Beginner Bard 61, sequences, rotations

[chuckboyer2016]

First off I am serious in wanting to know this information going forward.
2ndly; I am because of bad arthritis, mostly into fishing, gathering. Of course the Main Story Quests include quest battles and Dungeon battles.

Question; what are some of the more common dps rotations or sequences please? Yes, I can read the descriptions of each Skill. But many do not jump out at me as sequences that are useful for the best and highest dps hit.

I know my 2 (at this level, 61) AoE's and rely on them heavily.

Quick Knock
Rain of Death

Mage's Ballad > Rain of Death, reset by Venomous Bite and Windbite.
with Venomous Bite and Windbite active I activate Mage's Ballad.
And with that active when I activate Rain of Death, often times I can reset the timer of RoD with activating Venomous Bite and Windbite.
So being able to hit off Rain of Death about 3-5 times battling a single mob is quite handy and effective.

Venomous Bite > Windbite >> Sidewinder
This is also a good high dps hitter, however it is on a 1 minute timer.

Barrage > Straight Shot

Empyreal Arrow is a good dps hitter.

-----------------------------------------------
The thing is, I've read many other posts and articles on other web sites and forum posts and they all say about the same thing; that you set off your songs and keep them active rotating them consistently. And after mentioning that they say there is no set rotations but keep up the heavy hitters. ANd most of them speak in terms of being at level 70-80. So lots of no help here for me at level 61.

I would appreciate any suggestions on what works for you for rotations at this level, or sequences. I realize also that Macros don't really work as the situation changes so frequently rendering any set sequence inoperative or inefficient. But obviously I'll have to set up some macros to ease the arthritis pain in playing with key strokes.
Thank you.

[RylaBee]

Well, at level 61 you already have all 3 songs, so you can just play them back to back, this order is prefered on singletarget (bosses):
Wanderer's Minuet > Mage's Ballad > Army's Paeon > Wanderer's Minuet ...etc

macros combining multiple abilities and/or weaponskills are a problem for good rotation (you will be clipping), I cant rly recommend this and you will hear that from everyone

[chuckboyer2016]

Thank you RylaBee; ok, I understand about the 3 songs and keeping them all current.
What is clipping in this instance though? Do you mean before one dmg effect stops another starts and it clips off the previous skill? Thereby shortening the damage number?

So far I've pieced together to begin with.

the Wander's Minuet > Raging Strikes > Battle Voice > Iron Jaws, then;
Venomous Bite > Wind Bite > Mage's Ballad > Rain of Death (which will either be reset instantly because of Rain of Death, 'or' have to hit Venomous Bite and Wind Bite in that order to reset timer on RoD).

> Barrage > Empyreal Arrow > I 'don't do 'bloodletter' because it steals/shares the timer with Rain of Death and I'd rather use Rain of Death (?)
(depending on if it's a single target or I have brought in 2 or more targets into a group).

Then reset song timers about now and usually Pitch Perfect and Straight Shot are blinkng their outline dots and ready to go, so I shoot them off.
usually the mob/s are dead by now, but if I have to continue,

Set off Quick Nock > Barrage > Empyreal Arrow > Venomous Bite > Wind Bite > Sidewinder > Heavy Shot

Sound about right?

[RylaBee]

What is clipping in this instance though? Do you mean before one dmg effect stops another starts and it clips off the previous skill? Thereby shortening the damage number?

So the way this works is, lets say you make macro for 2 skills, so they are not needed on 2 buttons but one:

/ac Straight Shot
/ac Heavy Shot

So that whenever you have Straight Shot ready it fires, otherwise it fires Heavy.

But since its macro, whenever you do not have Straight Shot ready, there will be delay between you pressing button and Heavy Shot triggering - because game will try to do Straith - finds it cant and then move to Heavy - and there will be visible delay to this. Over course of long fight this will cost you lot of dps.

Moreover, macros CANNOT be buffered.
When you pressing normal skill/ability when globalcooldown is almost finished ("clocks" on buttons spinnign 360), game will remeber this and execute that pressed skill/ability right after GCD completes.
But if its macro, it will NOT be remembered, and macro can only be executed when GCD is completed, likely leading to yet another delay in the "flow" of your skills.

[HyoMinPark]

The thing is, I've read many other posts and articles on other web sites and forum posts and they all say about the same thing; that you set off your songs and keep them active rotating them consistently. And after mentioning that they say there is no set rotations but keep up the heavy hitters. ANd most of them speak in terms of being at level 70-80. So lots of no help here for me at level 61.

BRD’s rotation at level 70 and even level 80 doesn’t deviate much from how it is at level 61. BRD is a priority-based job—it does not have a strict 1-2-3 rotation like melee classes or tanks do. Instead, you have a priority system that you focus on, which is mostly upkeeping your DoTs, upkeeping your song rotation, and keeping oGCDs on cooldown.


The most important aspect of BRD is DoT management, and it is the first thing you prioritize. You should DoT targets immediately before activating any song, as their effects are dependent on having your DoTs active. At level 64, your DoTs will upgrade into stronger versions of themselves: Windbite becomes Stormbite, and Venomous Bite becomes Caustic Bite. Apply them in the following order every time: Windbite/Stormbite > Venomous Bite/Caustic Bite. Refresh them with Iron Jaws any time you aren’t synced below level 56 (manual refresh is required below level 56). I recommend using IJ at roughly 2~3 seconds remaining on the timer.


The second priority you have after DoT management is keeping up your song rotation. At level 52, you learn your third and final song (the Wanderer’s Minuet). From there on, you are maintaining an 80-second rotation of songs that look like this:

Against a single target: the Wanderer’s Minuet (30 seconds duration) > Mage’s Ballad (30 seconds duration) > Army’s Paeon (clip at 10 seconds remaining to return to Minuet)

In an AOE situation: Mage’s Ballad (30 seconds) > Army’s Paeon (30 seconds) > the Wanderer’s Minuet (clip at 10 seconds remaining to return to Mage’s Ballad)


Your third priority is managing your oGCDs—things like Battle Voice, Raging Strikes, Barrage, Pitch Perfect, Empyreal Arrow, Bloodletter (for single-target)/Rain of Death (for AOE situations) and Sidewinder should remain on cooldown at all times. Only Raging Strikes and Barrage have to be actively lined up in a particular spot for BRD. Others are simply use them as they come up. There can be some nuance with EA use, but that gets into optimization territory. For you, you will just want to use it on cooldown every 15 seconds—in both single-target and AOE situations.

In a single-target rotation, pair your damage buff Raging Strikes with Wanderer’s Minuet. Spend Pitch Perfect at 3 stacks. Utilize Barrage with the Straighter Shot proc it gives you before Raging Strikes falls off. (At level 70, Straight Shot will upgrade to Refulgent Arrow—that will then be your go-to skill to use Barrage with.) In an AOE situation, pair Raging Strikes with Mage’s Ballad. Make sure you DoT at least 3 to 4 different targets so that keep getting Rain of Death resets during Mage’s. Spam Quick Nock while reacting to RoD procs. When you are in Minuet during an AOE situation, use Pitch Perfect at 2 stacks in between your Quick Nock spam.


After you have fulfilled managing your DoTs, songs, and oGCDs, at that point you fill in your GCDs with Heavy Shot spam (Heavy Shot will upgrade to Burst Shot at level 76) and react to any Straighter Shot procs (which will upgrade into Refulgent Arrow procs at level 70). When Straighter Shot/Refulgent Arrow procs, simply replace your next Heavy Shot/Burst Shot with it.


That’s BRD in a nutshell. It won’t change much once you hit level 80. You only get Apex Arrow, which is spent at 95-100 gauge against a single target and at around 45-50 gauge in an AOE situation (I believe—that could have changed since Patch 5.1, but I’m pretty sure that it’s around 45 gauge or so). Apex Arrow is on the global-cooldown; it is not an oGCD. So you will have to wait for your GCD to come up to use it.

I would appreciate any suggestions on what works for you for rotations at this level, or sequences. I realize also that Macros don't really work as the situation changes so frequently rendering any set sequence inoperative or inefficient. But obviously I'll have to set up some macros to ease the arthritis pain in playing with key strokes.
Thank you.

I personally don’t recommend macros, for the same reason RylaBee mentioned.

In this game, macros cannot properly queue with other skills—i.e., there will always be a delay if you try to weave in a macro’d ability between two global cooldowns, and you will clip your next GCD (clipping basically means that you’ll experience a delay). They also cannot read half-second intervals. The slowest GCD you can have is 2.5 seconds, but macros can only read 2 seconds or 3 seconds—meaning you’ll either be unable to probably queue the skills (if you set it to wait 2 seconds before using the next ability) or you’ll be slowed down (if you set it to wait 3 seconds before using the next ability). This is in addition to having to constantly press the same macro if you try to string together a bunch of GCDs and oGCDs—and, even then, you run the risk of the macro failing to respond at all, meaning you won’t get any of the skills off.

BRD is easy enough to play that, even in very laidback settings, you shouldn’t have to rely heavily on macros. The only macros that are generally recommended for this job are target macros for things like Nature’s Minne, which could look like this:

/micon “Nature’s Minne”
/ac “Nature’s Minne” <tt>

Or

/micon “Nature’s Minne”
/ac “Nature’s Minne” <2>

The first is a “target of target”, which will cause Minne to go on whatever the mob you’re currently attacking is targeting (usually the tank); the second is a party list macro that designates Minne will go onto whichever person is number 2 in your party list (you can set up your party list to make the tank second, for example). I personally use a <tt> Minne macro, though I have also created a second Minne macro for off-tanks in 8-man situations. I also have a non-macro’d Minne on my hotbars just in case I have to use it on someone that’s not a tank.

[chuckboyer2016]

Thanks guys for your experience based suggestions, I really appreciate it.

RylaBee
/ac Straight Shot
/ac Heavy Shot
otherwise dont' rely on macros as the timings' clip.
Ok, got it, and thank you for this explanation. I get it. When doing macros I was using the example: (so is it ok to do it this way?):
/action "Wind Bite"
/wait 3
/action "Venomous Bite"
/wait 3
/action "Mage's Ballad"
/action "Rain of Death"
/wait 3
/action "Straight Shot"
/wait 3
/action "Straight Shot"
I ask because so far this has worked for me with no difficulties. But I see your suggested methods of typing out the macro lines are different than what I am using. Also, I don't mind the small wait from the actual 2.5 second wait and the macros' 3 second wait before firing off the next skill.



HyoMinPark
Priorities listings. Thank you for listing these and I will study this. Appreciate the listed differences also between single and AoE target groups.

Nature's Minne macro. I will look at this when I hit the level where it is activated. For now there is too much ino, grins, and I have to read and remember the tips and then fight in game on easy targets for my level to gain the experience of applying what you suggest and seeing how it works in real life.

[Risvertasashi]

macros combining multiple abilities and/or weaponskills are a problem for good rotation (you will be clipping), I cant rly recommend this and you will hear that from everyone

While 100% true, bard's rotation can also be a bit button spammy so with certain conditions (like arthritis, I suppose), people like OP might not have much choice.

-

Now onto the questions. As others have mentioned, the rotation isn't set. But a few things I noticed - don't recast Venomous Bite and Wind Bite. Instead, once you have the dots up, just use iron jaws when they're about to expire.

So, for example, let's say I'm fighting a group of dungeon mobs.

I'll put up both "bites" on a mob. If it takes the tank a bit to gather up all the mobs, maybe I'll even do it for 2. I might use Wanderer's Minuet here, depending on how long the tank takes to gather up everything, so that the DoTs start building Apex Arrow gauge. Once the mobs are gathered, I'll use Mage's Ballad, Raging Strikes, and then start spamming Quick Nock. Quick Nock and the DoTs all have a chance to reset the timer on Rain of Death, so between the two things you can get very good aoe damage going here. If the DoTs are about to fall off, I may pause to use Iron Jaws if the mobs have significant health left. Once Mage's Ballad is over, play the next song, but with less emphasis on DoT upkeep and more on Quick Nock.

Now for single-target, as in bosses...

I use this opener. After that, I just use stuff as it comes off CD - Heavy Shot (or Burst Shot as will be called later), and Straight Shot when it procs. Sidewinder/Shadowbite every minute, empyreal arrow every 15 seconds, and so on. Moving through the song rotations that others have mentioned, and using song-specific procs (i.e., Pitch Perfect) as they come up between Heavy Shot/Straight Shot/Iron Jaws.

Now you won't have all of these skills yet. That's ok and nothing to worry about. Also as others have said: BRD doesn't have a set rotation so not having these skills is no big deal. Keep your DoTs up with iron haws, use Straight Shot/Refulgent Arrow when you can, and Heavy Shot/Burst Shot when none of those are needed/available. While your global cooldown is running from those: Just throw the "off global" skills (emp. arrow, sidewinder/shadowbite, bloodletter/rain of death, etc) into the mix, adding new skills as you learn/unlock them.

-

lastly, a tip on macros from when I played more lazily. If you're going to use them - yes they have downsides, but if you are - I'd combine off globals. For example, I used to have a macro that combined blood letter (or Rain of Death for aoe), Empyreal Arrow, Sidewinder/Shadowbite, and so on. This means I only need to tap one button when any of them are ready. (And, you know, be careful to not fire sidewinder/shadowbite with no DoTs up) This is not ideal gameplay, but it may help as a hand saver. Also, not recommended when you get Pitch Perfect because that skill needs to charge 3 times or it does low damage.

[3c-33]

i honestly think you may benefit from trying dancer out as most of its dps output is almost entirely gcd based and would probably lose a lot less with macros than bard would, i think bard probably has a much higher apm comparatively

[ReiMakoto]

Thanks guys for your experience based suggestions, I really appreciate it.

RylaBee
/ac Straight Shot
/ac Heavy Shot
otherwise dont' rely on macros as the timings' clip.
Ok, got it, and thank you for this explanation. I get it. When doing macros I was using the example: (so is it ok to do it this way?):
/action "Wind Bite"
/wait 3
/action "Venomous Bite"
/wait 3
/action "Mage's Ballad"
/action "Rain of Death"
/wait 3
/action "Straight Shot"
/wait 3
/action "Straight Shot"
I ask because so far this has worked for me with no difficulties. But I see your suggested methods of typing out the macro lines are different than what I am using. Also, I don't mind the small wait from the actual 2.5 second wait and the macros' 3 second wait before firing off the next skill.



HyoMinPark
Priorities listings. Thank you for listing these and I will study this. Appreciate the listed differences also between single and AoE target groups.

Nature's Minne macro. I will look at this when I hit the level where it is activated. For now there is too much ino, grins, and I have to read and remember the tips and then fight in game on easy targets for my level to gain the experience of applying what you suggest and seeing how it works in real life.

You may not mind the delay, but what that means is every 5 skills or so youll miss a skill or even more, that is purposefully gimping yourself over something that is really easy.

[chuckboyer2016]

I really really appreciate your technique in replying as you give a working sequence that you use in a single target situation and explain things in a simple manner. explain things simply. So thanks for this reply.

If I used Empyreal Arrow in a macro could it work if I set the /wait line to the reset time of the skill? (/wait 15s) and it would be tight? Lose nothing, or not clip?
So I was thinking


Venomous Bite > Windbite > Raging Strikes > Barrage > Sidewinder > Empyreal Arrow (and around about here you're saying using Iron Jaws resets the timer on Venomous Bite and Windbite?)

This alone in a macro would be lots of damage, wouldn't it?
And then another macro that would follow with

Mage's Ballad > Battle Voice > Empyreal Arrow > Rain of Death
> Venomous Bite > Windbite > Heavy Shot > Heavy Shot

I'm sure with more time and use in situations I'll begin getting the wider picture, but with this help you've all given here I'm well on my way.
Thanks again all.
Oh 3c-33 I have begun trying Dancer.