Best bow for ARC/BRD

[Dzian]

Ifrit's Bow:- 102 damage 4.3 delay
Garuda's Spine:- 71 damage 3.1 delay

Going on my earlier mentioned parses and maths ifrits bows 4.3 delay = 13.95 light shots a minute so we'll say 14.

Garuda's Spine 3.1 delay = 19.35 lightshots a minute. mathmatically I should drop that to 19

Here's where the problems start.

Based on old parses and a few current ones while trying to go full dps for the short order moogle achieve (missed by seconds) with my ifrits bow in a ~10 minute fight I put out 226 shots. that equates to 22.6 shots a minute so I'll round it up to 23 hits a minute. Based on weapon delay and the maximum number of light shots in that time frame being 14 that means I put out 9 skills per minute over the course of a 10 minute fight.

Now if you assume a bard with garuda's spine has the exact same tp over time they should also put out 9 skills a minute over the course of a 10 minute fight which if added to there light shots should indicate a bard to be able to put out 28 shots a minute. Thus at the end of that fight resulting in about ~280 shots in total.

From what I've gathered from bards using the spine it just doesnt add up this way. There just isn't enough time to put out all these shots. If you're putting out those extra light shots then your skills are being used slower.

What it equates to is in that 5 or 6 second window you get between combos do you either ls > ls >ls or do you ls > gloom arrow > ls. There isnt time to do 3 ls and a gloom arrow before your combos start coming up. which basically means your doing a trade off.

What it boils down to is at the end of these 10 minute fights where brds using ifrits bow are putting out 22-23 shots a minute. bards using garudas bow are typically only putting out 22-24 shots a minute also and thus end up doing less damage. becuase 4-6 of there shots a minute never happen. If they try and maximise there light shots they sacrifice the number of skills so it seems to be a case of one or the other but you cant have both. Which is why I think alot of bards are sticking with the ifrits bow.

If you try and squeeze 2 ls between skills you end up slowing your combos down which ultimately means you do less of them and thus the only real time you have to put out those extra lightshots is between combos where alot of bards currently tend to burn there excess tp spamming gloom arrows, heavy shot or even rain of death if tp hits 3000. A quelling striked barrage will soon get your combo tp back up after emptying it on rain of death.

with my damage output/DPS increasing ever since obtaining and properly using Garuda's Spine.

I will say however, being that it is a lower delay bow, it requires more on-hands management and may have a bit of a learning curve. Like I said before, I made a Light Shot Macro to hit between weaponskills to keep the CD on LS without having to move across my action bar from LS to WS to LS... (gamepad).

Interesting point it could simply be a very different play style to optimise garuda's bow. but like you i have a light shot macro which i hit between every skill. one thing i notice is that you only refer to keeping ls on cd. are all your skills kept on cd to? inc gloom & heavy?

[NoctisUmbra]

Ifrit's Bow:- 102 damage 4.3 delay
Garuda's Spine:- 71 damage 3.1 delay

Going on my earlier mentioned parses and maths ifrits bows 4.3 delay = 13.95 light shots a minute so we'll say 14.

Garuda's Spine 3.1 delay = 19.35 lightshots a minute. mathmatically I should drop that to 19

Here's where the problems start.

Based on old parses and a few current ones while trying to go full dps for the short order moogle achieve (missed by seconds) with my ifrits bow in a ~10 minute fight I put out 226 shots. that equates to 22.6 shots a minute so I'll round it up to 23 hits a minute. Based on weapon delay and the maximum number of light shots in that time frame being 14 that means I put out 9 skills per minute over the course of a 10 minute fight.

Now if you assume a bard with garuda's spine has the exact same tp over time they should also put out 9 skills a minute over the course of a 10 minute fight which if added to there light shots should indicate a bard to be able to put out 28 shots a minute. Thus at the end of that fight resulting in about ~280 shots in total.

From what I've gathered from bards using the spine it just doesnt add up this way. There just isn't enough time to put out all these shots. If you're putting out those extra light shots then your skills are being used slower.

What it equates to is in that 5 or 6 second window you get between combos do you either ls > ls >ls or do you ls > gloom arrow > ls. There isnt time to do 3 ls and a gloom arrow before your combos start coming up. which basically means your doing a trade off.

What it boils down to is at the end of these 10 minute fights where brds using ifrits bow are putting out 22-23 shots a minute. bards using garudas bow are typically only putting out 22-24 shots a minute also and thus end up doing less damage. becuase 4-6 of there shots a minute never happen. If they try and maximise there light shots they sacrifice the number of skills so it seems to be a case of one or the other but you cant have both. Which is why I think alot of bards are sticking with the ifrits bow.

If you try and squeeze 2 ls between skills you end up slowing your combos down which ultimately means you do less of them and thus the only real time you have to put out those extra lightshots is between combos where alot of bards currently tend to burn there excess tp spamming gloom arrows, heavy shot or even rain of death if tp hits 3000. A quelling striked barrage will soon get your combo tp back up after emptying it on rain of death.


Interesting point it could simply be a very different play style to optimise garuda's bow. but like you i have a light shot macro which i hit between every skill. one thing i notice is that you only refer to keeping ls on cd. are all your skills kept on cd to? inc gloom & heavy?

A nice assessment. First to answer your question, yes I keep my WS on cooldown. In fact I find the more constant use of LS between skills via macro to help me on that end. While the TP gain may ultimately be the same, with a higher delay weapon one gains TP in chunks, whereas a lower delay weapon one gradually gains TP. This can help during those times when you're just 100 TP short of a WS, but have to wait 4.2s versus 3.1.

That all being said, this is where I feel an understanding of the game's mechanics as well as faults, particularly with server lag, come into play. Knowing you timed your LS macro between weapon skills with the confidence that it will fire off and go into cooldown while you move onto hit your next WS I find is the key. It can get tricky since you typically will not see the LS animation between WS if done correctly, and to add to that the LS icon goes into cooldown visually a bit after one hits it. This is with action queue on.

Although it is tougher to maintain DPS on a lower delay bow, even a higher delay one such as Ifrit's can have LS cooldowns missed or delayed for WS CDs and vice versa. Ultimately it boils down to the player's preference and skill.

I did the Garuda burn repeatedly - many of them as BRD using Ifrit's Bow. The Spine was my first drop, and that gave me ample time to sort of test it in the same fight environment and compare to my numbers with Ifrit's. I knew from the get-go I'd need a LS macro, being a pad user, to keep the CD on LS between weapon skills and so I went into my first fight using the Spine prepared. My DPS was not all that different though I had expected an increase due to what was found out about weapon DPS values. I had definitely missed some CDs and mistimed my LS and WSs though. After each fight I got consistently better and to this day still prefer the Spine.

I will say though, ultimately, a player who does not like to or cannot effectively deal with the high maintenance of the Spine will indeed put out more damage with Ifrit's Bow.