A near-endgame Bard's request for advice

Okay guys, I'm no stranger to mix/max topics when it comes to endgaming raid and progression content in the MMO world, but I'm just starting to really dig in when it comes to my Bard in FFXIV (currently at just under ilvl200).

For the most part, I think my rotation is fairly clean but I am really choking on the Wanderer's Minuet factoids.

First off, I'll say that like most people I hate the concept of cast times on a nimble class like the Bard. It's asinine. I hate it. Many people hate it. It's not as bad as what the Ninja job did to the amazing Rogue class, but still really stupid from a fun/enjoyable perspective. Okay, cool, got that out of the way.

So I'm open minded to using WM as long as I can prove that it's worth my time and annoyance. Like many other games, you can kinda snoop into the other bards you run with to get a sense of what they're doing. The problem I'm having is that I see most bards running Alex normal keep it active permanently, which in some situations is fine if you can park yourself in one spot for, say, 80% or more of the time there. But if you're constantly dancing the AOE, I'm really having a tough time seeing how the 30% buff beats out the auto-attack+DPS while moving.

Most comments on here lately are "If you don't have WM up all the time you suck, go home." which seems a bit odd. Honestly I haven't hooked up my parser to really get some field results one way or the other, and I know I need to. But am I wrong in thinking that WM is a situational buff? It works awesome for AoE DPS, and if I can position myself in a static location, I can almost feel that BLM cast snoozefes--I mean, I can see it's got an advantage.

So, not wanting to get into the later Savage floors and eff it all up for my teammates, I'm trying to get a real honest no-BS explanation of when WM is best to use, and what the actual net DPS benefit is really going to be (so I can use that as a guide for my own parsing).

If anyone has a link to someone that shows their math, that would be ideal.

One last item I want to ask, and this is embarassingly noobish to ask... but does Foes do anything for the BRD skills? They're not considered magical damage, right? This is mostly helping push the BLM/SMN DPS I assume?

Thanks in advance. Hope I get some really useful info. :cool:

One of the main benefits of running WM is the moves it allows you to use. Empyrial arrow is a staple for good dpsbards also iron jaws, one move lower tp cost refrefreshing both dots. Even if you have to move mid cast a few times during a fight it's going to be a dps boost. Plus there's lots of stutter stepping allowed under WM to avoid most AOEs w/o even missing a beat. You can start moving at around 80% cast time and not be interrupted.

In general, near fulltime use of WM is the best approach while moving and staying put like a BLM, and stutter stepping when appropriate. The 30% buff compared to loss of autoattacks is close to a wash. But Empyreal Arrow and Iron Jaws requiring WM are the reason you don't leave WM very often. Empy Arrow has a sub 15 sec CD, and Iron Jaws you are using every 18sec to refresh your dots, more often if you are multidotting. Also consider the 30% buff on all of OGCDs: Sidewinder, Repelling Blunt Arrow.

Considering once you turn WHM on, you can' actually leave it for 15 sec, aggressive stance dancing doesn't really work.

You have to practice stutter-stepping with the cast. If it were a full GCD cast, I'd be so quick to complain you'd have no idea. But since we get an extra second between the end of the cast and the end of the GCD, you can do a lot in it if you practice.

Also Feint: nigh useless on DRG but for BRD/MCH it's a godsend. It's an instant attack, even under WM. My rule that I usually use if I'm going to be only moving for maybe 2 GCDs, and I have no procs of SS or something, I'll use Feint instead and stay in WM. Anything more and I'll pop out of WM for a bit until the big AOEs or movement etc come to a halt. A good example is A1, while pulling the adds to the lazers, unless everyone is focusing that add and it dies in under a second, you can stutter step over to the lazer while dragging it and (usually) have no issues.

Unfortunately it's not just a situational buff, you have to use it most of the time. Truth be told, moving is...well, not "overrated" but you don't honestly need to move most of the time in a battle. Moving simply for the sake of moving is sloppy, unless you want to lock on target constantly to make sure every single one of those auto-attack hits.

Also, Iron Jaws and Empyreal Arrow are amazing. Honestly it's almost worth it for IJ alone. Before the buff (when WM was just 20%) it was a DPS loss but now, at 30%, it's a definite gain. There are a few examples of stance dancing in/out of WM, I think in that huuuge thread, but the gain you get from that is so marginal it's not worth it in my opinion. Personally I like the newer rotation with WM, everytime I get synched on my bard I find myself getting a bit bored with the old rotation...haha. I have to actually pay attention now to a "rotation" in order to pump out numbers, have to catch that EA proc, or will it be better to IJ early, etc.

So to answer your question: WM is best to use always.

Also yeah Foe's does nothing for us :( it buffs:
All casters
All healer DPS
Ninja Raiton (maybe another ninjutsu, not sure)
and I think that's it

I believe all NIN jutsus other than the first one.

As for moving with WM - knowing and understanding the fight is how you need to be working now. You still have a lot more room to move than casters so 100% not needed but you'll have to understand fights better.
As AskaRay mentioned you'll need to learn stutterstepping and frankly with ~600 skillspeed your empy arrow recast is ~14s or so so going out of WM is not an option at all.