Bard Hotbar

[PantslessPrince]

Alright guys, I ran through PoTD to see if I would like playing Bard, since you get all the skills since it has its own leveling system, and I fell in love with it. The only problem is my skill layout (PC) looks like a hotmess - even though it kind of works for - but I'm sure it would make bard mains cry.
I was just wondering if I could see how someone else arranged their skills so I could have a nicer set up flow.
Thank you very much.

[mb52139]

I dont know if I can be much help since, I use a controller and use the crossbar layout... but I'd suggest you make macros to make life easier.

Example being

/macroicon "Heavy Shot"
/ac "Empyreal Arrow"
/ac "Misery's End" <t>
/ac "Sidewinder" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>


This way your higher damaging skills will activate when they are available. (Emp Arrow/Misery's end would be first to activate if available)... macros may not be very efficient and many are really against them.. but they help with the daily grind of dungeons and such.. keeping you from going insane with the amount of skills.

------------------------

When I used a keyboard.. I had it set up.. sorta like..

Key 1 Straight arrow
key 2-3 DOTS (Venom/Windbyte) ( you dont want these macroed together, incase one dropps off and you only need to refresh the 1.. a macro would force you to cast both)
Key 4 Was my main 'dps' macro. ( the heavy arrow one)
Key 5 should probably be Iron jaws or fire arrow.

From there, you'll want to put skills in order of how often you use them. Songs, self heals.. and buffs can go in the secondary hot bars since you don't use them quite as often. If you have a mouse with buttons, I'd suggest binding things like Blunt arrow (silence) onto it so you can very quickly react when needed, also Iron jaws worked well on the mouse.

[Judge_Xero]

Here's my BRD UI Layout



The only macro I use is for Flaming Arrow

/macroicon "Flaming Arrow"
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>


So I can put it directly under my target without having to Ground AOE Target

Edited: I also remove "Display Action Help" as I find it effects visibility and I already know what all my skills do.
Under Hotbar Settings:
Hide Unassigned Slots
Remove -> Enable Hotbar Cycling
Remove -> Display Hotbar Numbers
Remove -> Enable Drag-and-Drop Repositioning

That cleans things up nicely and prevents any miss-click issues.

[SlyRoyale]

I use a controller, so the only advice I can give is binding your GCD attacks to your symbol buttons and oGCD attacks and songs to your D-Pad inputs.

Also, don't use macros other than the Flaming Arrow one as a BRD. It'll hurt your DPS, which is what you do on your job.

[mb52139]

It doesn't really hurt DPS enough to matter. Unless you want to min-max.. its safe to use macros.

[Grimmjow_Jaegerjaques]

There is only one good macro for Flaming Arrow:

/micon "Flaming Arrow"
/ac "Flaming Arrow" <t>

[AskaRay]

It doesn't really hurt DPS enough to matter. Unless you want to min-max.. its safe to use macros.

You really shouldn't use macros at all...
And "I use a controller" isn't a very good excuse. I also use a controller; I feel like Bard doesn't have that many buttons anyway and I can seamlessly change between the crossbars. It's not hard, with enough practice...

[mb52139]

With both the 8 key bars (left and right) I have 16.. and I use all 8 of the extra cross bar... so 24 buttons and I use all of them. That is with 5 skills sharing a macro. I'm not sure how you can get away with it, but it seems you don't use all your skills.

Sure I could use the other options to switch cross bars over.. but where do we draw the line between a easy pleasurable experience and annoyance for the sake of a few pitiful dps numbers. I've never been accused of having low dps, even being parsed, so my macros don't hurt enough to justify not using them.

[XiXiQ]

macros with wait in them are no-goes (except for craft stuff of course), but ones that simply put two button presses together, you still press the button twice, still wait the gcd time between them. Typical combos work well with this, for example ninja has the 3-button combo that can end with armour crush, aeolean edge or dancing edge. those 3 skills are the only reason to ever use gust slash, so you macro that in front of those 3, still 2 button presses, just no need for gust slash to have a separate button using space. You can still monitor gust slash to make sure it procs on a separate bar and still re-apply spinning if required. There are very similar options for other melees. Bard works more with a priority system, so as long as you keep them simple, macros should work reasonably OK. BLM, don't even think about it

[AskaRay]

With both the 8 key bars (left and right) I have 16.. and I use all 8 of the extra cross bar... so 24 buttons and I use all of them. That is with 5 skills sharing a macro. I'm not sure how you can get away with it, but it seems you don't use all your skills.

Sure I could use the other options to switch cross bars over.. but where do we draw the line between a easy pleasurable experience and annoyance for the sake of a few pitiful dps numbers. I've never been accused of having low dps, even being parsed, so my macros don't hurt enough to justify not using them.

Well I mean... what other options? I switch crossbars with the RB+ [button] combo. So for CB1, that's RB+Y, and for CB2 that's RB+B... and for my rarely used CB3/PVP Skills that's RB+A. CB4 is for my Expanded crossbar, which I have set to the same for LT/RT holding. That's 24 Keys for CB1 and and extra 16 for CB2.
Don't forget fast switch by tapping RB quickly instead of holding it down.

So yeah I do use all my buttons.... the only thing I don't have on my bar right now is Shadowbind because it's useless it's so situational and I have no need for it, at all..... even if I did I have room on CB2 for it so if it becomes REALLY necessary I can put it there.

You want a screenshot of them?