But that being said there is no rotation that you can just macro for highest DPS. You need to monitor the environment at all times as well as if you have the benefits proc to the next buffs.
If your macroing bard abilitys you're not doing "highest" dps and its why your finding it harder. Bard played properly is about the same level of difficulty, atleast from the few hours I played machinist.

Personnaly I like the more random elements, 123 rotations are boring.