Optimising DPS for BRD

So BRD has become my main and I really love it after tanking and healing for most of the game its nice to shoot things and really not care about much else but shooting things til they die lol..

But something I am struggling with is optimal rotation and ironing out the kinks.. I know that watching the hate chart isnt the best measure of how much DPS you are doing because that has multiple factors including rate of attack etc but i see it as a good judge.. and i havent used parsers for a long time so don't have that to check up on..

But having said the above, I often find myself in the middle of the DPS in the hate chart.. so in a party of 8 i will often be 4 or 5, with or without Quelling. So I am wondering if someone has any BRD tips

I tried to watch Mr.Happys video to see if I was missing anything and I think I am in line with what he is doing.. though I could not sit through him just reading out ability names for 25mins.

and people who parse say I clock between 200 and 350 DPS depending on echo buff at ilv101

any tips appreciated

Bard has the lowest weapon damage out of all of the jobs. Unless all the dps in your party is bad or you have a full party of bards, you probably won't be topping any dps charts.

As you stated using the aggro bar isnt really the best way to determine how much dps you are doing. At i110 with nexus im doing about 340-350 dpish on turn 8, so if you can constantly hit around 300+ in the SCoB (excluding t7 if u kite) than imo you should be fine. Like Isomy stated, no matter how you look at it, our numbers aren't really big lol. If in doubt just do the usual "DPS Priority" check.

Buffs up? go to dots. Dots up? go to dps move. If neither are up? reapply. In bards case, always have straight shot crit buff up. But dont just spam straight shot for its buff. I like to reapply straight shot when it has about 1-3 seconds left unless it got a free crit proc from heavy shot. Keep up windbite and venom bite. again dont constantly reapply them. Wait till they are near the end of their timer. I usually weave in bloodletter with both dots because each dot least about 18 seconds and Bloodletter is a 15second recast timer. by the time bloodletter is up, you dots should be near the end of their duration. But if you get bloodletter free proc than just use bloodletter and reapply dots whenever there at 1-3 seconds left of duration. Use flaming arrow when available. People ignore blunt arrow and Repelling shot as OGCD but you should use these 2 skills as part of your rotation. But be careful with Blunt Arrow if the fight requires a silence rotation. Even if it just a little, little is better than none.

The rest is just how you use your buff skills like Blood For Blood, Raging Strikes, Internal Release and Hawkeye.

The trick is getting a feel for the best times to use your abilities. Personally I typically go around your max dps at 100 ilvl, depending on the fight, near 400 with echo in turns..opener around 500~

maintaining proper buff/debuff uptime is going to be your number one focus, and I see many bards that do not do this properly. Some just spam Straight shot, some forget about it, and letting your poisons fall is seriously crushing to your damage. Not watching for when Bloodletter procs can be seriously infringing on it as well.

One trick I learned (if your ping is good) is queueing two OffGCD abilities in between your GCDs, especially on your opener. The only delay I've ever noticed in the GCD is occasionally after Hawk's Eye, but that's pretty random. Too bad you're not on Lamia or I could show you personally; I've coached many of my friends on the intricacies that can help you out. Another protip is learning when bosses will disappear, fly off, go underwater, you get stuck in goo, etc...and put a fresh debuff on 'em! keep doing damage while you dodge randomness.

Some of the recent bard discussions:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ove-mine%21%29

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...chieve-450-dps

200 DPS @ IL100 in SCoB is way too low, maybe the above 2 threads would help.

Bard is just that odd job without a traditional rotation like the other jobs. Its pretty much as Exia stated, Buffs up? > DoTs up? > Heavy Shot, always pop off Bloodletter when its up so its always on cd (similar with Internal Release.) Main idea of any job is to keep buffs and dots up, and to do straight dmg whenever possible, in almost every coil group I've been in I tend to take the top 2 dps slots in a parse, but I'm also usually the only one min/maxing my gear and trying to push it to do more. I'm not i110, I'm i106 but I am also the only one in my current coil group who has a Nexus aside from our PLD (half of them only have i100 or i110 weapon), but the group can't even clear t7 so I don't see them sticking around much longer after patch. I tend to put t7 and t8 after their last run of the week as it is, so I may end up finding a new group if it continues to be a slow group.

Straight Shot ( should always be up)
Venomous Bite
Flaming Arrow (While Waiting on GCD - if you cant apply it fast enough. ignore it)
Windbite
Bloodletter (Apply whenever UP, if you have strong delay, ignore it till you end this rotation)
Heavy Shot
Blood for Blood
Heavy Shot Or Straighter Shot (if up)
Hawk's Eye
Heavy Shot Or Straighter Shot (if up)
Raging Strikes
Heavy Shot Or Straighter Shot (if up)
Internal Release
Venomous Bite *Fully Buffed
Barrage *Fully Buffed. LOOK AT THOSE NUMBERS!!!!!
Windbite*Fully Buffed
----End Of Rotation----
Spam Heavy Shot Or Straighter Shot (if up)/ All Other OGCD inbetween
Wait for ALL BUFFs to reset Then redo (Notice Internal Release Can be used once more if applied as soon as timer resets. by the timer it resets again other abilities will be ready)

Pretty much what everyone above has said....with the exception that if youre a lazy, slow, socially unproductive brd like me, macros are your best friend. I use these for Frontline/ Wolves Den but have kinda started using them too in PvE. Better setups out there but if it helps at all..:

Heavy Shot macro-
Line 1> macroicon heavyshot
2>Misery's End
3>Haymaker
4>Bloodletter
5> Internal Release
6>Heavy Shot
7>Blunt Arrow
8>Repelling Shot

Straightshot and Bloodletter macros pretty much have the same setups. Using these, I never have to worry about Misery, Countering, or ESPECIALLY Bloodletter procs the very second they pop since list will prioritize on w/es up in listed order. The other was...

Burst!
Line 1> macroicon- Raging Strokes
2> Raging Strikes
3> Hawk Eye
4> Blood 4 Blood
5>Barrage

Sadly, in a good amount of PvE content..you'll actually lose Dps if gauging by Raging Strikes CD timer (like I said..i r lazy >_>) but (and make sure there are no /wait's in between, just mash 4 times) it goes off quick ;o

Keep Straight Shot up 100% of the time, during your opener pop two buffs before using a GCD and repeat until you run out of buffs.

My personal opener:
Quelling + Raging
Straight shot
Hawk Eye+Blood for Blood
Windbite
Internal Release + Barrage.
Venombite
Flame Arrow

Your dots are affected by buffs as well so you want those on before you apply the dot, after that just spam weave heavy shot and bloodletter. Another good tip is after windbite and venombite you can do 5 or more gcd's before having to refresh (depending on skill speed)