BRD General Advice Request

[HyoMinPark]

The only thing I would contest about HyoMinPark's advice is only using Pitch Perfect on stacks of three. 2 uses of 2 stacks is more dps than losing a stack waiting for that third proc. We have 2 DoTs that tick at the same time, if you're at two stacks and wait for the third and they BOTH crit, you've lost a stack. Three stacks is 420, two stacks are 240, so 240x2 is a net gain. Unless of course the song is about to fall off, Pitch Perfect has a recast of ~3s so if you're already under that amount of time left, you're free to fish for that last stack since you won't have a chance to use it again anyway.

The thing about using Pitch Perfect at only 2 stacks when you're focusing on a single target is the potency loss that a 3-stack gives you. You want to use whatever stacks you have regardless at about 1-2 seconds remaining of the duration, but it's usually best to hold it for 3 stacks, especially while Raging Strikes is up.

While in an AOE situation, spending Pitch Perfect at 2 is acceptable, but with multi-dotting, you should have 3-stack procs coming very frequently anyways. Single-target, the general consensus among Bards is to save Pitch Perfect for 3 stacks during your RS.

There's no guarantee that you can get a 3-stack Pitch Perfect, but there's also no guarantee that your spent 2-stack will result in a subsequent second 2-stack PP. There's also no guarantee that both of your DoTs will crit at the same time, resulting in a lost stack. The entire skill revolves around RNG, but most bards will advise to hold Pitch Perfect until 3 stacks.

[vp_cmc]

--Sub-Level 54 content: Barrage + Heavy Shot

If you have Straighter shot proc, barrage + proc-ed straight shot may be better? Because all 3 hits will crit then (you may check this, they removed that "no crits on barrage" in some patch)

[HyoMinPark]

If you have Straighter shot proc, barrage + proc-ed straight shot may be better? Because all 3 hits will crit then (you may check this, they removed that "no crits on barrage" in some patch)

If you're lucky enough to get a Straighter proc. Like with a Refulgent though; you don't want to excessively fish for one. So, if Barrage is about to come off cooldown, and you get a Straighter Shot proc, by all means pair Barrage with the Straighter proc. Just don't hold Barrage excessively trying to fish for one, since you want the most uses out of Barrage as possible.

[mosaicex]

Bumping this up for some quick questions.

- Should Straight Shot be refreshed as close to expiration as possible (and potentially missing out Refulgent if previous Heavy Shot proc'd), or a GCD prior?
- If I refresh dots with WM + Raging when it came off CD (usually when Peon has around 10 sec left, as recommended by most people) I might have some trouble aligning next 2nd Barrage within the new 2nd WM + Raging Strike window, especially so if I delayed it to fish for Refulgent during opener(within Raging window). In this case, should I delay WM + Raging later into Peon duration?
- (During Mage's Ballad) Empyreal is ready but Bloodletter is almost off-cd too (3-5 seconds left), should Empyreal be delayed after Bloodletter is used?

[Akashica]

1. Straight shot should always be up. However, if you have refulgent arrow ready, use refulgent arrow before refreshing straight shot. There is only 1 case where you will not use refulgent arrow when you have straighter shot buff: when your straight shot and dots are coming off at the same time.

2. In the first place, during the first duration of raging strike, you should already use barrage + reful or barrage + empyreal. If, however, you delayed your barrage to the point that raging strike will fall off before barrage is up, then it is okay to delay raging strike so that it and barrage lineup. Wanderer Minuet, however, should not be delayed. It is important though to have raging strike duration be the same period Wanderer's Minuet is on.

3. If bloodletter is nearly off cooldown while empyreal is off cd, wait for bloodletter to be off cd first, use it, and then empyreal arrow. Every procs from empyreal arrow is incredibly important (except army's paeon cuz you need only 4).

[Akashica]

1. Straight shot should always be up. However, if you have refulgent arrow ready, use refulgent arrow before refreshing straight shot. There is only 1 case where you will not use refulgent arrow when you have straighter shot buff: when your straight shot and dots are coming off at the same time.

2. In the first place, during the first duration of raging strike, you should already use barrage + reful or barrage + empyreal. If, however, you delayed your barrage to the point that raging strike will fall off before barrage is up, then it is okay to delay raging strike so that it and barrage lineup. Wanderer Minuet, however, should not be delayed. It is important though to have raging strike duration be the same period Wanderer's Minuet is on.

3. If bloodletter is nearly off cooldown while empyreal is off cd, wait for bloodletter to be off cd first, use it, and then empyreal arrow. Every procs from empyreal arrow is incredibly important (except army's paeon cuz you need only 4).