Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[Peptaru]

This rotation, is this just an opening burst? and how should i follow up with it?

From there, keep up heavy thrust, disembowel, chaos thrust, phlebotomize and use thrusts. offGCD's as they're available unless you need to save them for a mechanic.

[Sir_Maxwell]

This rotation, is this just an opening burst? and how should i follow up with it?

Pretty much what Peptaru said. But the actual rotation is

HT - IDC - P - TTT
HT - TTT - P - IDC
HT - TTT - P - TTT

As mentioned in previous posts, nobodies sure if we are able to clip Chaos Thrust in the new patch. Also with jump animation being reduced, using them to avoid clipping CT isn't going to work, so you pretty much have to weave in Fracture now. I've been used to using it at the end of every HT cycle when there is 2-3 seconds left on the Heavy Thrust buff, but I'm sure there's a more optimal location for it.

[Tanama]

The Eorzea Database has been updated to 2.1. Here's the stats of the new Holy Lance and i95 Allagan Spear:



Also, I noticed the Allagan Trousers of Maiming are shown as a blackish color now instead of white.

EDIT:

Ultima Band of Striking - Strength +11 Critical Hit Rate +10 Skill Speed +14
Ultima Choker of Striking - Strength +11 Critical Hit Rate +10 Determination +10

Tremor Earring of Striking - Strength+13 Determination+11 Critical Hit Rate+11
Inferno Bangle of Striking - Strength +13 Accuracy +16 Critical Hit Rate +11
Vortex Ring of Striking - Strength +13 Accuracy +11 Critical Hit Rate +16

[Ronzeru]

Damn you got to it before me. I'm looking through the stuff now on the database. Evidently the accessories from primals are all iLvl 90. Didn't know they'd be that high.

[Ronzeru]

Tremor Earrings of Striking
Inferno Bangle of Striking
Vortex Ring of Striking

[Erik_the_Dragoon]

I have a question about how these numbers were derived. I believe I am using the same sources:

http://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/commen...hould_upgrade/
http://valk.dancing-mad.com/methodol...amageMechanics

Using the formula provided (for weapon skill, not auto-atk) I made an Excel sheet, and my calculations don't concur with the weights asserted.

Yes, Weapon Damage is #1 and STR is #2. However I believe Skill Speed is better than Crit or DET if you can manage not to drain your TP.

To be continued next post ...

The following weights (provided by EasyModeX on page 22) will help you both in choosing how to spend your stat points, and when selecting which piece of gear to wear. Here are the relative stat weightings for Dragoons:

Weapon Damage: 7.54
Strength: 1
Determination: .22
Crit: 0.16
Skill Speed: .146

[Erik_the_Dragoon]

First off, Skill Speed is not accounted for in the formula. So the way I compared it was to say that an equivalent % of time must be shaved off by SS in order for it to be on par with the same % of total damage added by Crit or DET since unloading a static amount of damage at a greater frequency means you are increasing your damage in kind. Maybe that's a stretch, but I think it jives as strictly a % comparison.

Using the provided damage formula I plugged in varying values for DET and Crit, and came out to every 10 DET increasing your total damage by about 0.3%, and every 10 Crit increasing by about 0.33%. One important thing I noticed was diminishing returns. The more you add, the less bang for your buck.

...

[Erik_the_Dragoon]

Now comparing SS stat changes with my weapon skill attack rate it came out showing that every 10 SS reduces your recast time by .01 seconds. At base SS this amounts to 0.4% less time spent, already better than Crit or DET. Also, as the recast time decreases that .01 seconds becomes a larger percentage of the total shaved off. So it has the opposite effect of compounding returns.

I think this makes a case for SS being the best lower tier stat. I still focus on Crit first because I don't like the fact that the formula provided takes the average, and if you can crit often enough that may still be best, but I would take SS over DET unless you do a lot of AoE.

[Andyman]

With the new accessories, I'll be interested to see how they change our current bis pieces. I believe Tremor earrings are now our top pick, but I think the rings would remain Allagan due to having determination. Though I guess it depends whether you would rather stack crit or det.

[Erik_the_Dragoon]

One last thought which is that any gains from Skill Speed are only beneficial if the player has the ability to make use of them. If you are not "Johnny on the spot" with your rotation then it may be better to avoid Skill Speed since you'd be squandering the benefits. A good rotation is always first priority, but I have to wonder if as gear continues to advance whether we will see an opportunity to "get past the curve" so to speak for some surprising speed gains. They are reducing animation wait times after all in 2.1. As a DRG with about 460 SS I have never had to worry about TP unless excessively spamming Doom Spike, and then there is always Invigorate. From a TP standpoint DRG might be the only class that could take advantage of this.