Dragoon PvP Guide for FFXIV

In patch 6.1, FFXIV completely overhauled the light party PvP duties, creating the brand new game mode of Crystalline Conflict. Coming along with this, Dragoon's capabilities and playstyle in PvP have been drastically overhauled. With these changes, Dragoon has become incredibly adept at engaging, disengaging, and handling large groups of enemies when the stars align, thanks to the incredibly new functionality of Life of the Dragon in PvP.

This document will mainly focus on the new Crystalline Conflict mode, so while portions of it may apply to other PvP game modes, it is intended to apply to Crystalline Conflict.

Strengths

• Extremely high mobility
• Strong single-target burst
• Very potent crowd damage/burst

Weaknesses

• Absolutely no stuns/binds/etc
• Limited defensive options
• Long limit break windup; easy to Guard

Similar to PvE, the basic goal of Dragoon is to keep your combo rolling at all times. It is a very simple string, all wrapped into a single button:

• Raiden Thrust → Fang and Claw → Wheeling Thrust

None of your other actions that spin the PvP GCD will interrupt this combo, so it is a good idea to just keep it spinning when you have nothing better to press. This is merely your bread-and-butter, so to speak, and you also want to be sure not to forget to use Chaotic Spring as often as possible when engaging, as its high potency is only bested by the secondary Heavens' Thrust combo off of High Jump.

The most powerful - and most dangerous - tool in the Dragoon's PvP arsenal is Geirskogul. When we use it, we get a huge 25% increase both to damage dealt and damage sustained. Due to our generally large potency skills, this is an incredibly beneficial boon. Couple this with the other end of the Life cycle, Nastrond, which deals more damage if the enemy is weakened, and we can very easily pick out and execute a high-priority target in an incredibly short period of time, with proper planning.

While the increased damage taken can be scary, we can mitigate this by either attacking a single target (generally a healer or ranged DPS) or disengaging with Elusive Jump shortly after engaging. A rather potent combo that we can execute involves opening with Geirskogul into High Jump + Heavens' Thrust before disengaging with Elusive Jump, Wyrmwind Thrust while at range, and finishing with Nastrond. This all together deals over 50,000 damage in the span of around 4-5 seconds, which should be enough to take out any non-melee DPS or tank target if you catch them unaware. A single supportive stun from an ally during this onslaught makes the kill a near-guarantee.

If, however, you intend to engage with Life of the Dragon and crowd-fight for a time, you can couple it with Horrid Roar to take the edge off of the incoming damage, by reducing their damage by 50%.

The overhaul to PvP also provided every job with a unique, flavorful Limit Break. Dragoon was no exception. Ours requires two button presses - one to get in the air, the other to land between 1-5s after leaping into the air. This skill is incredibly powerful when used correctly, but can be completely useless if mistimed. Ideally, you land it into a large group of enemies, placing the center of your landing circle as close to as many of them as possible, since you get a huge bonus in damage on those close to the middle.

Of note, Life of the Dragon's 25% damage increase does affect the damage from Sky Shatter, so it can be a very powerful engage skill. It can, however, be guarded against, so one way to make it more effective is to bait out enemy Guard by using Elusive Jump into Wyrmwind Thrust prior to executing Sky High. This also leaves them wounded, making the subsequent Sky Shatter into Nastrond more likely to net you multiple kills, especially if it is a team fight.

Very, very importantly, however, is that Sky High is ABSOLUTELY NOT a get-out-of-jail-free card. Using this skill when in a losing crowd battle where your health is dropping rapidly can - and often does - result in a situation where you will leap into the sky and die before you can finish the skill. This costs you your Limit Break gauge with absolutely no damage dealt by the attack. Leaping into the air with Sky High only makes you unable to be targeted. It does NOT cancel skills already targeting you BEFORE you launched upwards, such as Machinist's Marksman's Spite. I will repeat that one last time. Unable to be targeted is NOT invincibility. Be careful and cautious when executing your Limit Break and use it exclusively offensively.

The only exception to this is on an engage. Sky Shatter grants you a shield when you land on the enemies, aiding you in survival when landing in the middle of a large group. If properly timed and executed within your burst, this can turn the tide of a losing teamfight if executed from outside the teamfight. The above issues still remain, so leaping out of harm's way is still ill-advised.

Every 20 seconds in PvP, you can execute a full burst rotation (as mentioned above), including an initial hit from Chaotic Spring if you did not find time to use it previously. Your High Jump having a shorter 10s cooldown aids quite substantially in the ensuing chase, assuming your selected target survives the initial onslaught and opts to flee rather than fight.

1. Chaotic Spring (or part of the main combo)
2. Elusive Jump
3. Wyrmwind Thrust
4. High Jump
5. Heavens' Thrust
6. Nastrond

You can also weave in Sky High in there as well, preferably just after the Heavens' Thrust assuming you have not been targeted/focused down by that point. Be aware that after using the above, you will be relegated to the basic combo for a short time before High Jump is ready to use again. If executed properly and on a target who already burned their Guard, you should be able to instantly obliterate your chosen target within the 5 seconds or so it takes to get all of these skills off. All combined, the above actions would deal 60,750 damage before external modifiers.

Aside from our high mobility with Elusive Jump and High Jump, we only have access to a singular additional defensive option outside the norm in Horrid Roar. This incredibly powerful mitigation tool allows you to plunge into a crowd fight, mitigate all incoming damage, and then escape nearly unharmed before it expires. This is incredibly useful when used in concert with the above-mentioned burst rotation, as it mitigates and reverses the increased damage taken from Life of the Dragon.

Dragoon suffers from being the only melee DPS job in PvP to not have any crowd-control mechanics such as bind and stun. As such, it is vitally important that we use our mobility to get the better of our opponents, playing to those strengths rather than getting trapped in 1v1 combat with other players in the middle of crowd fights. You want to pick your spot, engage, ideally snag 1-2 kills, and then retreat and recover. Remaining in a team fight will only end with you dead once your defensive resources run dry, especially since you (like any melee) WILL bait stuns from anyone who knows what they are doing. Our skillset makes us particularly effective at picking off stragglers who are trying to avoid the main combat fray and harass healers who hang back to support, rather than targeting the bigger tanks and melee, since ranged and healers can very easily be solo killed from full to dead in a single burst cycle.