BRD Cooldown sequence?

[Thotor]

Sorry but no. As I have said, I tested it on dummy. This is no theory but actual testing.

[Quaine]

I'm a new Bard, but what I do is like this: StraightShot>Bloodletter>Wind>InternalRelease>Venomous>Raging>HeavyShot>BforB>StraightShot>HawkEye>HeavyShot>Barrage>Wind>BindingShot>Venom> repeat. This is for non-dungeon fights. If there is a tank, maybe i'll go with Quelling first. Point is, I use Skills with GCD in between skills with non-GCD.

[pandabearcat]

There are really two ways to go about this.

DoTs immediately with IR to maximize bloodletter immediately.
Optimal stacking of cooldowns (and maximum dot damage) by reapplying dots after stacking.


DoTs immediately would follow this opener, | means weave inbetween GCD

[SS | IR] -> [Wind | BL] -> [Veno | HE] -> [HS | RS] -> [HS | BfB] -> [HS | Barrage] -> [HS | Quelling] -> rotation.

Optimal cooldown stacking would delay IR till right before quelling, like this, then reapply dots right during this.

[SS | BL] -> [Wind | HE] -> [Veno | RS] -> [HS | BfB] -> [HS | IV] -> [Wind | Barrage] -> [Veno | Quelling] -> rotation.

I prefer the latter, because its what I'm used to.

The idea of "cooldown stacking" or "wasting cooldown" is kind of a fallacy. You will get the maximum amount of stacking if you go HE -> RS -> BfB -> IV -> Barrage. The reason I HE first is because its the lowest dps increase (15% dex < 20% damage). The reason I BfB after RS is because RS has a longer cooldown, and BfB's weird 80 sec cooldown lets it be used easier with HE/Barrage on rotation.

EDIT: I should mention that obviously, you delay cooldowns for BL, and you use SS instead of HS when you get the proc.

EDIT2: furthermore if you have aggro problems, instead of delaying quelling till the end, open with quelling before your first straight shot. This actually results in LESS total aggro reduction, but more frontloaded aggro reduction.

Keep in mind also that your damage doesn't spike until barrage, so I would advocate quelling last instead of first unless your tank is absolutely terrible at initial aggro.

[gotaplanstan]

There are really two ways to go about this.

DoTs immediately with IR to maximize bloodletter immediately.
Optimal stacking of cooldowns (and maximum dot damage) by reapplying dots after stacking.


DoTs immediately would follow this opener, | means weave inbetween GCD

[SS | IR] -> [Wind | BL] -> [Veno | HE] -> [HS | RS] -> [HS | BfB] -> [HS | Barrage] -> [HS | Quelling] -> rotation.

Optimal cooldown stacking would delay IR till right before quelling, like this, then reapply dots right during this.

[SS | BL] -> [Wind | HE] -> [Veno | RS] -> [HS | BfB] -> [HS | IV] -> [Wind | Barrage] -> [Veno | Quelling] -> rotation.

I prefer the latter, because its what I'm used to.

Wouldn't it make more sense to open with HS instead of SS incase the first HS procs Heavier Shot? That's how I've been doing it. You're only missing out on probably 1 tick worth of crit chance from WB and 0 or 1 from VB anyways, I think.

[pandabearcat]

Wouldn't it make more sense to open with HS instead of SS incase the first HS procs Heavier Shot? That's how I've been doing it. You're only missing out on probably 1 tick worth of crit chance from WB and 0 or 1 from VB anyways, I think.

no? Because you miss out on the 10% crit buff for 1 GCD anyway.

Think about it this way: Do you never SS unless you have HS proc? If the answer is no, then it makes no sense to open with HS.

[KaiSunstrider]

Here's a basic bard guide. It's my first and i realize there are preferences on how you handles buff usage, i try my best to weave, but i feel that only at the pull does this ever really become an issue of min maxing.

http://forum.xivnation.com/index.php...slinging.2253/

[gotaplanstan]

Do you never SS unless you have HS proc? If the answer is no, then it makes no sense to open with HS.

that's not what I said was it? let's do some math shall we?

your way:

ss = 140 potency
wb = 45 potency (1 tick)
bl = 150 potency
vb = 35 potency (1 tick)
hs = 150 potency

since I was generous giving a tick worth of dmg for vb I'll be conservative and say that you'll only have 30% crit chance due to ss and ir for wb/vb tick crit to proc bl

bl = 150 potency

30% of 150 is 45, but it only happens 50% of the time on crits, or 15% of the time...but with the example we assumed 2 ticks, which gives a 27.45% chance of proccing...

so total you're looking at an average of 41.175 which gives a total average of 561.175 potency doing things your way

--------------
my way:

hs = 150 potency
wb = 45 potency
bl = 150 potency
vb = 35 potency
ss = 182 potency (((140 * 1.5) * 0.2) + 140)

total potency = 562

[gotaplanstan]

oops, I used the first sequence you posted as an example, actually using your rotation loses dps compared to the first because of not getting IR up for the first set of dots

the estimation on crit potency is based off the fact that atm my hs non crits are around 200 and my crits are around 300

now, the only assumptions made were both in your example, with the more important one being about the tick of vb happening, because if it doesn't then you'll need around 60% total crit to just break even with my suggestion

edit: I also just realized I forgot to mention the initial potency damage on both WB and VB so add 160 on to both figures

[LLamaPie]

Since they're off GCD, I make sure all of my dots are up and use my blood letter with straight shot up before I start cycling my DPS CDs, so basically once you enter sustain spam mode you turn them on when your GCD is going (between heavy shots most likely) and yes spam your bloodletters in there too. I noticed this blows stuff to hell the fastest and uses the buffs the best.

[pandabearcat]

snip

Your way is flawed, because you fail to acknowledge your actual crit rate increases with SS.

Assuming a 15% base crit (which is around 500 crit rating)

Your way

HS - 150*(.15*1.5 + .85) = 161.25
SS - 140*(.2*1.5 + .8*(.15*1.5+.85)) = 162.4
WB (and 1 tick) - 105*(.25*1.5 + .75) = 118.125
VB - 100*(.25*1.5 + .75) = 112.5

Total = 554.275

Orig way

SS - 140*(.15*1.5 + .85) = 150.5
WB - and 2 ticks, 150*(.25*1.5 + .75) = 168.75
VB - 1 tick, 135*(.25*1.5 + .75) = 151.875
HS - 150 * (.25*1.5 + .75) = 168.75

Total = 639.875

So...yea. Not to mention, with IR, its skewed even more towards getting SS and dots up first instead of delaying 2.5 seconds.

Also, thats not even mentioning the extra tick of possible bloodletter reset chance.

Also, you have to delay bloodletter in your scenario in order to take advantage of IR and SS.

EDIT: Furthermore, your formula for SS (((140 * 1.5) * 0.2) + 140) is wrong, as you don't have a .2 chance of crit, and then a 1.0 chance of "normal", you have a .2 chance of crit, and a .8 chance of normal. Aka it would look like (((140 * 1.5) * 0.2) + 140*.8), which is even lower than my way of accounting for base crit.