Introduction

Greetings. My name is Aerie (Praviina/Leekiya/Velira in game) and I’ve been playing Dragon Nest well over since the 40 cap in the SEA server up until the 95 cap. I’m a jack of all trades but I mainly use support classes or just generally someone who supports the group in almost any MMO I come across.

With the compounded exhaustion of looking after more than 3 people as a Physician, I took the liberty of trying out DPS classes, and the only one I’ve ever stuck and enjoyed was Flurry/Dragoon and I present to you a take on her.

Dragoon Overview

From my perspective and how I play her, Dragoon is a burst class and relies a bit on RNG which I’ll explain later below.

A very fast-hitting, reactive class but even faster on her spear, one could easily find Dragoon as a very daunting class to master due to how much effort you need to put into her fighting style and perhaps even rotation. Even more so on your reaction time and personally, a little bit of ability to take risks to shove in another skill on an incoming attack and understanding how nearly every skill can be integrated with another. They rely on timing and quick decision-making at the highest level to be on par with or perhaps surpass other DPS classes.

Dragoon is a neutral element and uses the STR stat. Therefore it will rely heavily on STR, as well as Physical Attack to raise her damage alongside both critical chance and damage.

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Before you play Dragoon

Here’s a gameplay showcase of what you will generally expect when playing Dragoon.
Please keep in mind that this fight is NOT a flawless, no-hit run. I made it so that it will display nearly everything that a Dragoon can and cannot do, including the risks that you could potentially take in the fight and how you can recover from this especially when panicking.

Your ping also dictates the flow of your rotation and the fight itself. Being on a higher ping means you perform things slower and most of your actions and I-frames are essentially used earlier than usual.

There are also some things you cannot do with a higher ping such as combos as you will just take a hit and in most cases, cancel the skill, interrupt you, and void any damage that it’s supposed to inflict

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Class Pros & Cons

Dragoon Pros:

• Most skills can be canceled with another skill

• Very fast-hitting skills

• Has an absurd amount of I-frames and some have a short cooldown and are core skills

• Being a burst class, she can end some fights very fast

• Her signature skill, being a 2s cooldown, rivals or
  surpasses some hard-hitting skills that have long cooldowns from other classes

• The I-frames can be combined together to deal high amounts of damage without ruining the flow of her rotation too much all the while not taking any hits

• Successfully taking risks could potentially elevate your damage potential

• She can be very creative with her rotation. Imagination is the limit!

• She has one of the highest possible attack stat gains in the game due to her self buffs

• Strong from the start until the end of the fight

• Boss killing machine due to most of her attacks tailored to single targets

• Even if some skills were interrupted early, her plethora of side skills is more than enough to make sure her onslaught never stops

Dragoon Cons:

• She is easily interrupted by simple attacks

• High APM (Actions Per Minute)

• Very few skills provide decent super armor to tank through attacks and not get interrupted

• High risk, medium reward class

• Her skill ceiling is, in my opinion, INFINITE

• Taking risks will cost you dearly

• Being interrupted can potentially ruin your flow of the rotation and possibly the fight as well

• While her signature skill is only 2s with massive damage, it is subjected to the mercy of RNG

• She has a “semi-freestyle” rotation due to RNG

• She doesn’t fair well against multi-hit attacks. Even more so if they’re hitstun/knockbacks

• Her DPS plummets with simple mistakes and being slow on skill rotation

• Improvisation is required in her already “semi-freestyle” rotation

• Because improvisation in her “semi-freestyle” rotation is required, she’s even much harder to master due to a lot of factors that happens in the already volatile fight

• Can barely mob

• Knowledge of the fight is highly recommended to play efficiently

• Highly recommended to have green ping to enjoy and play properly. Otherwise, you will only have mediocre enjoyment

• Do you like pressing 7 skills in under 4 seconds from time to time amidst the pressure?

• Regardless of whether you want to go hard in mastering the class or not, you will fill both of your skill hotbar

• R.N.G (In case I haven’t made myself clear)

• You will probably develop Carpal Tunnel. Like me

With that out of the way, we continue through the guide.

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Skill Build - PvE

Noteworthy Skills

Prosperity

• Increases attack speed and additional damage for fatal hits by 5%, 900s duration

Scar Maker

• Increases attack by 5%, 900s duration

Wall Maker

• Increases damage reduction by 20% for 20s and heals you for 10% of max HP (60s CD)

Erratic Power

• Grants 10% Movement and Action speed, 900s duration

Shutter Bounce

• Reduces defense by 10%, 100% uptime. 30s duration

Stab Screw

• Reduces critical resistance by 20%, 100% uptime. 30s duration

Flag

• I-frame as you vault yourself on top of your spear. More on this later

Hornet's Touch

• Take a defensive stance. When hit while in stance, counterattacks with a simple sweep and moves you forward

Deep Pierce

• Spins the spear to deal damage and ends with a forward thrust. More on this later

Over the Rainbow (OTR)

• “Full” I-frame. Spammable skill

Spinning Skewer

• Quickly stabs an enemy. Using this when an enemy is Vulnerable will deal extra damage

Fling Sky

• Dragoon’s Ultimate. Full I-frame and guarantees Vulnerable mark when hitting enemies

Champagne

• Valkyrie’s Ultimate. Short notes on this later

Bifrost

• Decent I-frame with extremely high damage. Used in conjunction with Flashy Skewer

Flashy Skewer

• Highest burst skill of Dragoon. Used to charge Hero Skill

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Lencea Tree

There’s not much to go about Lencea tree aside from filling in the necessary SP requirements for Piercer. So maxing Hornet's Touch and Deep Pierce is a must as it’s part of her kit

P.S: I maxed out Headbutt because I thought they still kept the same Class Mastery as Official so yeah.

Hornet's Touch

• This is your only parry skill. This gives you a very short I-frame upon soaking 1 hit but will make you vulnerable on the forward thrust animation.

• The parry window only activates once you take the crouch stance. Activating this at the perfect time on an attack will not do anything and you instead take the blow.

• Not recommended to use when the attack is a multi-hit with very short hit intervals.

Deep Pierce

• This is used often in conjunction with Spinning Skewer as the enhanced version allows you to detonate the mark without removing it. Although this can be used even when Spinning Skewer is on cooldown

Piercer Tree

You must be wondering why I took skills on Valkyrie’s skill tree. I will explain each of them and provide some side notes if there are any.

Shutter Bounce and Stab Screw

• These are your main debuffing skills. While it’s important to keep up the debuffs 100% of the time, note that Stab Screw deals a pretty good amount of damage and is a multi-hit that goes well with Dragoon’s Class Mastery.
• If someone else is keeping up with the defense debuff, I advise you to stop using Shutter Bounce.

Spinning Cut

• This skill was reworked for Infinity.
• If you are not familiar with the original skill, you can right-click on the skill itself to preview the video on your skill tree. The EX and enhanced version of this one takes the skill to the next level in terms of difficulty because for you to deal the maximum damage, you have to press right-click at an extremely short time window. If done properly, the glow of the skill will be red instead of green.
• This was simplified here to make the skill easier to use.

Lollipop Chops

• This skill will give you I-frame ONLY BEFORE you jump at the very start. You are vulnerable thereafter.

Spinning Swing

• The EX version sends out a tornado after performing the sweep. Great multi-hit potential

Flag

• This gives you a short I-frame as you vault on top of your spear. This is an optional I-frame skill to use if you’ve somehow blown up all your I-frames in a very short period.
• I still use this from time to time when in a panic state especially when using RMB with it and I don’t know the timing of the enemy’s attack as RMB gives a longer I-frame

Fling Sky

• Dragoon’s Ultimate. The whole animation is an I-frame and this also provides you with a 15% attack buff for 30s.

Hovering Blade

• From Valkyrie’s skill tree. This is good to use as a filler or part of the rotation due to Dragoon’s Class Mastery I.

Champagne

• Valkyrie’s Ultimate. The whole animation is an I-frame and gives you a 15% attack buff for 20s and also inflicts -10% light resistance on the enemy for 30s.

Fling Sky vs Champagne

• I used both depending on the situation in the Official Server but I still use it here. To make it simple,
• I use Fling Sky when I solo and Champagne whenever I’m specifically in a light party. This is the main reason why Dragoon had to sort of “Default” herself to a light jade (Which I still do here).
• I only use Champagne if there are no light resist debuffers. I think it’s better to have a lower attack duration in exchange for raising everyone else’s light damage for a short period. Otherwise, Fling Sky is used for a longer attack buff duration and guaranteed Mark.

Piercing Spike, Fling Fling and Spear Hand

• I DO NOT use any of these 3 skills. If I were to give the smallest amount of credibility, Piercing Spike could be used as a crutch to avoid stomp attacks.
• Once you’ve grown accustomed to the class and are more comfortable dodging with her skills instead of Valkyrie’s, I advise you to stop using it.

Dent Blow and Spring Haze

• I do not use these skills very often because I already have a ton of skills to worry about. The damage is poor but ironically, these 2 skills will have a chance to shine under Short Skill Combinations

Dragoon Tree

Everything is maxed and taken here. Get a skill up crest for Spinning Skewer to further increase its damage from the Cash shop (F11)

Spinning Skewer

• Swiftly stabs the enemy. This is your main DPS skill since it revolves around using it to detonate the Mark every time.
• Good for stacking [Energy] as well and an okay filler. But prioritize detonating marks with this for maximum damage. At 20 stacks, this changes to Enhanced Spinning Skewer which guarantees a mark when used, detonates it, and keeps the mark if the enemy already has one

Rough Sweep, Instant Rough Sweep and Upper Blade

• This skill increases in damage the further you travel or in other words, if you complete the full animation of the skill.
• The damage is very noticeable compared to when you cancel it early through LMB rather than finishing it.
• It’s recommended that you finish the animation but do not commit if you think you will take a heavy blow. Less damage is better than being dead or losing a lot of HP. This skill induces “Frame Lag”

Class Mastery I

• STR is increased by 50%.
• Additional effects include being able to inflict Vulnerable debuff (I just want to call this Mark from now on as it gets very tedious) with any attack that you inflict including normal attacks. These are the glowing yellow spear-like icons that float around the enemy. Use Spinning Skewer and/or Deep Pierce to detonate the mark to inflict Additional Damage.
• Furthermore, this gives you access to Dragoon’s bubble simply called [Energy] that stacks up to 20. You gain 2 stacks for every Piercer skill that you use
  (Yes, that includes Valkyrie’s skills).
• Dragoon’s gameplay revolves around this bubble to deal burst damage to the enemy every time you reach max stacks.

Class Mastery II

• Self-explanatory in its description. Nothing noteworthy to say.

Class Mastery III

• This enhances Deep Pierce’s damage through hitting marks. Keep in mind that this does not detonate the mark and the damage is fairly noticeable when you use Deep Pierce to hit an enemy with and without a mark.

Awakening Tree

Upper Blade

• This modifies Rushing Blade from Piercer. I’ve shown what it looks like with Rough Sweep Instant as you need to cast this first before being able to use it. This gives full I-frame on its animation.

Awakened Fling Sky

• This makes it so that you can press LMB anytime to descend immediately as well as guaranteeing a Mark.
• This also gives you a new passive that provides a whopping 50% additional attack every time you consume 20 stacks of [Energy] with Enhanced Spinning Skewer for 20s.

Gale Thrust

• This can only be used once you’ve successfully hit Stab Screw twice. There’s not much to say about it other than another skill to use in the rotation with a decent multi-hit.

Over the Rainbow (OTR)

• “Full” I-frame that deals massive damage. 3s cd. A must spam and can sort of be viewed as a counterattack in some small way.

Bifrost

• Extremely high damage. Used in conjunction with Flashy Skewer and also used whenever ready.
• I-frames while on the ground. You are vulnerable the moment you float in the air

Flashy Skewer

• The hardest-hitting skill of Dragoon. This is a single-hit skill despite the looks of the skill looking like a shockwave and for only 30s, it’s a must spam since it charges your Hero Skill as well.
• A successful hit guarantees a Mark

Skill Plates

I recommend only the ones that I use but I will still go over a couple of plates that I think are “okay” or perhaps you might prefer one over the other.

Stab Screw (Cooldown)

• Stab Screw deals decent damage, is a debuff, and quite short in cooldown. Further lowering this is personally, objectively better because this will allow you to gain access to Gale Thrust more often

Fling Sky (Cooldown)

• There is no point taking damage for this one. You’re after the extra attack buff that it provides so the sooner the cooldown, the better

Spinning Skewer (Damage)

• As if it wasn’t evident enough, this allows you to detonate the mark for massive damage so yeah

Spinning Swing (Action Speed)

• Spinning Swing is to me, very slow and that’s not what Dragoon is supposed to be. The final swing that summons a tornado can be canceled early (More on this later).

Optional & Special Skill Plates

Rough Sweep (Damage)

• I would recommend replacing Stab Screw’s plate with this. Using the normal version takes a long time and makes you vulnerable to enemy attacks as you do it since canceling it is not recommended because your damage for this skill will plummet.
• As long as you can successfully use this every time it goes off cooldown, then the tradeoff for having to use Gale Thrust less often is an okay exchange. Otherwise, Stab Screw is more recommended

Spinning Cut (Any)

• Whether you choose damage or cooldown is up to you. Once again, replace the Stab Screw plate with the same reasoning as above

Hovering Blade (Cooldown)

• This is honestly a controversial plate to use but hear me out. Your objective is to apply Mark as often as you can for Spinning Skewer. The plate lowers the cooldown by 1.6s. Gale Thrust’s damage is sort of average.
• If you so wish, say goodbye once again to poor ol Stab Screw plate. But please keep in mind this is the lowest optional plate I would recommend and in fact, I’m personally against it. But don’t let me stop you from trying it out yourself and hey, perhaps you’ll produce better results than mine?

Wall Maker (Cooldown)

• Only use this if you just literally started learning Dragoon. I do not recommend this as an optional plate either. This is a special mention

Barnac's Breaking Point

• This is your go to Special Skill Plate. It increases your own attack by 5% for 40 seconds and even for a skill that has a cooldown of 3 minutes, that’s still worth it as your only other options are just utility/survivability

Iona's Healing Crest/Geraint's Barrier

• This is just a special mention. I would still recommend Barnac. Pick whichever you want from the two if you want more survivability. These plates become less effective when you do content with people more often since there would normally be a healer

Skill Rotation

I want to preface by saying that Dragon Nest is a reactive based game. Dragoon doubles this down for how she was designed so you will have to be performing things a lot quicker than normal compared to other classes.
Even more so in your quick thinking and decision-making as I’ve said from the class’ overview

I want to emphasize that my rotation and explanations are a bit detailed, (If it wasn’t evident enough for all the side notes I mentioned above for skills) so you might want to grab a coffee and rack your brains on this one.

I will now list what I think are the core skills of Dragoon. The rest that are not mentioned here will be given extra information further below and also some personal thoughts on how I use them on another skill rotation (Yes there is “sort of” 2 skill rotations)

Stab Screw
Shutter Bounce
Spinning/Enhanced Spinning Skewer (ESS)
Awakened Fling Sky
Flashy Skewer
Bifrost
Rough Sweep & Instant Rough Sweep
OTR

Opening Burst

The specific skills mentioned above have a very fixed sequence at every start of the battle which I will call an “Opening Burst”.

Opening Burst revolves around using these skills mentioned above in order so you can achieve the highest possible burst damage in under 30 (Or exactly 27 seconds) seconds while maintaining decent I-frames throughout the sequence.

Before doing this, you must stack at least 12 or 20 [Energy] . I recommend that you always stack before entering a portal or a boss fight (This idea extends to any content that you do).

This is very important to do the sequence. Your stacks work by casting any Piercer Skill, Bifrost, and OTR.

Fling Sky, Flashy Skewer, Deep Pierce, and Gale Thrust do NOT generate [Energy]

If the text color looks like this, this means that you have to cancel the first phase or the rest of the skill’s animation with another skill

Sequence:

Stab Screw > Shutter Bounce to Skewer > Fling Sky to Skewer > ESS > OTR > Deep Pierce > Skewer > Flashy Skewer > OTR > Skewer > Bifrost to OTR > OTR > Skewer > Rouhg Sweep > Skewer > Upper Blade to Rough Sweep > ESS > OTR > Deep Pierce > Skewer

Pointers:

• OTR is the best damage filler to use while waiting for Skewer to be off cooldown. This is true throughout the whole rotation of Dragoon and not just this sequence

• Wait for Skewer to be ready before manually descending with Fling Sky. This is also to ensure that you can observe first and prevent yourself from getting caught by any attacks once you do Skewer

• Rough Sweep is the next best thing to use as a damage filler and that goes for its instant version as well

• You will most likely improvise on the fly as mentioned
  above. Using OTR or Lollipop Chops as an example to I-frame and sort of “counterattack” is good and allows you to resume the rest of the sequence.
  A good example of improvisation is my first video up above showcasing Dragoon’s gameplay while doing Opening Burst
  

Actual Skill Rotation (?)

After doing the Opening Burst, you now start your skill rotation. But there’s something I have to tell you. The rotation is semi-freestyle. Let me explain

Dragoon’s gameplay revolves around applying and detonating the Mark. Your main task is as simple as that. But I’m pretty sure you’re dying to look for a skill rotation regardless so I still prepared it nonetheless

As I forgot to open up the damage counter from the video, I more or less replicated the rotation once more. This should give you a rough idea of which skills are considered to be a priority but nevertheless, it will have its section down below

Creating your Ideal Rotation

I’ve mentioned many times that the rotation is semi-freestyle. I only say this because Dragoon often interrupts herself with her signature skill, Spinning Skewer every time a Mark is applied and also having to cancel some skills early due to an impending attack.

However, I’ll provide you 2 simple tips to create your own rotation:

Know Yourself

• Understanding you, as a player comes first before knowing how to play the class. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and if some of those weaknesses couldn’t be fixed such as physical health problems, try to “reinforce” (for the lack of a better term) them in some way.
• As someone who is slowly developing Carpal Tunnel due to playing extremely high APM games such as Dragon Nest (At least for Dragoon) and Warframe throughout the years, I have to adjust some positioning of skills/abilities in the keybinds/hotbars that I often spam so I don’t stress my hand too much. While this cannot be completely fixed, I still was able to “reinforce” it

Know Thy Enemy

• Almost every enemy in the game has different behaviors and attack patterns. To not be endangered in every battle, you must know every enemy. This is true to every class but explaining why it is so would most likely extend this guide for much, much longer.
• Your approach of the fight differs from a couple of enemies while some will be more or less the same. There are some combinations you can and cannot do at that very moment and for that, you have to think of other ways to improvise on the fly

Sun Tzu, a Chinese Military general and the author of The Art of War once said

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”

Skill Prioritization & Usage

As I promised, I will provide some information about the rest of the skills after doing Opening Burst despite making claims for Dragoon’s rotation to be semi-freestyle

Through no particular order:

Spinning Cut

• Honestly, there’s nothing much to say about this. With decent damage and very fast animation, this will help you get a good chance of applying marks like any other skills, and with its long cooldown alongside Spinning Swing, it should be used whenever available

Spinning Swing

• As mentioned previously, Spinning Swing's tornado can be canceled early but the tornado can still be summoned and provide damage. You have to cancel it at the right moment with any skills that can be used while doing it. Canceling provides you more action window for every time you do it right resulting in overall higher DPS

Lollipop Chops

• I personally put this skill to be low on the list as I find more of its use for its Short I-frame once cast. But this can still be used as once again, a filler to apply Mark. Use this once you think there aren’t any attacks coming in during its animation. This skill can be used in conjunction with other I-frame skills such as OTR. This allows you to further extend your I-frames and not stop your onslaught while dodging a possible second attack from the enemy

Gale Thrust

• It’s kind of weird to have a skill that is only used upon using another skill twice and only provides mediocre damage. But that doesn’t matter much to me as long as it has a chance to apply Mark.

Shutter Bounce & Stab Screw

• It’s a no-brainer that you should always keep your debuffs up every time. More emphasis on Stab Screw as again, it gives you access to Gale Thrust

Flag

• Think of it as either another dodge with small damage or another dodge but slightly longer I-frames. I will not condone you for spamming this.

Might I remind you again that due to Class Mastery I, and I quote:

“Additional effects include being able to inflict a Vulnerable debuff with ANY attack that you inflict including normal attacks”.

And Flag LMB does exactly that albeit only one attack.

Do NOT underestimate a single hit to roll the dice for Mark on Dragoon. You’ll be more amazed than you might think

Hornet's Touch

• Successful parries will instantly give you 6 [Energy]. Whenever there’s an attack to be parried, use this as much as you can as you will reach 20 stacks faster as it requires you to use 3 Piercer skills to even get 6 stacks of [Energy]. This is also one of the few skills you can use to cancel another skill

Spinning Skewer

• Apart from spamming it since it’s your main DPS skill, I would also like to note that you should also use this whenever there are at least 2 seconds of rest in the fight so you can get 2 stacks of [Energy] everytime. Example being a mechanic that needs you to stay away from the boss for a while or if it’s doing a wipe out mechanic. Keep stacking to 20 whenever there’s a break in the fight

The rest of the skills that are part of the Opening Burst are always a must-use whenever available. Especially Spinning Skewer and Deep Pierce
(HAVE I NOT EMPHASIZED IT ENOUGH $*!@$&%?)

Hovering Blade

• This can be used as a resting skill or a filler. What I mean by “resting” is that this will allow you to take a breather and check all your cooldowns as Hovering Blade's animation takes at least 1 second (Keep in mind that you can extend the shots by waiting for a bit before pressing LMB again) which should be enough time for you to skim through over your quick slots and check everything.
• If you use this as a filler skill, shooting out 2 blades is enough to produce immediate results in applying a Mark. If it does, simply cancel the 3rd one with a Skewer Immediately. If not, continue the 3rd shot

Dent Blow

• This is an okay filler to use and is only 1s longer than Hovering Blade. But I would still prioritize the latter due to it having more multi-hits than this

Spring Haze

• A very quick skill to use that hits 8 times with a long cooldown. Unlike the rest of Piercer’s skills, all 8 hits happen instantly. That’s all I can say about it

The 2-second Stab Rule

Dragoon’s gameplay revolves around her [Energy] and signature skill, Spinning Skewer. Excluding the rest of her fighting style, I would recommend you exercise this rule (Yeah I made that rule up for no good reason but please, hear me out).

The rule is simple, you must use Spinning Skewer every time it is available.
You’ll probably ask the question:

“So now you’re telling me to use it even without the Mark applied? Wouldn’t that defeat the whole point of dealing massive damage with it?”

Keep in mind that this contributes 2 stacks of [Energy] for you to therefore use ESS. Balancing your DPS all the while fast stacking is key to being a better Dragoon. This is where most of your quick thinking and decision making will come to play every 2 seconds.

• Should you wait for a Mark every time knowing the fact that every 2 seconds that pass without using it could be 2 stacks of [Energy] so that you’ll be able to use ESS much sooner?
• Or should you use it now and gain 2 stacks but risk a possible Mark before the 2 second cooldown period and potentially lower your DPS at that moment every time you make that decision?

There are a lot of factors that can help you in deciding when to use Spinning Skewer which I’ll name a few:

• What skills are readily available

• Which skills that guarantees a Mark that are about to go off cooldown

• Which skills are readily available that can easily help in applying a Mark in a short amount of time

• How long are these skills that easily help apply Mark be on cooldown for

At the end of the day, how you approach this rule is up to you. You could either:

A.) Simply follow the basic rule which is to use it every 2 seconds regardless of the Mark and call it a day

B.) Exercise your quick decision and thinking by judging when you want to use it every time which could elevate your gameplay and damage

C.) Completely ignore this rule

Regardless of your option, I do not have the right to judge you.
Ultimately, how you play the class is up to you and I will respect that. My job in this guide is simple and always has been my goal: Is to teach you on how to play Dragoon.

The knowledge, experience and time that I’ve gathered about the game and the class itself is all being poured in this whole guide and you are more than free to agree or disagree with anything written in here and that’s completely fine.

We all have our own way of understanding and playing the class and the game. After all, our enjoyment of the game and the class is based on how we approach it. But allow me to say this before we head on to the next section:

“There is a difference between the good and the great. The question is, which one are you?”

Again, your call.

Fun fact: I approach all 3 options. Don’t ask why because this guide will be much longer if I explain it

My Skill Hotbar Layout

Quick Slot 1 (In order):
Rough Sweep, Spinning Cut, Spinning Swing, OTR, Spinning Skewer, Hornet's Touch, Shutter Bounce, Stab Screw, Gale Thrust, Flag, Bifrost, and Lollipop Chops

Quick Slot 2 (In order):
Prosperity, Scar Maker, Wall Maker, Erratic Power, Spring Haze, Fling Sky, Deep Pierce, Hovering Blade, [Harmony] Prosperity, Flashy Skewer, Dent Blow, and Champagne

I’m currently using a MOBA mouse; the ones that have 12 side buttons if you’re wondering why I have not edited the skill hotkey, especially from numbers 7-12.

Normally, the way I organize my skills is I put them in order of what level I can learn the skill. But since the server gives us the option to level straight up to 95, I chose that option and just rolled with it. But I do have some patterns when placing skills regardless of class

For the 1st Quick Slot

• Numbers 1 to 3 are usually damaging skills from the 3rd job advancement. In this case, Dragoon. If lacking on that tree, put your other high damaging skills on 2 and 3

• 4 and 5 are spammable skills whether they give me an I-frame or not. More often, they are my main DPS skills

• 6 is always a parry skill if there is any. I put block skills somewhere else

• 7 and 8 is where I usually put buffs and/or debuff skills

• Numbers past 9 are skills that I just fill or skills that have a short to decent cooldown

For the 2nd Quick Slot

• The first 5 numbers are usually buffs, and heals

• Anything past 6 is just based on my muscle memory. These are where other skills that have long cooldown or aren’t used much are placed. Though Deep Pierce being an important skill, I decided that I needed more easily accessible I-frame skills such as Lollipop Chops and Flag to be in the 1st quickslot

My Hero Skill is bound to T. Feel free to change it to anything you’re comfy with

Another Gameplay Showcase

Here’s another gameplay of Dragoon but this time, this is from the perspective of not having the aggro.

Credits to my guildmate and partner in pain, Jake for helping out and being the ultimate sacrifice in taking ROTK’s aggro. This video wouldn’t have been made without him.

There are 3 last sections before we come to the end of the guide.

I will also break down some parts of this particular video and have some commentary about it for you to understand why I do this and that.

• As early as 21s into the video, you’ll already notice the very first skill cancellation, Shutter bounce to OTR.
  A perfectly well-timed attack that still allowed me to resume as is while also dealing good starting burst damage

• If you have been paying attention, you might have also noticed that this is also the start of my Opening Burst. Granted it was improvised due to me having to dodge the first swipe directed towards me, I continued the sequence all the same

• At exactly 43s in, is a good example of me showing you the cancellation of Spinning Swing. This is a great frame cancel but it could be better. The perfect example would be my first video below Dragoon Overview at exactly 1:57

• At 53s is the next attack directed towards me, without any pressure, I simply did an ESS and followed up with OTR. This was my first decision to make in the heat of battle.
  While the shockwaves from the side swipe were still on the ground, he proceeded to double down with a Body Spin.. I had 2 choices:

1. Use Hornet's Touch to parry the Shockwave but in return, have to use another I-frame for the Body Spin; reducing my current available I-frames, or…

2. Use Bifrost to I-frame both the Shockwave and the Body Spin while retaliating with its massive damage, allowing me to save Hornet’s Touch for any other attacks in case the aggro is still on me after the Body Spin.

I chose the latter as this is objectively better and it allows me to recuperate and take a look at which skills are ready or those that are still a ways off while Bifrost is taking place.

Using skills that have long I-frames like these allows you to take a second and analyze the situation. Both for yourself, the enemy, and your allies since you are generally safe from most attacks.

Not everyone remembers their skill rotation and cooldown to a T especially when the fight is volatile. This couldn’t be any more true for Dragoon

• Skipping past to 5:33, he does Collapse. At exactly 5:39, you’ll notice he will stutter at saying “Begone!”. Take note of this for one of the last upcoming sections of this guide, “Frame Lag”

With Guardian Force active to constantly heal me back up after his first Eternal Flames and Jake’s steadfast and stalwart shield, we defeated ROTK all the while making it possible for me to make this video and showcase everything that I’ve taught you so far in the guide. But we have a few more hurdles to talk about before we finish this.

Fighting Under Pressure

It’s easy to fumble around when you’re under pressure; fighting the boss head on or the aggro has shifted towards you due to certain circumstances such as the person with the highest threat is down or there is no tank in the party.

While I can think of a lot of reasons for you to cause more slip ups in the fight, I’ll list 3 things that are what I think, the major causes that increase your mistakes:

Knowledge of the Fight

• Mish mashing buttons is fine and all until someone comes along who can also do the same and make your life a living hell without repercussions. Being a DPS isn’t all about attaining the highest possible damage contribution in the fight, nor it is just about smoothening your rotation.

• All of these things are great to master but things will 100% not go the way how you want to happen. Adjusting and/or improvising in these certain situations will alleviate the burden in the fight and allow you to stay level-headed and focused throughout which in turn, elevates your damage and rotation.

Knowledge of the Class

• This is more or less the same thing as point #1. Understanding the limitations of the class and what it can and cannot do is always key in mastering it. Doing the same fight over and over again has its limitations.

• But Dragoon isn’t like that. You are free to experiment in such situations and see what works and see what doesn’t. This is why I considered this as a pro for Dragoon. She can make the same fights seemingly different every time based on her decisions and the enemy’s attack patterns.

This in turn allows you to steer the wheel mostly the way how you want it to be just like a ship and have a little bit of that control in the fight.

Thinking That the Same Rotation Will Always Work

• No. It doesn’t. I’ve said it many times up above that Dragoon’s rotation is semi-freestyle and I still believe that it is. Having the freedom of creating your rotation is what makes Dragoon, Dragoon, and that’s already on top of her being a very reactive class.

• Other classes are forced to resume their rotation after dodging because there might not be any other way to do so in that moment just because of the way how they’re designed and other classes have limited improvisation.

Short Skill Combinations

While I may be doing my rotation randomly, I do have noticeable skill combinations that you might spot from time to time from the videos and I can name a few (With goofy names cuz FML) and that you too can use and would recommend practicing:

Quad Stab

• This can only be done at 18 stacks and with a pre-marked enemy:

Skewer > ESS > Deep Pierce > Skewer
You are free to weave in 1 skill while waiting for the last skewer to be off cooldown to deal extra damage.

To Infinity frames and beyond!

• This may seem like somewhat of a silly combination but this will provide you with one of the longest possible I-frames you can get with Dragoon and all the while still dishing out big damage.

• Simply use your skills that give I-frame and damage in whatever order you wish which are:

Fling Sky, OTR, Bifrost, Flashy Skewer, and Lollipop Chops

If you wish to extend it to a ridiculous extent even further, add/weave in Dodge to Upper Blade and Flag RMB and fully experience what the original Divine Avatar is. Not enough? Add Hornet’s Touch and Piercing Spike!

A Hornet’s Sting

• You will have better results if you time this right and with at least 10-12 stacks of [Energy] and a pre-marked enemy before doing this; though still possible if you will hit the max stacks with it.

RNG Coper

• Even though 10% chance of applying a Mark might not seem a lot, remember that most of Dragoon’s skills are multi-hit. Though sometimes even with 2 skills combined, it still fails to apply a Mark.
• This combination will increase your odds so much, you’d be inhaling in those RNG fumes: Rough Sweep > Instant Rough Sweep
  (Don’t Forget to use Skewer if it ever applies a Mark)

RNG Coper MK. II

• Spam Upper Blade to Instant Rough Sweep and cope for the best that it will apply a Mark all the while dealing decent burst damage

Spinneroonie (DEFINITELY NOT A WWE REFERENCE)

• Composed of 3 skills:

Spinning Cut, Spinning Swing and Lollipop Chops.
Their cooldowns are similar to each other except Lollipop Chops just takes 1s longer than the 2. These 3 skills are also fast so you can dump them all for a chance of a Mark

Hazy Stabs

• This is the lowest priority of skill combination that I would recommend doing since you already have a lot on your plate in terms of your rotation.
• This is only used when most of your skills are on cooldown:

Spring Haze > Skewer > Hovering Blade > Skewer > Dent Blow > Skewer (Use OTR as a filler as you wait for Spinning Skewer to be ready)

Triple Stab Explosion

• This is one of the easiest combinations to do (Once again, feel free to weave in OTR):

Instant Rough Sweep > ESS > Deep Pierce > Skewer

Frame Lag

Going back to the video above which I mentioned at exactly 5:39, you’ll notice he stuttered at his Body Spin. Saying “Begone!” twice.
This is due to something I personally call Frame Lag (Again I really don’t know what to call it).

This happens when a very specific skill hits the enemy and forces them to lock or freeze their current frame for only a moment before resuming normally; which I have no idea why it happens but it’s in the game.

In Dragoon’s Case, Rough Sweep forces the lag. Other classes have this as well so you might want to experiment to find out which skill triggers it when fighting.

The frame lag is both useful and dangerous if it happens because, on one hand, it makes the enemy freeze for a moment in time which actually delays both their attack and hit registry wherein you can take advantage of it by retaliating through an I-frame like Hornet’s Touch or OTR without stopping your onslaught per se

On the other hand, this can be bad as again, it delays the impending attack which people have already readied to dodge once it arrives. This can mess up their I-frame timing and take a hit.

While this can be inevitable or an accident in some rare cases, you have to pay careful attention when this happens. If you see the enemy freeze for a moment in time, then that means someone induced a Frame lag; be quick to react in time for this if your I-frame is not long enough

Frame Extender

The animations of your dodge and any I-frame skills that you have are the reasons why you get I-frames. Therefore, sometimes letting the animations play out is a better way rather than using another I-frame when you thought that your evasion was poorly timed on the attack.

I have many examples of these if you watch back on the video below Dragoon Overview. You’ll notice that at times I stop my onslaught on some attacks before continuing.

As mentioned in one of the Short Skill Combinations, To Infinity frames and beyond, you will reach even more ridiculous I-frame time by letting the animation play out every time you use any of those skills mentioned.

Every class can abuse this and even the simple dodge button, when just played out on some classes, can just mean the difference between an accidental life-saving decision or a poorly thought out I-frame cancellation, resulting in a gruesome death

Harmonious Spearhead

Two Dragoons…. Walk into a nest… and they provide mark for each other!

You read that right, Putting 2 Dragoons actually gives them a Mark Connection, which allows them to inflict, see and detonate a mark.

This oddly unique synergy allows both Dragoons to reliably do all three since there will be an extra hand to roll the dice.
But there’s one caveat to this, popping a mark means popping it for both of them.

This can possibly lower one or both Dragoon’s damage contribution as they’ll simply be “stealing” the mark from each other.
The only solution for this is having 2 skilled Dragoons working together.

This means that you need to get the rhythm of your partner when applying and detonating a mark.
Understanding what skills they’re using and what they’re about to use must also be reciprocated back.

This is where the rotation comes in handy as you can remember by memory for this so you can ready your skewer anytime. This in turn, levels the damage contribution and also possibly makes the run faster when done properly.

Here’s a thought: “6 Dragoons in a raid.”

Here is another video on what it’s like to have 2 Dragoons working together. Please take this as a lighthearted, slightly informative gameplay showcase rather than something serious since my intention for making this video is more of a montage.

Conclusion

Dragoon is one of the harder classes out there and with ED labeling her difficulty in character creation as Expert, it’s no joke as even I still struggle at times and still keep on keeping on. While my lack of skill in the class makes up for my analysis and decision-making, that doesn’t mean I should neglect fixing my skill issues.

Despite being labeled as an RNG class, Dragoon’s flow and fighting style is, in my opinion, well made and thought out. Her kit, including some of Valkyrie’s just works in harmony. She almost has everything at her disposal in almost any situation and the fact that you can be creative with her rotation, just speaks volumes in terms of improvising in the fight because this allows you to sort of stay fresh often; making the same fight feel different from time to time based on your actions and the enemy’s move. This in turn allows you to expand and experiment on what more she could do in certain situations or scenarios.

I deeply apologize if this guide took way longer than expected. Even one might think “Who the hell makes such a long guide on a very old game?”. Well, I personally love being thorough, descriptive, and overall laying out extremely detailed information. Whether it’s in this game or others. It’s this conviction of mine that got me to this day and this is how the people I know that I taught, got better.

Whether you completely agree or disagree after reading all this, I’m still grateful for your time reading through this guide and would love your feedback and thoughts about it. Time is always a precious thing to everyone and it should always be respected and treasured.

I’ve not paired often in parties with Dragoon but I do see some of you out there. I hope this helped you even with the smallest microcell. Despite my years of experience in the game and my mindset for any other games, I continue to learn new things and it will never stop.

I think i’m the only full-time Dragoon user so far…

And with that, I hope you enjoy penetrat- I mean stabbing enemies and praying for RNG as Dragoon!

P.S: If you have any questions or simply want to have a chat, you can reach me through Discord: Aerie/fervalgitha. My profile is the one with the letter A necklace. I often respond immediately if I’m not doing any taxing task on my PC or just playing my Gacha game (Shameless plug-in for Counter Side). Otherwise, I am most likely playing other games or AFK