How do i increase my dps as a brd?

[Warrlordd]

haha... alright. cool, then you've done less dps :P if thats how u like ur bard cool

[Mezolitik]

Regarding Barrage: your auto-attack is constantly firing. As such, Barrage can be as powerful as ~800 potency before you take other buffs into account. To say that it's powerful is putting it lightly.

So, auto-attack works in the background even if you're 'overwriting' the animation with skills? I tend not to use it, as the animation is very slow; there seems to be several seconds between each attack.

Thanks for all the help

[Thorauku]

So, auto-attack works in the background even if you're 'overwriting' the animation with skills? I tend not to use it, as the animation is very slow; there seems to be several seconds between each attack.

Thanks for all the help

Cast Barrage, spam Heavy Shot, you'll notice the effect of barrage is taking place in every Heavy Shot you release.

[Viridiana]

haha... alright. cool, then you've done less dps :P if thats how u like ur bard cool

Even on our fastest weapon, Garuda's Spine, the potency of two free auto-attacks generated by Barrage is greater than the 150 potency of Bloodletter. That means that if, at any point, you let Bloodletter take advantage of a buff instead of letting Barrage take advantage of that buff, you aren't optimally using the buff. If we use Raging Strikes as an example, this means that the delay caused by using Bloodletter should not push the final auto-attack of Barrage past the time where Raging Strikes falls off. In order for Bloodletter to not do this, the delay caused by Bloodletter (approximately 1 GCD delay) must be shorter than the time remaining between the last shot of Barrage and Raging Strikes' end. Said time remaining can be anywhere from .01 seconds to just below the full delay of the weapon.

I'll use Artemis Bow Zenith and full ilvl 90 gear optimized for skill speed to make this as favorable as possible. Then I'll do full ilvl 70 (Garuda's Spine). Lastly, I'll show it with an actual BIS set.

This set with SS food should have about 210 skill speed from gear/food. That's a GCD of 2.29. Of the 328 values the delay can take, 229 of them are at or below the threshold, indicating a loss of DPS as the 2.29 second delay pushes the final shot past the buff.
Odds of pushing: 229/328=~.70
Odds of not pushing: 99/328=~.30
Barrage potency: ~218
Bloodletter potency: 150
Barrage potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 42
Barrage potency gain if pushed: 0
Bloodletter potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 30
Bloodletter potency gain if pushed: 30
Expected return (Odds not pushed) x (total if not pushed) - (odds pushed) x (total if not pushed - total if pushed) = 7.8 expected potency loss. Remember that this is the one that's stacked in favor of your idea.

This set with food should hit about 40 SS. That's a 2.46 GCD. Garuda's Spine has a 2.48 second delay. The math is almost unnecessary for this one, but I'll humor you.
Odds of pushing: 246/248=~.99
Odds of not pushing: 02/248=~.01
Barrage potency: ~164
Bloodletter potency: 150
Barrage potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 32
Barrage potency gain if pushed: 0
Bloodletter potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 30
Bloodletter potency gain if pushed: 30
Expected return: (Odds not pushed) x (total if not pushed) - (odds pushed) x (total if not pushed - total if pushed) = 31.06 expected potency loss.

This set is listed as the first set in the BRD BIS thread on these forums. 71 SS means a 2.43 delay, with a 3.20 weapon.
Odds of pushing: 243/320=~.76
Odds of not pushing: 77/320=~.24
Barrage potency: ~213
Bloodletter potency: 150
Barrage potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 42
Barrage potency gain if pushed: 0
Bloodletter potency gain (20%) if not pushed: 30
Bloodletter potency gain if pushed: 30
Expected return: (Odds not pushed) x (total if not pushed) - (odds pushed) x (total if not pushed - total if pushed) = 14.61 expected potency loss.

So, when every scenario I can come up with shows an expected potency loss, how is it that my method is a dps loss?

[Warrlordd]

all that info is fantastic and im not going to read it. Reality is you can use barrage and still spam bloodletter.

i'm not even sure what you're trying to argue anymore.

[Bardo]

STOP CALLING IT "WINDBITER"

that is all...

[File2ish]

Others have already pretty much answered your question but:

What I do is generally: Straight Shot -> Venomous Bite -> Bloodletter -> Wind Bite -> Heavyshot (until straight shot buff or DoTs are near wear, plugging in bloodletter when it procs and misery's end when applicable since they're not GCD).

Use bloodletter between any GCD if you get the proc from a crit DoT with the level 48 (or whatever level) trait. That is, of course, unless you are expecting to need to use Blunt Arrow in a fight and don't want to lock yourself in teh animation when you need the silence. And like other DPS jobs, plug in other skills in between global cooldown for max DPS. So if I know I won't need bind or silence, I might Straight Shot -> Internal release -> Venomous Bite -> Blunt arrow -> etc.

Other than that it's usually routine to keep straight shot and the DoTs up at all times, best DPS that way I think.

[Viridiana]

all that info is fantastic and im not going to read it. Reality is you can use barrage and still spam bloodletter.

i'm not even sure what you're trying to argue anymore.

I'm arguing that if your Bloodletter shoves an attack of your Barrage outside of a buff (that is, the buff goes to Bloodletter instead of Barrage) it's a DPS loss.

Yes, you can use Barrage while spamming Bloodletter. But if you're mindlessly using Bloodletter every time it comes off CD without considering anything else, you're going to lose DPS.

[Judge_Xero]

I thought it was fixed during beta that your WS wouldn't clip any of your AA damage regardless of the animation getting clipped.

[Viridiana]

I thought it was fixed during beta that your WS wouldn't clip any of your AA damage regardless of the animation getting clipped.

That's correct.