Fracture as a Combo Finisher?

[Janyxea]

Had a thought today about Fracture and its infrequent use (it being a dps loss in nearly all scenarios).

What if instead of a stand-alone ability, it were a 3rd stage combo finisher following after skull sunder? It would be similar to PLDs goring blade, I suppose, but would be nice to actually have a DoT to keep up- in addition to either SE or SP- with BBs in between.

Then you just balance the potency and duration, and voila! You have a useful skill.

[SpookyGhost]

Assuming we're talking about WAR, it's actually always a DPS gain as long as it ticks for it's full duration. Depending on phase duration it can also cut off a FC, but then it just comes down to figuring out how many you can squeeze in before it costs you said FC.

For PLD and DRK @ 60, though, it's always a DPS loss. If it were a combo finisher it would be even more useless to PLD + DRK who are really the only ones who don't get any benefit from it. It could actually use a potency buff, but considering the rest of WAR's kit it's not really a necessary change. I like Fracture how it is (for WAR), personally, as it's a marginal DPS gain used for min/maxing and allows for really intricate GCD mapping for each fight to get the optimal use out of everything in your kit.

[Jpec07]

For PLD and DRK @ 60, though, it's always a DPS loss.

I've seen this thrown around a bunch, and it has me slightly confused; since cross-class Fracture is a 220-potency attack (100+20*6), doesn't that put it slightly above the PLD average Potency-per-GCD? If they never clip it, then, doesn't it represent a DPS gain? Or does this expression factor in TP cost?

[Iagainsti]

Fracture's inherent problem is not producing a wrath stack yet still being on the GCD. There's always a better option to utilize than Fracture.

Can't comment on Fracture as a cross class. Wouldn't know and don't care.

[Februs]

I've seen this thrown around a bunch, and it has me slightly; since cross-class Fracture is a 220-potency attack (100+20*6), doesn't that put it slightly above the PLD average Potency-per-GCD? If they never clip it, then, doesn't it represent a DPS gain? Or does this expression factor in TP cost?

I'm not positive (haven't personally tested it), but I'm pretty sure it depends on your Skill Speed and Tanking position. I've been told that it can be a Dps gain in the OT position if you stack enough SkS (going out of your way to stack extra), but I haven't actually tried it myself.

[Marxam]

Then you just balance the potency and duration, and voila! You have a useful skill.

Just because a skill sin't being used often doesn't mean it's useless. I always put fracture in the berserk rotation. Any thing after that is personal preference and dependent on if Fracture will stay for its full duration and won't get cut off by "jump" mechanics.

[Khalithar]

Not sure about making Fracture a combo finisher. It might need it's duration adjusted, the nice thing about Goring Blade is that it fits in perfectly with the Pld rotation. In the case of pld it's Goring Blade combo -> Royal Authority/Rage of Halone combo x2 -> Goring Blade combo again, it causes you to reapply goring blade just before it falls off allowing you to keep the DoT rolling. Warrior doesn't really have the same clean rotation iirc between the debuff combos, defiance/deliverance stacks, fell cleave, and it's threat combo. Also if I remember the math for Warrior, Fracture is their second highest potency move (just behind Fell Cleave), at around 500+ (I think) potency.

I never cross class it on my drk or pld at 60(I've played both pretty extensively) because I always have a better button to hit. I will use Fracture on the rare occasion I play pld in content 50 and below because the only combo I have at that low level is Rage of Halone and it's nice having a different button to hit. Honestly there are times when I wish Goring Blade wasn't part of a combo and I could just apply it like a regular DoT.

[SpookyGhost]

I've seen this thrown around a bunch, and it has me slightly confused; since cross-class Fracture is a 220-potency attack (100+20*6), doesn't that put it slightly above the PLD average Potency-per-GCD? If they never clip it, then, doesn't it represent a DPS gain? Or does this expression factor in TP cost?

Truthfully I'm just echoing hearsay, I've no empirical data to back it up. I imagine the crux of it is largely TP related even if it's higher PPS, as not only is Fracture less of a DPS increase for PLD now than it was in 2.0 but you also don't have access to the plethora of free TP generated from GCD Shield Swipe. It might still have uses regardless, like in A5S when running away for Boost while only being able to do Fast Blade or Fracture.

[Jpec07]

Truthfully I'm just echoing hearsay, I've no empirical data to back it up. I imagine the crux of it is largely TP related even if it's higher PPS, as not only is Fracture less of a DPS increase for PLD now than it was in 2.0 but you also don't have access to the plethora of free TP generated from GCD Shield Swipe. It might still have uses regardless, like in A5S when running away for Boost while only being able to do Fast Blade or Fracture.

Likewise. I generally accepted it because of the high TP cost, but if you're able to work in more MP skills then I wonder if it might just balance out. You will OOT pretty quickly if you're just doing a DPS rotation with it, though. Even with the changes to ability costs in 3.2, any extra drain on TP is going to cause problems. It could be used to smooth out DPS while taking time to cast things, but it seems like it might require changing up gameplay pretty substantially to make work.

[Rayinfluense]

Yo I'm pretty sure Fracture is almost always a dps GAIN. Why do you say it's a dps loss? You should keep Fracture up most of the time unless you really need to keep up Path or Eye or for any other reason. It's not a big dps gain but it is one. I also think it's nice to have a gcd that's not a combo, so you can delay your rotation or something for whatever reason.