Advanced Bard Question - Internal Release/Straight Shot Buff

[ElysianNeema]

Before I get to the question, I'm going say now that I've been playing the bard for awhile and I'm beginning to dive into the more advanced pats of the job. I'm still trying to understand the deeper concepts such as GCD clipping, double oGCD uses, cooldown alignment optimizations, etc. and so forth.

Iron Jaws is a skill that reapplies both "Venomous Bite" and "Windbite". However applied with cooldowns such as Raging Strikes/Hawk's Eye/Blood for blood you can actually extend a buffed DoT time of 18 seconds to somewhere around 36ish seconds.

Example:

• (Assume Venomous Bite + Windbite are already applied to target)
• RS + HE + B4B + IJ = 18 seconds of buffed DoT's.
• (Wait 14~ seconds...)
• Iron Jaw (just before RS/HE/B4B cooldowns wear off) = Another 18~ seconds of buffed DoT's.

Now to my question:
Ultimately, should I reapply my DoT's just before IE ends? Even if it means clipping Iron Jaws early?

[Fevelle]

I'm still new to Bard, but from all videos and rotation guides I've seen/read, yes, the idea is to reapply the DoTs before your buffs run out, even if it means clipping Iron Jaws earlier. The added damage and possible Bloodletter resets make up for the little DPS loss it inflicts.

[Inferiae]

I'd take a look on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...ng_our_losses/

Mainly the part concerning cooldowns and Internal Relase