Running around VS skill rotation

[JackFross]

There's currently no fight in the game (aside from the first boss of Neverreap) where adds/jumps happen before you finish your opener. I still haven't optimized that terrible, terrible boss fight, because it's too full of RNG to make a proper rotation out of it.

You should always get through your second Heavy Thrust before you lose targeting on the boss and/or need to deal with adds. The only other one who does different is Fractal's final boss, where the adds spawn just as you hit True Thrust (allowing you to SSD to the adds to kick their butts and gsk a few of them before going back to the boss).

So, yes. You should be using the base rotation always. In every single-target boss fight. In the current meta, there's very, very little that mucks with it and forces you to do anything other than stand there and poke the boss like it's a training dummy. The hardest encounter in the game right now is a series of 5 dummy fights back to back with a few adds to kill here and there (as a melee dps).

Any single-target encounter that matters should let you get through your full first botd timer without interruptions, at the very least. If you're struggling with maintaining this, you need to evaluate what the boss is doing and adjust your playstyle (not the rotation) to accommodate the different things the boss does. I unfortunately see a LOT of melee dps dodge aoe by running AWAY from the boss. This is bad. If you're doing this, ever, your group is either using poor strategies or you're purposely making your rotation harder to maintain.

[Zavius_Firerave]

Oh! So the tank should be able to pull the boss to a safe place where I should be able to keep attacking while following it? Yeah, I mostly run away if the tank is not pulling the boss from the AoE. Still, I don't think even that strategy is applicable to every single fight. So I guess executing that long optimal rotation IS impossible. I still should know it so I can still dish out maximum DPS on any scenario.

[Waliel]

I think they mean that you should dodge left or right when you get targeted by random circles and such instead of running away from the boss and losing uptime.

[raela]

I see all of you have your own favorite rotation for Dragoon. I am talking about the rotation from the "How to Dragoon per Second" thread kind of long. That rotation look like it'll take a whole minute to complete. Do people really use that system at all then?

When I first picked up DRG, it looked like a lot to me as well, but I found it a fun class to play, so I decided I wanted to get comfortably mediocre at it. Any time I had a little bit of downtime, I went to a striking dummy and practiced the opener a few times. At first, I pretty much screwed up constantly, so I did opener only. Once I got more used to it, I did opener plus going through the rotation some. I also tried to practice in all DF content I did.

Now I can go through the opener without hesitation on most days, although there are a few problem spots I have (sometimes from not waiting long enough and the first skill in a combo doesn't go through, resulting in broken combos and possibly lost botd). A bit of shame here and there, but I'm a happy little derpgoon with my performance.