Bard Help(?)

[xXRaineXx]

Okay to start off, this isn't a Bard rant

I would consider myself a Bard veteran, my first choice for many mmo's are archers. But as a 3.0 Bard in FFXIV, I have been having some... trouble to say the least maintaining dps.

So let's get some things clear first. I play from Japan in a NA Server and my connection is generally 'poor' and sometimes 'good'. Latency is a big issue for me.

As of now, I am a ilvl198 Bard, I would say decently average Bard at that. My dummy parse at 3 mins is between 1050-1150 w/o food/potions. Now I know this isn't the best. But no matter how hard I try I just cannot seem to maintain;;

Here are some points.

1. I can do openers well over 2000+ slowly reducing to 1500 in the first minute, then BAM suddenly it just goes pop pop pop ooooom. I'm looking at a steady 1050 most of the time.
2. Due to the latency, weavings ogcd's sometimes cancels the next action cast. This does result in a loss time at around 2-3 seconds. This happens often when trying to cast flaming arrows/blood letter etc. I sometimes miss dots this way.
3. Again with latency, even after I stop moving, the next action sometimes cancels too as the lag still says I'm moving when I already stopped...
4. I try to weave as many bl's as I can, but as I said, this creates a net loss due to the latency.

Though even for me, it just seems unlikely latency can create such a huge net loss in dps, maybe it is an issue. Like my dummy parse and dungeon parses don't change...;;

What do you guys think? Am I simply doing something wrong with my rotation? Or is latency an issue? I am preparing to transfer to Chocobo after I mule all my gil btw.

[AxelDH]

2. "Due to the latency"
3. "Again with latency"
4. "due to the latency"

Is latency an issue? I kinda think you answered your own question! XD

[rappa]

Wtfast, pingzapper or other GPN. Actually, bard is not a good job to play with latency problems unless you don't use WM. And you won't that.

[Gamer3427]

How bad is your latency specifically? I play with a ping of 650-700 due to satellite internet. While I'm playing as a MCH and not a BRD, I would imagine that in this regard the general effects would be the same. I'm not seeming to have any of the issues you are, however. While I haven't done a pure DPS check lately, (I'm on PS4, so I have to manually add the numbers if I want to), I do know that in most level 60 runs I'm typically putting out more DPS than BRDs I've seen with higher iLevels and that are clearly good players, (rare though they may be), and if not more then at least the same as. More and more lately, I'm also beginning to wonder if the PS4 doesn't just handle latency better than PCs, since most PC players tend to consider the game completely "unplayable" with even half as much latency as me......

The only real issue my latency causes in my rotations that I've noticed is that procs take slightly longer to activate on the next skill in the chain. I'm aware that the BRD rotation is quite different than the MCH rotation, but perhaps attempting to use this to your advantage and make more use of OGCs as buffers while a proc is activating will help some?

[Linadae]

While I'm playing as a MCH and not a BRD,

There's your answer to be honest...sigh. Brd's "rotation" generally involves weaving two ogcds in between heavy shot and the two dots. Now with a cast timer we can't do that. Or if we do, we clip into the next cast, loosing dps in the process. Or even worse, we lose procs thanks to being mid-cast. Latency only makes it worse.

Bard was not built from the ground up to account for cast timers, unlike MCH. So now we're not only fighting latency and the boss, but also the class's own mechanics.

And the problem will only be solved if:

A. SE does a COMPLETE redesign of bard so it's skills and traits work properly with Wanderer's Minuet.

B. Make Fire arrow and our procs able to be fired off while mid cast (naturally adjusting damage to account for the change)

Or C. scrap Wanderer's and go back to 2.0 bard (once more tweaking damage to account for the old playstyle)

[Gamer3427]

There's your answer to be honest...sigh. Brd's "rotation" generally involves weaving two ogcds in between heavy shot and the two dots. Now with a cast timer we can't do that. Or if we do, we clip into the next cast, loosing dps in the process. Or even worse, we lose procs thanks to being mid-cast. Latency only makes it worse.

I can see how it might be more of a problem. We MCH do have a lot of OGC skills we have to weave in between our attacks, (between 2-5 depending on number of enemies, their current health, and whether they're immune to knockback or not), but if I remember right from a thread where someone was complaining about WM, the BRD OCGs have a longer animation before they are considered "used", which I can see causing some slowdown if you don't want to interrupt them, though I can never see a situation where using an OGC would interrupt a cast if you are paying attention. Still, even with that in mind, I do think that complaints in general about relatively low levels of latency such as 300ms are a bit blown out of proportion in regards to how much damage it does to a player's ability to play, (with possible exceptions to NIN, as I haven't gotten to that point on that class to test it out). As I said, I am genuinely beginning to wonder if it's not actually a PC related issue, rather than pure latency, if it is truly as bad as people claim.......

[rappa]

Please no Bard weren't designed to double oGCD. Due latency or your skill speed, sometimes was impossible to weave 2 oGCD betweens GCD.

Saying "We haven't double oGCD, the end is near!!!" is wrong. Bards require more concentration and practice.

[xXRaineXx]

Adding to what others have said, Bard just has really bad sync with WM atm.

For example - Heavy Shot - Weave Bloodletter during CD - Another Bloodletter proc - Next Heavy Shot cast is cancelled due to a close weave. This goes for casting buffs - Buff right before casting a skill - interrupt. Also, idk if it's just me, but for some reason all my attacks get canceled when the boss starts to move, ie AS1, after split and if the tank moves the boss to the other side of the room, all my casts cancels until the boss stops moving. Weird.

[rappa]

If a target is moving and cancelling your cast, you should us the facebutton keybind to force your character to look the target, no matters if moving. It's recommend to stay a bit far from the target, if they move close to you or cross over your character, will cancel your cast.