Confused on BRD Songs

So returning to my roots of ARR when I played a BRD, I tend to enjoy bow classes the most but it seems that HW changed things, then again in SB and so completely lost on their songs and how they're supposed to be kept up if possible.

Any advice welcome since i'm out of my depth on this job.

Alternate between Mage's ballad, Wanderer's Minuet, and Army's Paeon. I generally use Foe Requiem when there are caster's in the group as the boss is pulled and any other time I am at full mana. But the first 3 significantly boost your dps.

Foe's buffs everyone's damage now. Not just Caster's.

Use Wanderer's for the full duration first with Raging Strikes and all your burst damage, then Mage's for the full duration , and finally Army's but cut Army short when Wanderer's is off CD again @ around 10 seconds on Paeon.

At level 70, your opener should look something like this: http://ffxivrotations.com/1h0c


- When your own MP reaches 0 use refresh.

- When Wanderer's Minuet has 1-2 seconds left on it use Mage's Ballad.

- Let Mage's Ballad fall completely off before using Army's Peon since you may get a Blood Letter proc on the last second of the song's duration.

- You don't need to stay in Army's Peon for the full duration of the song. When Raging Strikes comes off of cool down, use something like this: http://ffxivrotations.com/1h0b Army's should have roughly 10-15 seconds left on it's duration when you prematurely end it. You want to use Straight Shot, Foes, and Iron Jaws all under Army's because the skill speed from the song will allow those GCDs to return faster, and more time you can fish for Pitch Perfect procs while in Minuet.

- You will not have full MP for every Army's Peon. Only the first two if you used refresh correctly. Use Foes only when you can pair it with Raging Strikes. Never use Refresh unless your own MP is at zero or a healer requests it. It's a bigger dps gain to get more Foes paired with Raging Strikes than to extend a single Foes further.

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Originally Posted by Vivi_Bushido

- When your own MP reaches 0 use refresh.

- Never use Refresh unless your own MP is at zero or a healer requests it. It's a bigger dps gain to get more Foes paired with Raging Strikes than to extend a single Foes further.

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Bit of a disagreement there, since I do believe that BRD is a supporting kind of class first and a DPS second - in solo content or dungeon runs, using Refresh and Foes whenever it suits yourself is fine enough, but you should definitely not do so in prog. It's a better idea to watch out primarily for the healers' mana bars, in my opinion at least.

I think RLofOBFL's response nails down the basics, but if you want to do some more research, you could check out this bard guide: https://www.mooglemedia.com/brd-guide/ or, alternatively this one: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...RIbKNNJk4/edit (it is pretty in-depth and has some maths).

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Originally Posted by Staufer

Bit of a disagreement there, since I do believe that BRD is a supporting kind of class first and a DPS second - in solo content or dungeon runs, using Refresh and Foes whenever it suits yourself is fine enough, but you should definitely not do so in prog. It's a better idea to watch out primarily for the healers' mana bars, in my opinion at least.

I think RLofOBFL's response nails down the basics, but if you want to do some more research, you could check out this bard guide: https://www.mooglemedia.com/brd-guide/ or, alternatively this one: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...RIbKNNJk4/edit (it is pretty in-depth and has some maths).

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I have read that guide and have to say that the use of Refresh is subjective. Prog and farm are two different situations. My use of refresh is purely for dps optimization. In my defense, using refresh this way is still doing the "support" purpose of the job. Instead of saving refresh for healers that may or may not need it, you're gaining more Foes per fight. Raging Strikes scyncs well with other buffs in the game, so saving foes for that is great for the whole team. That's raid wide dps increase, and using refresh to get more Foes in a fight will make things die faster. So you're still using it as a support, but you're repurposing it. If a caster gives you mana shift inbetween refreshes, you can have Foes up every single time you use Raging Strikes. These're tricks that those guides don't teach you. Refresh doesn't have to be strictly saved for Healers. You're still a dps job.

Good feedback but I was more of wanting to know how to get songs to "stack" with repertoire, not sure if it was meant to be all the time with certain skills at 70 or if it's a RNG based thing. Wasn't planning on raiding with BRD, or doing much in the way of anything other than for a change of pace every so often.

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Originally Posted by Shouko

how to get songs to "stack" with repertoire

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The songs on their own just give party members a slight crit buff.

For you to get the special effects of the song, you have to have DoTs ticking on one or more mobs. The more DoTs you have ticking, the more opportunities you have for one of those ticks to crit. Every time a DoT crits, you get a Repertoire stack (or for Ballad, your Bloodletter/RainOfDeath finishes cooling down immediately).

This is why Mage's Ballad is so good on trash. If you DoT everything, you get a free Rain of Death pretty much every three seconds for the duration of the encounter. It's also why you should not kill the mobs with lower health--you want your DoTs to tick longer so you get more Rains.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

The songs on their own just give party members a slight crit buff.

For you to get the special effects of the song, you have to have DoTs ticking on one or more mobs. The more DoTs you have ticking, the more opportunities you have for one of those ticks to crit. Every time a DoT crits, you get a Repertoire stack (or for Ballad, your Bloodletter/RainOfDeath finishes cooling down immediately).

This is why Mage's Ballad is so good on trash. If you DoT everything, you get a free Rain of Death pretty much every three seconds for the duration of the encounter. It's also why you should not kill the mobs with lower health--you want your DoTs to tick longer so you get more Rains.

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Thanks, that helps quite a bit.