Drop 5

Drop 5 is here, just push all buttons on cooldown = auto win.

(The build is updated but the following guide is not updated for drop 5 yet)

AMPs and Ability points

The build above is obviously with full AMP and Ability points. Getting full Ability points and T8 is a huge damage buff and should be prioritized over AMP points any day.

In drop 3 Armor piercing got a huge buff which is why I have opted to go for that instead of Critical Hit Severity. One could argue that you do more damage by taking Crit Hit Severity over cooldown reduction (which you do) but in raids it's not always about having high damage it's also about utility and the cooldown on Espers' interrupts are bad as it is so this comes down to how much your raid needs your utility.

If you don't have full amp points yet I would recommend skipping out on Tactician in order to maximize CD reduction aswell as Crit Hit Severity.

If you don't have full ability points put as much as you can into and the rest in .

Rotation

The first thing you should now is how , , and works. These all react a bit differently from "normal" spells on when they can be cast and when they will cause a global cooldown.

is the most liberal of them all, it can be cast at any time regardless of if you're on global cooldown or even casting something else. It also will not cause a global cooldown if it's cast on it's own.

can much like Reap also be cast during another cast aswell as during global cooldown. The difference between the two is that if you cast on it's own (not during another cast or global cooldown) it will cause a global cooldown, which you really want to avoid.

and can't be cast during another cast but it can be cast during global cooldown. Which is why we always use it after casting .

The rotation:

To get 3 finishers off in 9 seconds this is the rotation I use

3x + + + Gadget +
2x + 2x + Innate + +
(The concentrated blades hit) + +

Now after this startup I don't use a set rotation but rather a set of rules.

- always use when above 2 PP
- always use when less than 5 PP (during a cast)
- always use after MB
- always use after MB
- always use on 5 pp
- use to build pp

And as always there's an exception to the rule; when moving.
For mechanics such as hiding behind a pillar on kuralak or running back from color room on Prototypes you want to do what you can to keep building PP. Abilities like , and even the T8 effect of can be used in those situations to build without hitting anything.

Utility

Ever since drop 3 Espers have only had 2 utlity slots to play with without loosing dps. These will in most fights be used for interrupts with and but in some fights not. I've compiled a list of what I use for utility on all GA bosses.

You could go for interrupts on fights where there's no interrupts aswell if you want to use it for more dps. But that damage is so small I would always recommend survivability above it.

Experiment X-89:

Don't use Projected Spirit for shout, only use it when you have to.

Kuralak:

is our only interrupt small enough to only hit 1 egg, use right before I get egged in case the interruptor is slow.

Phagetech Prototypes:

for Repair bots and to get out of color room and singularity.

Phage Maw:

Rotate and to survive bombs going off.

Phageborn Convergence:

T4 for Hammer mid phase and for squid mid phase.

Dreadphage Ohma:

for interrupts.