Looking for a Bard rotation

Hello there,

I recently hit 50 with my bard and I am not to sure on what rotation i should be using. I was wondering if there was a rotation I would use pre coil and one that i would use during coil. Also I am on a ps3 and I would like to see how people have they loadout set up if possible.

SH > BL > WB > VB > HS
in between, SH when buff wear off or crit kick in & BL when CD is off

i use this priority

For global cooldown:

keep straight shot buff
use straight shot on proc
keep Venomouns bite dot
keep Wind Bite dota
use heavy shot as filler

While on cd use on this priority:

Bloodleter
Misery's end
Blunt shot(when not needed to interrupt)
Repelling shot
Buffs

Quelling Strikes > IR > B4B > SS > BL > WB > Blunt Arrow (when on something that doesn't need interrupts) > VB > Repelling Shot > Rain of Death (only on pack mobs and only once per 20 seconds)
After this you just keep hitting HS's until either BL procs, SS procs, Blunt Arrow is off CD, Repelling shot is off CD, or your dots are down.
Also remember you cannot overwrite DoTs that are applied with B4B on without it on, you'll have you wait for them to tick off and of course try to use your buffs inbetween the CGD so you don't use too much DPS in the animations, which ones you use first is up to you but I normally use Hawk Eye, Raging and Barrage together.

Hum, I wonder where the thread went. There was a lot of indepth information. Anyway the rotations provided here are missing a few things

For GCD, your priority list is

1. Straight Shot (no SS buff)
2. Windbite (no WB)
3. Venomous Bite (no VB)
4. Straight Shot (Straighter Shot buff)
5. Straight Shot (falling off in <1 second)
6. Windbite (WB falling off in <1 seconds, no overwrite problems)
7. Venomous Bite (VB falling off in <1 seconds, no overwrite problems).
8. Heavy Shot

For OGCD, your priority is

1. Misery's End (execute)
2. Bloodletter
3. [Cooldowns]
4. Flaming Arrow (if boss will not move)
5. Blunt Arrow (if no need to interrupt)
6. Repelling Shot (if you can move into melee range with no problems)

For cooldowns, I prefer

HE > RS > BfB > IR > Barrage

This stacks all buffs maximally (HE loses a few seconds, but it is our least useful buff).

Note you NEVER want to spam buffs. Use them in oGCDs ONLY, and remember bloodletter has precedence.

If you are opening (only time all buffs up at the same time), then reapply DoTs regardless of how much time is left on them, after you apply IR.

If a buff comes off CD, do NOT use it unless you can also apply DoTs (without clipping) before it expires (this is typically only a thing for IR, wait until timers are ~10-12 seconds before applying IR).

I prefer to save BFB for HE + Barrage, but its not strictly necessary.

Shouldn't Bloodletter have priority, if you're in the animation for Misery's End and BL comes off CD you've lost a little DPS, Misery's end isn't going anywhere.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mugsan

Shouldn't Bloodletter have priority, if you're in the animation for Misery's End and BL comes off CD you've lost a little DPS, Misery's end isn't going anywhere.

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I've thought about it a bit, and my answer usually tends to be "it doesn't matter".

I was going to provide some math, but this is a hard thing to value each "proc" and give it a potency number.

I will just say that if you BL first, it isn't a "free" thing, because you are pushing a ME back a GCD. Now, will this cause you to miss a potential ME? ... maybe.

It is hard to say. It is not that frequent of an occurence, and it does not impact your dps significantly one way or the other. So, my answer is, "i don't know".

My mind set pretty much tells me "BL can potentially have a CD of 0 Second so always get this off first, Misery's End has a CD of 12 seconds no matter what so use this when BL is on CD"

Hi, I thought to myself, "hey, wait a minute, isn't this the reason I wrote a simulation? =D".

And so it was so.

And here are the numbers:

I did 50000 trials of 12 minutes long each, with execute available the whole time, full use of cooldowns (for IR and such).

BL first:

BRD (no DE) avg potency: 159750.48092 PPS: 221.87566794444444

ME first:

BRD (no DE) avg potency: 159975.83778 PPS: 222.18866358333335

It seems that ME is slightly better, on the order of ~0.145%, over a 12 minute execute phase.

Given that most execute phases are much shorter than that, I think we can safely conclude that it "doesn't matter", but if you are looking for the absolute BEST dps, then I think misery's end should be given priority.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pandabearcat

I was going to provide some math, but this is a hard thing to value each "proc" and give it a potency number.

---

The ME cooldown framework fits around 5 GCDs:

ME - GCD - off - GCD - off - GCD - off - GCD - off - GCD - ME

Delaying ME by 1 oGCD essentially loses 20% of the ME cooldown in a generic situation, a straight 190*.2 = 38p loss.

In this "ME first" framework:

GCD - ME - GCD - BL - GCD - off - GCD - off - GCD

ROB has ~24% chance to proc on a generic DOT tick. In this example, we assume the BL is caused by ROB (to avoid hardwait BL scenarios for the moment).

The alternative scenario is:

GCD - BL - GCD - ME - GCD - off

In order for this to be a valid alternative scenario (the player has the CHOICE of using BL earlier), then ROB must have proc'd at t=0.0~2.5. If ROB proc'd prior, then BL would have been used before the first GCD listed.

DOTs tick every 3.0s. If the ROB procs occur in this scenario from 0.0~2.5, then the following proc event may occur at 3.0~5.5. Proc events from t=2.5~5.0 are valid for being considered as "gained" by accelerating the BL. The combination of these two ranges yields t=3.0~5.0 where a tick may be gained between those GCDs.

This timeframe contains 67% of the space of a DOT tick. This scenario occurs 67% of the time when there is an ROB proc. When this scenario does occur, a second ROB must proc (24%) in order to "gain" the BL. The theoretical gain by accelerating the BL is 67% * 150 * 24% = 24p.

This does not account for the cascading delays caused by the timeframe restrictions imposed by the scenario. E.g. narrowing the scenario to times where accelerating the BL may "gain" a BL early on could easily require that a BL opportunity later on is "lost". However, this is dependent on ROB proc'ing later as well, so seems like it would be a lower-ish chance. This would reduce the potency estimate slightly.

The use of Internal Release slightly improves the estimated benefit of using BL early.

A hardwait BL, in retrospect, does not impact the scenario. Hardwait BLs can only be executed during the oGCD phases, resulting in the same scenario 1 GCD later. There may be some fringe impact, but it would be minor one way or another.

TLDR: Use ME first because it's more reliable, although it doesn't *really* matter too much.

Edit:

I was going to say that a simulation helps answer this sort of question that involves chance and statistics. At least the analysis above agrees with the sim ... *phew*. >.>

Movment : WASD

DPS: spam nr 1 macro

GCD's: Spam macro nr 2

A often used tactic is also: roll face over keyboard (make sure hit nr 1 and nr 2)


Best bard in game:
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...n/faceroll.gif

Do ppl really move with keyboard? Other than strafing