from perhaps SSD back to the boss after padlock) and most of them come back during that phase - aka come back for the Alarums.


Also! I decided to try something today. I went to the A8S dummy and tried to kill it without using Heavy Thrust. Unfortunately, my best attempt only got it to 1% remaining. I can only average around 1720-1740 without HT compared to my more usual 1890-1910 with it. D:

[ColdestHeaven]

snip

It wasn't a typo, I figured that considering CT was gonna last much less than 30 seconds (I'm supposed to kill it before that after all) and the fourth combo isn't getting full damage, rushing directly into TTT was a better idea. Thank you for pointing that and confirming the CD bit.

[JackFross]

It wasn't a typo, I figured that considering CT was gonna last much less than 30 seconds (I'm supposed to kill it before that after all) and the fourth combo isn't getting full damage, rushing directly into TTT was a better idea. Thank you for pointing that and confirming the CD bit.

Ah - but CT with the positional bonus needs to last for 3s in order to be a net gain over using FT instead (assuming CT is not currently flowing). CT without positional bonus loses 50 potency - the CT DoT bit is 35 potency per tick - +2 of those will put you over what you'd get from a TTT combo. For more efficient display, we'll assume no positional bonus on:

H>ID>TTT4>TTT4>[ded mob]
H>IDC4>TTT4>TTT4?

First:
100 + (180 + 220 + (150+200+360+200)x2x1.1)x1.15 = 2862.3
= 2862.3 in 11 GCDs

Second:
100 + (180 + 220 + (200+200+150+200+360+200)x1.1)x1.15 = 2217.15
DoT effector: 35x(5*2.4+1)x1.15/3 = 174.42
= 2391.57 in 9 GCDs
Assume we add +2 GCDs to this, we'd do ID>Dis for maximum potency
(180+220)x1.1x1.15 + 35x(2x2.4)x1.15/3 = 570.4
= 2961.97 in 11 GCDs

Overall more potency to use Chaos Thrust.

Mine in that image died in 8 GCDs, so if we truncate these two, we end up with:

First:
2862.3 - (200+360+200)x1.1x1.15 = 1900.9

Second:
2391.57 - 200x1.1x1.15 - 35x2.4x1.15/3 = 2106.37

Net gain in those first 8 GCDs, where you weave in oGCDs to kill the thing asap.

[JackFross]

In regards to gear, Dervy is actually doing a complete overhaul of his set. He's getting Augmented Gloves, Belt and Earrings swap once he gets the Twines/Coats and dropping to 558 SS (well, 558ss + ss from lore weap)

In case people are curious, I think I have stumbled onto this exact set while tinkering with things.

I like it a lot - 1135 Crit with exactly 699 Accuracy and 601 Det just sorta looks and feels really sweet. It's absolutely what I'm aiming for, now, and it gives a few easy spots to throw VIT melds in during progression, since 3/5 of your BiS accessories are rocking Crit.