How to Dragoon per Second: A DPS Paradigm

[whiskeybravo]

If you're Stun Locking one, and putting mass slows on the other, they will come in at the same time. My Group Slows + Stun Locks one, and only throws 1 stun onto the other. This would make it so the single stun comes after the 2nd ability of Brawler (In case it's a tank buster or AOE Stack) and the 2nd one will come in 5 seconds later.

Yea that was the problem, they were both still arriving at close to the same time. I'll make this suggestion and see if it helps. Thanks!

[AlereRaeder]

Any tips for A7S?

1. Hold your cooldowns(ie. B4B, IR, Surges, Pots, Jumps, Leg Sweep) for [Boss - Padlock - Hearts]. The faster you deal with those the faster you can get back to the boss to do more damage. I personally hold my self buffs for the Boss. oGCD like Jump and Legsweeps on Padlocks+Hearts.
   
2. You'll get used to when he flies off, so instead of refreshing Chaos Thrust, you can Full Thrust instead for more potency.
   
3. Zoomdoom(the move he casts before he flies off) will NOT affect you with Suppuration if you stand at max melee range.
   
4. Pretty much Battle Litany on cooldown, it's isn't a mechanic heavy fight.
   
5. When the boss flies up, he always takes his time so bursting down the Panzer/Sturm Doll adds won't speed the fight up; when you wait for him to come back from placing preys in cages. For higher dps try to line up your Geirskoguls with boss during Hearts, dolls(when possible).
   
6. However, for the final phase of the fight you kinda want to deal with those dolls as quick as possible because multiple spawn during:

• Fire cage( 2 small dolls, focus doll nearest to padlock )
• Healer cage( 1 small doll and a delayed spawn big doll, which we Limit Break(1or2))

[Risaka]

Any tips for a good DRG rotation?

My DRG's i209 now (with Pike of the Sephirot) and I only cleared Seph EX SSS Dummy with 1 second left
Stats are 1077 attack power, 623 crit, 429 det and 622 skillspeed (2.40s/gcd)...not sure if i'm doing the rotations right but I think I mess up most at times where BOTD comes off cooldown and I still have like more than 10 seconds of BOTD left or sometimes 20 seconds and not sure what to do with Geirskogul (I use them but sometimes at the wrong times I guess?)

About how I got the pike...I main NIN and have been since Heavensward but I'd like to try out DRG because I feel that it is a bit similar to NIN =X (or is MNK more similar to NIN?)

[JackFross]

The first post outlines pretty much everything you need to know about cooldown management and how the rotation works.

The important basics of what's there is also in this abbreviated visual guide I made a while back.

The basic advice is:
Keep everything not named Geirskogul on cooldown 100% of the time.
Delay B4B casts until halfway through the gcd spin to get 9 gcds, rather than 8.
Make sure you're using 3 Geirskoguls every minute. You get 5 4th hits every minute, so:
-- 1st gsk between first and second 4th after a cast of BotD
-- 2nd gsk between third and fifth 4th after a cast of BotD - more than 2 gcds prior to the fifth
-- 3rd gsk after fifth, but before you hit the BotD - usually it goes 2nd>gsk+botd>3rd>4th (combo hits)

If you think you're doing all of this and still coming up short, my advice is to record a run and judge yourself. Check cooldowns and see if any hang for extended periods and such.

[aleph_null]

The first post outlines pretty much everything you need to know about cooldown management and how the rotation works.

The important basics of what's there is also in this abbreviated visual guide I made a while back.

Is that opener better than the one at the first post?

[JackFross]

Is that opener better than the one at the first post?

"Technically" - It wins by like 1 pps or less. I forget the exact numbers. The one without potion is definitely optimal when not using potions at all, unless you shift everything up a gcd (and be sure to PS>Leg after Disembowel so Leg Sweep gets the DE buff), but I prefer it the way it's written there, or, I guess

HT>[IR>BL]>ID>[PS>B4B]>DE>[BotD>LegS]>CT>[Jump]>4th>[DFD]>PH>[SSD]>TT>[GSK]>VT>[LifeS]>FT>4th

would also be nice.

As I say to anyone who asks this, the only things you want to do in the opener is have every buff catch every ogcd skill (including gsk and both of the first two combo finishers), ideally have IR not overlap the Life Surge skill, and make sure that, when your buffs fall off, everything is on cooldown. As long as you did all this, your opener will be +/- 1% on the optimal in any circumstances.

So, it really comes down to whatever is most comfortable for you, given these constraints.

[MiniTyra]

I'm considering doing BL -> IR, BOTD -> BFB... Especially with the changes I now do regarding 2nd and 3rd applications of BFB, there's room to shift BFB by an additional GCD.

[JackFross]

What's the reasoning behind swapping BL and IR compared to the way I have it? o: Does that have IR extending a bit nicer? Or is it relating to the re-cast later on?

[aleph_null]

Hmm I see. Thanks. I asked because I couldn't seem to notice any difference compared to Dervy's opener. My DRG kept getting either 1-2% hp left on A6S SSS dummy or a really close clear, which could probably be attributed to getting lucky crits here and there.

I just got my first A5S clear too, I got 1060-ish dps on the boss, which is kinda low. Still a lot of rooms for improvement, but at least I managed to stay up alive for the whole fight lol. Any tips to improve? (http://www.fflogs.com/reports/x7139qmZk4JQ8Tav)

[MiniTyra]

What's the reasoning behind swapping BL and IR compared to the way I have it? o: Does that have IR extending a bit nicer? Or is it relating to the re-cast later on?

IR -> BL, at least for me, even with 16ms, has a huge delay. I don't get why BL -> IR is smoother than IR -> BL.

EDIT: My simulator does calculate, however, IR -> BL is 0.7DPS more, in a 3min encounter, than BL -> IR... So there's that.

Hmm I see. Thanks. I asked because I couldn't seem to notice any difference compared to Dervy's opener. My DRG kept getting either 1-2% hp left on A6S SSS dummy or a really close clear, which could probably be attributed to getting lucky crits here and there.

I just got my first A5S clear too, I got 1060-ish dps on the boss, which is kinda low. Still a lot of rooms for improvement, but at least I managed to stay up alive for the whole fight lol. Any tips to improve? (http://www.fflogs.com/reports/x7139qmZk4JQ8Tav)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu8HE49fggo

enjoy m8