Top DPS Openers by class for FFXIV

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Originally Posted by Trufflepig

I absolutely LOVE theory craft and improving my play. If you ever want to crunch numbers or run some comparison parses, I'm always around and willing.

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Ahh I'm not much help I have a high rate of packet loss and 100ms so I can't execute the on-paper stuff usually. I'm at the end of dsl/phone service in the middle of nowhere, in the farthest tucked away corner of the country from the server. Like on A3s on hands we pull to edge, then I pull to middle 2 & 2/3rds gcds in because if I wait for the hand to glow the combination of my lag and random packet loss would kill us. Can't be 2 gcds, can't be 4. Castbars start 2/5th to half full for me. The group that does the video I linked is in Australia and they down stuff pretty quick. They deal with a similar ping & loss so I've often checked out what they're up to and I glean some strats from sections I get stumped on.

Anyways yuh my exact rotations are not useful for normal people with intertubes not made out of sticks and berries so I've excluded them. I do the pre-pop with some alterations based on mechanics. On average I stance swap way more than other people because I rely on inner beast to make up for shitty internets.

P.S. Don't move to the middle of nowhere

P.S.S. It will make you a bitter old husk when you watch people with normal internet get hit by mechanics YOU HAD A WHOLE CASTBAR TO RUN AWAY and then you need another beer

DRG - https://youtu.be/WIVZJyt4LMI

Warning - This rotation adds a number of complexities with priorities and on the fly decisions. Especially on bosses where you aren't going to be perfect. Don't go insane trying to replicate but glean the tips from it. Do not lose sleep if you can't do this rotation perfectly. Learn to be flexible to maximize DPS on individual boss abilities, invuln periods, etc.

To put it into the fancy tool that Morbid has...
http://ffxivrotations.com/1y5

http://i.imgur.com/smkAMAY.jpg

Obviously that could be slightly different depending on what 4th ability actually procs for you!

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Originally Posted by Athoen

..Especially on bosses where you aren't going to be perfect.

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Filthy casual! Get out of my Expert Dungeon!

Ossom's opener is what you would do as a monk if you're entire playstyle involves smashing your face on the keyboard and hoping you're doing DPS. It will fuck you over as the fight progresses because almost nothing lines up. Lilyth's opener is slightly closer to the right one, but I disagree with using FC after demolish because you run the risk of dropping the DK buff.

This is the opener I generally use (but be warned, this opener only works for children and elitists!):
http://i.imgur.com/5ImJpLN.png
Link: http://ffxivrotations.com/1sm

Why is this opener better?

• Delaying B4B and IR once in your PB cycle will let both buffs last for a majority of your second rotation leading into the end of the opener.
• Moving every GCD up from Steel peak onward before the second demolish lines your skills up more neatly, and allows you to get the full damage out of Forbidden Chakara.
• You get a B4B and potion buffed fracture, which increases your overall DPS in the end. While most people will bitch and moan that "omg fracture is a waste of tp," and it is, the very same people think also think the proper use of fracture is to spam the shit out of it then complain on reddit how bad a skill it is. DO NOT SPAM FRACTURE. Hell, at most you may only get to use it two or three times a fight (or 4-5 on fights like A1S and Ravana EX with a ton of downtime). You can't go ham with fracture without a ninja feeding you goad, and if you do you might as well rename yourself to Xeno. But moderate and proper use = more overall dps.

My SMN rotation is slightly different from all the listed SMN rotations I've seen online but I mine is better I feel, it just has a bit of ramp up time. It's essentially a modified 2F/1P.

http://i.imgur.com/PTStyXH.png

The Shadowflare at the start is precasted meaning it's already on the floor before pull. As the tank is about to run in you want to time Bio II to land the second the tank makes contact with the boss. The reason being is that Bio II has no initial damage so you won't pull threat anyway and you want your dots to start ticking as fast as possible. After the first Bio always remember to wait like 1 second before hitting Fester or else you lose out on 100 potency because Bio hasn't "landed" yet and you miss out on the extra potency Bio being on the target gives to Fester.

After that I have Rouse and Spur at that particular spot in my rotation for a reason. They fall off just after Garuda will cast Aerial Blast (Enkindle) meaning that she doesn't waste a boosted damage pet GCD on the Contagion right after. Also using a potion before Enkindle boosts Garuda's attack even further as she gets the benefit of potions as well. There have been times when Garuda has the biggest hit in the opener (and sometimes bigger than anybody else in your party as well) if you have unfortunate crit luck.

Ruin II is used a lot in the opener to weave in off GCDs. So that's why you see it so frequently. The location of Raging Strikes and potion are also important because they both fall off right after you use Deathflare.

This entire rotation was devised by trying to get a hyper-boosted Deathflare and working backwards from there to get as much DPS from everything else. As you can see you get 2 Dreadwyrm Trance+Raging Strikes+Potion boosted Festers as well as a set of dots with those same buffs that are Contagion'd (15 seconds added to each dot) squeezed in there before your super Deathflare (which has been know to hit upwards of 10k from time to time on crits).

Having a bard will help as well so you can get Foe Requiem which really makes these numbers ridiculous. Kayko generally starts with Foe precasted so everything is 10% buffed at the start and then at about the time I use Raging Strikes ( a little earlier actually closer to the 2nd Fester I think) he uses Battle Voice to bump that 10% to 20% which then lasts all the way through your Dreadwyrm Trance. By the time that opener ends its like maybe 45 seconds into the fight but your DPS will be at it's highest. Since this rotation takes so long it isn't ideal in many fights where the boss transitions before that point. This is more for use in a raid setting where the bosses stay in their opening form for long periods of time.

One last thing to note. You want to use your 3rd Aetherflow stack on Fester after you reapply Bio after the contagion'd Bio falls off. The reason for this is that it pushes your Aethertrail Attunement stacks back to a 30 second countdown which means you will be able to use Aetherflow and Dreadwyrm Trance at the same time so you can get 2 10% buffed (from the passive 10% damage boost of Dreadwyrm Trance) Festers inside that 15 second window generally you would use Tri-Disaster and Contagion here again as well to get the buffed extended dots too. From there you just repeat the 3rd fester timing so you always can use 2 stacks during Dreadwyrm Trance.

Thanks Ecastle! That one really is a bit different than the one I'm used to.
I've gotta crash out, but I'm going to do some more work on this post tomorrow afternoon and will get your and Morbid's posts incorporated all in one chunk.

This is really receiving a lot more feedback than I expected.
Thanks everyone!

Kitty OT Lag-Immune Pre-Pop - Vengence & Raw Int (generally 10 sec before pull, Justy announces he's going), and I do the off gcds in this order. Brutal Swing & Internal Release can be combined before the gcd ticks over. If I get pacified the very next ability is Storm's Eye and my maim is still active so unbuffed downtime is minimized. If I have Paeon, no pacify so I just carry on. Even with shitty internet this will always work with great burst. If I am with an undergeared MT I will swap the Butcher's for Storm's Path, because being so front loaded it's an enormous load of threat and will pull hate otherwise.

I also use this in Defiance mode on hunts, because it will net gold participation solo and I often take lead on threat. Fell Cleaves just become Inner Beasts and I skip Fracture & Pot, so Storm's Eye lands just before pacify but doesn't matter because the thing is gangbeaten dead within moments. If you see a WAR take a solid threat lead they are using either this or something almost the same.

http://i.imgur.com/1ogqMGm.png

As the most cleric stancy whm in flight 1, I would say an ideal opening would be this given that nothing misses :(
CS -> PoM - > Int Pot -> A3 -> A1 -> FA -> A2 -> 3-4x Stone III's depending on tank's hp usually 10% (if tank dies blame Selene)
Then you would use DS -> Tetra -> Regen -> (maybe Asylum if it will be up when you need it) -> CS -> refresh dots

Updated to include most of the first page entries and convert a lot of the text to FFXIVrotations.com images. More to come so keep those inputs flowing!

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Originally Posted by Trufflepig

http://i.imgur.com/AdlydCv.png

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Storm's Path is not needed in current raid content except for:

- some tank busters, as inner beast + a c/d handles most just fine
- high dmg group attack
- short duration burst incoming damage
- really undergeared for the content, literally the bare minimum to be let in the door
- your healer is mad, stoned, disconnecting or all three
- panic time

Butchers is the highest damage of the three combo finishers (250/270/280) and the 10% damage reduction will go nearly unnoticed during lack of incoming damage at beginning of all four current encounters. I only use Path for:

A2s final 2 widows - gokart putting stacks on both tanks, so the incoming damage spikes. I used to need it for the jagds too, now I just inner beast the swipes.
A3s cascade - during progression our SMN and WHM had lowest healthpool and could die by a few dozen HP, even thru adlo, virus and divine veil. I don't actually need to use it here anymore but it still provides a backup in case the other mitigation is accidentally dropped.
A3s group shared slap - someone may die otherwise. Applied twice for this over the encounter.
A3s twin hands - I put one up, and blow all my cooldowns in sequence so I can go ham (this does leave nothing for tethers, so I inner beast both).
A3s hand snatch - one healer is stunlocked and I'm getting slapcleaved
A4s mortal revolution - one of the few things that actually helps, and it hits super hard coming into 4th leg. I don't have time to use it anywhere else due the absurd group damage output reqs

Oh and one weird special case, a few weeks back someone didn't pull final phase 1st digitisis off me so I got stuck with the tank debuff. I couldn't take boss or I'd utterly explode, so Justy had to eat more stacks than usual until I could provoke safely. I did keep Path up 100% for that and combined with some other raid efforts we still beat it fine.

A3&4 have brutal dps reqs, and most groups beat their first A3s as the group is getting wiped to final enrage cascade. Every little drip of dps matters :3