BARD resource?

[Illya]

I've seen bard players who macro everything and ones who macro nothing. DPS wise I don't know which approach is better.

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?

[HaelseMikiro]

If you're going to use that macro, Heavy Shot goes first.

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

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?

Nope. Just make sure you have SS up when you apply them. Getting Straighter Shot procs from HS usage makes the overlap issue moot , as you'll be resetting the SS buff when you can. Use WB prior to VB in your rotation; for any situation that warrants putting both dots up, WB first is the better choice.

[Viridiana]

But if you want to get picky, since VB front loads 100 potency, you could use it first on any enemy that you'd expect to die in <12 seconds, and WB first on one that you'd expect to live > 12 seconds. As both skills would have done exactly 240 potency worth of damage at 4 ticks (12 sec)

I disagree. I did the math on it several months back, and it actually breaks down even more than that.

[HaelseMikiro]

I disagree. I did the math on it several months back, and it actually breaks down even more than that.

Thanks for the reply. I went to your math post (actually extended your math out all the way to Refresh/6 ticks, since yours only went as far as the 3/2 tick point).
And you're right, Using WB before VB almost always keeps you 10-20 potency ahead of using VB before WB. Using VB first only gives you a potency advantage from the instant you use VB until WB gets it's first tick. And depending on your skill speed and when during the system clock the ticks start applying, that's a maximum of a 5.5 second window. Which makes VB first more effective during only (MAX) 30.5% of your 18 second dot rotation

[Tua]

I dropped HS from my BL/ME spam macro since I found it easier to ride the GCD with skill queues instead of counting on correct macro button press timing. My current spam setup consists of GCD skills on 1234 and ME/BL+facetarget on a turbo button on my mouse - this lets me queue each GCD skill and also spam ME/BL ceaselessly while always facing the target (dem autoattacks). Queued GCD skill presses actually take priority over macros so the GCD skills always go off when they become available and shameless turbo button spam sneaks in ME/BL immediately when they become available.

[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?