This class is interesting...

Asthetically, It's fantastic. In practice, it feels really terrible.

PvE really needs help. The abilities don't hit anywhere near hard enough to compensate for the slow "cast" time. The prebuff/debuff rotations are very awkward, slow, and unprotected, which makes it unusable for high end grinds, which is a shame since the sustain would have been very helpful. SoFrosty demonstrated on stream how woefully inefficient this class is at PvE. This isnt an issue with the lack of rabams or the extra succ "awak" skills (which the awak will have too): succ Drakania has fundamental issues.

My recommendations:

1. Either speed up the prebuff/debuff skills or add protections to them (speed preferrably). In the time it takes to do Soaring Assault (poorly bound +16% crit rate to an iframe as well), Embers (+10 AP), Dragon's Maw (-9% eva), and Brimbolt raze +9%acc/10sec), I would have killed or be in the process of cleaning up a pack on Succ DK. This is just Drakania's prebuff rotation, half of which is unprotected and just begging to get stiff/stunned/KD by mobs in the process of this, making this a poor option for "high end" grinding.

Edit(1):

Recommendations to make this more fluid:

-Put the 9% acc buff/10 sec on Abyssal Fang. (Mandatory ion charging skill that fit easily in combos)

-Put the -15DP buff on Brimbolt Raze. (Also cancels/flows well in combos + actually has the AOE to debuff an entire pack of mobs. Also mandatory for ions)

-Put the -9% eva on Embers. (Flows well after Brimbolt raze. Quick and decent AOE to hit a well grouped pack for debuff. Also allows for "quick" activation of damage skills.)

-Put the +10AP buff on Skewer. First hit of omnislash could work too. (Easy lead in for Abyssal Fang. Mandatory for ions)

New possible prebuff/debuff rotation:

Skewer>Abyssal Fang>Brimbolt Raze>Embers>Refraction (reposition)>Soaring Assault>DPS combo

-This is much faster and flows very well to adequately apply all the debuffs.

2. The PvE damage on the big ticket hardhitting prime abilities needs to be beefed up. ALOT. Like doubled. Should one manage to get this aggravating Prebuff/Debuff rotation executed (while also managing the ion resource for maximum damage), anyone single one of these skills should annihilate a pack of star ends/sycraia/elvia mobs at 301k double PEN/BS: (could be done by increasing the ion hits only in PvE by 100%)

    - Prime Brimbolt Strike

    - Prime Blazing Strike

The following skills should be boosted by AT LEAST 50% in PvE (could be done by increasing the hits only in PvE by 50%)

    - Prime Markthanan's Dominion (ion hits only)

    - Prime Markthanan's Flourish (ion hits only)

    -Prime Brimbolt Raze

This would allow the player to rotate the big ticket damage skills between packs and use the large 360 AOE abilites for clean up

3. Move the +16% crit rate buff from Soaring Assault to another skill, and instead give it an +10-15% attack speed buff, and also allow it to be activate from dragon walk and refraction. 

Edit(1):

With the new suggested prebuff/debuff and changes above, new possible DPS combos

-Pack(1) - Skewer>Abyssal Fang>Brimbolt Raze>Embers>Refraction(reposition for back attacks)>Soaring Assault> Brimbolt Strike (with ions)>Markthanan's Flourish/Dominion for clean up

-Pack(2) - Skewer>Abyssal Fang>Brimbolt Raze>Embers>Refraction(reposition for back attacks)>Soaring Assault>Blazing Strike (with ions)>Markthanan's Flourish/Dominion for clean up

These changes would not make this class an OP grinder. It wouldnt even make it a good grinder. It would at best be on par with average to low end grinding classes in PvE. In short, IT WOULD BE USEABLE. 

PvP: 

The class is very slow, very stamina gated, difficult catches and no grab.  With how the meta of this game is, I can't see this being very useful compared to other options currently available. Those options are also far superior in PvE. This class would need significant defensive scaling to fulfill the bruiser role well enough to be considered a good option in comparison to say a succession berserker. It probably could use either a decent +all DR succ passive or a higher base HP pool (like zerker levels of HP). Just that alone, with the rest of the kit as is, would be good enough without being "overpowered". At the very least, make it a very strong option for team fights as a solid tank role, which appears to be the intent.

The only thing convincing me to play this class is the asthetic. Very hopeful improvements come soon, or this class will be dead before awakening releases. (dramatic, I know).

PS: Save you weapon/weight/inventory rerolls guys. Edit (2): On a serious note, these are just ideas Im throwing out to get the primarily PvE discussion going for this class. Im not the best player in the game or all knowing about PvE/PvP. 

Pearl abyss please listen to this, this is genuinely good feedback for the class to bring it on par with its competition.

I'm going to see how she handles today but as of last night she plays terrible with a controller.

Overall she farms way too slow. Her AOE's do not clear packs with AP for end game zones. On season she basically craps out after Sulfer Mines and can't do anything beyond that effectively.

Her fall damage animation needs cleaned up & if shes got wings then she needs to handle herself like Lahn, ASAP.

I think speed is the biggest issue. 

Of course with a big old sword it's heavy...

But yo it's like she has 50 kilo cement feet 

Also the damage is so low 

At 200 AP I had to do an entire long chain combo to clear a pack of manes . Manes....

Let's not exaggerate, she's got issues but you need to use the big hitter skills... Shift skills with some proper ion management at the very least.

Seems like all her skills are protected, will all classes be getting 90% protected skills, you know for balance?

dont know about pve but should get some nerfs in damage department in pvp if it gets to keep all that movement and heals and personal pa.

Nah, try actually playing a Drak instead of one of your 7 Shai before having a take. We get why you are here.

I played Drakania with full PEN tuvala seasonal gear at 250AP and i switched her to non-seasonal and tagged her with a 281kt AP and 343DP.
From both sessions of playing with her (Around 2 weeks seasonal and 1 week non-seasonal) i managed to get these conclusions:

- The numbers and precentages from her skills descriptions either are wrong or the skills are not working as intended.

I tested this:
My drakania with seasonal stats hits a shultz guardian (has lots of HP) with a skill that has 1500x7 as dmg and deals almost a quarter of shultz guardian HP as dmg.
A friend of mine with a Lahn (same lvl and stats as my drakania) does a similar skill in terms of dmg and accuracy modifiers and gets the shutz guardian HP almost to half.

- The animation speed is so slow that any class will outgrind drakania without any problems.
I tested this:

Stars end with Drakania on 281kt AP - 3688 trashloot after 1 hour with Blue LS and only meal buffs.
Stars end with friend`s Guardian awakening (not reworked class) on 281kt AP - 4139 trashloot after 1 hour with BLue LS and only meal buffs.

Ofcourse these numbers can be scuffed, but both of us had 5x Tier 4 pets on agile and were manually looting the leftovers and both of us grinded Temple rotation.

I get the thing that PA didnt wanted a FOTM fiesta and everyone will complain about her, but the issues Drakania has now....are too much for me to give her any attention.
The last hope we have is to wait for her awakening were the speed animation and damage wise problems will be fixed.