2. Positionals

DRG right now is the “positional job”: in a 10 GCD string (the basic DRG rotation), 50% of the GCDs will be positionals. Additionally, the 4th and 5th positional hits are always back/flank (or vice versa) one after the other, meaning that they can be tight to hit during specific mechanic or movement-intensive moments.

Positionals add a layer of complexity to the job. It could be debated how good or bad it is, but it’s there. Therefore, removing them would be a step in the wrong direction, as it would simplify DRG. What could be done, instead, is to provide more tools to deal with them.

Reducing the animation lock of jumps and allowing the Fang and Claw (FnC) and Wheeling Thrust (WT) duo to be used in any order after Chaotic Spring (CS) or HT are two possible solutions.

3. Job difficulty

It is often said that DRG is one of the easier melees to pick up because of its fixed GCD rotation and “simple rule” of using all oGCDs on cooldown. Having a lower skill floor is not a negative point if a job has a high skill ceiling. However, could we say that this strictness makes the job easier?

Right now, any mistakes in the rotation, any drift caused by whatever reason, will already make it difficult to recover. For example, small drifts in GSK and HJ either due to player error or mismanagement of faster skillspeeds can slowly but surely move life windows and oGCDs out of buffs. This means that DRG gets quite punished unless things are used on hard cooldown.

This is partially due to the jumps’ animation lock, since they have to be used alone in oGCD windows and so can push non-jump oGCDs out of buffs when mistakes happen.

Additionally, due to the fact that all jumps are also gap closers, drifting them (HJ in particular) can kill or force even more drift during specific mechanics (e.g., Intemperance 1 in P1S). This can be countered by the order oGCDs are used in the opener but requires a strict use until then. A drift of only one GCD can already cause important alignment issues in a case such as this one.

The solution would not be to prune oGCDs or buttons, but to make their use a bit more comfortable and/or forgiving in some cases.