Is the CD on Dragoon Abilities Too Long?

[Zoot]

Just wanted some thoughts from players in current end game content.

Primarily Spineshatter and Elusive Jump at 3 minutes. My impression is we don't bring much Utility beyond stuns so it seems like Dragoons should be about maneuverability and the ability to avoid bad stuff on the ground without losing Boss uptime.

From a non-end game glance 3 minutes seems excessive for the above skills. 60 seconds would seem to be more appropriate as a CD so Dragoons aren't jumping all over the place constantly while being short enough to be used to get in and out of 360 AOE's and back on the Boss.

In the same vein I assume the Return to Origin feature of JUMP is more to prevent it from being a gap closer than any benefit I can think of. If JUMP allowed us to get back on the Boss without returning I could live with the 3 minute CD's on Elusive and Spineshatter.

I admit as a mid 30 Dragon that I have zero experience with the harder content so some insight would be appreciated.

[Nibb]

I think they just need to somehow make the jumps avoid AoE attacks like the traditional dragoon should be doing.

[Sioken]

I think they just need to somehow make the jumps avoid AoE attacks like the traditional dragoon should be doing.

This needs to happen. Sometime I will be afraid to use jump in fear I get targeted by an AoE ability and have to get hit by it cause I chose to Jump.

[Nothv13]

Making them be able to avoid AoEs would be a great step and allow us to stay in close with proper timing. Right now they can get you killed since you can't move while using them and they do not evade anything while in the air.

Though I'd still feel that the damage and utility of the skills are not worth the cooldown. Dragonfire Dive does similar damage to flare yet flare is spammable (granted Dragonfire dive is free, but the cooldown is way too long). Spineshatter, having a stun seems counter productive as it is delayed and we have a good stun already. I'd really like to see this add paralyze or something like that. With Jump, I'd just like to see a shorter cooldown. They took away a lot of dps from us when they removed the ability to slot archer skills and the small buffs to the jumps did not make up for the loss at all. Having jump with a shorter cooldown would help increase our dps back up.

[Toukai]

Agreed, I loved timing my super jump in XI when soloing to screw over enemy aoe. I used to solo/duo avatar boss battles at 75 with my drg and I'd super jump their 2hr. Fun times. Of course if you screwed up you'd just get splattered.

But yes, Since we're jumping so bloody high you'd think we'd be out of range for enemy attacks. And a slightly lower cooldown would be appreciated considering the speed of some fights, we can't always pump out as much damage with the cooldowns the way they are.

[Ricauer]

@Nothv13 You have noticed that the Dragoon skills are off global cooldown? You can use them after your... lest say Full Thrust? You'll lose a bit of time because of the animation but you'll still gain DPS. I think the cooldowns are now fine but they should really do something about the fact that you can be hit while jumping.

[MusouMugen]

Yeh, CDs are pretty excessive for jump attacks..specially for their non-impressive damage, root component and nonavoidance of anything. Not to mention that jump stun is pretty meh, unless you're just standing there doing nothing and waiting to interrupt (or the cast is long ass slow, which is very very rarely)...well, maybe if the servers were in EU...

Edit: half-GDC cost + long CDs is pretty negligible DPS increase and increased risk of not being able to move. But yeah, for 100% dps output...jumps.

[Brynmor]

If they consciously decided against giving Jumps AoE immunity I would guess it's because they don't want us trivializing mechanics by completely avoiding them. But I agree the CDs on Evasive Jump and Dragonfire Dive are entirely too long. Spineshatter is more reasonable but maybe still too long.

My biggest problem with the Jumps is that they just aren't that useful and the animations are way too long.

Jump is damn near useless. When I got it I assumed it gave AoE immunity; use it when you would normally need to run out of AoE. Nope. Then I assumed you were supposed to use it like a ranged attack (since it returns you to your initial position) to use when you are waiting for AoE to end. Nope. Instead it's like a super slow charge, even if you use it from range you can still be hit by anything as you move into range. It needs to be treated like a standard ranged attack or make it like the other jumps where you land on the target so it can be used like as a basic charge ability.

Dragonfire Dive is puzzling. It's an AoE ability with a 3 minute CD, and for a CD that long the potency isn't that high. It should be 1.5 min like Spineshatter I think.

Let Jump be the baseline 'charge' skill, Spineshatter as one with a stun and Dragonfire Dive as one with AoE damage attached.

[ElaintheShy]

I think they just need to somehow make the jumps avoid AoE attacks like the traditional dragoon should be doing.

a traditional dragoon would also be in the air for a long time not attacking the boss...

[Zoot]

.......

Jump is damn near useless.........................


Let Jump be the baseline 'charge' skill, Spineshatter as one with a stun and Dragonfire Dive as one with AoE damage attached.

Thanks for all the replies. They seem to line up with my fears. JUMP seems to be the big issue since it's really only a snazzy looking rotation filler IMO. It's great that it's off the GCD but i wish it was a Gap closer and/or avoided damage if timed right.

As melee we already have more to deal with the ranged (par for the course in these type of games) and add in our positional requirements we should at least have more tools to increase more uptime on the Boss. Leg Sweep is great for interruptible abilities but Dragoons are about Jumping. I agree with most of you that I'd be OK with some of the long CD's if JUMP was retooled and the damage from those long CD's was amped up.