Trying to get better as a RDM

[Rawrz]

For one thing, you shouldn't try to double weave Fleche and Contre Sixte. The animation lock slows down your global cooldown, and that's never good.

I double weave just fine as well. Try to avoid sps in favor of DH/CRIT/DET.

A few little tips while I sit on break at work:

Role Skills:
Lucid Dreaming, Addle, Swiftcast, Diversion and Manashift. If doing V4s prog, Surecast in place of Manashift.

Why not Apoc or Erase? Although both feel like you're helping to support the party, they dont actually contribute to DPS. Swiftcast is a dps gain. Manashift can extend foes by up to 9 seconds or give healers a couple extra GCDs until Lucid/other mana opportunities. Addle is potent in AoE and single target situations, a flexible instant mitigation worth bringing. Diversion. I was sooo against using it, but its a necessary evil. RDM is just too powerful on openers to leave to a lucid 1 second into the fight (costing you min/max dps delaying ogcd dps skills.)

Opener and proc management:
You can pick either VerThunder or VerAero. Just pick the one that fits your flavor. Im a thunder kinda guy ; 3.

10 second pull macro starts
9 seconds- Acceleration
7 Seconds- Diversion
5 seconds- Hardcast VerThunder [Verfire proc 100%]
0 seconds- Insta-VerAero [Verstone proc 50%]
Ogcd1-Fleche Ogcd2-Contra
Proc System management kicks in


Hardcast Verfire--- If no Verstone proc, Cast VerAero to fish for a Verstone to msintain balance, Cast Verthunder to fish for another fire if you got a VerStone proc already from opener.

If you receive no Procs after your initial accelerated verfire, Swifcast VerAero/Thunder for the one with the lower mana. If again no proc, revert to jolt/Jolt II. Use impact when you have neither a stone or fire proc or if your mana would become imbalanced using stone/fire. Example being: 50W/79B with a fire and impact proc. Impact-> VerAero brings you to 65W/79B with a 50% chance to give you a verstone. Much more balanced mana. If your mana deviates by 30 points from eachother the losing side has its mana gain cut in half.


First lets do some evaluations. What is dps? Damage per second right? So abilities that deal the most damage per cool down time should be prioritized first. Namely, Fleche and Contre. If youre really wanting to improve, write out each abilities potency and divide by its CD. I dont have my little sheet anymore with my calcs but its pretty simple.

1. Fleche
2. Contre
3. Displacement (Very close to corps and although its dps potential IS HIGHER the range limitation makes it worth less than corps on opener priority.
4. Corps (Read above)
5. Swiftcast -> Verthunder/VerAero
6. Manashift the BARD, if no bard, save for healers/SMN.
6. Acceleration (Accel is tough because it enures a 30 potency gain on your next hardcast, but there was a 50% chance it was going to gain that 30, therefre its only 15.

To simplify the opener im just going to call a fodder spell like jolt,impact, stone, fire HARDCAST and Insta VerAero/Thunder INSTA BIG SPELL so I can explain OGCD placement.


Personal DPS OPENER (No Ninja)

10 second pull macro starts
9 seconds- Acceleration
7 Seconds- Diversion
5 seconds- Hardcast VerThunder [Verfire proc 100%]
0 seconds- Insta-VerAero [Verstone proc 50%]
Ogcd1-Fleche Ogcd2-Contra
HARDCAST
INSTACAST BIG SPELL
Ogcd1-Corps
Ogcd2-Manashift Bard
HARDCAST
INSTACAST BIG SPELL
Ogcd1-Displacement
HARDCAST
INSTACAST BIG SPELL
Ogcd1- Manafiction.
Ogcd2-Corps
Riposte
TIGHT Ogcd- embolden
Zer
Redouble
Ogcd- Displacement
Verholy or Flare.

When choosing between the two, if your mana wont shoot past 30 from eachother both are near equal) and you already have the proc of your lowest mana, 20% fish for the other one. Example: 19W/20B with a stone proc. Verflare for a chance of a fireproc, then verstone to demarginalize the mana difference.


Running out of time! Please don't ever open with VerCure for dual cast. You lose 240 potency minimum if you have even 2 seconds to hardcast! You can use vercure during the fight during boss invulns or look aways, since you cant precast their return!

Manashift whenever you can spare the ogcd and mp for your aoe samming healer.

Make an effort to move in between each ogcd weave, inching closer back into healing range, after each displacement.

Be in melee when you can but dont cause extra AoE for the melee.

Also, take these pointers with a grain of salt. Certain fights and comps cause you to change your opener slightly. Just general direction to increase the depth of the class.

Hope this helps someone!