arbitraryreign

Stubble Telescope

@arbitraryreign

Just a gay cat dad's blog

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Interests: video games, food, cats, husband.
I've got two kitties, Kirby and Butter.
Currently playing: FFXIV (evergreen), Outer Wilds DLC
Recently finished: Outer Wilds base game, Returnal

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arbitraryreign
@arbitraryreign

CW: Dragoon hating

Last night, I decided to relearn Dragoon and do the Expert and 90 roulettes with it. I disliked it so much that when I finally hit 90, I just quit. I never even tried the level 90 skill until yesterday! I thought now that I've done some more melee jobs, maybe I'll have a different perspective.

Nope

It was painful. I just really don't like this job. Here are my main issues with it:

  1. To start, you have four instant attack abilities you can execute right at the start of battle. One ability has two charges, and another procs another instant. Four attacks to put on cooldown with six button presses from the get-go is just absurd. Not to mention that two of them displace you.
  2. And to start, you have four instant buffs at the start of battle. One of them makes sense to execute further into your rotation, but the others are a free-for-all. Furthermore, one ability requires you to target another party member, removing your attack focus for a moment (in contrast to just setting a dance partner at the start of the duty and buffs automatically flowing to them later). So that is ten instant button presses to work into your opening rotation. Ten!
  3. Let's talk about the rotation, too! This is really a personal gripe more than a mechanic dilemma, but each part of the rotation has five steps instead of three (haven't done Reaper yet, so I don't know if that one is similar). The fifth step of the first rotation is also the fourth step of the alternate rotation (i.e. ABCDGAEFGD…This was so tough to write.), and as I'm popping off a million instants and dodging AOEs and following mechanics, it's very challenging to remember where I came from. Assuredly, I am not a max DeePS evangelist, but there is beauty in simplicity. I like easily knowing I went left before and need to go right now. But Dragoon finishes the left path at the end of the right and vice-versa.
animated GIF of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction looking around a room
Picture of me after I finish one half of my rotation during a boss fight

Yeah, so that's my whole deal with Dragoon. I just don't like this job. It does have some very cool moves, and the aesthetic is neat. But it's just not for me.

However, for good measure here is one (1) good pic I took after I got the dive attack everyone waits for. Apparently, it was also the only pic I took of that job at all.

Screenshot from Final Fantasy XIV of my Warrior of Light performing Stardiver, a dragoon ability that sends him flying in the air and then divebombing the enemy at a 45 degree angle with large magical rings surrounding him. He is wearing aged metallic armor and holding a spear with a spiked mace at the tip.

This may only feel necessary because I'm used to Twitter, but I'm not looking to argue or asking for suggestions on the ideal rotation or anything. I'd love to hear why you love Dragoon but not as a impassioned defense of it.

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in reply to @arbitraryreign's post:

AcuteRabbit
@AcuteRabbit

You made it a lot further than I did. I couldn't even get past Lancer. It feels like Lancer learns new moves at a much slower rate, so it's just boring hitting the same four buttons level after level. I don't even think I got up to level 30 (which is where I decide if I like the job enough to continue it). The aesthetic of Dragoon is cool, but I just can't stay focused enough playing Lancer to get to that point. White Mage and Marauder were the same for me: White Mage was just boring to me and Marauder just feels too slow. I imagine they're perfect for people who have no experience with MMOs and I commend those people on their patience.

(And speaking of Reaper, I really enjoy it. Attacks build up gauge for stronger attacks, and those attacks boost other attacks, so it's easy to know what to hit next. It just feels so natural once you get all the moves. )

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arbitraryreign
@arbitraryreign

This is validating, so thank you. Although I wasn't bored by Lancer any more than other low level jobs. I was frustrated that I don't get a group move until 40, and I don't get a second group combo until (and I have to type this out) sixty-fucking-two.

White Mage is my low-thinking healer when I just don't want to deal with much else but healing. It also has the beautiful death flower, and I love seeing big numbers as a healer.

All tanks are completely boring below 50, trust. But Warrior from 60+ has a number of healing moves I really like coupled with periods where you just smash shit repeatedly.

Those are why I like them, but I respect that you don't and may never.

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Slotherium
@Slotherium

DRG isn't one of my favorite classes, but it was the second melee I leveled after RPR and I do still find it fun. However, I don't think I'd ever raid as RPR so my opinion might not necessarily be the one you're looking for. I like the opener having a shitload of buttons to press, when I was learning the rotation I enjoyed the challenge of getting everything to line up properly, once you get the opener done it's just a matter of making sure nothing drifts and you'll being doing good DPS every time. It's satisfying to be able to balance everything properly and hit your big damage moved under all the buffs, and doing it all while dodging mechanics makes you feel like you're flowing like water. Obviously this is much easier said than done, and as a WAR main I think my friend is crazy for maining GNB during savage raids so I get it. Also as far as the main attack buttons, I personally really like the last two parts of your melee combo swapping, while it's certainly not always easy to keep track of it's a nice change from most other classes and just feels good to me.

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arbitraryreign
@arbitraryreign

I like the idea that the fifth step puts you in place for the next combo on that side of the enemy. It's just tough to keep organized.

GNB and RPR are my last two jobs to level once I finish SAM today! So I'll see how I feel about them soon. And then, I'm done.

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Slotherium
@Slotherium

That's fair, it's definitely a lot on the mental stack, especially depending on the fight you're doing. RPR is a lot simpler than DRG, you just have a three hit combo that fills up a bar so you can do big hits, and then those big hits fill up a second bar so you can do bigger hits. GNB is a little weird honestly, especially at 90. It was the first tank I got to max in ShB and honestly, level 80 GNB feels better than at 90, it definitely has too many buttons to keep track of

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arbitraryreign
@arbitraryreign

I'll see how it is since GNB is next in line. 😬

Of melee so far, I liked Monk fine. Ninja felt a lot like playing one of those one man band machines, but I do like it, and it can be silly fun. Samurai so far is fine. I think the hot bar icons are more interesting than the skill animations themselves.

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GraceHorizon
@GraceHorizon

I’m leveling Dragoon and Reaper together (currently 88 and 87 respectively), and they are quite different from each other. Reaper has a feeling of lumbering power to it, with a slow but hard-hitting main rotation punctuated with a rapid, vicious burst phase. Dragoon by contrast feels complicated and intricate to me, with its linked loop of five-skill chains, and it’s definitely the busier job in terms of button pressing speed. Both jobs have their gotchas, though.

For Dragoon, the main gotcha is handling all your plethora of different OGCDs, and as you’ve seen it’s a real handful. I don’t claim to be anything close to optimal, but I handle it by not trying to get everything done at once. I generally lead off with Spineshatter or Dragonfire, get my party buffs in as quickly as I can, and hold off on High Jump -> Mirage Dive -> Geirskogul until after I get Power Surge up (and execute them in that order so that I’m set to do Geirskogul into Nastrond as soon as possible). This probably isn’t the greatest way to handle the job, but it’s workable and straightforward.

Reaper’s gotcha is that while it has a lot fewer buttons to press, it has a more involved priority system. Always put Death’s Design on the target but first spend any Soul Reavers you might be carrying; make sure you use Soulsow before combat, and Harvest Moon at some opportune time during it; make sure you plan ahead to have enough gauge to use Gluttony as soon as it comes off cooldown. It felt clumsy and bewildering to me until I got used to it.

All told, I like Reaper better, but my opinion of Dragoon has improved a lot since the day I abandoned it at level 53.

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