How does BRD play in HW (no SB, no Shad)

[HyoMinPark]

The good thing about BRD is that it plays almost the same at level 60 compared to level 70, so you can take what I’m about to say and use it throughout the next 10 levels of gameplay should you decide to level it to 70–the only thing that changes at level cap is what you pair Barrage with should the RNG gods smile upon you (in addition to some support skills you get, but they do not directly influence your rotation much).


At level 52, you gain your third and final rotational song (the Wanderer’s Minuet), as well as an oGCD that is exclusive only to that song (Pitch Perfect)—Pitch Perfect has varying potencies depending on your Repertoire stacks, which is what you gain when your DoTs deal critical damage. PP can have 1-stack (100 potency), 2-stack (240 potency), or 3-stack potencies (420 potency); ideally, you want to always use it at 3-stacks because it is the strongest then. When Minuet is about to end, blow any stacks of Repertoire you have before it cuts, even if it’s just a 1-stack PP.

The best way to make use of this song and it’s oGCD is to upkeep both of your DoTs (Windbite and Venomous Bite)—you will refresh these both simultaneously with Iron Jaws (level 56), rather than manually reapplying them. Which, as you have pointed out, allows you an extra Heavy Shot GCD over recasting a DoT (Iron Jaws is a godsend).


A BRD’s single-target song rotation goes: the Wanderer’s Minuet > Mage’s Ballad > Army’s Paeon. You will play the first two for the full duration (30 seconds), and Army’s Paeon for 20 seconds—so your normal song rotation is on an 80-second rotation (30 seconds > 30 seconds > 20 seconds). AOE rotation is similar, except you start off with Mage’s Ballad > Army’s Paeon > the Wanderer’s Minuet; because the first two offer more AOE potential compared to Minuet. You can play these for the full duration in AOE scenarios (typically dungeons). While in AOE scenarios, make sure to DoT more than one enemy—this allows for more Rain of Death procs in Mage’s Ballad, and faster accumulation of Haste (Army’s Paeon) for Quick Nock spam, and PP (Minuet) procs for small bursts against one target. You will have to rotate targets to maintain DoT upkeep.



Since you mentioned Barrage, I’ll add in a tidbit about it—

At level 54, you gain Empyreal Arrow. When it comes to Barrage usage, from this point on (up until level 70), you will always Barrage Empyreal Arrow for a triple-hit with a 230 potency skill. Though Empyreal Arrow is an oGCD, it does function with Barrage because the game classifies it as a weaponskill, and it is much better to use it over Heavy Shot or a Straighter Shot proc (especially since Straighter Shot is RNG).

Barrage timing is used almost exclusively during the Wanderer’s Minuet, which is when you also use Raging Strikes. In single-target scenarios, Minuet is your strongest song, so you will always want to pair your +10% damage buff with it. And you will always want Barrage to be under that +10% damage buff as well. All three (Minuet, Raging Strikes, and Barrage) line up nicely in an 80-second rotation.



At level 60, you gain Sidewinder, which you will use on cooldown. BUT—always make sure that you are upkeeping both DoTs for it! Sidewinder is 260 potency ONLY if both of your DoTs are applied.

While you didn't mention it, I'm sure you're also using Raging Strikes when you get it and combining it with either Sidewinder + (Barrage) Empyreal Arrow or Sidewinder + Pitch Perfect

Small clarification here—you will never hold Sidewinder for a Raging Strikes window. It should be used on cooldown, because delaying it will result in lost usages of it over the course of a given fight.

Ideally, if you have a NIN in the party, Sidewinder will generally line up with their Trick Attacks if they are staying on top of their timings.



Other than that, I think you have the basics mostly down. I think you just needed some clarification on a few things, and perhaps a couple more tips for Level 60 BRD. And, as I said before, not much changes between 60 and 70, so your gameplay will not change too much once you hit 70 BRD.

Since we're talking about Heavensward output, technically the best option to use your Barrage ability on is Empyreal Arrow since I'm pretty sure a patch was made so that the auto-crit on Barrage only applies to one of 3 strikes, not to mention it's a total of 420 potency versus 690.

No, all three of your Barrage strikes have the ability to crit/crit-direct hit regardless of level. Back in HW, Barrage was guaranteed to never crit, but they changed that with Stormblood—all three hits can crit (and it is a beautiful sight when they do).