SB Bard Changes: Good or Bad? Thoughts?

[SugarBunz]

HW Bard is like the second Highlander movie. Let's just pretend it never existed, and everything will be fine. LOL

[KaiSunstrider]

Well im sure it is just choice of gear as well. Im only around 1500 crit, but I also have like 900 Det. Not by choice, just because of the gear that has dropped for me. He has less than 400 Det and is likely why he has so much crit. Once we all have a plethora of gear to choose from, itll be easier to fool around with stat weights. But I agree, 2000 crit isnt impossible espeically when your other stats are much lower.

[Irohma]

My bard was collecting dust after HW when it became a generic version of a Black Mage. Now it is finally a bard once again. Even at level 60 the class is already back to its fun pre-HW and with added mechanics with the songs.

[ExiaQuanta]

To all lv70 BRDs, are you all saving barrage strictly for Refulgent Arrow or throwing it on Empyreal Arrow occasionally.

[Furious]

To all lv70 BRDs, are you all saving barrage strictly for Refulgent Arrow or throwing it on Empyreal Arrow occasionally.

Empyreal is 230, Refulgent is 300. Using it on refulgent is a 30% damage increase. As long as you don't lose 1/3rd of your barrages over the course of the fight as a result it's almost definitely a dps gain to save for refulgent; it's not like the proc is that uncommon that you'll wait long.

[KaiSunstrider]

Empyreal is 230, Refulgent is 300. Using it on refulgent is a 30% damage increase. As long as you don't lose 1/3rd of your barrages over the course of the fight as a result it's almost definitely a dps gain to save for refulgent; it's not like the proc is that uncommon that you'll wait long.

I agree, when it comes off cd, I try not to hold it for more than 3-4 gcds.

[BakaChin]

Heyo! Lvl70 BRD and ilvl309.

Would love to know how stats are weighed as I’m looking into melds very soon, also a lil help on rotations will be appreciated.

That being said, I love Pitch Perfect, I’ve been told to use it on 2 stacks and not wait for 3. Barrage+Refulgent always for me

[SugarBunz]

Heyo! Lvl70 BRD and ilvl309.

Would love to know how stats are weighed as I’m looking into melds very soon, also a lil help on rotations will be appreciated.

That being said, I love Pitch Perfect, I’ve been told to use it on 2 stacks and not wait for 3. Barrage+Refulgent always for me

I was actually just thinking about this today. Using perfect pitch on every two stacks instead of waiting for the three.

[Dzian]

Admittedly all I've done on bard thus far is whack a few dummies and a 60 roulette.

But there is one thing I think they missed.

Given that most jobs have ui elements for their core stuff. Like ninja has a Huton guage. Monk has a GL one. Sch has aetherflow charrge guage etc etc.

I'm wondering why bard doesn't have a more prominent ui Guage for it's Straight Shot buff instead it's still buried in the myriad of other buffs and stuff.

All it'd really need is a small timer element like Huton. And maybe make it change colour if you get a straighter shot proc.. would be much more prominent and visible than constantly trying to read a bar full of buffs. which is why huton and other core things got there own elements so curious why straight shot didnt

[Furious]

I was actually just thinking about this today. Using perfect pitch on every two stacks instead of waiting for the three.

It's a bit difficult to work out the relative value of doing this or waiting for three, and it depends a lot on your crit chance. We're not actually interested in the direct value of a single stack or a single shot, we're interested in the total value of the stacks you can generate throughout the duration of the song. The chance to lose a stack when going from 2 stacks up to 3 based solely on the fact that both dots crit at the same time is almost exactly crit chance^2; at 25% crit, we would lose ~6.25% of our total stacks over time when going from 2 to 3 stacks. As crit goes up, the number of stacks lost this way goes up and so does the number of 2 stacks that become 3 for "free" when you only go to 2 stacks before using.

However, the gain per stack is a lot higher than 6.25%, so I think it would take a relatively high crit chance to make it worth sitting on 2 stacks overall. The value per stack when going from 2 to 3 goes from 120potency to 140, which is a gain of ~15% damage per stack. There is some overhead loss that brings this number down a bit (you would sometimes have to use a 1 stack at the end of the song after using a 3stack, when you would have done 2:2), but the overhead isn't that large.

Broadly speaking, as long as you can always use pitch perfect within the window of a single dot tick from proccing (ie: use the 3 stacks before the following dot tick from it proccing), it's going to always be the right choice to wait for 3 stacks until absurdly high crit chance.