Dragoon Leveling Guide

Gear

Always use the highest Item Level gear available to you. The increase of Strength and survivability outweighs potentially more favorable substats in lower Item Level gear. The total amount of substats is also higher.

Dragoons use Maiming armor and Slaying accessories. Low level gear may not be labeled as such, so make sure you always equip gear that gives a bonus to Strength.

Know Your Role

Melee DPS jobs have a unique mechanic in Positionals. Certain actions will deal more damage when executed from the rear or flank of a target. Targets with continuous Target Rings will always take the increased damage from positional actions.
The Role Action True North allows you to disregard positional requirements for ten seconds per use.
A continuous target ring will always count positionals as successful, regardless of your position.

While it is a loss to miss your Positionals, landing them should be your last priority, after you have met all of the other combat priority requirements of a melee DPS job. These are listed in order from largest to smallest loss of damage if you fail that level.

1. Handle Mechanics
   If you fail mechanics, you could cause a potential raid wipe and a fight reset. You do not want to be the cause of that. Nothing is more important than properly handling mechanics.
2. Stay Alive
   Don’t die. Plain and simple. If you have to sacrifice uptime to not die, you know the choice to make. Deaths cause much larger losses than having to use a few Piercing Talons.
3. Maintain Uptime (ABC - Always Be Casting)
   Stick to the boss like glue, assuming you meet 1 and 2. Don’t let your GCD stop spinning.
4. Land Positionals
   And then, once you have 1-3 down, worry about maintaining proper positionals.

Defensive actions like Feint and Arms’ Length as well as healing actions like Bloodbath and Second Wind help you stay alive in solo and group content

Leveling Rotations

The basic single target rotation changes as you progress through the levels.
The general idea is to keep the Power Surge buff up and using the Pure Damage combo as a filler.

The Area of Effect (AoE) rotation becomes worth it at three targets.

Off-Global Cooldown actions such as Jump or Geirskogul, as well as buffs like Lance Charge, should be used on cooldown on all levels.

Levels 1-17

• Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust

Use Life Surge with Vorpal Thrust up to level 26 as it is your strongest weaponskill at this point.

Levels 18-25

New action: Disembowel. Using Disembowel will give you the Power Surge buff for 30 seconds which increases your damage dealt by 10%. This buff should be kept up at all times.

The general rotation idea from here on is to apply the Power Surge buff to yourself and then use the Pure Damage combo as a filler until the buff has to be applied again.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Disembowel
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust

Levels 26-49

New action: Full Thrust. The next weaponskill in the Pure Damage combo. Due to its high potency, Life Surge should from now on be paired with this action.

New action: Doom Spike. Your first AoE weaponskill. Use it when facing three or more enemies. You still have to manually keep Power Surge up by doing True Thrust -> Disembowel for now. Life Surge guarantees a Critical Hit on each target hit when used with this skill.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Disembowel
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust
• AoE combo
  Doom Spike

Levels 50-55

New action: Chaos Thrust. The next weaponskill in the Buff combo and the first Rear positional. This action applies a Damage-over-Time (DoT) effect to the target. The general rotation idea does not change. This is our strongest weaponskill, however Life Surge does not apply to the DoT so it should still be used on Full Thrust or Doom Spike. When facing two enemies you want to apply the DoT to both first.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust
• AoE combo
  Doom Spike

Levels 56-57

New action: Fang and Claw. Another extension of the Pure Damage combo and our only Flank positional.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust -> Fang and Claw
• AoE combo
  Doom Spike

Levels 58-63

New action: Wheeling Thrust. Another extension of the Buffing combo and our second Rear positional.

New action: Sonic Thrust. Our second combo action in the AoE combo. Applies the Power Surge buff so it is not necessary to manually apply it anymore. Use Life Surge on this skill in AoE scenarios.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Disembowel -> Chaos Thrust -> Wheeling Thrust
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  True Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Full Thrust -> Fang and Claw
• AoE combo
  Doom Spike -> Sonic Thrust

Levels 64-100

New action: Drakesbane. This new GCD is used as the 5th action in both combos. From here on out you will always alternate between the two combos. Drakesbane has the same potency as Full Thrust making it equally as valuable for Life Surge.

New action: Coerthan Torment. The final extension of our AoE combo and the new skill to use Life Surge on in it.

New action: Raiden Thrust. At level 76 your True Thrust button will turn into Raiden Thrust after executing a final combo action. This is a small potency increase and will grant you a stack of Firstminds’ Focus at level 90. It does not change the rotation.

New action: Draconian Fury. Similar to Raiden Thrust, at level 82 your Doom Spike button will turn into Draconian Fury. This is a small potency increase and will grant you a stack of Firstminds’ Focus at level 90. It does not change the rotation.

New action: Heavens’ Thrust. At level 86 Full Thrust turns into Heavens’ Thrust, a small upgrade to the original skill. Drakesbane potency is increased alongside it so Life Surge usage doesn’t change.

New action: Chaotic Spring. At level 86 Chaos Thrust turns into Chaotic Spring. This is a base and DoT potency increase, it does not change the rotation.

• Buffing Single Target combo
  Raiden Thrust -> Disembowel -> Chaotic Spring -> Wheeling Thrust -> Fang and Claw
• Pure Damage Single Target combo
  Raiden Thrust -> Vorpal Thrust -> Heavens’ Thrust -> Fang and Claw -> Wheeling Thrust
• AoE combo
  Draconian Fury -> Sonic Thrust -> Coerthan Torment

New actions: Lance Barrage & Spiral Blow. These act as direct upgrades to Vorpal Thrust and Disembowel. Permanently replacing the original skills from level 96 onwards. This doesn’t affect our rotation though.