How to maximize dps against mobs as Bard?

I've seen a few people in the forums complain about bards not using songs against mob enemies. But, I don't either. Songs are only useful if you have dots up, and when I'm against a mob, I want to get to aoe as fast as possible.
Every time I shoot a dot at something I'm losing another chance at shooting EVERY enemy at once.
So my question is, should I be putting dots on enemies? How many? And at what point should I get to aoe?
Thank you very much :)

1) The songs give everyone in your party a Crit-buff aswell as enabling you to use Troubador (for mitigation) and Battle Voice (for a DH-buff) - so even if you dont have dots up (what you should, adressing that later), it helps your party to keep them up.
2) Songs are OGC - that means using them doesnt cost you any other action. And they deal damage. You can weave them in without losing anything.
3) Mages Ballad is great when it comes to mass-pulls and AoEs, since every proc there equals a Rain of Death - so extra AoE-damage. For the above reasons you should obviously use your other songs aswell too though. Everytime you're wasting your chance to proc Rain of Death, you're losing another chance to shooting every enemy at once without using TP and between cooldowns.

To answer your question regarding dots: Yes. You should always be putting dots on enemies. Personally, I'm putting my dots on 3-4 enemies. I'm not sure if thats really 100% ideal, but I'm fishing for as many Rain of Death procs as possible. Obviously you want to prefer those mobs with more HP, so your dots will last longer, giving you more procs.

Rule of Thumb is that you wanna AoE with 4+ enemies on most classes.

Get 4-5 dots out, then song rotation. Enjoy all the procs.

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Originally Posted by Kabooa

Get 4-5 dots out, then song rotation. Enjoy all the procs.

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This, esp on a pull, I try to hit each mob with a dot as the tank pulls since its not enough to get hate, then ballad at the end which usually allows me to spam rain of death. Saves TP so you can keep those aoe going. It's more efficient for you, gives the pt members a crit boost and opens Battle voice, also don't forget foe's. Add all that up and you can melt the packs down much quicker.

You should always be using your songs, even on trash. Because the passive Crit Buff not only buffs your party members, you yourself lose out on a lot of damage via procs and BRD’s Repertoire mechanic by ignoring the biggest part of your toolkit.

There is a different song priority that you use for AOE/trash packs versus single-target:

—DoT 4~5 mobs with Stormbite, the last one with Caustic Bite (for Sidewinder usage); make sure you apply them under Straight Shot buff for more chances to crit—more crit chances = more procs.
—After applying your DoTs (you can do this while the tank is chain-pulling), start with Mage’s Ballad, and enjoy the Rain of Death procs. Use Quick Nock between procs.
—After Mage’s ends, if the mobs are close to dead, hold off on your next song. If not, move into Army’s Paeon. Quick Nock spam, using Invigorate and Tactician to replenish your TP as needed.
—If the mobs still aren’t dead, or if you are continuing on to the next pack, either use The Wanderer’s Minuet or go back into Mage’s Ballad if it’s off cooldown by now.

While you’re in Minuet, you will still use Raging Strikes with it. Use your Pitch Perfect procs at 2 stacks, since you have multi-DoT’d the mobs and will have procs coming out of your behind. Filler with more Quick Nock/Rain of Death when it’s off cooldown. Once Raging falls off (~10 seconds left), clip and go back into Mage’s Ballad if there are still mobs alive. If mobs are almost dead, hold off until the next pack.

If all party members are AOEing, mobs will usually only live through one song, or they will be close to dead after the song ends. I typically hold off on entering the next song if the pack is mostly dead (I’m talking less than 20% health on most), and then continue through the cycle after the tank pulls more, skipping Minuet if Mage’s is off cooldown since it and Army’s offer the best AOE potential with Mage’s River of Blood trait and Army’s Haste buff.

If Straight Shot falls off towards the end of the pack, it’s okay, but try to keep it up as much as possible, especially when applying your DoTs to enemies so that they get the critical hit up buff and bring in more procs.

In short:
—DoT 4~5 mobs with Stormbite; DoT the final mob with Caustic Bite as well so that you can use Sidewinder on it.
—Make sure your DoTs are applied under Straight Shot buff for more crit chances.
—Song Rotation: Mage’s Ballad > Army’s Paeon > The Wanderer’s Minuet (+Raging Strikes; clip at ~10 seconds remaining)
—Cycle through and IJ DoTs if needed
—Filler with Quick Nock and Rain of Death
—Replenish TP as needed with Invigorate and Tactician (you can also bug a melee for Goad, though it’s unlikely they’ll actually have it, sadly...)
—Foe’s Requiem when you have MP

I’ve seen some BRDs Raging Strikes during Mage’s Ballad, and that’s fine since you’ll have Rain of Death procs for days, but I personally keep it aligned with Minuet so that, during a boss fight, it lines up with my burst song.

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Originally Posted by Vidu

Rule of Thumb is that you wanna AoE with 4+ enemies on most classes.

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To add to this, Rain of Death is actually more potent at 2+ targets than Bloodletter—100 potency per mob versus 130 potency for a single mob. So at 2+ you should be using Rain of Death over Bloodletter, and at 3+ add in Quick Nock.

The songs have 90 second uptime, but 80 second cooldown - or something like that. So yeah, the only reason to not have 100% uptime on them is a lack of targets.

It has been my experience to dot one mob in the pack. The entire packs just die so fast, such as Skalla or Ala Mhigo. In the newer dungeons, I will dot the big mobs in the pack such as the snakes in Hell's Lid. (When I say dot the mob I mean apply both dots)

Is there level 70 content where the trash packs are longer lasting or is a lot of the advice on 5-6 dots for leveling or something?

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Originally Posted by Minako_Nightsong

Is there level 70 content where the trash packs are longer lasting or is a lot of the advice on 5-6 dots for leveling or something?

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You can usually get this many DoTs up just during the pull.

In a big trash pull like those 70 dungeons is it worth the trade off in cooldowns to bother with the dots over just spamming a direct damage AoE?

I've only seen these as a tank - but my Bard, Ayeola Fyah, just hit the first quest of Stormblood last night... so now is the time for me to figure this out...

In leveling dungeons I've been finding that in the time it takes me to cycle around 5-6 dots through a stack of mobs... on another pull I could have been trading spam between Quick Nock, Rain of Death, and ensuring Straight Shot and songs don't fall off... But I'm not yet sure which of these two is leading to a higher DPS result.

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Originally Posted by Makeda

In leveling dungeons I've been finding that in the time it takes me to cycle around 5-6 dots through a stack of mobs... on another pull I could have been trading spam between Quick Nock, Rain of Death, and ensuring Straight Shot and songs don't fall off... But I'm not yet sure which of these two is leading to a higher DPS result.

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In terms of DoTs, 1 is sufficient enough for trash pulls—in this case, you would use Stormbite, because it has a higher overall potency than Caustic Bite. Both DoTs are only applied to one target so that you can use Sidewinder on it, thereby not leaving the skill off-cooldown/unused. If the tank is chain pulling packs, you can apply Stormbite as he is pulling, and once he stops, use your song you’re currently on in the AOE rotation (Mages > Army’s > Minuet), and start AOEing.

I generally DoT 3~4 mobs with Stormbite, and the final one with both so I can Sidewinder on it. If everyone is AOEing (as they should be), then trash packs generally don’t live long enough for you to need to cycle through and IJ to refresh the DoTs. Usually. It’s all dependent on if the other party members are also AOEing. If you’re the only one, things are naturally going to take much longer.

Quick Nock is pretty weak on its own and you want to supplement it with DoT damage, so you can also refresh Rain of Death procs, steadily decrease your GCD, or build up a strong oGCD to use on a priority target. Bard in AoE pulls takes a while to ramp up but becomes...not fantastic, but respectable, when all the small instances of damage add up over time.