GCD or insta-cast abilities more important?

[Scorp6]

Hello everyone. I'm planning my macros and the orders for them as a BRD. My question is: Would it be more beneficial to cast bloodletter first even if the GCD is ready to start bloodletter's cool down?

This is of course assuming straight shot buff and DOTS are up. Should my priority be to use heavy shot to get the GCD going or Bloodletter to get that cool down started? Thanks for the help!

[Urthdigger]

GCD first. That way you can use it when bloodletter is down without losing time (you need to wait a second between the two, and it will still wait if the first ability doesn't fire.)

[Spoekes]

Instant Abilities in this game are not instant.
Instant = offGcD and they delay your next Ability by ~1.3 Seconds.

With this in mind I would only use such macro if you find yourself often missing the procced Bloodletter and you do not want to improve on that and don't want to pay more attention.

You get the most of your offGCD Abilities if you weave them in exactly between your GCDs.
In very few situations there are execptions to this.

With any "sequence" macro it will happen that you delay your next GCD by up to 1.3 seconds.
Bard has more than 1 offGCD Ability, so this can quickly add up to a loss of double digit amount of GCD over the course of a fight.

Like stated above, it may help you if you are lazy or just don't want to pay much attention or don't care that you are giving 80% instead of 100% in your performance.

Also, this applies to most classes, not only Bard.

[Ecosmith]

I've noticed that often when an ability hasnt been used for ages, if I use another one, I can't use the first one either until the second has recharged. Other abilities are immune to this and I can click them whenever they've recharged.

Can someone explain why/how this works? I dont understand why i cant use an ability when its recharged just because I use a completely differemt ability.

[vanityobscene]

Like stated above, it may help you if you are lazy or just don't want to pay much attention or don't care that you are giving 80% instead of 100% in your performance.

It also helps if you play with a controller. Thought I'd add that in as fumbling between triggers does cut into getting them out, not to mention misfires of the wrong abilities. Stuff that's really only overcome with a lot of patience and practice.

On the whole though, from what I've seen and been told Bards are part DPS part support, it's okay for a bard to lose a little time on most occasions. By the time it actually matters you'll probably have become adept enough to work all of this out on your own.

[Spoekes]

I've noticed that often when an ability hasnt been used for ages, if I use another one, I can't use the first one either until the second has recharged. Other abilities are immune to this and I can click them whenever they've recharged.

Can someone explain why/how this works? I dont understand why i cant use an ability when its recharged just because I use a completely differemt ability.

can't follow, can you give an example?

[vanityobscene]

can't follow, can you give an example?

He might referring to chain / procced actions? For example Misery's End. It has a recast timer, but can only be used at 20% enemy health.

[Ecosmith]

Heavy Swing, for example. I click that and even though Skull Sunder is available until then, once I click Heavy Swing, not having activated Skull Sunder, Skull Sunder still has to recharge. If I click Heavy Swing again, Skull Sunder recharges again. It doesnt make sense.

Things like Brutal Swing and Bloodbath don't act like this. They act normally.

[Urthdigger]

That's the global cooldown. Most abilities share a recast timer.

[Ecosmith]

Why? I can understand each ability having a recharge timer, but not why using one would stop me using another. Will it eventually be possible for me to make an attack chain that has no gaps?