Tips for Playing Bard?

[TeKNeKGeeK]

I'm Level 42 and I'm not sure what the best setup is for my Bard. I was wondering if any pro Bard's out there can give some advice on what skills I should have at this point.

I feel like my damage output isn't as good as other DPS when I do Duties. Any help from pros would be greatly appreciated!

[Tigore]

The Bard has a slightly different role than just simply being a Damage Dealer. They're also support bringing a lot of utility for the group to help keep others alive and boost other allies' damage. Because of this, their damage usually shouldn't beat other damage dealers of equal skill.

For your level, I believe you should have the 2 songs Mage's Ballad and Army's Paeon. Later on at 52 you should be getting Wanderer's Minuet. They all boost crit chance of other allies by 2% and they all have a special effect on yourself when your 2 DoTs Venomous Bite or Wind Bite crit on enemies. At level 68, the level 54 skill Empyreal Arrow will also proc the song effects on yourself. Wanderer's Minuet is definitely best to start with on single target (most bosses) if you let its Pitch Perfect Shot stack to 3. You will hear a glass shatter sound when you get the 3rd proc. Mage's Ballad can reset the off global abilities Bloodletter / Rain of Death (level 45) and Army's Paeon simply boosts your haste up to 4 stacks. Both Mage's Ballad or Army's Paeon are more preferred to start with when there are more enemies in a pull. Despite these different strengths in the songs, you should still be using all 3 of them in rotation to keep that 2% crit buff up as long as you can. Right when a song is about to end with about 3 seconds left, start up the next song if the group is still in combat.

Another song Foe Requiem recently got modified to debuff enemies to take more damage from all sources. Try to use this to sync with other players bursting with their cooldowns or when some adds should die ASAP. Mana will be drained while it's up, so you will have to decide when the best time to use it will be.

Barrage is also another unique cooldown Bard / Archer has to allow a triple strike with a weaponskill. To start with at your level, it seems best used on Straight Shot when your Heavy Shot procs a "Straighter Shot" for the guaranteed critical strikes. At level 54, this will change to Empyreal Arrow. Even though Empyreal Arrow is called a Weaponskill, it is still used like an off global ability. At level 70, Refulgent Arrow will be the best to use the cooldown on. If your Straighter Shot procs for using Refulgent Arrow is not favored by the RNG gods for some reason, I find it's still okay to use it on Empyreal Arrow.

For the base rotation using your globals at your level, you will need the 10% critical chance buff from Straight Shot first. Next you place the 2 DoT Weaponskills Venomous Bite and Wind Bite. I will need others to confirm if the DoTs will snapshot your cooldown buffs when it's used or if it can change dynamically with you. I believe the DoTs in this game snapshots. That just means you use your Raging Strikes cooldown and Straight Shot BEFORE you apply the DoTs and refresh them when your cooldown timers are about to end. After that, you use Heavy Shot as a filler for 1 - 3 targets or Quick Nock as a 4+ enemy filler. If Straighter Shot procs for 1 - 3 targets, use Straight Shot instead of Heavy Shot. Use the Role skills Tactician and Invigorate to keep your TP up for Quick Nock and only stop using this AoE when these cooldowns are spent and your TP is low. Also for 4+ enemies, it starts to become too much hassle to fully DoT every enemy and you will just have to place a couple to 4 on high health ones in the big pack. Make sure you remember to use your off global abilities (Bloodletter, Mage's Ballad, and Army's Paeon for you now) in between your global cooldown weaponskills.

Another thing to remember is I am assuming the tank has established aggro / hate / enmity on all enemies too. If you accidentally pull enemy attention and it's not going to die for a while, stop attacking the enemy and run to the tank. This makes it easier for the tank to take the enemy off your hands with their AoEs Overpower, Flash, or Unleash. You can help even more by using either of the 2 role skills Refresh or Tactician to cut your enemy hate in half.

[Neela]

Now this is a really nice sum - thumbs up Tigo
(Just stepped by to honor a kinda good post - what happens to less lately imo)

[AmandaLashaquoa]

Dewd, something I've found out yesterday is that your dmg will SKY ROCKET once you reach Lv.64; Don't worry about it!
BRD gameplay improves a lot as you lv up, I am coming from MCH main and I am really enjoying my BRD now (after I've got my 30s DoTs) and im telling you, your dmg will SKY ROCKET.

[koroko220]

Yes, dots snapshot your buffs, so make sure to refresh before raging strikes or balance, etc run out.

[Arkenne]

Adding up to Tigore's tips please do note that Army's Paeon reduces not only your Weapon Skill and Auto Attack speed, but also your spells, and songs falls into this category. Effectively reducing the song's recast in 12~13 seconds.

If you don't want your Raging Strikes song to go out of synch you better don't cast it unless Army's Paeon fell off.

Also Sidewinder can't be shot right after throwing a DoT since it'll hit before the DoT applies, but you can put a filler in between so you don't have to manually wait. Peloton covers this problem very easily if you have no use for any other Role Skill.

[Tyranade]

Great explanation for a new Bard. Thank you, it really helped me.

[HyoMinPark]

To supplement:

--DoTs snapshot any buffs that you are using and any buffs that are given to you via other party members (Balance, Trick Attack, Battle Litany, etc.). Once you learn Iron Jaws (level 56), refreshing and snapshotting buffed DoTs becomes much easier. Refresh/snapshot your DoTs when Raging Strikes has about 2-3 seconds remaining, and after that, it's just upkeep. Do your best not to let your DoTs fall off, as they are extremely important to a BRD's overall DPS.

--Song priority for single targets: The Wanderer's Minuet > Mage's Ballad > Army's Paeon (clip 10 seconds early)
--Song priority for multiple targets: Mage's Ballad > Army's Paeon > The Wanderer's Minuet (while facing multiple targets, I personally do not clip Army's 10 seconds early; I only clip it early for single targets)

--Always line up Raging Strikes with The Wanderer's Minuet. Both have 80 second cooldowns, so they line up nicely. Minuet is your burst song (due to Pitch Perfect), so always use your self-buff to further supplement your own burst.

--While singing the Wanderer's Minuet: use Pitch Perfect only at 3 stacks, spending any remaining stacks when Minuet has 2-3 seconds remaining. Strategic use of Empyreal Arrow after acquiring your Enhanced Empyreal Arrow trait (level 68) is a good way to ensure a 3-stack Pitch Perfect.

--Do not hold on to Barrage excessively. Barrage will not always line up with Raging Strikes, so do not hold it for RS, as excessively delaying results in an overall DPS loss due to less Barrage usage overall during the course of a fight. Try to use Barrage within a couple GCDs of it coming off cooldown. Barrage + Refulgent Arrow is a beautiful thing (especially while under the effect of Raging Strikes), but do not excessively fish for RA procs. Same thing for Straighter Shot procs. If you do not get the proc you need, pair Barrage with Empyreal Arrow (after level 54) or Heavy Shot (before level 54).

--While singing Mage's Ballad: after acquiring your Enhanced Empyreal Arrow trait at level 68, be sure that Bloodletter/Rain of Death are on cooldown before using Empyreal to force an extra proc. Using EA with Bloodletter or Rain of Death off cooldown is an overall DPS loss.

--Rain of Death is more potent against 2+ mobs than Bloodletter. So use it when facing more than one mob (Bloodletter is 130 potency, and Rain of Death is 100 potency per target).

--When facing multiple enemies, DoT 3-5 enemies for more Repertoire procs during your songs; do this especially while singing Mage's Ballad to continuously proc Rain of Death for more AOE amazingness (BRDs still have really good AOE even with the removal of our continuous River of Blood trait and Flaming Arrow). Repertoire procs are all dependent on critical damage over time dealt by a BRD's DoTs, so spreading them to multiple targets is not only an overall DPS gain, but an excellent way to have a steady influx of procs.

--Recommended cross-role skills: Refresh and Tactician (absolutely mandatory), Palisade (good defensive cooldown for a tank against physical damage), Invigorate (TP is good to have during AOE-heavy spells), Second Wind (can't go wrong with self-healing). Peloton is good for dungeons to increase movement speed between packs. The other skills are purely situational, and overall not as useful as your 3 support role abilities.


Do not worry so much about your DPS at the lower levels. The more you level and the more skilled you become as a BRD, you will notice your overall DPS increasing. BRDs are in a very good spot, damage-wise, in endgame content. Just manage your songs and upkeep all your DoTs and self-buffs, and you will be on the road to becoming an amazing, powerful BRD. Don't forget your primary function of supporting your party members though! We may be DPS, but we are also the job with the most party support utility in the game, so be sure to use every support tool in your arsenal!

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask! ^^ I'm always willing to extend advice to aspiring BRDs to help them become amazing. ^^


Source: BRD main, now and forever. <3

[yoco007]

Ty for really great tips.
Can you just tell, should I always use ballads? Like when you're fighting "trash" mobs in dungeons? Or should I save them for bosses?

[Arkenne]

Always.
For one 80 seconds fly easily by, and most dungeons consist of 2 trash pulls and then a boss.
It is safe to use any 2 minute long CD on the first trash most of the time.

Besides, Ballad is your strongest AoE song.