Thread: Question regarding patch 5.3 Sleeve Draw

Originally Posted by smoochiepook

This answered a LOT of my questions. I always forget that such a large portion of the FFXIV player base uses controllers. Thank you for such a thorough explanation, seriously!

With all of that being said, how should Sleeve Draw be weaved into AST rotation? Do I use it first (because of its cooldown) and then Draw? Do I use it after Draw or after using all of my Redraw charges? Do I use it and abuse it?

Currently, Sleeve Draw is used in the opener as such:

*simplified ideal opener*
Draw (Pre Draw 30 sec) -> *other buff setup* -> Malefic 1.5 secs before countdown hits 0 -> Lightspeed ->[ Combust ]-> Play (First seal)-> Draw ->[ Malefic ]-> Play (2nd seal) -> Sleeve Draw ->[ Malefic ]-> Play -> Divination

Use Draw's card first, but wait 1-2 GCDs after being in combat to play it - this ensures the game registers you in combat - this is important because if you hit the enemy and play the card after, the game doesn't register you as "in combat", so you don't actually get a seal in time, thus throwing off your divination timing overall.

Sleeve Draw will always guarantee a 5% Divination when used with Draw. You want to use Sleeve Draw last because it guarantees the last seal to be different, so it has a higher chance of making sure Divination is a 6% increase instead of a 5% increase.

You don't want to consume all your redraw charges in your opener. The idea of using Divination (3-5 GCDs in combat) early instead of redrawing for the right seal is that you don't want to delay your Divination too much or everyone's openers and skills will misalign with Divination, causing the super high damage skills to not get that Divination buff, so even if you do get a 6% increase, it becomes weaker than the 5% one because of the number of skills not being buffed by it. This will get worse further down the line because once Divination's cooldown is set, it means if everyone also use their skills at the right timing and do well, they will ALWAYS miss the Divination buff window because their cooldowns come up slightly earlier than yours. It's better to take the 5% buff and then get the 6% later in your 2nd divination than misalign the timing from the beginning.

The ideal opener can vary a bit since some jobs take 3 GCDs to begin their burst damage and others take 5 GCDs to begin their burst damage iirc. This might change, but usually you want to activate your first Divination within 3-5 GCDs.