Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[Zenmaku]

Dragoons for running trash areas (AK, WP and probably Coil turn 3). When facing groups of 3 or 4 mobs... Bold moves are off-GCD

IR - HT - BfB - RoT - Ph - Leg Sweep - I - Power Surge (if Dragonfire is on CD) - D - C (tab to secondary target and during animation tab back) - Dragonfire (if off CD otherwise regular Jump) (keep in mind you are back on the original target for this) - TT - Life Surge - T - HT - RoT (if still 3 targets remain) - Ph (on secondary target if first is still alive) - Leg Sweep - ID - C (tab to the third target now to use this on as first is probably dead) - Spineshatter Dive (back on current) - TTT - Repeat

Consistently top parsed damage by a wide margin with this rotation (literally 20-30 DPS higher than the other DPS on a full run which is spread out over a long period so numbers will be smaller). I've even been able to top a second Dragoon by 10 DPS when she was using Relic + full DL vs. my Ifrit + half DL.

[Zenmaku]

It's a crazy rotation, but there's a method to this madness.

1. Chaos Thrust will never get full use out of trash mobs if you use it on the one you are currently dps'ing down, always tab to a secondary target when possible.
2. RoT has 150*number of mobs potency when used right after HT, might as well take advantage of that. However! I've found it's not as high DPS to just spam it at 100 potency even if hitting 3 targets. This is because the 300 potency attacks when crit will do massive damage, while our other AOEs when critting only has a chance to crit per mob, so you might crit 100 potency on one mob but not the other two. But you can guarantee a hard hit with Life Surge so might as well get the full 300 potency - Heavy Thrust - Disemboweled mob crit.
3. Adding Fracture to this slows it down too much for other skills, you wont get full duration on the DoTs, I do however use the main rotation on page 1 with Fracture against bosses because it does eke out an extra 2-3 dps.

[Zenmaku]

4. I've found that Jumps after Chaos Thrust is by far the fastest. Full Thrust is pretty fast too, but you literally cut off half the animation of Chaos thrust if you spam jump during it. You are practically landed already by the time the CT flowers 'hit' the enemy.

Anyway, just thought I'd toss out some fun variants for Dragoons that come to this thread. It seems only the serious DRGs come to this thread, the ones that know our damage potential even with all the naysayers.

95% of the time, vs. a primal or in a dungeon I'm the top parsed DPS. Just don't let SE know so we might get more buffs in the future from them thinking we are too weak .

[Vars]

I'm a relic owner and in regard to jump, if you have disembowel debuff up on the mob and heavy thrust buff on you w/ blood for blood and internal strikes, a power surged jump will crit for 800+ easy. I fix my buffs into my rotation for a nice smooth routine and every time my buffs are up there's a nice rather large damage spike w/ jump included. Plus Jump isn't on the global cooldown so easily fits in-between your normal skill combos. Minus buffs, jump is just a extra attack for basic damage or hitting an escaping mob, but using your abilities as they come up turns it into an impressive tool for optimizing total damage.

[EasymodeX]

- D - C (tab to secondary target and during animation tab back)

Yeah I generally drop both the Disembowel and the Chaos Thrust on the side targets so that the next HT -> ROT will get bonus piercing damage as well (and the direct damage on CT will hit harder). Generally TTT should never be used on 3 or more targets. HT + ROT will net more DPS at a close-to-efficient damage-per-TP. On 4-5 targets you want to HT -> ROT continuously pretty much. On 6+ targets you want to Doom Spike spam (after 1 HT - ROT) -- it's almost as TP-efficient as HT-ROT with that many targets.

[Zenmaku]

snip

Yeah on 5+ targets Doom Spike for sure. I like using TT (LifeSurge) T whenever possible however for that guaranteed 800+ crit. On 3 targets I actually find HT - RoT to be slightly weaker DPS than TTT because of my current crit rate, but I've never tried stacking DoTs + HT / ROT in between.

I'll have to give: HT - RoT - Ph - I - DC (secondary target) - HT - RoT - Ph (second target) I - DC (third target) - etc. tonight to see how it fares on the numbers. Throwing in off-GDC jumps etc. as usual of course.

[Zenmaku]

Honestly stuff like this is why I think while most people talk trash about DRG we are at least by far the most fun class to play. There is a lot of variance in our rotation that still has yet to be discovered. Thanks for the DoT swapping / RoT idea Easymode, I'll have to parse that tonight and compare AK runs to see how it goes!

[VersusVI]

after reading 19 pages of this thread im certainly not sure to leave fr in the rotation or just skip it... but first page shows false dmg values for ph and fr

PH should be: 170 + ((10*18)/3))= 60 =>230 instead of ayvars: 170+120=>290

FR should be: 100 +((20*30)/3)) =200 =>300 instead of ayvars: 100+120=> 220

something must be wrong with my values here since FR is considered that weak to skip in the rotation. can anyone help me understand the dotapplication here?

[HoolieWho]

after reading 19 pages of this thread im certainly not sure to leave fr in the rotation or just skip it... but first page shows false dmg values for ph and fr

PH should be: 170 + ((10*18)/3))= 60 =>230 instead of ayvars: 170+120=>290

FR should be: 100 +((20*30)/3)) =200 =>300 instead of ayvars: 100+120=> 220

something must be wrong with my values here since FR is considered that weak to skip in the rotation. can anyone help me understand the dotapplication here?

PH is 170 + (20*18/3) = 290

FR is 100 + (20*18/3) = 220

Fracture DoT duration is only 30 seconds for MRD/WAR. I believe the potency of Phlebotomize was buffed after beta which might be why your number is wrong there. Personally, I don't use Fracture on DRG, but Phlebotomize is a good skill for us.

[Destination]

I have a question, i used the damage meter app, but saw that dots are not displayed. Can we use the damage meter usefull as a dragoon?