Bard song priority

I'm sincerely enjoying bard, but one of my biggest hangups is choosing which song for which situation is best. Obviously for multi-target, Mage's Ballad gets top priority, but what about single target? Which song do I optimally want to align with Raging and Barrage? Does it really not matter and it comes down to which Troubadour you need? So many (probably exceedingly stupid) questions!

From what I've learned, single-target priority should be Wanderer's Minuet, it's also the song you should align Raging Strikes and Barrage with (but always use Barrage when it's up).

Troubador is situational so you should be prioritizing the song with the right effect during the time you'll need it.

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Originally Posted by dinnertime

From what I've learned, single-target priority should be Wanderer's Minuet, it's also the song you should align Raging Strikes and Barrage with (but always use Barrage when it's up).

Troubador is situational so you should be prioritizing the song with the right effect during the time you'll need it.

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Awesome. Between Army's Paean and Mage's Ballad, which is better for single target? I would assume Army's if only because you're not relying on the RNG gods if you have lower crit.

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Originally Posted by KalinOrthos

Awesome. Between Army's Paean and Mage's Ballad, which is better for single target? I would assume Army's if only because you're not relying on the RNG gods if you have lower crit.

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It should be Mage's Ballad for those Bloodletter procs. Army's Paean seems like a filler while you wait for the other songs to become available again.

Which song to use first depends on the amount of enemies you have at the given time. If the number is small, like 1-4 then you start with The Wanderer's Minuet, if its 4+ then start with Mages Ballad. And use Army's Paean as a filler. This helps you optimize the procs you'll get for each song. As for Troubadour, Ballad is always a safe bet, but if you know the damage the boss does using the proper version when they do a big attack is more beneficial.

Awesome. So, say for progression Omega, should I formulate my song order for incoming attacks, or should I focus more on personal DPS?

I can't speak for progression, but I would focus on personal DPS first, since your comp might vary. Once you are familiar with the fight, and how the boss attacks, you'd be able to adjust to that specific fight. Sadly, you need a song active to do Troubadour, so timing it for a Limit Break might not happen, but you might catch it.

Hmmmmmm.

Troubadour feels fun to use, but it's honestly so very situational with a long cooldown, and not something you should be depending on, or fitting your rotation around. For all trials/raids go through the Minuet -> Ballad -> Paeon motions. Cut Paeon short by 10 seconds to get back into Minuet (+Raging Strikes) sooner since it's far weaker than your other 2 songs.

The physical Troubadour (Paeon) has...very few uses I can think of, at least for AOE damage. A lot of the time, at least in savage, Minuet is king even for Troub since almost all dangerous, sustained raid-wide attacks are magical. Ballad is serviceable in most situations but it doesn't heal for the HP it adds (and in the case of O1S and O4S can actually cause more harm than good depending on when you use it due to HP-based mechanics).

You can use it during progression of course to make certain nasty attacks more manageable instead of waiting for an emergency, but I've never been in a situation where I think "damn, I'll have to change my song order so I have this Troubadour at this point".

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Originally Posted by KalinOrthos

I'm sincerely enjoying bard, but one of my biggest hangups is choosing which song for which situation is best. Obviously for multi-target, Mage's Ballad gets top priority, but what about single target? Which song do I optimally want to align with Raging and Barrage? Does it really not matter and it comes down to which Troubadour you need? So many (probably exceedingly stupid) questions!

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1. Oh, for single-taget: just make sure to prioritize wanderer's minuet, then army's paeon as your secondary, and mage's ballad as the lowest in your priority list.
2. Just focus on the primary one that the situation calls for.
3. Um, maybe you should just check google or something. Or, just try and guess the boss's damage type is, IDK.

For Single Target Song Order
1. Wander's Minuet
2. Mage's Ballad
3. Army's Paeon - at the 10 second mark you can switch back to Wanderer's Minuet. Raging Strikes will Line up for it. (about the second time you hit this if you have been playing Foes Requium the in first time you cycled these 3 songs you want to start playing Foes at the 14/13 second mark of Paeon)

For Multiple Targets (Trash packs)
1. Mage's Ballad
2. Army's Paeon
3. Wanderer's Minuet.

Paeon is the least "favored" song so you generally want to get out of it ASAP at least for single target, it's ok for trash due to the skill speed increase for more quick nocks...

DoTs first, when tank is pulling trash try to stormbite any mobs he has aggro on during pull. That way when he picks a spot you can turn on Mage's and get speed up increases for River of Blood for your Song gauge.

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Originally Posted by KalinOrthos

Awesome. So, say for progression Omega, should I formulate my song order for incoming attacks, or should I focus more on personal DPS?

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Just do the regular song cycle. There's not going to be anything in the game where Troubadour is required for survival, and Troubadour is such a long cooldown that you're typically only going to be able to get 2 or 3 uses of it in a given fight regardless. So it's more about finding the best spots for Troubadour within the constraints of your regular cycle - the added value in twisting your cycle around for Troub's sake is far too minimal in the grand scheme of things, when any actual healing struggle can be handled just by better healing plans or better placement of Reprisals, Addles, etc.

That said, what you might do - more for general timing things but also possibly for Troub - is to extend an Army's Paeon to 25-30s at some point. In O4S for example, going 30s on your first AP gives you a little more mental space on the first Emptiness, avoids a problem timing with Light and Darkness later, and can get your pre-GCOmega AP to last all the way to the cast rather than getting stuck songless wanting to avoid burning WM for just 10s of uptime.

In O2S, there's some Troub Value (a 2:00 Troub will hit two GWaves) in doing this, and it can get you around a mid-gaze Ballad apply at about that time as well. That one's a bit more debatable but the option is there especially if you have a sense of your likely clear times to know whether or not it will cost you any WM time in the long run (the tail end of AP is okay power wise, 20s APs are more about maximizing WM than minimizing AP. So if you won't lose WM for it, playing out an AP for some other gain is fine).