Advice for Raiding as BRD

[Thatz]

Good morning everyone! So I’m getting ready to start raiding regularly for the first time since ARR lol my FC needed a BRD so I offered to level mine up. I have a good handle on it so far learning what goes with what and all that. I suppose my question is how would I be a good raiding bard? And soecifics or possible macros I have? To be honest the only macros I have are just for my DoTs together and bloodletter, empeyreal arrow as well as heavy shot all macros together. Any other macro recommendations? I’m coming from a pld so it’s more things to do than I’m used to and I want to make sure I’m doing it right. Any advice helps! Thanks!

[Yeol]

Nature's Minne & Palisade
Either have them on <mo> or <tt> (or both). I much prefer <mo>.

If you're new to Bard and can't keep track of your dots, a macro counting dots will help.

/micon "Iron Jaws"
/ac "Iron Jaws"
/ac "Iron Jaws"
/wait 22
/echo <se.2>

Dots are 30s each. This macro will make a sound when there is 8s~7s left on your dots to remind that you need to refresh them soon. You can increase or reduce the time as you see fit. Remove this macro once you're confident enough.

I do not recommend using any other macros.

[Thatz]

Nature's Minne & Palisade
Either have them on <mo> or <tt> (or both). I much prefer <mo>.

If you're new to Bard and can't keep track of your dots, a macro counting dots will help.

Dots are 30s each. This macro will make a sound when there is 8s~7s left on your dots to remind that you need to refresh them soon. You can increase or reduce the time as you see fit. Remove this macro once you're confident enough.

I do not recommend using any other macros.

Thank you very much for your input! Quick question though regarding the macro. You mentioned after /wait I can put /echo <se.2>. Wouldn’t it be interrupted if I used another skill or macro so I wouldn’t get the /echo notification

[Yeol]

Thank you very much for your input! Quick question though regarding the macro. You mentioned after /wait I can put /echo <se.2>. Wouldn’t it be interrupted if I used another skill or macro so I wouldn’t get the /echo notification

A macro will always be interrupted by another macro. For the most part I didn't have a lot of issues with it.
You will mostly likely refresh your dots whenever party buffs are up, and by doing so you reset the macro.

[Vidu]

A macro will always be interrupted by another macro. For the most part I didn't have a lot of issues with it.
You will mostly likely refresh your dots whenever party buffs are up, and by doing so you reset the macro.

In addition to this, because maybe it wasnt clear: You dont want to use macros to chain skills together and the like.
That reminder-macro is obviously helpful and fine, aswell as macros for your buffs (Natures Minne and Palisade) to target someone without you having to click on them. (Macros notifying the party of something - like "Silence used!" can obviously also be helpful - but thats about it for macro-usefulness)

But a macro that basically casts both your DoTs or chains your other skills, isnt something you should do - that goes for all jobs btw. I hope you dont have a macro for your paladin rotation but are doing that manually as you should.
Using macros for things like that will always be a DPS-loss, aswell as rip you off a certain flexibilty (bards strong side). I know bard has a lot of buttons to press and a lot of stuff to watch out for, but that makes it all the more important to learn those things and not rely on macros!

If you want to be a more "pro-bard": Find out what sort of damage the raid-wide AoEs in the fights are (magical or physical) and time your troubador+song for that to help mitigate it!

[Neela]

there are also <t> and <tt> which come in handy on caster as well but even here the use of "target" should be planed with care... healer can atk without untargeting the maintank or can set area buffs/debuffs like ast star or shadowflare... - but in the end Vidu is right the less macro you use the less problems/loss you will have over all.

Brds shouldn't have much (if any) macros which could interrupt a reminder-macro at all... if im not mistaken.

[Aeliott]

/micon "Nature's Minne"
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>

/micon "Palisade"
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>
/ac "Nature's Minne" <tt>

*note the action line is repeated to help force the command through quicker, sometimes macros can cause this jarring delay otherwise.

These will apply Nature's Minne / Palisade to whoever the enemy you're attacking is currently attacking (one of your tanks hopefully!) so you can quickly and easily apply these buffs to them without having to fiddle around targeting them. These are the only macros I use. I strongly recommend not using any for weaponskills that you're not weaving. You can get used to it with practice /

Role actions should by default be Palisade, Second Wind, Refresh, Tactician, and Invigorate (for raiding anyway). Some fights such as Delta 3.0 S and Sigma 3.0 S will require a silence, in which case you should drop one (usually invigorate since Tactician should give you enough TP) for it. Tanks can also take a silence, and NIN has one built-in to its kit, but doesn't hurt to have a backup.

When Wanderer's Minuet has just a couple of seconds left, spend all your Pitch Perfect stacks or they're lost forever, even if it's just one. Since combined song length is 90s, and their cds are 80s (along with Raging Strikes), you can end Army's Paeon at about 10s left and go straight back to your strong Minuet + Raging phase. Paeon is pretty weak. Song order should be roughly Minuet 30s > Ballad 30s > Paeon ~20s > repeat. That said there are some situations where you'll find it's better to stay in Paeon longer, like a boss going untargetable shortly after you'd otherwise go into minuet and waste high dmg potential. Good example is Kefka in O8S; never activate Minuet before an odd numbered Graven Image (and side note refresh your dots just before he becomes untargetable...though this is getting digressive and too fight-specific :P).

Try and avoid a situation where you'd refresh dots without straight shot up, this can be avoided with Straight Shot being applied at roughly the start of each song. Ideally you always want procs to go to Refulgent Arrow. It should go without saying, but with the Empyreal trait at lv68, make sure you're not wasting the free proc it gives. IE make sure Bloodletter is on CD before using Empy in Ballad, and spend PP stacks in Minute before using it if you're at 3