Poor DPS - apparently. Need advise.

[OmegaNovaios]

snip

Get the iLv 55 GC bow before you spend points on redistributing full DEX. Then redistribute to 30 DEX. The WPN DMG from wpns count for way more DPS than any single slot upgrade in armor will benefit from both DEX and the secondary stats even if you didn't count the additional DEX and secondary stats from the wpn (unless it's a MASSIVE upgrade in armor compared to a small upgrade in wpn). While BRD doesn't get as many bonus WPN DMG per wpn it's still somewhere around this formula:

+1 DMG = about +2.5% DPS, +15 DEX = about +2.5% DPS (and if I'm not wrong allocated attribute points seem to scale slightly higher than an equivalent number in geared attribute points aside form VIT and PIE, but it's hard to test extensively with the respec cost), and you need way more than +15 in secondary stats to see around +2.5% DPS.

After that you should aim for either and Ifrit or Garuda bow and then move on to Relic/Titan.

[OmegaNovaios]

continued

If you play BRD correctly you can hit high numbers w/o the best gear in the game. My first win on Turn 5 was with BRD with i80 wpn and full i70 gear (i71 avg) and I was parsing at about 90% of the DMG of near full i90 gear BRD, DRG, and BLM (while singing songs) in v2.0 and I prefer controller as BRD. In 2.1 even after nerf I'm still parsing #1 or #2 while singing at key intervals in every PUG I'm joining. BRD still has a great advantage in being able to have 100% max DPS (not just 100% uptime) while mobile if played correctly (which is way easier on controller given the number of actions needed to maximize DPS and I would never attempt to maximize DPS as SMN on controller unless I was willing to change my hotbar(s) for every fight).

This game is about 80% skill and 20% gear. Stats WILL not carry you through this game.

[OmegaNovaios]

continued 2

I use 2 macros for DPS:

DPS macro:
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>
/ac "Blunt Arrow" <t>

Buff Macro:
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Hawk's Eye" <me>
/ac "Barrage" <me>
/ac "Raging Strikes" <me>
/ac "Quelling Strikes" <me>

Controller Hotbar (only need 1 for single target max DPS and songs):
R2 Side: "Playstation Controller Reference"
X - "DPS Macro"
Circle - Straight Shot
Triangle - Windbite
Square - Venomous Bite
Down - Bloodletter
Right - Repelling Shot
Up - Buff Macro
Left - Flaming Arrow

L2 Side:
X - Invigorate
Circle - Mantra
Triangle - Second Wind
Square - Swiftsong
Down - Battle Voice
Right - Army's Paeon
Up - Foe Requiem
Left - Mage's Ballad

[OmegaNovaios]

continued 3

It takes skill/knowledge to use the macros at ABSOLUTE 100% effectiveness but massing them down as soon as soon as everything is available is still great DPS, but be sure to save all the CDs from the Buff Macro for DPS checks. I also use a 2nd controller hotbar just for AOE DPS, but it's not too hard to setup with the same template. And use a 2nd DPS macro w/o Blunt Arrow in it and place a Blunt Arrow macro in place of Repelling Shot and replace Swiftsong with Repelling Shot. You will also need a macro w/o Blood for Blood for certain fights so you don't kill yourself and place that somewhere on your hotbar. Bloodletter is also used outside the macro since you can still proc while using applying your DOTs.

[Alkimi]

I use 2 macros for DPS:

DPS macro:
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>
/ac "Blunt Arrow" <t>

Buff Macro:
/ac "Internal Release" <me>
/ac "Blood for Blood" <me>
/ac "Hawk's Eye" <me>
/ac "Barrage" <me>
/ac "Raging Strikes" <me>
/ac "Quelling Strikes" <me>

Personally I have BfB and QS on seperate macros. QS is rarely ever used if your tanks are half decent and there's a lot of fights where you have to be careful when to use BfB. I guess you can change the macro depending on the fight though, only takes 2 seconds.

[Ooshima]

Isn't spamming buffs like that (macro) waste of up time?

Although it's instant cast but there's animation involved and by the time you finish your last chain of buff you'd probably wasted a few seconds of the 1st buff's time and time to DPS.

Personally I play BRD without any macro, and I manually buff myself in between weaponskills since buffs are off GCD. Usually I start off like: Straight Shot > Blood Letter > BFB > Venomous Bite > Internal Release > Windbite > Hawkeye/Raging Strikes > so on and so forth.

Of course if blood letter gets refreshed in between I'll fire it off as OGCD immediately available.

[OmegaNovaios]

Isn't spamming buffs like that (macro) waste of up time?

The macro doesn't have a wait command. It doesn't use every ability in the macro at once. It uses the first ability available in the macro if it's available when you press the button, or in this case Internal Release. If internal Release is down and you press the button it will use Blood for Blood next. If you don't want to use Quelling Strikes then you just use every action before that and wait for the CDs of the rest to renew or you can make a second macro to swap out with, it's faster than editing the same one over and over. Personally I put an extra PC version hotbar over the controller hotbar with all the CDs on it to see all the timers. Sometimes the macro bugs out and uses them out of order but it's around 90% bug free atm. I use one buff/oGCD between each GCD when needed.

[Ooshima]

The macro doesn't have a wait command. It doesn't use every ability in the macro at once. It uses the first ability available in the macro if it's available when you press the button, or in this case Internal Release. If internal Release is down and you press the button it will use Blood for Blood next.

What I mean is chaining all the OGCD buffs is kinda wasting uptime because:

eg:
/ac BFB -> toon does animation
=> by then your weaponskill CD is already done

instead of firing off a heavy shot now, the macro continues to chain other buffs

I would have fired off a heavy shot first and make use of the BFB's (or whatever buff that is up) rather than let it tick off without doing damage than chaining the next few buffs, which equally gets wasted because I'm not doing damage.

IDK if I've phrased it well >.<