Low Level Bard Question

[PenelopeWinn]

Generally speaking ( assuming you don't have insane skill speed for no good reason ) you can fit 5 skills on the global cool-down in between your first dot applications. If you keep this in mind you will never have to check to see when your dots will fall off. The macro in the above post will help you if your not to good at weaving in your cds but i would highly suggest you start practicing at low lvls without them so by the time your 50 you wont rely on a macro. Also i disagree with the start of his endgame rotation, it isn't usually a good idea to blow them all off the back like that but instead weave them in.

[RyuDragnier]

As Nyalia said, keeping DoTs up is very important as a BRD. It's about 50% or more of your DPS, and without it you're bringing the party down. I also agree with using your buffs when you can, but do NOT use them one after the other, you throw one in while the GCD on your attack skills is going. Just make sure that the Straight Shot buff on you is always going (don't use the move unless the Straighter Shot crit procs or it runs out), keep your DoTs up, and use your cooldowns (buffs) when they come up and you'll be fine 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time is the boss fights where you really want to time some of your buffs for burn phases and whatnot, but you can worry about that at endgame.

Also, for songs, use Mage's Ballad if the healer's MP reaches about 2/3 or lower, or if they've just been revived from death. It may lower your overall power, but it keeps their MP up enough so they can heal, and so rest of the party can survive due to it. Just be sure to turn it off once their MP gets over 75% or if the battle ends, you don't usually want your damage output to be down that long. I really only suggest that for WHMs usually, since it's easier as a SCH to keep your MP up thanks to Aetherflow and Energy Drain. Use

Foe's Requiem whenever there is a BLM or a SMN in the party to help up the power of their spells against the enemy, but be careful as it has a HUGE radius that can cause some aggro onto you since you're debuffing the mobs with the skill. Though I don't suggest the song being on during 8-man instance bosses simply because you never know when things will go wrong and you'll end up having to throw out Mage's Ballad.

Make sure to use Battle Voice with any song once you get it, simply because it doubles the power of all songs. And once you get Quelling Strikes, don't be afraid to combine it with Raging Strikes, since it lowers the aggro gain of all attacks you do for 15 seconds (which really comes in handy to 'cancel' the increased aggro caused by your buffed attacks). That's all the tips I have for a new BRD, until I think up anything else.