why do most bards....

[twiggytwix]

rarely play their crit buff songs?

[Eir_Z]

Bards have to play their crit buff songs to enable more than half of their job mechanics. I think you’re referring to Foe’s Requiem or Battle Voice? Those two are on rather long recast timers.

[Rongway]

I think you’re referring to Foe’s Requiem or Battle Voice?

No, I've been in DF with Lv70 BRDs who refuse to sing on trash because they're saving their "cooldowns" for the boss. Non-singing BRDs still exist, despite the ability to maintain 100% uptime on songs.

[Nemekh]

The same reason other players sometimes don't do things related to their jobs. They just aren't pushing buttons.

[Remyogic]

No, I've been in DF with Lv70 BRDs who refuse to sing on trash because they're saving their "cooldowns" for the boss. Non-singing BRDs still exist, despite the ability to maintain 100% uptime on songs.

Does anybody go "all out" and pop their cooldowns on TRASH? I never sing on trash unless it's a very large pull. It just isn't necessary on regular trash pulls where stuff dies in <30 seconds anyways.

Conversely, I make a concerted effort to keep my song uptime as close to 100% as possible on bosses. Where it actually makes a difference.

[ManuelBravo]

Depends of how much effort they are putting into what they are doing. That or giving trash mobs a handicap. -.-

[JohnnyDevo]

Does anybody go "all out" and pop their cooldowns on TRASH? I never sing on trash unless it's a very large pull. It just isn't necessary on regular trash pulls where stuff dies in <30 seconds anyways.

Conversely, I make a concerted effort to keep my song uptime as close to 100% as possible on bosses. Where it actually makes a difference.

... but mage's ballad during trash is literally how bard does trash. You dot things during the pull, tap mage's ballad when things settle, and go to town with aoe.

And why would you only keep song uptime at 100% on bosses when you can keep your song uptime at 100% on bosses AND at 100% on trash? Are you just clipping your songs that badly? You have a total of 90 seconds of song, and each has an 80s cooldown. That's a 100% uptime feature.

EDIT: Also, YES. everyone should be using cooldowns on trash. Everything takes an amount of time to die, therefore cooldowns are always applicable to reduce that amount of time. And when you keep your cooldowns rolling, you end up with more uses in the dungeon. Using cooldowns = faster dungeon.

[Wintersandman]

The only time I save cooldowns (RoF/Brotherhood as an example) is if it won't be back up for an opener on the boss. But Bards have no excuse when it comes to songs.

[ShaolinMike]

The songs aren't even really "cooldowns" though, per se. I understand maybe changing the order because Mage's Ballad is better for triggering Bloodletter procs for AoE spam, but a BRD should be singing ALL THE TIME.

[Cheremia]

Assuming you start with The wanderers minuet on bosses, you can just rotate mages ballad and armys paeon on trash.

At least thats what i do, depending on how big the pulls are, of course.
first pull->Straight shot-> dot mob->target another->rain of death-> dot the mob->target another->empyreal arrow->Rain of death-> dot-> Rain of death every time its off cooldown-> Target next mob-> dot->rain of death to your hearts content-> repeat.

The next pull is pretty much the same but i do Armys paeon + Tactictian and instead of rain of death, i try to fit quick knock in between my dots.

Sometimes i use wanderers minuet on trash pulls, too. But that all depends on how long the dungeon takes and if i'm sure that it will be off cooldown when i go to the boss because i start my rotation with minuet.

At times i use armys paeon just for the sake to help the healer with mobs that hit like trucks so they have a little less stress on big pulls full of truck-mobs. Armys paeon troubadour+quick knock spam helps wonders and then pallisade, too.

Theres pretty much no reason to NOT use songs on trash, especially if you can just rotate 2 out of your 3 for the most part and if you don't waste your opener song before the boss, the others will be off cooldown then anyways. It's just faster, too.