BRD cooldowns

Hello all. I am a new BRD, still leveling, but close to 50. Just wanted to gain some insight on how other BRDs handle their cooldowns. For the record, I am a console player.

Right now I have a macro with all cooldowns tied into it. I'm sure it's probably better to hit them manually, but as a console player, this saves me time jumping around buttons and saves a ton of space on my main hotbar.

With that being said, do you save up your cooldowns and burst them all at once, perhaps at a particular time, or just pop them when they refresh, in no order? The way I've been playing, I haven't been using any of my cooldowns on trash mobs inside dungeons and instead save them and pop them all at once at the start of all the boss fights and try to refresh as necessary as the boss fight drags on. Would it be better if I just popped them as they refreshed the entire way through dungeons?

Anything else you think I should know about cooldowns would also be appreciated. Thanks! :cool:

Not a console user, so I can't advise you how to manage them via consoles :(

But generally you try to weave them in between your GCD skills, however I don't use them individually but group them according to their CD timer.

I always use all of them at the start of the battle, then as mentioned above, use them according to groups:

Grp 1: Internal Release + Flaming Arrows: Every 60s - Extra note: Blunt Arrow and Repelling Shot is every 30s and you can make them in sync with this group if silence is not needed.

Grp 2: Hawk's Eye + Barrage + BfB: Every 90s. Do note that BfB is actually 80s refresher, but I group them together since 10s isn't much of a difference. Depending on situation, I mostly activate BfB slightly earlier, like a few seconds before Hawk+Barrage because most of the time it's a good time to do so as the 2 DoTs are expiring, so I'd BfB and use it to boost-refresh the DoTs. Also note that for every even grp 2 refresh, it would be in sync with grp 1. Hawk's Eye boosts Flaming Arrows, so do make sue you queue your buffs properly.

Grp 3: Unfortunately, this "grp" is Raging Strikes by itself. It has a 120s refresh timer so it will sync up with every even grp 1 refresh time. Make sure you weave Raging Strikes + IR together and use it to refresh your DoTs.


How a typical cycle if what I do would look like:

Start: Weave all

60th second mark: IR + Flaming Arrows

80th-90th second mark or so: When to BfB is up to you, try to time it right when you can refresh your DoTs, then on the 90th second mark, pop Hawk's Eye + Barrage

120th second mark: Raging Strikes + IR + Flaming Arrows, remember to refresh DoTs using the CD boost

180th second mark or so: Grp 1 and Grp 2 will be synced. If it's good to refresh DoT, I will Hawk+BfB+IR => DoT => Barrage+Flaming Arrow => DoT. Always Hawk before Flaming Arrow.

240th second mark: Raging Strikes + IR + Flaming Arrows, remember to refresh DoTs using the CD boost

270th second mark or so: When to BfB is up to you, try to time it right when you can refresh your DoTs, then pop Hawk's Eye + Barrage. NOTE: If you popped X-Dex at the start, 270s = 4mins 30 secs which is the exact CD time for X-Dex potion. You can pop the X-Dex potion again at this time in conjunction with the CDs. If you do intend to pop the X-Dex, do it with Hawk's Eye and use Barrage after Hawk and X-Dex potion is up, because Barrage will be boosted by both.

300th second mark: IR + Flaming Arrows

360th second mark: Everything should be in sync again. Start of new cycle.



EDIT: Just a side note - the above is just how things look like for a prolonged boss battle. Generally an idea of weaving cool downs, but of course difference situations calls for different things. Usually it is safe to burst all CD at the start, but you might want to save CDs for burn phases if it is coming soon, such as Titan EX - you can burn all at the start, and can keep rotating the grp 1 60s CDs when they are up, but the 90s/120s longer CDs you might want to save up for the Heart Phase.

Again, if your group's DPS is way enough, you can just keep rotating the CDs as above. It largely depends on your group. Sometimes, somethings does come with experience, no hard and fast rule on this one.

While in no particular order, I have separate macros with grouped abilities:

INTERNAL RELEASE MACRO ICON:
Internal Release
Blood for Blood
Raging Strikes
Hawk's Eye
Barrage

BLOODLETTER MACRO ICON:
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot
Misery's End

VENOMOUS BITE MACRO ICON:
Venomous Bite
Bloodletter
Misery's End

WINDBITE MACRO ICON:
Windbite
Bloodletter
Misery's End

I just listed what's in my macros, but I obviously have them listed in-game just to name a few. My songs each has their own macro with Battle Voice in each one. I also have a hotbar just above the main bar with the abilities that are hidden in each macro so I see when they are ready.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim_Berry

I just listed what's in my macros, but I obviously have them listed in-game just to name a few. My songs each has their own macro with Battle Voice in each one. I also have a hotbar just above the main bar with the abilities that are hidden in each macro so I see when they are ready.

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I like your macros a lot. Do you pop all of your cooldowns at once and then refresh as they keep coming back up? Also, could you tell me a little more about your song macros, this is the first time I'm hearing about this in all my BRD research.

I think song macros are unnecessary since most of the time it will just be that particular song with Battle Voice in the macro. You can easily do those manually. Overall macros are great especially since you are on a console but if you really want to maximize your DPS I don't think macros can beat out manual inputs. There are certain fights where using macros are not ideal (for example saving CDs for burn phases or saving Silence for interrupts) but it really depends on what you are running.

Typical start for me:

Foe Requiem - Battle Voice
Straight Shot
Blood For Blood
Hawk's Eye
Raging Strikes
(Windbite-->Venom, and replace Windbite before HE and RS end; should be able to get every tick out of it still)
Weave in Internal Release, Barrage, and Flaming Arrow (usually in that order for me). You don't want Barrage to become too desynced and IR is only a very minor buff and has a lesser duration to RS, which every other IR will match to, but the more buffs you can put on the Barrage, the better, and at the same time you don't want to waste Bloodletters... so, do as you think is best at the time.

Aside from that, use things as they get back off CD. They'll sync up on their own. Just don't use something longer than the remaining length of the phase. IR, FA and RS will always match up, and every other 90-second CD will match up with IR and FA. Every other RS will match up with everything plus/minus BFB.

If you wait to use BFB until HE comes up, you get an extra 1.5% damage increase out of it (15% more than it's normal effect) (~3% more damage increase or 30% more effect increase during Barrage's uptime), but at cost of 11% effect from wasted/unused availability (could get 12.5% more out of it using it on-CD). I'd recommend using it when Barrage has 10 seconds until off CD, unless HE is up before that time.

HE is the only CD that will affect FA, so I really don't worry too much about it. They'll be out of sync every other HE, but that's no real loss (37.5 more potency total for a HE-FA than an unbuffed FA).

What do the Battle Voice macros look like? Can someone post one as an example? Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim_Berry

While in no particular order, I have separate macros with grouped abilities:

INTERNAL RELEASE MACRO ICON:
Internal Release
Blood for Blood
Raging Strikes
Hawk's Eye
Barrage

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I would recommend that macro but add the hate lesser skill, cant recall the name, use that macro taking barrage cooldown as main and enjoy

I'm apparently one of the few people who doesn't use all of the buttons available to me. I tend to use raging strikes right before quick knock or bloodletter.
3 buttons rarely used...jump back, quelling strikes, and hawk eye. In fact the one that jumps you back 20 yalms is not even on my hotbars.

I do the same kinds of things with my other classes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Merryl

I'm apparently one of the few people who doesn't use all of the buttons available to me. I tend to use raging strikes right before quick knock or bloodletter.
3 buttons rarely used...jump back, quelling strikes, and hawk eye. In fact the one that jumps you back 20 yalms is not even on my hotbars.

I do the same kinds of things with my other classes.

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Hawk's Eye is a 15% dps increase while it is up, so you should be using it. And repelling shot is also a dps increase if used between the gcd when there is no other cooldown to use.

I usually use my cooldown buffs as soon as they are up, unless i know there is a part coming soon that needs lots of damage quickly.

And as for this macro:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim_Berry

BLOODLETTER MACRO ICON:
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot
Misery's End

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I still use the bloodletter icon to see when it is up, but I would put heavy shot first, since bloodletter and misery's end should be used between the global cooldown, so having heavy shot first will make sure this happens

I didn't say I never use them. Its just that in group the critter is most generally dead ...so being a creature of habit the rotation starts again on the next one. Internal release and raging strikes have typically reset by then.