Mediocre Bard Looking for Advice

So to start off I have been barding since FCoB came out in raid settings. I am not the best bard in the world nor really care to be classified as one. I pull Decent dps but since I am continuing on with bard come Heavensward I really want to learn how to pull the big numbers I hear/see bards pulling in combat.

I have cleared all current content as a bard and have been told I pull between 400-480 on t13. I'm assuming the large gaps has be dependant on my procs when others were parsing. I know those numbers are not bad by any means and im sure ppl have seen a lot worse.

Getting to the question at hand are there any major ways I can make my numbers higher that ppl can go off of?

When starting out I followed Krietor's Guide

This is my Current gear set up and has been for the last few months while in FCoB

The largest reason I am asking is I have seen parse numbers from other bards in that turn that don't drop below 485 on t13. Also I get in the coming expansion things will change with the class a little do to the addition of new skills and what not. Its just something thats been on my mind. :D

Any reason you aren't using a Crit/Det meld Yoichi Bow Zeta? If you're going to main bard I would think it would be worth getting.
Just curious, I'm pretty sure you'd get higher DET which does increase damage output.

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Originally Posted by Mahes

The largest reason I am asking is I have seen parse numbers from other bards in that turn that don't drop below 485 on t13. Also I get in the coming expansion things will change with the class a little do to the addition of new skills and what not. Its just something thats been on my mind. :D

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You have to keep in mind group composition and strategies too.

If there's room to cut time spent singing ballad/paeon, then you can probably increase DPS that way.
If the group can increase overall DPS, then the fight will end sooner, which will also increase your parse.

480 dps is very respectable dps in t13, contrary to whatever you've been told most bards cannot reach 480 on their best runs in t13 (prior to echo of course). On Gilgamesh, the top three t13 parses for bard on the DnT leaderboards are 483, 474, 463. On the petcore leaderboards the top three are 503, 466, and 456.

T13 dps is also not super good for comparisons because it depends on a lot of things other than just personal skill, how your phases push can affect how many seconds you waste with cds ready to use, people dieing during adds phase increases your damage because you get more uptime hitting them (total raid dps in p3 is fixed, the less dps the group does, usually because they die, the more dps you get to do), and the team comp, if you dont have a dragoon ninja you're probably not gonna do 480+ non echo numbers. The best no nin no drg parse I know of for t13 for myself is 471.

Floating around 450 is respectable for any bard (without echo of course). I pulled around 460 on my T13 clear while having to sing paeon and ballad.

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Originally Posted by AskaRay

Any reason you aren't using a Crit/Det meld Yoichi Bow Zeta? If you're going to main bard I would think it would be worth getting.
Just curious, I'm pretty sure you'd get higher DET which does increase damage output.

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The reason i dont use the Yoichi Bow atm is since bard is releatively new to me and originally i didnt think i was going to main in come Heavensward I didnt push for it however i am in the final phase of the zodiac process now so very soon i will have it.

Also thanks for everyone who responded. It makes me feel better about my numbers. ^.^

well damn I must be a pretty bad bard then highest I've done in T13 is 403 :O. I have eveything I need accept for the Zeta weapon. I currently had an ilvl 125 weapon.

Would have to see what you're doing to make suggestions.

My best t13 on BRD pre-echo was 514 w/ a MNK + DRG config. This would be with about 30s of Paeon in p2 and likely all Foe otherwise. How much aoe other party members do, p2 strats for who is on the adds, whether healers need Ballad, whether you push or hold DPS at the end of p2, etc... all can make big differences. along with RNG. I don't particularly feel that I played better on this one pull compared to others. Just happened to end up with that by number by the end of the fight.