How to DPS as Bard - Tips & Tricks - Achieve 450 dps

Hello Everyone

I would like to share with you all my new Bard guide with all the Tips and Tricks that ive learned this last Year.

http://solitude.guildwork.com/forum/...ard-by-krietor

Snippet of a 730 Peak DPS opener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbAOZEBfjg

Hoepfully someone finds it usefull

GL and HF outdpsing some of your friends & foes

Not really sure about some of these tips. Leaving Blood for Blood waiting for 10 seconds each time it comes off CD? Hmmm. And unless the fight is fairly short it may not be worth clipping dots for RS. In any extended fight it may not be worth the TP cost. But for a 3 min parse w/ a HA bow or optimized Novus + mostly i110 gear + a DRG for disembowel 450 is a pretty good place to be. Would be more interested in seeing a 8 min parse without a DRG.

Edit: reading more closely now. Windbite is 330 potency. Not 360. Which dot is used first doesn't really matter on a boss with a lot of HP. On enemies that die fairly quickly you may want to use venomous bite only as it is more front loaded. After 2 ticks VB is more potent than a heavy shot. Takes WB 3 ticks.

You also say that both dots should be used one after the other without exception. I disagree. There are exceptions. What if you put a dot up and then are unable to attack for a period of time because of some mechanic preventing you from doing so? It happens. To maintain optimal DPS your dots then may not be able to be one immediately after the other. Of course there is always the option to be lazy, clip a dot, and realign them. Can't say I never do that.

Your right about windbite, and i miss typed, i knew it was 330. About the DOTs alignment , its something i try always to do, but has you say, sometimes its not possible, and i do admit that sometimes i clip them to realign them (damn ocd :)

You realize you can't really control when Straighter Shot procs?

Also, you should only use Foe Requiem if there is a Black Mage or other class that can use Elemental Attacks in the party (Dragoon for example). And even then Mages Ballad always takes priority if the healers are running out of MP.

Blood for Blood should really be saved to be used with your songs more than anything else. Afterall your Songs deprive you of 20% of your damage dealt, while Blood for Blood increases your damage dealt by 10% meaning overall you will only be losing 10% of your damage dealt for the duration of Blood for Blood all told.

Between Invigorate, Blood for Blood, Second Wind, Internal Release, and Mantra you really shouldn't have room in your Cross-Class allocation for Keen Flurry. If you do, then you aren't using your Soul Stone in the first place, and as such won't have your songs. Granted, I am one to talk as I have neglected to obtain Mantra at the moment, but still.

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Originally Posted by Tharian

You realize you can't really control when Straighter Shot procs?

Also, you should only use Foe Requiem if there is a Black Mage or other class that can use Elemental Attacks in the party (Dragoon for example). And even then Mages Ballad always takes priority if the healers are running out of MP.

Blood for Blood should really be saved to be used with your songs more than anything else. Afterall your Songs deprive you of 20% of your damage dealt, while Blood for Blood increases your damage dealt by 10% meaning overall you will only be losing 10% of your damage dealt for the duration of Blood for Blood all told.

Between Invigorate, Blood for Blood, Second Wind, Internal Release, and Mantra you really shouldn't have room in your Cross-Class allocation for Keen Flurry. If you do, then you aren't using your Soul Stone in the first place, and as such won't have your songs. Granted, I am one to talk as I have neglected to obtain Mantra at the moment, but still.

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Just a slight correction. Foe's Requiem also works for Summoner, it always did but people didn't think it did at release due to how the tooltip was worded. They changed the tooltip from Elemental Resistance to Magic Resistance to make it clear.

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Originally Posted by Dwill

Just a slight correction. Foe's Requiem also works for Summoner, it always did but people didn't think it did at release due to how the tooltip was worded. They changed the tooltip from Elemental Resistance to Magic Resistance to make it clear.

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I never even noticed the change... does that mean Dragonfire Dive doesn't benefit from it like I thought it did?

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Originally Posted by Tharian

I never even noticed the change... does that mean Dragonfire Dive doesn't benefit from it like I thought it did?

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Even if there is an elemental damage attached to it, it's still a physical attack therefore doesn't. Only casters benefit from it.

I should also note that clipping dots at 8s in your opener sounds far from optimal.

Here is my opener for example: IR up for 2 dots. RS, BfB, HE up for 3. Dex pot up for 2.

Perhaps my opener could also be better, but I do believe it it to be more optimized than the opener in the guide.

IR, SS, BL, HE, VB, RS, BFB, WB, Ba, HS, Dex pot, HS, FA, HS, poison pot, HS. And reset with the normal priorities. SS or HS would be up next. Followed by refreshing your dots. :) no clipping required.

Throw in BL as it procs. Throw in Blunt Arrow and Repelling Shot when possible. Use Straighter Shot when it procs.

450 dps on a dummy? How long was this parse?

At enough skill speed I've been using this rotation for fight-start:

Quelling well before pull if needed, BV slightly before, and IR just before pull; Straight, Blood for Blood, Venom, Hawk's Eye, Windbite, Raging Strikes, Heavy, Potion, Heavy, Barrage, etc.... Straight if no procs at 4 seconds, next Venom will have all buffs and Windbite will have all but Blood, opposite to first application. I usually get around 5-7 Bloodletters in that time.

It takes very little skill speed to absolutely ensure the near-complete set of buffs on 2nd WB. A bit more is necessary if you want to make up for lost GCD time from former double-oGCDs, such as buff+Bloodletter.

All 20-second buffs really have no necessary time to be applied, though they can optimally affect 2 WBs. Only Internal Release needs to be placed optimally, to affect both DoTs and give each an additional 10% chance to generate Bloodletters (usually about 4 of these, and running at 416/436 speed they haven't been a problem).

Of course, this amount of skill speed can also make it just as useful to double up on Buffs from the start. BV/IR as tank runs in, Venom, Blood/Hawk, Wind, Raging/Flaming, Heavy, Potion/Barrage, etc. Just be sure to have no delay on launching that Flaming, and even with my lowish gear (102-3) I can hit a burst of almost 700 over that time, though it will taper out to exactly the same dps as the above rotation very quickly, ofc. It's a bit harder to weave in Bloodletters this way though.

Edit: Unless DoTs are coming up, there seems to be little difference between using Heavy or Straight for your last shot on the Straight Shot buff (I have pretty bad luck with this, maybe getting that proc about half of the times I really need it over 5-6 Heavy's). Keeping up SS buff for the SS reapplication is worth about 7 potency, and using that last shot on a HS instead would be about 7.5. Base crit affects an additional 10 potency on HS with a 15% chance of auto-crit as compared to a 10% stacking crit bonus (auto-crit wastes base crit chance, SS stacking with it does not). The higher your crit, the more you might favor SS reapplication as it drops off instead of going once more for proc.

Edit 2: Though it feels like argument on the basis of superstition between rotating AoEs and sticking to Quick Nock, I've personally noticed significantly better TP conservation from using Wide--Rain--Quick than just Quick. But, RNG will be RNG. Some people may never see an AoE proc in a full TP bar.
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What I'm most curious about is how to check (or guess) whether a DoT ticked instantly upon application, and therefore will not tick just before drop-off, or vise-versa, when attacking the same target as others, such that you cannot distinguish your own DoT text. How useful might it be to use one's CDs as a way to check/guess the global tick, and how delayed the Bloodletter refreshes are from the actual DoT ticks. Any educated guesses?

Also how much dps do you do on turn 8 and turn 9?

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Originally Posted by RinchanNau

On enemies that die fairly quickly you may want to use venomous bite only as it is more front loaded. After 2 ticks VB is more potent than a heavy shot. Takes WB 3 ticks.

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The only time that "Venomous only" is more potency is if it's dying in exactly two ticks.

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Originally Posted by Tharian

Blood for Blood should really be saved to be used with your songs more than anything else. Afterall your Songs deprive you of 20% of your damage dealt, while Blood for Blood increases your damage dealt by 10% meaning overall you will only be losing 10% of your damage dealt for the duration of Blood for Blood all told.

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Since everything's multiplicative, you'd still be losing 12%, not 10%. Besides, I'm not saving B4B or any of my other buffs for the off-chance that I have to Ballad or Paeon. Especially since B4B stacking with other buffs makes it more than a 10% buff

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Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl

450 dps on a dummy? How long was this parse?

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I'm not the OP but it was 3 minutes long and he had a DRG giving the Disembowel debuff. Kind of a misleading title IMO.

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Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl

450 dps on a dummy? How long was this parse?

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Probably the duration of barrage xD

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Originally Posted by Sleigh

I'm not the OP but it was 3 minutes long and he had a DRG giving the Disembowel debuff. Kind of a misleading title IMO.

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3 minutes is an incredibly short time, and yea, this op is very misleading.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

Since everything's multiplicative, you'd still be losing 12%, not 10%. Besides, I'm not saving B4B or any of my other buffs for the off-chance that I have to Ballad or Paeon. Especially since B4B stacking with other buffs makes it more than a 10% buff

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I thought it was confirmed before than nothing affecting the same modifier was multiplicative in this game. I.e. Hawk's Eye does not affect Dex potions, and Blood for Blood does not affect Raging Strikes, because they all affect base factors, rather than the current/modified amounts. Only when they are separate modifiers, such as Blood-Hawk or Raging+Disembowel/(any other form of vulnerability-up or resist-down), is there any chance of being multiplicative. That being said, while I remember the source for that information being fairly convincing, I no longer have the link, so take it with a grain of salt.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Is there any chance of being multiplicative. That being said, while I remember the source for that information being fairly convincing, I no longer have the link, so take it with a grain of salt.

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One could easily try it out. Go to Striking Dummy. Pop all dmg +x% and next time pop them in different order, and then pop them alone. If alone x skill deals same as x+y. And y alone deals same as y+x (note the order in which you activated them.)
Or if x = x+y or y+x, then it can be confirmed that stacking +x% dmg boosts is useless

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Originally Posted by GalaxyGirl

450 dps on a dummy? How long was this parse?

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It's 450 with party buff, food, pots, disembowel and a level 50 training dummy with lots of misery's end. It only lasted 3 minutes too. So, it's an inflated parse that means nothing.

Ive seen a bard do 440 dps on t8.

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Originally Posted by Hakmatic

Ive seen a bard do 440 dps on t8.

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Wtf who was this bard?

The other secret is having a 2nd BRD for t8. :P

I assume the lower brd is the one on song duty?

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Originally Posted by HulveinBlitz

I assume the lower brd is the one on song duty?

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The lower BRD was me and was in mostly i90 + an i95 weapon there, only having to sing 1 song (Army's Paeon, Battle Voiced) throughout the whole fight. So him having do to the same I did wouldn't lower his dps that much.

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Originally Posted by Jou

The lower BRD was me and was in mostly i90 + an i95 weapon there, only having to sing 1 song (Army's Paeon, Battle Voiced) throughout the whole fight. So him having do to the same I did wouldn't lower his dps that much.

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It's a decent DPS gain for the other BRD. I did the same thing when my group used to have 2 BRDs. When the other BRD was full BiS I only did Paeon for one week to see how much he could do. About 10 below your BRD for whatever reason. :P

I would personally disagree with the "Perfect Opener" thing.

Using Hawk's eye 3 seconds pre-pull means you only have 17s at the point of pulling

The opening of BL=>SS means there is about 2.5GCD from SS and about 0.5s of animation time, so after the GCD time has past, about 14s of Hawk's eye have left.

Then you have RS-BfB-HS, which is another 3s gone, 11s left when you pop your X-Dex potion.

Different people may have a sightly different variation in opener, but the most ideal opener is when you have RS, BfB, Hawk's Eye and IR up for the entire duration of the 15s of your X-Dex potion.

Of course I do not mean popping all 4 CDs at one go, that's wasting CD time too.

There is no set rotation. By testing I have done. And I really mean everything at my disposal. All HA items/bow, all Soldery as well. I tested rotations and openers. The rotation you use is dependent to your sub stats. Skillspeed/det/crit etc.

With crappy stat-weights(540 acc, 260 det 460 crit, 450 ss). A party. Dragoon debuff. aka turn 8. No song, nothing else. I can sustain 414 average dps at i105. only 110 gear on the right side & using rosenbogen.

And this is the guide I wrote and rotation I use.
http://daevaofwar.guildwork.com/foru...ard-gloriously

There is no set or right way to do it. it is a matter of party setup, stat weights and as well the participation one has during such battle.

I have a different opener :\ I worked around with a friend on our burst with our Bards and we honestly just never took this rotation. I hit about 426 after 4 mins which is when I TPed out. I'm iLevel 106. I had all party buffs + Disembowl. I'm missing HA Bow, HA Gloves, HA Pants, HA Boots, HA Ring and HA Bracelet I think... But I can't agree with this rotation, it is not the best.

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Originally Posted by Drakuaza

There is no set rotation. By testing I have done. And I really mean everything at my disposal. All HA items/bow, all Soldery as well. I tested rotations and openers. The rotation you use is dependent to your sub stats. Skillspeed/det/crit etc.

With crappy stat-weights(540 acc, 260 det 460 crit, 450 ss). A party. Dragoon debuff. aka turn 8. No song, nothing else. I can sustain 414 average dps at i105. only 110 gear on the right side & using rosenbogen.

And this is the guide I wrote and rotation I use.
http://daevaofwar.guildwork.com/foru...ard-gloriously

There is no set or right way to do it. it is a matter of party setup, stat weights and as well the participation one has during such battle.

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Exactly. A Bard's DPS comes from a priority system and how fast you can react to said priority system, not a fixed rotation.

By the way Drakuaza, I read the guide you wrote and there is one little mistake that I noticed. It's your description of Foe Requiem where you say :

Well, Square Lied, magic resistance isn’t lowered. What really happens, it increases the casters damage by 10%, it increases MAGIC damage, not ELEMENTAL, hence why your own “flame” arrow doesn’t get a boost, but summoner with neutral element does.

Foe Requiem actually decreases Magic Resist. The reason why Flaming Arrow, Windbite and the likes aren't affected is because they are Physical skills, not a Magic one therefore they rely on the Defense stat, not the Magic Defense one.

Ofc i know that a bards DPS comes from a priority system, and not a rotation, but for the perfect pull the only thing random on it is Bloodletter, everything else is on a really tight rotation.

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Originally Posted by KrietoR

Ofc i know that a bards DPS comes from a priority system, and not a rotation, but for the perfect pull the only thing random on it is Bloodletter, everything else is on a really tight rotation.

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I have pointed out that your opener is wasting Hawk's eye uptime. The ideal opener (I refrain from using the word perfect) should have all your 4 CDs covering the entire 15s duration of your X-Dex potion.

This is so trash. Krietor pls. You got some work to do buddy.

ive updated my guide with new info, new parses, and a video of the opener doing 730 dps Peak damage

Emery peaked 1086 and did 468 in the same time frame as your guide (and no: No Misery's ends used)

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Originally Posted by EmeryAzure

This is so trash. Krietor pls. You got some work to do buddy.

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Instead of replies like this, can we get more along the lines of Ooshima's, please? We don't need to pitchfork any and every sub optimal opener. What exactly do you do? I'm curious :)

i would like to see the parse detailed and a video of that happening. very much interested on what hes doing diferent, although the trash talk is unnecessary, im always willing to learn new tricks.

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Originally Posted by KrietoR

i would like to see the parse detailed and a video of that happening. very much interested on what hes doing diferent, although the trash talk is unnecessary, im always willing to learn new tricks.

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Come to Phoenix, KrietoR. Rather than a video, I believe seeing it for yourself would be better. You can also tune in on streams on the Tranquility website. We usually raid on Tuesdays roughly around 10:00 pm ST.

im not saying that i dont believe you, i would really like to have an ACT parse and a video of him playing. You can make an highlight of the stream and post it here. just to see if he knows something that we dont.

Can I ask why repelling shot should be part of the "optimal" rotation and not something used during emergencies?

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Originally Posted by kyuven

Can I ask why repelling shot should be part of the "optimal" rotation and not something used during emergencies?

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You don't see the upside to free damage? What emergencies? If you want to save it for an emergency, save it. Not many fights where that applies.

I can confirm it doesn't matter if you pop pot or hawk's eye first. I tested a few weeks back and ended up with 754 dex in both scenarios(starting at 572 dex). It should be noted though that the +15% dex bonus from hawk's eye actually includes the +84 from the xpot. That is why it is crucial having your Hawk's eye cover the full duration of your pot. From OP's rotation as what user Ooshima stated earlier on, he is losing the full benefit of hawk's eye and xpot put together. It might not sound like a lot(roughly 12-13 dex if you take 15% of 84), but if we are talking optimal openers this should explain why it is not a good idea using hawk's eye pre-pull and using xpot towards the end of your rotation.