Well, it looks like making class guides is the cool thing to do now adays, and I figure this is the best way to ensure my place as the FC's official DRG representitive.

A lot of people have the belief that playing a DRG is easy, or that the class itself requires no skill. I would like to tell you, they are wrong. A DRGs rotation may not be the most complex, but it is the longest. A single mistake in your rotation can drop you down 10-15 DPS no problem, and the recovery time can mess up an entire encounter.

So, without further ado, I give you: Sin Mithos's DRG Guide!

Table of Content:

1. Acronyms
2. Ability Guide
3. Single Target Rotation
4. AoE Rotation
5. Atribute Weights
6. Gear

1. Acronyms

I will be using a bunch of acronyms for all the abilities we use as DRG, and believe me, there are a lot of abilities you will be using.

TT: True Thrust
VT: Vorpal Thrust
FT: Final Thrust
TTT: Thrust Combo (TT>VT>FT)

ID: Impulse Drive
DB: Disembowel
CT: Chaos Thrust
IDC: ID Combo (ID>DB>CT)

HT: Heavy Thrust
Ph: Phlebotomize
Leg: Leg Sweep
LS: Life Surge
PS: Power Surge
RT: Ring of Thorns
DS: Doom Spike
SD: Spineshatter Dive
DD: Dragonfire Dive
B4B: Blood for Blood
IR: Internal Release

That should about cover that.

2. Ability Guide

When we talk about DRG abilities, I like to group them up by their combos since, for the most part, none of them are really stand-alone abilities. They will pretty much always be used in an order. For your actual combos, you will -ALWAYS- finish the combo (unless the encounter prevents you), as not finishing will be a huge DPS loss.

HT: Number one on your priority list. HT give you a flat 15% damage increase. No matter where you are in your rotation (unless you have already started a combo), if HT drops you need to use it next.

TTT: This is the DRGs main combo. These three are considered the "filler" abilities. When everything else is managed, you will run through your TTT combo. Any time you begin this combo, you should aim to finish it. The hard hitting ability is FT and it has higher potency than TT+VT combined. If you do not use FT, you are doing things wrong.

IDC: This is similar to TTT in that once you start this combo you need to finish it. This particular combo is very high on your ability priority list. CT, the last ability in the combo, is the highest potency ability a DRG has with a whopping 600 (250+350) all by itself. It is important to keep CT's (and Phs for that matter) dot ticking without clipping, and DBs debuff should always be up. Since the last change to DRG, you must be behind to get full potency out of CT.

LS: This ability is amazing and will allow you to hit for insane numbers. The only time you should use LS though is right before FT. FT has the highest potency initial attack and will give you the most gain from LS.

PS: Just like LS, this ability is only good when used in-front of one other ability… Jump. Your jump rotation should be PS>Jump>Jump>PS>Jump>Jump Repeat.

SD and DD: For most fights you will keep these on cooldown, but there are some encounters where it is not safe to use them, or it is better to save them for a specific time. DD is an aoe, so if you know a few adds are coming (shiva) then you might want to save it for that. These are also your gap closer. I like to save make sure they are up for golems in T9, to save some time.

B4B and IR: Off Global buffs. These should be on cooldown at all times.

RT and DS: These are pretty much your only AOE abilities. RT requires you use HT first or the dmg on it will be awful. Never spam RT. If you cant get HT off, using DS is better.

3. Single Target Rotation

You ready? The following is a DRGs opening rotation:

HT-B4B-Ph-IT-ID-Leg-DB-PS-CT-Jump-TT-SD-VT-LS-FT-DD-HT-Ph-Leg-TT-VT-FF-Jump-TT-VT-FF

After this, you repeat while using your off global abilities as they come up. Told you it was long.

It better to think of this as two groups of rotations w/ a CD rotation though, it will make maximizing your DPS a lot easier.

Rotation 1: HT-Ph-IDC-TTT
Rotation 2: HT-Ph-TTT-TTT
CD Rotation: B4B-IR-Leg-PS/Jump-SD-DD-LS

If your buffs or debuffs are down, use rotation 1. If they are up, use rotation 2.

Once all yor off global abilites are down, just use them as they come up. With the exception of LS (only use before FT) and PS (which should not be used unless your next of global is Jump).


However, remember some of that stuff I said about "priority"? Well, thats where it gets interesting. All this rotation talk is moot if you think about DRG abilites as a priority system. Here is DRGs priorties in order:

1. HT
2. DPS Buffs
3. Ph
4. IDC
5. TTT
6. Off Globals.

Pretty easy right?
Some DRGs like to thrown in Fracture. I'm not a fan of this as I don't think the TP cost is worth the potency. I might talk about PPT later….
If you do choose to use fracture, just add it after Ph, so your two rotations would start with HT-Ph-Frac.

Saved

Saved

Saved

And saved in case I want to talk about PPT