Dragoon DPS Gear and Best in Slot — Dawntrail 7.4

Dragoon performs best at a 2.50 GCD speed, so our week 1 gearset is based around aiming for this. The crafted head and wrist both have skill speed on them, so we aim to get the tomestone head (best- in-slot) as soon as possible. Because the wrist from savage is our best option available, we just end up eating the small skill speed (2.48 GCD) for week 1 and hope we get the savage wrist asap. We also provide a 2.50 GCD option (slightly weaker) if you would rather not have 2.48 GCD speed and the best option if you are expecting or wanting/needing to purchase the tomestone weapon during your week 1 progression.

The set listed here is not the best available gear, but is useful for those who are raiding on Dragoon as an alt job and thus have no tomestones available to feed into it for week 1 progression. If you are on a budget, push to match the melds as best as possible (prioritizing getting the +54 overmelds on each piece first) and just leave off the melds you can't afford to make. Note that the full crafted set will leave you with 2.46s GCD speed, which can be uncomfortable for many to play. If you want to force the 2.5, you can replace the headgear and wrist with the normal raid gear equivalents for relatively small losses and a large gain in comfort. The second set shown here does this for you.

Both sets listed here have full meld compatibility (and thus might not be truly optimized) with the week 1 BiS sets, so that you will be able to replace the same pieces as you get them and achieve that set as well, without need of remelding penta-melded pieces.

Tomestone purchase order to approach best-in-slot from here should prioritize:
Helmet > Legs > Gloves/Necklace/Ring (any order)

Portions of these gear sets can only be acquired by completing the current raid tier. We strongly prefer the 2.50 GCD speed tier in Dawntrail, so there are no solid alternatives at faster speeds that we support using. Of note - the melds on this set are perfectly compatible with both Reaper and Samurai meld profiles, facilitating easy swapping between jobs.

Portions of this gear sets can only be acquired by completing the Arcadion Light-Heavyweight raid tier. A guide for the content can be found in the link below. The green-colored gear is obtained from the new dungeon added in patch 7.3, The Meso Terminal.

For the Ultimate encounters prior to Futures Rewritten (FRU) - The Omega Protocol (TOP), Dragonsong's Reprise (DSR), The Epic of Alexander (TEA), The Weapon's Refrain (UWU), and The Unending Coil of Bahamut (UCOB) - we have elected not to include specific gearsets, as our current maximum item level allows you to sync down gear pieces and maximize substats for them. The table below lists off the current item level needed for gear to have both main and secondary substats meet the maximum allowable substats for level sync for that encounter along with the maximum stats for weapons - useful when utilizing customizable Relic weapons for sync.

If using a relic sync, it is recommended to first focus on hitting the cap on Critical Hit Rate, then one of Determination or Direct Hit Rate, followed by the other, only spending additional leftover points on Skill Speed, unless you want a specific speed for that encounter.

Keep in mind, the Relic weapon is NOT mandatory to clear these fights. It only provides a buffer for mistakes. It’s up to the player to make the decision if the grind is worth it.