BARD resource?

[Tharian]

Agree 100%. ME & BL are off the GCD skills, so should be used between GCD's to maximize dps. Placing HS lowest in priority would cause non-GCD skills to be used first, delaying your GCD usage => reducing dps

Except generally speaking you always want to use your Off-GCD abilities whenever they are up. Putting Heavy Shot first in the priority of a Macro will prioritize that over the Off-GCD abilities, meaning that even if both Bloodletter and Misery's End are available for use at the time, you will use Heavy Shot first.

The problem is that Heavy Shot is a Potency 150 Attack, with a specific recast timer. Whereas Bloodletter is a Potency 150 Attack who automatically has it's recast timer reset each time your two DOT's score a critical strike. And Misery's End is a Potency 190 Attack. So not using full advantage of Bloodletter and Misery's End is actually crippling your DPS, not improving it.

[Argentt]

Since Straight Shot, Windbite, and Venomous Bite all have slightly overlapping durations, is there any kind of rotation for bard that optimizes their uptime without clipping or letting them drop?

I'd say BRD attacks follow more of a priority system than an actual rotation. I'm sure there's an exact specific opening rotation to maximize DPS, but past the first 10 GCDs or so, a static rotation goes out the window.

The main things to remember when applying the dots is that you want to apply them with as much crit as possible for the River of Blood procs. So you'll always want to have the straight shot buff up when casting dots, and you'll also want to pop Internal Release before applying them whenever it is available.

[Illya]

I'd say BRD attacks follow more of a priority system than an actual rotation. I'm sure there's an exact specific opening rotation to maximize DPS, but past the first 10 GCDs or so, a static rotation goes out the window.

The main things to remember when applying the dots is that you want to apply them with as much crit as possible for the River of Blood procs. So you'll always want to have the straight shot buff up when casting dots, and you'll also want to pop Internal Release before applying them whenever it is available.

What about RS and BfB? Just keep then on CD and burn them when up if you're not saving then to burst an add down? Do people prefer to stack RS and BfB on top of each other or use them separately?

[SeraviEdalborez]

Clipping is not the devil. Under 3 seconds left, re-use the DoT.

Macro'd GCD actions are strictly worse than unmacro'd by fractions of a second which add up over time. That said it's a much larger DPS loss to not be using BL/ME when they are up. For players with low reaction time, the 3-in-1 spambutton (or a 2-in-1 spambutton for just BL+ME to use between GCDs) is perfectly serviceable. Our BRDs' DPS holds up very well according to my abacus and they use the 3-in-1.

[MythToken]

Clipping is the devil, you are literally cutting the potency off of your Dot. You are also losing opportunity cost that you could be casting another damaging ability.

It would be better to let them drop off completely and reapply, than to clip.

[NintenPyjak64]

Clipping is the devil, you are literally cutting the potency off of your Dot. You are also losing opportunity cost that you could be casting another damaging ability.

It would be better to let them drop off completely and reapply, than to clip.

As Seravi said, it's not. If it's below 3 seconds, you're golden since DoTs tick on a 3 second "timer." Chances are your full potency has already gotten off and you're refreshing for the new potency

[MythToken]

As Seravi said, it's not. If it's below 3 seconds, you're golden since DoTs tick on a 3 second "timer." Chances are your full potency has already gotten off and you're refreshing for the new potency

This is useful info, did not know that.

[Argentt]

Stacking them is great damage when you can do it, and if you can keep them on cooldown they line up together every other cast of raging strikes. In practice it's all dependent on the fight as you may have to hold back for burn phases or to watch out for the BfB debuff when there's unavoidable damage coming up.

[SeraviEdalborez]

Even if you lose potency from clipping too early, it would not be a complete waste. The damage from VB and WB well exceeds that of Heavy Shot at 2/3 ticks. Less TP-efficient, sure, but compared to the baseline of Heavy Shot spam only it's still an "increase".