BRD DPS (And how to improve mine!)

[Ooshima]

Does Flaming Arrow not show up on data collection? Seems it would also be a good chunk of damage, especially when buffed.

Should be under "Simulated DoTs (Out)", the "Skill/Ability (Out)" shows weaponskills/spells impact damage only.

[JohnMccain]

Macros is entirely personal preference. I used to macro BL to HS, but I'm back to full manual. Some people bind BL and ME to HS, some bind them to even the 2 DoTs. It's up to you.

I personally wouldn't advise using a spam macro. BRD is already an easy enough class to play as stated why would you need macros to make it easier? Bloodletter has a long animation. Being stuck in animation lock from bloodletter going into your global can eat away your dps by quite a bit. Mastering BRD is about maximizing dps and using a macro to promote laziness is not doing so. Use your bloodletter procs/misery's end manually, if bloodletter or misery's end is triggered after your global reaches the 7:00 position save it and use it right after your next global. Just my experience of using macros, take it or leave it.

[Ooshima]

I personally wouldn't advise using a spam macro. BRD is already an easy enough class to play as stated why would you need macros to make it easier? Bloodletter has a long animation. Being stuck in animation lock from bloodletter going into your global can eat away your dps by quite a bit. Mastering BRD is about maximizing dps and using a macro to promote laziness is not doing so. Use your bloodletter procs/misery's end manually, if bloodletter or misery's end is triggered after your global reaches the 7:00 position save it and use it right after your next global. Just my experience of using macros, take it or leave it.

One of the reason why I switched back to manual. After experimenting a little with macros (after hearing many players claiming that it is good), I find manual slightly more advantageous.

There are a lot of times in battle you need to care for mechanics and such and your concentration on your CD timers and stuffs can get off track a little, and a small macro such as binding BL to HS can be helpful. It all depends on the player - what the player is comfortable with, and current level of proficiency. Some players may benefit from macro, some don't. If at a certain point, a BL-bind-to-HS macro can help a player to concentrate more on mechanics and eventually improve DPS, then I think he/she has a reason to use. When he/she gets used to the fight, I think eventually he/she can notice the little times you don't want to fire that BL yet but because it is macro'd, it fired, then it would be his/her learning experience to figure out how to overcome it in his/her own play style and further improve from there.

That's why I can't deny macro do have its uses, just depending on who's the user.

[Judge_Xero]

Should be under "Simulated DoTs (Out)", the "Skill/Ability (Out)" shows weaponskills/spells impact damage only.

Thanks for that info.

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So I would think for the OP, a good single target opener should be.

Straight Shot -> Blood for Blood - > Raging Strikes ->Heavy Shot - >
DEX Pot - > Hawk's Eye ->Internal Release -> Windbite -> Bloodletter -> Venomous Bite -> Barrage -> Flaming Arrow

Internal Release should line up with each Flaming Arrow, and 3rd set of Venom/Windbite. Paired with the Straight Shot buff will help with Bloodletter procs.

It might be worth Macroing a DEX Pot to Hawk's Eye (I assume you get an additional 15% on the Pot when used with Hawk's Eye)

Barrage Lines up with every other Raging Strikes and every Blood for Blood.

Then the rest looks good. Just keep up all your DoTs.
(Flaming Arrow counts as a DoT - 30s = 10 Ticks @ 35 Potency for a total of 350 Potency)

Make sure Venom and Wind Crit is as buffed as you can make it for a higher chance at Bloodletter procs. (crit stays for the duration of the dot as well as any buffs prior to dotting)

Make sure to use Repelling shot and Blunt arrow on CD (unless Silence is required)

Work on making a comfortable UI so that you have full control of your skills without having to macro them together.
Disable Action help text. - it gets in the way of your action bar.
Make multiple layers of skill bars for easy access, and then you can make any blocks that aren't in use invisible. (lock your skill bars)

The rest should be practice and muscle memory.

[tOnni3]

When you don't want BL to fire off since there is a chance to be reset every second ?

[Ooshima]

Snip

Corrections:
- IR doesn't affect your floor DoT Flaming Arrow. It is affected by Hawk's Eye only apparently (Floor DoT icons appears as a buff on you, while Venom/Windbite DoT appears on the target itself).
- Using DEX pot before or after Hawk's eye does not affect its result, it is not multiplicative but additive.

When you don't want BL to fire off since there is a chance to be reset every second ?

One correction first - every DoT tick is every 3s, so your chance of a proc is every 3s, not every second.

User JohnMccain have stated earlier - BL have a pretty long animation. Some would call it "animation lock". During this period, you are unable to fire off any other skill.

You will face scenarios like your GCD timer is about 70% refreshed and your BL proc'd. Your question is, should you fire your BL immediately, right now? I would choose not to. Reason due to the long animation lock. By the time the lock is over, I might have wasted 1s of my GCD timer. Or put it in another perspective - should I not have this BL proc, I could have used another GCD skill 1s earlier than I could if I used the BL.

While you might think that 1s may not be a thing, but if this happens consecutively, it is a loss in DPS. In the above scenario, I would choose to fire off a GCD skill first following by firing off the BL proc immediately after. The chances of a new proc within this 1s of time is extremely low, and compared to the 1s of definite time lost, I think the choice is clear.

Of course you have other scenario like if you know things like High Voltage is immediately up next, you should not fire your BL because the animation lock is likely to cause you to miss shooting your blunt arrow in time. Fire your blunt arrow/do whatever you need to first.

A lot of times, the kind of judgment call you make over long fights can make a difference to your DPS performance.

[tOnni3]

i see, thanks for explanation.

[Judge_Xero]

Corrections:
- IR doesn't affect your floor DoT Flaming Arrow. It is affected by Hawk's Eye only apparently (Floor DoT icons appears as a buff on you, while Venom/Windbite DoT appears on the target itself).
- Using DEX pot before or after Hawk's eye does not affect its result, it is not multiplicative but additive.

That's strange about Inner Release. Even if it appears as a buff on yourself the effect should be attached to the skill, as Internal Release says it just increases your Crit Rate.

I'm confused about your response to DEX Pot. I know that the POT is additive, but Hawks eye is a % increase to DEX so Multiplicative.

So 540 DEX - HQ X-Pot of Dex +82 - 622 DEX -> Hawk's Eye 715 DEX

But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the algorithm for Hawk's Eye didn't include the Pot and pulled DEX from just gear stats.
Without Hawk's Eye effecting the DEX Pot = 703 Dex
Not that an extra 12 DEX is OMG ZERG.

[Elkya95]

I'm just gonna bump in on this thread and ask how bards without macros do their UI/keybinds. I'm trying hard to not use macros and I just can't find comfortable keybinds and my UI is a complete mess from trying different things...

[Ooshima]

That's strange about Inner Release. Even if it appears as a buff on yourself the effect should be attached to the skill, as Internal Release says it just increases your Crit Rate.

I'm confused about your response to DEX Pot. I know that the POT is additive, but Hawks eye is a % increase to DEX so Multiplicative.

So 540 DEX - HQ X-Pot of Dex +82 - 622 DEX -> Hawk's Eye 715 DEX

But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the algorithm for Hawk's Eye didn't include the Pot and pulled DEX from just gear stats.
Without Hawk's Eye effecting the DEX Pot = 703 Dex
Not that an extra 12 DEX is OMG ZERG.

I remembered I read somewhere in BRD theorycrafting and testing threads that Flaming Arrow is being affected by Hawk's Eye only, so yeah, I haven't done anything to prove it myself.

As for pot, some time back I remembered I tried using pot then hawk, and vice-versa, my total DEX doesn't change either way I use it. Unless memory is failing me

I would like to see a ~4 min parse if you don't mind(2 invigorates+running out of tp).

Approx 3:50 before I run out of TP (dropped to 20), 399 DPS