Bard advanced tactics

In that specific circumstance I would say clipping a dot is justified. Ofcourse that depends on how many seconds you actually gain by doing it, but in theory, definetly. The reason being, which many does not seem to understand, the dots themselves does not need any damage increase or whatever, you want the 20% from IR and 10% from SS so that your bloodletter has a much greater chance to reset thanks to your trait. And for everyone that thinks multidotting is useful, let me tell you that it is not, it does not double or triple your chancs to gain a bloodletter procc so don't waste your dps on doing so.

Requiem is only to be used when there is a BLM in group. It's the only time it is usefull.
I play mana song on request and only if the current state of the fight allows for a dps loss (ie: never play mana song during a dps race phase)

I made a few test in regards to buffs stacking.
Using attack to make use of GCD when casting buff compared to cast all buff at once do not impact dps at all.
However using a few buff for DoTs and saving some for later, is a dps loss. Alll buff should be active when casting DoTs at fight start (unless fight requires a high burst later on or you to slow down dps)
If DoT fades and you are missing a few seconds on buffs CD, you should wait for the buff before casting DoTs.
Never refresh DoTs unless those were cast without buff.

As for consumable, you should use crit food and not determination/crit food. The crit is too low on deter food which result on a dps loss (but it is a very small difference)
Always use Dex pot over any other kind of pot.

Herp.

There is no such thing as "double proccing" bloodletter.

This discussion has been done to death.

You will NEVER have to worry about missing a bloodletter proc if you weave it as first priority between every GCD.

This also means NO ability should ever be used on a GCD that isn't heavy shot, straight shot, windbite or venomous bite.

If you stick with this strategy, the opener that someone else posted, and stack buffs whenever possible, and remember to refresh dots just before buffs expire, you will be doing max dps with a bard.

"When to sing" is entirely situational. If you have at least one BLM in the party, sing requiem as the tank is starting to run to the boss, immediately quelling and go on with your rotation. Then when you have a free GCD (after your opening buffs), use bard's voice.

Alternatively bard's voice immediately if you can time the pull well enough for requiem.

Just a couple of thoughts

Foe Requiem is not a straight 10% damage increase. It decreases enemies elemental resistances by 10%.

DoT clipping is completely up to the player in my opinion. DoT's run on a global timer. Sometimes your damage from your DoT may stop when the buff icon is still on the 1-3sec mark and sometimes it ticks all the way down with the timer, it just depends. Check out Mr.Happy's video. It will help a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQGGT...aUt-HBBZctO9cg

I use the following macros

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


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


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


/ac "Wind Bite" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>


Regarding DoTs I refresh when the icon disappears from target debuff area. Song wise I use Foe Requiem during trash, the other 2 I use at half TP and 75% MP for casters.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thotor

I made a few test in regards to buffs stacking.
Using attack to make use of GCD when casting buff compared to cast all buff at once do not impact dps at all.

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This doesn't make any sense to me. You are saying that taking the time to pop all your CD's before firing a single shot (which wastes progressively more time for each) is no detriment to your dps? I have a hard time seeing the increased damage you give to the DoTs through waiting counteracting the loss of damage by not firing a single shot. If you have some numbers to put up to back up this claim, I would appreciate being able to see that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slirith

I use the following macros

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


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


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


/ac "Wind Bite" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>


Regarding DoTs I refresh when the icon disappears from target debuff area. Song wise I use Foe Requiem during trash, the other 2 I use at half TP and 75% MP for casters.

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see above. very much the same. use macros, they help

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CatholicFan

This doesn't make any sense to me. You are saying that taking the time to pop all your CD's before firing a single shot (which wastes progressively more time for each) is no detriment to your dps? I have a hard time seeing the increased damage you give to the DoTs through waiting counteracting the loss of damage by not firing a single shot. If you have some numbers to put up to back up this claim, I would appreciate being able to see that.

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Putting attacks between buffs means that you will loose dps on barrage. Because of animation time, you would loose like an extra 4 sec which means at least 3 auto attack won't be at full strength.
To be honest, I have not looked as to why exactly the dps is the same on both case. This a deduction made from actual test using a parser to determine which method was better (and they are equal)

I thought auto attacks come out no matter the animation or not? Similar to how you can cancel the animation of say bloodletter into Misery end but still get the damage on both? o.O

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NeonC

I thought auto attacks come out no matter the animation or not? Similar to how you can cancel the animation of say bloodletter into Misery end but still get the damage on both? o.O

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I was implying barrage buff which triple auto attack