Bard Endgame - Suggestions and Strategies

@Rosencranz
what do u mean with oc?

also have someone any deeper details on those stat caps? Or soft caps? (do soft caps exist?)

None of the macros that put in bloodletter and misery's end in with venomous or heavy seem to work.

Are you people spam pressing your abilities or just pressing it once like a normal person? Because pressing it once certainly does not trigger multiple attacks.

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Originally Posted by Kixx

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I didn't test them yet, but yes it's most likely pushing the same button more than once to activate all of them.
The hierarchy for:

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/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>

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is, you press once; if "misery's end" is up, it starts this action, if Bloodletter is up but misery isn't up, it launch BloodLetter, and if none of these two actions are up it launch heavy shot that's on the GCD (Global Cooldown).

The other thing if you plan to make macro spam/rotation with abilities on the GCD, like somebody mentioned in another thread about macro; the /wait command doesn't seem to take .5 value anymore and rounds everything to the upper or lower value. 2.5 seconds becomes 3 seconds, and/or 2.4 becomes 2 seconds.

@Viridiana: strange, i assure you that there's no time wasted in that rotation ò.ò'' maybe is a matter of pratice, dunno. For the aggro there's no problem: while i buff myself tank is getting aggro, when i finished buffing myself tank - if able, and our fc one is <3 - had enough enmity to lemme spam all my attacks. But as i suggested before, try and see :3

@NintenPyjak64: uh. Those are really good macros ò.ò being a ps3 player i tried to maximize my slots to be faster than possible - as fast as killing the first boss of amdapor keep in 6 minutes *-*''', and to doing a run in 17.56 mins *O*°°° - but those seems to be a nice addendum. I can't say anything for those, except for one thing, more a suggestion than a real "to do": Blood for Blood is nice. It is, really. But there're some bosses - like demon wall, or Garuda HM - that have a lot of attacks, that may cause you to be hit a lot of times.

@NintenPyjak64, part2: Blood for Blood works well when we have a lot of space for moving, so we can avoid all the nasty stuffs. In enclosed spaces, is more a suicidal move that +25% damage received. Is a lot of stress for the healer - drg have better def than us, they can take more hits - while, another skills is more useful: Mantra. I plan to level monk to 42 to taking that. Should be a nice addendum to help healer. Also, on a side note: if healer had a +20% healing potency, use less mp. So we don't need to spam immediatly our songs. So Mantra can be a nice solution to save that -20% damage debuff from songs imho.

@Demikun: uh, sorry, bad language e.e oc: of course. And for those soft caps, i'm still searching and testing, hope to have some detailed info soon :3

@Kixx: sounds strange, but almost yes. The utility of that macro is that after the debuffs hits, you can simply continue pressing a single button to do the faster attack available, and so on. No need to destroy your wrists, or such. Is a "lazy" macro, actually. But saves a lot of time.

@Pandataru: strange, i noticed a little change in velocity putting 2.5 instead of 3 ò_o maybe i'll do some more testing, but thanks for lettin me know that. ò_O meh.

Hope, again, to be of some help :3

I've subbed Mantra before and the increased heal potency was only 5% not 20%. Plus the range on it's very small so I was running up to the melee group to use it (at the time I didn't have repelling shot so that wasn't an option)

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Originally Posted by NintenPyjak64

I've subbed Mantra before and the increased heal potency was only 5% not 20%. Plus the range on it's very small so I was running up to the melee group to use it (at the time I didn't have repelling shot so that wasn't an option)

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uh, nice to hear that. °-° got some wrong info then. Still, you've tried BfB in a primal battle or with bosses with lot of aoe attacks? any info would be good. Usually i avoid skills that tend to make me more "glass cannon" than already are.

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Originally Posted by Rosencranz

uh, nice to hear that. °-° got some wrong info then. Still, you've tried BfB in a primal battle or with bosses with lot of aoe attacks? any info would be good. Usually i avoid skills that tend to make me more "glass cannon" than already are.

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I'll be totally honest, I just mindlessly click my buffs. I WANT to say it works well but it's foggy at best. Which is why I'm asking for advice on when to use said buffs as well

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Originally Posted by Rosencranz

@Viridiana: strange, i assure you that there's no time wasted in that rotation ò.ò'' maybe is a matter of pratice, dunno. For the aggro there's no problem: while i buff myself tank is getting aggro, when i finished buffing myself tank - if able, and our fc one is <3 - had enough enmity to lemme spam all my attacks. But as i suggested before, try and see :3

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I like how you completely ignored my second point about needing an entire GCD before even getting a chance for RoB to proc.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

I like how you completely ignored my second point about needing an entire GCD before even getting a chance for RoB to proc.

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He's either not understanding you, or bad at math. You have been correct in pretty much every post. SS --> BL is superior, and pre-buffing is bad.

To below:
Math is not about "feeling". There are right answers and wrong answers. In this case, the math is actually pretty simple, and your solution is faulty.

@Pessimistick & Viridiana: i'm not bad in math, i'm just judgind it doing testing on field. Maybe is me, maybe i don't know, but i don't find so limitating the pre-buffs, or the BL > SS starting. I'm not saying "omg is perfect, you MUST do it!", i'm saying that i "feel" - so, imho, my 2cents - that it work in some situations better. That thing aside, i usually think that every setup can have perks and flaw, the ones that uses them should feel good with what they do. °-°''' What is perfect or working for someone, can be unfit to another one. And... ò_O as usual, not to be rude, but how come every nice post and answer tend to became somehow aggressive or prone to insult? I'll never understand that in a game ò.ò'

possibly a stupid question, but does foe requiem work with venomous bite, windbite, and flaming arrow?

@Jerico79: no question is stupid. With VB dunno, isn't an "elemental damage" i think. o_O with WB and FA i think yes, those are elemental damages, so the -10% elemental resistance should apply :3

Silly question. I noticed you said keep the emnity out of the yellow. My bar is always white. How do I see it as color or where does it display better than in the raid menu?

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Originally Posted by XionAvalonArcadia

Silly question. I noticed you said keep the emnity out of the yellow. My bar is always white. How do I see it as color or where does it display better than in the raid menu?

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If you look at the enemy list window, there is a colored icon next to each enemy on the list. Green is the "safe zone," and as you build enmity it changes to yellow, orange, then red.

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Originally Posted by Bije

If you look at the enemy list window, there is a colored icon next to each enemy on the list. Green is the "safe zone," and as you build enmity it changes to yellow, orange, then red.

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I personally find this better than the enmity bar thing. It's because i check more the enemy hp-bars than the pt ones. °-°''''

so SS->BL->Dots->heavy shot is my rotation I've been going with. Refreshing SS with a proc or if it falls off (before a BL ofc). Fill any gap with avial non GCD. Thoughts? I just hit 50 so I've been going on my own whim.

Now that I'm 50, just wanna make sure I got everything straight. I'm finishing up my story quest so I can start my relic, correct? I know also there will be grinding for tomes for DL gear and farming primals for pre-relic gear and what not. OFC there is also leaving crafting, but I have no intent on doing that right now. I'm also leveling my lancer to get Blood for Blood.

Any other things I should look for as a new 50 BRD? ^^ Need to find a new guild or actual grp to run things with =[ Ques ftl.

@Aycheff: during some discussion with a bard on my fc - we did both runs of amda less than 18 mins, so we're focusing on fast hit and less damages optimization >_> - he said that he start usually with dot and then SS. For him it seems to work nice, Quelling Strikablee - DoT - SS - BL etc etc. I still feel more confortable with my set.

Also, you should look to have fun. Lot of fun. °-°/ If you fancy strive to be the best dpser, then follow that way. I prefer being the most useful as possible for the tank and the healer on my party, i came from years of backup healing in FFXI *RDM FOREVER! D:* so i'm used to that mindset. °.°

No worries, having plenty of fun ^^

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Originally Posted by Rosencranz

3- Basically spells like skills that use a long charge time need that. Don't use silence before asking if the tank is stunning, or that may cause problems.

4- As far as i saw, differents song stack. I used foe requiem while another bard ballad. They both worked.

5- for stats, i suggest going full 30 dex. we got already a decent amount of mp at lvl 50, so we can sustain song as much a needed.


Hope this will help :3

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Interesting fact: The songs dnt have to be different to stack, I was in a fate group last night with another bard and we both happened to cast mage ballad at the same time and we all had 2 mage ballad buff icons it was funny.

Having two bards in a 8 man will be nice since we can cast tp and mp songs at the same time =P

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Originally Posted by blessed

level 39 Bard here, i'm just curious what will i level up?

is it Disciples of the Land or the Hand? thank you very much

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since no one is replying, i had to bump this. hehe

thank you in advance!

Well after my annoyance at having to spam the macros multiple times to use the different attacks I altered them a little. While never truly optimal for a max dps rotation they do a fair job at keeping the non-gcd attacks on cooldown. It at least makes leveling mindless and if you're bad at manually keeping them on cooldown its certainly higher dps. I didn't bother macroing it to straight shot so I can see the gcd easily but I'm sure anyone could figure that macro out.

If anyone comes up with a more elegant and effective solution I'm all ears.

/ac "Venomous Bite" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

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Originally Posted by blessed

since no one is replying, i had to bump this. hehe

thank you in advance!

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DOL/DOH? To make your own stuff/money?
pick any craft/DOL that can make you gross-rich to buy everything from the market. Or check what the crafted gear is made of, or made with, and level this DOL/DOH.

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Originally Posted by Kixx

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The problem with this is the GCD would get in the way sometimes and you'd have a lower chance to cast ME or BL unless you spammed, which is what you're trying to avoid? With the regular macro posted several times, all it does is casts first which is available, whether it's ME, BL, or your GCD skill (though with Straight Shot you'll want that first for the crit buff).

What I do is this when I'm button pressing (not spam pressing): 1 (Straight shot macro) 2 (Windbite Macro, launches BL), 2 again (Launches WB), 3 (Venomous Bite macro), then constantly pressing 4 unless I get the Straighter Shot proc, or if Flaming Arrow is out of cooldown. It isn't really spamming and it lets me keep my cool as I watch my DoTs, which is vital for your DPS (I swear my DPS almost doubled after I picked up Windbite)

@Castiel_Krios: that's nice. Especially in some fight where the boss - usually a primal - tend to use a big devastating aoe that almost half the hp of the group. Having in this moment 2 mage ballad + battle voice means that the Healers can spam Aoe healing w/o losing any mp. Thanks!

@Blessed&Kixx: Others have already answered that, i agree totally with them :3

The way I have it has a very high chance of using the shots. The problem tends to be on the first shot opener. Against mobs with high hp like in dungeons you don't notice the problem.

The real problem is the way the game registers the animations. For abilities that are supposedly off a gcd they have to be timed in a quite annoying fashion. It would be nice if the game just automatically canceled animations with no delay. As the skills are now there is just no way around what feels like unresponsive controls. Whether macro'd or not. You notice it a lot when using buffs like raging strikes.

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Originally Posted by Kixx

I didn't bother macroing it to straight shot so I can see the gcd easily but I'm sure anyone could figure that macro out.

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There's an easy fix to that. Add /micon "Skill Name" to the top, i.e.:

/micon "Venomous Bite"
/ac "Venomous Bite" <t>
/wait 1
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

That will show the icon for the actual skill, including TP cost for rangefinding.

How does Bard fare in farming mobs continuously at 50?