Dragoons: A Rotation Reborn

[Ayvar]

I rechecked my math and never found a flaw. from the data i have available they seem accurate (shy of skill speed for the reasons posted). i just dinged 50, but work the next 6 days in a row :-/ ill probably have more tested later.

Good to hear! I've been using those numbers to make my Darklight decisions. One thing I'd love to know is the Accuracy cap. People often forget to maintain their accuracy at a good level, since missing abilities as a Dragoon will murder your dps.

After the testing I did I think you are correct. I was already on the fence about using Fracture but after learning that the DoT does not benefit from Disembowel I think only using it as GCD filler or with CDs popped, as you suggested, is likely the way to go. More anecdotally, after playing around with DPSing on a targeting dummy without using Fracture I was able to execute the entire Full Thrust combo much more often.

There is an issue with dropping Fracture. Even though it doesn't hit as hard as Phlebotomize, it is still a dps increase. The reason is that dropping Fracture from the rotation will cause you to overwrite your Heavy Thrust buff and Phlebotomize DoT by at least 2 seconds. There is space for a single ability in the few seconds that HT is still running and Phlebotomize is still ticking, and Fracture fills it nicely. If you're having issues with executing the rotation and hitting your Full Thrusts with the HT buff still active pick up a little more spell speed. I've found a huge improvement in my time lost to movement just from dropping down to a 2.4 GCD. Also even if you don't like Fracture it is still great to use when you have any kind of downtime from dpsing bosses, such as when Garuda teleports away and you have to LoS, the DoTs will keep ticking.

On the subject of GCD fillers, what about Feint? Obviously it's not going to be the highest DPS ability you could use on a free GCD but I believe tanks are incapable of inflicting Slow and tossing it up on a boss could be helpful to the group as a whole. I don't think we should aim to keep 100% slow uptime but I think using Feint on the occasional free GCD may be worth considering.

xyaie has the right of it in that Feint is enough of a dps loss that you wouldn't want it in your regular rotation, however I've been finding it to be very useful when fighting adds or waiting for something to be picked up before dropping the deeps on it. For example, when dealing with the two adds on Garuda, I'll Feint both of them to help reduce the large amounts of AE damage during that phase, as well as give myself something to do while I wait for the OT to grab them. You are correct that Feint is an excellent tool in our repertoire, but it isn't as useful in a primary rotation as just putting out more dps.