Looking for an up-to-date guide in How To Bard

Hi everyone,

I've had the game for a few years, but only just really got into it in the last few weeks, and am finding my internet search skills to be rather subpar in locating an up-to-date bard guide.

I'm level 48, and although I've been managing fine with what the game gives me in armour drops, etc., I'm beginning to wonder about what sort of gear (stats) to aim for (no pun), plus what are the current favoured rotations for best DPS, etc. Also, what gear is advisable whilst attempting to attain the "endgame" stuff (aka what won't get me laughed out of town)?

Has anyone got a current bard guide they swear by, or just general tips?

Thanks for any help in advance. I really appreciate it! :)

As so many of BRD's skills/procs are dependent on crits, Critical Hit is probably your secondary stat of choice.

At your level, if you're keeping up with your job quests, you'll be getting some pretty ok left-side gear at 45/50. MSQ will also provide plenty of appropriate gear as you wrap up level 50 quests leading to Heavensward content. If you'd like, you can save up tomestones of Poetics to spend in Mor Dhona for ilvl 120 Ironworks gear (which you can also upgrade to ilvl 130 Augmented Ironworks in North Shroud), which will be the best available gear at 50, and serviceable until level 55 at minimum (some players will push all the way to 60 with this gear, when they can buy the next set of Poetics gear, the best available for level 60).

Far as tips go, you lose nothing by having songs playing, and you'll need to keep those DoT skills up to get the most out of them.

Don't be too worried about a rotation until you're 70. You'll be gaining too many new things. Like Hasrat said keep up your dots and your songs. Now the only thing I don't know is if bard songs stack or not, but I'm guessing if it's not foes then like anything else that isn't a regen two bards cant be playing songs at the same time. Also don't forget to aoe stuff when they're in 3+ packs. Your tank and healer will love you.

Ill expand a little bit here. So for the "main" stats, only 2 of them affect your job. Vitality gives you hit points, dexterity gives you damage. Strength mind and intelligence are completely wasted, so avoid them(as you level you will increasingly find yourself unable to equip the wrong jobs gear, so this will be less of an issue). Hasrat is correct that your secondary of choice is crit, and correct about why(when you have abilities triggered by critting youd like to do so early and often). As someone currently going through the storyline(rather then someone leveling up a second or third class who already has the story finished) you will find yourself getting a ton of gear as you move forward. Because of this you shouldnt have to worry a ton about gear until you get to 70(the current cap). If you do find yourself having issues, there will be slight upgrades available. The story quests will get you to roughly i110 at level 50(with 130 available via poetics as Hasrat pointed out), the HW leveling dungeons will have gear up to i148 if youre feeling behind and want to do a couple runs for upgrades, then the level 60 story will give you another few sets of upgrades(with another set being available for poetics too). The pattern continues til you get to the cap, at which point you start getting most of your gear from tomes(creation and mendacity are the current ones) and raids. Many of these ranges also have decent crafted gear available too(rarely the best, but certainly servicable).

As for combat tips, ill leave those to the experts. I only leveled far enough to get quelling strikes back in the day. But in general: keep dots going, use AoEs on mob packs, and learn what your buffs do and when to use them. Bard has one of the best support and buffing skill sets in the game, so learn to let it shine.

One really big thing is that once you reach 52 and acquire your final battle song, you can have 100% singing uptime. I once met a Lv70 DF bard who refused to sing on trash because "I'm not blowing all my cooldowns on trash". Don't be that guy.

You have three songs that each have 30s duration and 80s cooldown. This means you can sing a cycle of 30s + 30s + 20s, providing the party with the deliciosity of a perpetual crit bonus. In order to make the most of your songs, you will need DoTs ticking, so DoT everything, and attack things that have more health. Don't kill low health mobs -- you want your DoTs ticking on them so your songs' special effects can activate more often.

Here is a good up-to-date and beginner friendly BRD guide: https://www.mooglemedia.com/brd-guide/

Thanks, everyone! This is super useful stuff to be going on with. :D

Have a great weekend!

Quest mobs: Open with Raging Strikes then we go into Straight Shot, Windbite, Mage's Ballad, Venomous Bite, Bloodletter, then Heavy Shots

Dungeons; AOE Pack: Target the healthiest or most neglected mob in the pack and Raging Strikes, Straight Shot, Windbite, Mage's Ballad, Venomous Bite, Rain of Death, then Quick Nocks using Rain of Death procs when they materialize.

Dungeon Boss, Class Quest Boss, and Trial boss: A few seconds before the pull use Foe Requiem, Refresh, now Raging Strikes, Straight Shot, Windbite, Mage's Ballad, Venomous Bite, Bloodletter, Heavy Shot. Then you will refresh Windbite and Venomous Bite as they expire while using Bloodletter as it procs. When Mages Ballad expires then use Army's Paeon

Basically, you have a priority on long living mobs which will go
1 Maintain Straight Shot
2 Maintain Windbite and Venomous Bite
3. Maintain Mage's Ballad then Army's Paeon when they are off cooldown.

Later you get more abilities to weave, the opener changes, and you have three songs so you can always have one playing but those are my recommendations for level 48. The Job gauge will track song and Straight Shot so you will also have to watch enemy castbar for the durations of the dots. Admittedly I still do this pretty poorly. :)