Doing DPS with the Bard

Ok, my flame suite is on,,

I've been a Bard since the beginning ,and now all of a sudden with doing the raids/duty's and such, "its the brd, not enough dps" or "lets kick the brd, she's afk lets kick her" now granted I'm on the PS4 and can't find my keyboard in time to ask, what am I doing wrong etc, and I've been left sitting in dungeons and instances waiting for a new group to join...

I've asked some in towns as in what am I doing wrong, and they say nothing, just keep doing what your doing. I've searched here and found some "rotations" that seem to be what the best in class are doing, and I'm limited.

so the question/probe is , what should I have/class/job/job share and the skills, and if there is any PS4 people out there, that can advise the GUI/Controller setup to run threw a rotation 17 skills, that would be great.

Not sure how the layout is on PS4, but on pS3 I can easily have all of my skills in my hotbar (including cross-class). The only thing I can't have are the potions (I'm constantly on food, however)


I've heard that before too, though. It's true that we aren't as efficient as other jobs in terms of damages, but we are not weak either. The thing is, our dps drops extremely low when we have to sing during the fight (be it for the malus of manasong / or the inactivity we suffer for casting Requiem). Of course, try to avoid unecessary moves ^^ (sounds silly tip, but I've seen that so many times before)

So when you have a mage : Requiem before the pull. That will save you some precious seconds and give the mage the most of it. Also, use battle voice as early as the mage start striking. Then I usually use my flame arrow > Raging strikes > hawk's eye > Dots > Inner release > B4B > Venimous bite > Empyreal arrow> Heavy/straight shot (abuse bloodletter whenever it's up) > Ironjaw (preferably before the Dots expire, to avoid any discontinuity). Then back to the rotation.

We have a lot more possibility as bards than any other dps. Our dps is based on procs, so keep an eye on them always. One missed proc is a drastic loss in dps. I use Blunt arrow regularly to try to prevent a cast. It has a low potency but it's a good filler anywhere in your rotation.

I notice by a quick look at your lodestone profile, you are still a fresh bard 60. Our dps at this level is nothing comparable to any other dps. At i170/180 already, you'll be able to pull great numbers. At i195+, you will love it (lots of crit gear)

If you stick to that rotation roughly, you should already be able to do quite a lot of damages.

One common mistake I see daily in dungeons : Bards spamming wide volley. That was optimal in 2.x but in 3.0 quick knock does the same thing with 20 PT less and same potency (and saving PT means more aoe)

About songs DURING a fight : They should be kept to the minimum. Try to recast Requiem when there is a little downtime (boss disapperead/nobody can attack). Peon should be used very carefully. Most melees at this level use invigorate. If it's up, they will use it after they died. A ninja can also "Goad" a player for TP. And so can an astro. Those 3 skills for TP management are instant-cast. Cast Peon only if neither of those was cast. (you don't wanna waste many seconds here again if it can be avoided).
As a healer (whm), I usually ask the bard NOT to cast manasong for me unless I drop very low (it starts to get critical around 1300/1500 mp). Before that, we don't need it. (if the healer is new and still learning mp management, they might need it a bit sooner). Obviously if a healer dies, you can start singing right away + battle voice.

Oh, and it shouldn't be worth mentionning but... wanderer's minuet is your friend. Even at level 60, some bards don't use it, and it's a shame.

On my controller I fit all my skills on one main bar, one secondary bar wtih AOE and songs, and the extended hobar for eight extra skills. It's very easy for me and switching to my AOE/song bar takes...no thought.
If your controller setup isn't working then change it, or just practice using it.

What rotation do you use? I've honestly never been kicked from a dungeon or raid just because I was a bard. Everything cgbspender said is good advice so I would start there if you are having some trouble.

And yes absolutely use WM and don't use Wide Volley. Poor, poor awesome looking useless skill.

Thanks, will give this a shot, I have a few others to try. I just hope I can get better gear and work on it from there. I don't like being left alone in a dungeon lol (or being accused of low dps) thanks again for the input, will have to find some target dummys and work on a config that works.

I'd put flame arrow in the middle of your buffs since it is quite high potency - 10 ticks of 35 each is 350. Buffing that is definitely worth it.

Here's what I use:
http://ffxivrotations.com/1c7

But you can probably get more out of it by checking on as the basic guideline:
http://angered.guildwork.com/forum/t...ide-by-krietor

If we're just posting rotations, generally this is how a pull looks for me (usually pulls 1400 dps at 210 at 2 min):

Cast foe requiem (Helps healer dps as well as caster dps a ton)- warden's paen on warrior a few times- (on or right before pull):
battle voice-quelling strikes-hawk's eye-blood for blood-raging strikes-bloodletter-straight shot-internal release/potion (potion prioritized)-windbite-flaming arrow/internal release-venemous bite-(if potion heavy shot this gcd) barrage-empyreal arrow-heavy shot-sidewinder-iron jaws (if potion)/heavy shot- iron jaws/heavy shot


I do play on controller and have every ability needed (food and pots included) on my bars. I do not have shadowbind on my bar usually but if I do need it, I'll swap wide volley out since it's kinda booty anyway. To note, there's a lot of variation that can be done here, but make sure high hitting abilities are getting all of the buffs' effects. Also make sure to be reusing buffs as they come off cooldown.

"Oh, and it shouldn't be worth mentioning but... wanderer's minuet is your friend. Even at level 60, some bards don't use it, and it's a shame."

I hate WM like the plague, it ruins the fun of the BRD class entirely. I've also internally argued about it's viability in many places where AOE keeps you dancing. The only time I use it personally is when I know I can/will be standing in one spot without moving. I'd love to start up a parser and really analyze the numbers in a movement-heavy trial like Ultima. I bet you lose as much as you gain.

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Originally Posted by szalkerous

"Oh, and it shouldn't be worth mentioning but... wanderer's minuet is your friend. Even at level 60, some bards don't use it, and it's a shame."

I hate WM like the plague, it ruins the fun of the BRD class entirely. I've also internally argued about it's viability in many places where AOE keeps you dancing. The only time I use it personally is when I know I can/will be standing in one spot without moving. I'd love to start up a parser and really analyze the numbers in a movement-heavy trial like Ultima. I bet you lose as much as you gain.

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Remember, Ultima was a fight made in 2.0m so yeah there's tons of dodging built into the fight...
But remember you can switch it on and off; I did it frequently in that first battle in the Arboretum until I learned the boss patterns (during that big bad breath move). Now that I know what to do I don't need to anymore. Same for the final battle in Neverreap.

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Originally Posted by szalkerous

I hate WM like the plague, it ruins the fun of the BRD class entirely. I've also internally argued about it's viability in many places where AOE keeps you dancing. The only time I use it personally is when I know I can/will be standing in one spot without moving.

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I would consider understanding how and when to move a prerequisite to doing valid dps as a bard. It's not a very difficult skill to implement and cancelling casts is not very often something you need to even do. Even going back to bard at 50, I know exactly how to do the optimal dps and I appreciate that playstyle a lot. Bard at 50 however is not how bard at 60 can and should be played for extended periods of time. It's valid for specific mechanics like dragoon dives in THex or ferrofluid in A3 (both), but you are unable to do optimal dps as a bard if you never use minuet at level 56 onward.

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Originally Posted by jssanderson747

I would consider understanding how and when to move a prerequisite to doing valid dps as a bard. It's not a very difficult skill to implement and cancelling casts is not very often something you need to even do. Even going back to bard at 50, I know exactly how to do the optimal dps and I appreciate that playstyle a lot. Bard at 50 however is not how bard at 60 can and should be played for extended periods of time. It's valid for specific mechanics like dragoon dives in THex or ferrofluid in A3 (both), but you are unable to do optimal dps as a bard if you never use minuet at level 56 onward.

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I've been told (since I made a thread for pondering my thought and got some decent feedback) that the WM isn't so much useful in itself, but the real bonus comes from the two additional skills you are allowed while it's active.

Nevertheless, enjoying the class you play is important. That's the reason I bailed on the Rogue class I loved so much, because I hated the way the Ninja job completely ruined it. WM has definitely made me ponder moving over to the Dragoon that doesn't suffer this handicap nonsense, but I've found that unless you're running progression content, WM isn't a necessity. In fact, I've noticed in most of the faceroll roulettes that I've out-DPSed other Bards who are using WM in a poor rotation.

So my current plan is to continue to enjoy the Bard's fast paced movement without WM (unless stance dancing AoE spam or no-movement boss situations) in most parts of the game and concentrate on maximizing DPS in situations that demand it, which is most of the 190+ content at this point. Since my Bard is my main, I'll have to really settle in with that for now, but my Dragoon isn't far behind and it's a potential swap if this becomes more of a job than a game.

(sorry to derail OP's topic!)