Need advice from fellow Bards

Hi, I've been playing a bard from the first day of FFXIV. I love playing a range class. Ok, enough of the crap and get to the main point.
I am slowly progressing through coil now, and is currently at T4. I'm wondering if I'm doing anything wrong because I do not want to bring the whole group down just because i sucked.

Here's my macro for all the skills
/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>

/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Straight Shot" <t>

/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Venomous Bite" <t>

/ac "Haymaker" <t>
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Wind Bite" <t>

/ac "Hawk's Eye" <me>
/ac "Raging Strikes" <me>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Barrage" <me>
/ac "Quelling Strikes" <me>

I spam all buffs before starting my attacks which I read some where, saying that, we should activate 2 buffs, GCD skill, follow by another 2 buffs, and then GCD skill again to get the best out of it.

I noticed that i need some buffs up and some not to at specify phase/time, therefore I will be doing minor adjustments here and there to be able to deal the maximum dps.
Is there anything I should change to improve myself? P.S. I spam/mash buttons rather than waiting for 2.5sec GCD

Please read the macro thread here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...8051-BRD-macro

It is literally on the front page D=

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pandabearcat

Please read the macro thread here:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...8051-BRD-macro

It is literally on the front page D=

---

I've read all pages of the thread, I just need advice on how/what to do to improve.
Its ok now, I've done lots of changes to my set up and tried on training dummies. I will try it out myself. Thanks for your reply.

Get ride of haymaker because as a ranged dps you should not be getting hit by anything so having a skill that relies on dodge is pretty useless. also some people complaining that using macros can slow down their dps due to some stutter or lag thing. if this happens to you you may want to rethink your macros or not use them. for some extra burst dps you can use dex potions. as for turn 4 you should really come up with a strategy with your group.

here's better advice: don't use macros and git gud

Never use macros.

Outside pure utility macros, they are not worth using.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Garnatian

Never use macros.

Outside pure utility macros, they are not worth using.

---

Don't listen to this guy. I pill out 200+ DPS on t4 as brd and I use macros oh yea amd on a controller . But yeah get rid of haymaker and have mantra and second wind in there.

my macros:
/macroicon bloodletter
/ac bloodletter <t>
/ac "Misery's end" <t>
/ac "heavy shot" <t>
self explanatory.

/macroicon barrage
/ac "internal release" <me>
/ac barrage <me>
(barrage + release is awesome)

/macroicon "hawk's eye"
/ac "raging strikes" <me>
/ac "hawk's eye" <me>
(you normally use these at the same time, so why not.)

/macroicon "second wind"
/ac "featherfoot" <me>
/ac "second wind" <me>
(holy s*** macro)

/macricon "repelling shot"
/ac "repelling shot" <t>
/ac "shadowbind" <t>
(follow a retreat with a bind, or bind something without retreating)

i would get rid of haymaker though. its pretty useless for bards.

(use blood for blood, invigorate, featherfoot, second wind, internal release. featherfoot can be switched out for feint or mantra)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kakaarato

Don't listen to this guy. I pill out 200+ DPS on t4 as brd and I use macros oh yea amd on a controller . But yeah get rid of haymaker and have mantra and second wind in there.

---

I second this minus the controller part

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kakaarato

Don't listen to this guy. I pill out 200+ DPS on t4 as brd and I use macros oh yea amd on a controller . But yeah get rid of haymaker and have mantra and second wind in there.

---

Ignorance at its finest.

All macros do is decrease your DPS. This is absolute fact. Their only purpose is to help those who aren't good enough to manage their abilities without them.

Macros, unlike regular abilities cannot be queued. When you use a skill approx. 0.5s before the ability is ready to be used, it is queued up by the server and when the ability is capable of being used, it is used instantly. A macro on the other hand cannot be queued, meaning your ability isn't used until the button press following the ability being used, which is susceptible to lag etc. This means you will miss out on quite a few GCDs worth of abilities in every boss fight.

This is irrelevant when ME and BL are not even queued

definitely remove haymaker, but macros only slow a person down unless it is for buff purposes only

Still up for debate

I don't use Macros on my bard, but that's because almost every time I'm playing I'm focused on the support aspects of the class and my personal damage comes in second.
GCD > oGCD > GCD is fairly easy with with mouse/keyboard
GCD > oGCD > oGCD > GCD you may lose a bit of time with animation delays

If there is a time in the fight when you can't attack the boss for some reason that's a great time to use multiple oGCD abilities (and also usually followed with the need for a burst-damage phase). I try to stack my oGCD buffs so I have 2 up for both DoTs
For single targets: Straight > Blood letter > Inner Release > Heavy > Raging > Wind > Barrage > Viper > Quelling Strikes > Heavy/Straight ... Hawkeye > Straight > Wind > Blunt > Viper being the second round through.
For speed run (kill them all) pulls: Hawkeye > Rain of Death > Inner Release > Ragging Strikes > AoE spam. I do it like this because if I pre-buff I might be losing seconds of buffs while the tank gets initial hate set.