First off, I'm gonna say this is a vastly inferior take on DRG compared to the quite-expansive Rotation Reborn topic on the OF, seen here. You can consider this very much a watered-down tl;dr version of that, and if you really care to know "why"s of stuff I recommend you just check it out.
Second, I'm pretty much a hand-me-down DRG so I don't have a ton of practical experience on anything beyond Extreme primals. Feel free to yell at me if I've misinterpreted something, or if you just wanna yell and discuss stuff.
Table o' contents
1) Abilites
2) The Rotation
3) Adds - Low HP targets
4) Adds - AoE
5) Gear
1) Abilities
Note that natural TP regen in combat is 60/tic, and I factor into a loose net combo TP cost.
*Since GCD is at maximum 2.5s and the regen tic is every 3 seconds, this is not a perfect measurement. A "tic" occurs every 3 seconds.
Advised crossclass abilites: Internal Release, Mercy Stroke, and any 3 of Foresight, Second Wind, Mantra, Featherfoot, or Bloodbath. I take Foresight, Second Wind, and Mantra.
Small note: Heavy Thrust buffs all damage, but Disembowel will only buff the upfront portion of any damaging hit; the DoT portion of Phlebotomize, Chaos Thrust, or Fracture will not be boosted by Disembowel.
GCD abilities: single-target
Full Thrust combo: True Thrust (150pot) > Vorpal Thrust (200) > Full Thrust (330)
Total potency: 680
Average potency: 226.67
TP cost: 70 > 60 > 60 (net -10)
Chaos Thrust combo: Impulse Drive (180pot, rear starter) > Disembowl (220) > Chaos Thrust (200 + 30/tic DoT for 10 tics, total 500)
Total potency: 600 (+300 DoT)
Average potency: 200 ("300" including DoT)
TP cost: 70 > 60 > 60 (net -10)
*Worth noting, if you just spam this (2-3 ticks on CT's DoT at minimum) it's still 660-690 total potency, 220-230 average. Food for thought.
Heavy Thrust: 170 pot, flank starter, grants 15% damage bonus for 20 seconds (or next 7-8 GCDs).
TP cost: 70 (net -10)
Phlebotomize: 170pot + 25/tic DoT for 6 tics
Total potency: 320
TP cost: 90 (net -30)
Piercing Talon: 120pot. Ranged attack.
TP cost: 130 (net -70)
Feint: 120pot. Inflicts Slow. Most endgame bosses are immune, and is subject to diminishing returns if they aren't.
TP cost: 80 (net -20)
Fracture: 100pot + 20/tic DoT for 6 tics. Not recommended to use in rotations anymore.
Total potency: 220
TP cost: 80 (net -20)
Skull Sunder: No.
Haymaker: Don't.
GCD abilities: AoE
Doom Spike: 160 pot, line AoE
TP cost: 160 (net -100)
Heavy Thrust (170pot, single target, flank opener) > Ring of Thorns (150pot, circle AoE)
TP cost: 70 > 120 (net -70)
Ring of Thorns: 100 pot (non-combo'd)
TP cost: 120 (net -50)
Off-GCD: Offensive
Leg Sweep: 20s cooldown. 130 pot, inflicts Stun for 3 seconds. Avoid using if the fight necessitates a Stun rotation, otherwise just a free damage weaved attack.
Life Surge: 60s cooldown. Next non-autoattack hit within 10 seconds is guaranteed to be critical, and absorbs damage dealt up to 10% of your max HP. Always use with combo'd Full Thrust.
Blood for Blood: 80s cooldown. Damage dealt increases by 30% and damage taken increases by 25% for 20 seconds. Try not to use this as you're about to take big unavoidable damage from Geocrush, Tumult, Aerial Blast, Hellfire, or Earthen Fury to name a few.
Internal Release: 60s cooldown. Crit rate +10% for 15s.
Mercy Stroke: 90s cooldown. 200pot attack that can only be used when target's HP is under 20%. Typically will only get to use this once, maybe twice on a boss. Can be used more frequently in some fights to finish off adds.
Jump: 40s cooldown. 200pot attack. You will be unable to move freely for a little over a second after you initiate this; this also holds true for the other 2 offensive jumps (Spineshatter and Dragonfire). Use this whenever it is up as long as it does not interfere with dodging AoE or positioning for the next GCD.
Power Surge: 60s cooldown. Next Jump or Spineshatter Dive within 10 seconds deald 50% more damage. Always pair this with Jump; if Jump is up and this is not, don't wait for it. Does not power up Dragonfire Dive.
Spineshatter Dive: 90s cooldown. 170pot, inflicts a 2 second Stun. As with Leg Sweep, don't use if it interferes with a Stun rotation. Otherwise save it for a gap-closer in fights that require you to move around a lot, or use it for more damage in fights that do not require this.
Dragonfire Dive: 3min cooldown. 250pot, small AoE around target. Gap-closer like Spineshatter, so see above for usage advice.
Off-GCD: Utility/Defensive
Invigorate: 2min cooldown. Restores 500 TP.
Elusive Jump: 3min cooldown. Jumps backwards 15y and cuts current enmity in half(? or just a large reduction). Can be used as yet another gap-closer if you're comfortable with eyeballing the distance.
Keen Flurry: 90s cooldown. Increases parry rate by 80% for 20 seconds. If you need to eat physical for whatever reason, pop it.
Foresight: 120s cooldown. Increases defense by 20% for 20 seconds. See above.
Featherfoot: 90s cooldown. Increases evasion by 15% for 15 seconds. See above.
Second Wind: 120s cooldown. Restores HP. The best way to describe this is that you punch yourself in the face and it heals you (specifically anything that raises the specific Attack Power sub-stat on your stat menu, such as a STR up effect). Not affected by the usual mage-y things that raise cure potency in that regard.
Bloodbath: 90s cooldown. Converts 25% of damage dealt for 15 seconds into HP. See above, though for any kind of damage rather than just physical.
Mantra: 120s cooldown. Targets within AoE range are healed for 5% more for 15 seconds. Can be helpful, but not absolutely necessary.
Limit Breaks
Braver: LB1, 2s cast time, 2300 potency
Bladedance: LB2, 3s cast time, 5000 potency
Final Heaven: LB3, 4.5s cast time, 9000 potency
LB damage is influenced by the average item level of every party member's weapon, and is not increased by any other means. Therefore in a party with multiple users of melee LB, the least-geared or lowest DPS member should be the user ideally. During the animation the user is unable to move, so be sure not to use it if you need to dodge something within the next 5 to 10 seconds.
2) The Rotation
These are the operational goals of the rotation:
-Keep Heavy Thrust up; assuming 2.50 standard GCD, you must do Heavy Thrust every 8 moves.
-Keep Disembowl (and by extension, Chaos Thrust) up as much as possible; you should start Impulse Drive for the rear combo 10 moves after you started the previous one.
-Keep Phlebotomize up because the potency/GCD for it is good.
-If nothing else needs reapplying, Full Thrust combo.
There are 2 slight variations of "the" rotation, each are 24 GCDs long (and thus go on for a little under 60 seconds, depending on skill speed). The 2nd is (according to this post) only very slightly less DPS overall so just use whichever you're more comfortable with.
To help this not feel like a big run-on, think of it as 3 8-move "sets" that all begin with Heavy Thrust.
1) Heavy > Impulse > Disembowl > Chaos > Phlebotomize > True > Vorpal > Full
2) Heavy > True > Vorpal > Full > Phleb > Impulse > Disembowl > Chaos
3) Heavy > True > Vorpal > Full > Phleb > True > Vorpal > Full
Or, shorthand:
H IDC P Full
H Full P IDC
H Full P Full
Or, visually:
If you have 1 or 2 unused hotbars, I advise making a setup like this on your screen if you're just starting to learn the rotation. I use Disembowel as the reminder for Chaos combo because I like more visual confirmation that Impulse combo'd correctly.
The other slightly less optimal version is to do Phleb after Heavy Thrust instead. For some this is easier to conceptualize (Heavy > Phleb as a 2-move "combo", very similar effect durations). So in shorthand this would be:
HP IDC Full
HP Full IDC
HP Full Full
The most important thing about the rotation is not to take it as gospel, and to try and always be doing something in cases where you just can't get into position for Heavy Thrust or Impulse Drive. Bosses won't always cooperate, and dodging takes precedence over "just one more hit".
Weaving in Off GCDs with your opening:
3) Adds - Low HP targetsHT-IR-ID-BFB-Dis-Sweep-CT-PS-Ph-Jump-TT-VT-LS-FT-HT-TT-VT-Sweep-FT-Ph-ID-Dis-CT-HT-TT-VT-Sweep-FT-Ph-Jump-TT-VT-FT
Plus Mercy Stroke soon as the mob hits 20%. Internal Release gets used first since if you put BFB in that spot you run the risk of it falling off before you can use it on Full Thrust. It doesn't matter if IR falls off for the Full Thrust since you'll be using Life Surge on it anyway. The order of off-GCD abilites will never be the same in any two main ability rotations as they have widely differing cooldowns. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping them on cooldown at all times. Sometimes you'll want to save one or two (such as Leg Sweep for stuns or BFB/LS for bursting an add), but in general they should all be on cooldown.
What you do with low-ish HP single-target adds largely depends on your group's DPS as well, but ideally you want:
-Heavy Thrust up at all times, obviously
-Disembowel up ASAP; do not follow through with Chaos Thrust unless the DoT will be able to tick for a decent amount of time (~4-5 ticks or more) or you can apply it to a different target that fits that criteria
-Phleb up ASAP if you're going to bother with it; again this needs to tick ~4 times to have been worth using usually
Examples given in Rotation Reborn:
-Mob lives for 6 GCDs: Heavy > Impulse > Disembowel > True > Vorpal > Full
-Mob lives for 8 GCDs: Phleb > Heavy > Impulse > Disembowel > Chaos > True > Vorpal > Full
In cases where adds spawn predictably (examples: Garuda HM/EX sisters, Titan Gaols, Titan EX Gaolers), you can prepare ahead of time by getting Heavy Thrust's buff up fresh, Impulse Drive on the boss, then you have Disembowel ready to go when adds are available to hit.
4) Adds - AoE
AoE should generally not be used unless you're dealing with at least 3 adds, as with 2 you can just alternate single target combos more efficiently. As always, it's important to keep Heavy Thrust up. Applying Disembowel to this many targets is obviously unwieldy so forget about that.
DRG has 2 main options for AoE:
-Doom Spike is a line AoE hitting everything between you and the target
-- HT > DS > DS > DS...
-Heavy Thrust into Ring of Thorns (circle AoE)
-- HT > RoT > HT > RoT...
Doom Spike is much better for burst potential but is also a large drain on TP and can be harder to aim quickly depending on how mobs are clustered. HT>RoT can be used over a much longer period due to the net TP loss being much less severe than just Doom Spike spam, and is generally just more recommended if you aren't going to get many "enforced" TP breaks due to fight mechanics.
Aside from TP longevity your choice mainly comes down to how many mobs you can hit with either AoE, where HT>RoT will usually be the easier choice. Be sure to alternate which target you're doing Heavy Thrust on if doing HT>RoT, to evenly spread out the single-target damage.
5) Gear
With few-to-no exceptions, item level is the king of "stats" because they are tied to "primary" stats (STR, Weapon Damage, VIT for left-side items) which can almost never be made up with secondary stats on a lower ilvl piece.
For physical DPS, the highest known Accuracy needed is 481 to hit the snake adds in Turn 5 of the Binding Coil of Bahamut. Previously ~473 has been reported to be the accuracy needed for Twintania, with a little less for previous Turns, but people are gradually testing how much Acc you can shave off for secondary stats while still achieving acceptable Acc. If you are not taking your DRG into Coil, you will not require a very significant amount of Accuracy for any content up to and including Extreme difficulty Primals.
Stat weights (for DRG):
Weapon Damage: 8.488
Strength: 1
Determination: .323
Crit: 0.184
Skill Speed: .152
Following are a few links to possible "best in slot" gearsets depending on what kind of gear you have access to and what Accuracy you want to hit. Keep in mind that you can always use food (Deviled Eggs or Stuffed Cabbage) to make up for some Accuracy "loss".
Can clear Turn 5
Pre-Turn 5, EX Primals OK
Pre-Turn 5, No EX Primals