Archer/Bard Max DPS for Lazy People Macro

[ChanceSkeleton]

The lazy macro is rarely the optimal rotation. Surprisingly, Bard DPS is pretty dynamic, with River of Blood procs as well as the plethora of off GCD buffs. If you are clearly trash or doing shit on farm status, the lazy macro is amazing. But if you are attempting new and difficult content, having every skill on separate buttons will allow you to ebb and flow with the fight.

Personally, I use the weave method as it gives me full control of my character. Yah, there are way more buttons to press, but it's worth it in the end.

[OmegaXtc]

Here's a question... Is stacking buffs really required?

Let's say you use Raging Strikes 20% dmg buff for 20 seconds and then after use Blood for Blood 20% dmg buff for 20 seconds. That would mean you received 20% dmg buff for 40 seconds.

Stacking them at the same time would be 40% dmg buff for 20 seconds.

20% buff for 40 secs and 40% buff for 20 secs are the same.

you might see bigger numbers on screen if they are stacked, but it's more important that they are never off cooldown than anything.

Internal releases 20% crit rate might make bigger numbers on screen when used the same time as damage buff, but it would be more important to use it everytime it's up than wait without buffs for one big attack.

[Bardo]

Here's a question... Is stacking buffs really required?

Stacking is only useful for applying Venomous Bite and Windbite because dots take a snapshot when you apply them of what buffs you have up and then even if the buffs fall off, the dots continue to get their effect for the entire duration.

[TheAlerion]

Stacking is only useful for applying Venomous Bite and Windbite because dots take a snapshot when you apply them of what buffs you have up and then even if the buffs fall off, the dots continue to get their effect for the entire duration.

So stacking buffs is only because you want optimal dot damage modification. But after the first round of Buffs, you will be losing uptime on buffs if you dont put them up as soon as they come off cooldown. One just needs to be careful to update their dot damage snap shots appropriately.

Once your buffs start to come up at different intervals, just make sure to refresh your dots whenever you buff yourself and before they fall off.

[Crimsonsky]

Doesn't this macro "fix" the Bloodletter consuming a gcd thing:

/macroicon "Heavy Shot"
/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>
/ac "Bloodletter" <t>
/ac "Misery's End" <t>

It's the macro I spam and I haven't ever seen it use bloodletter before my heavy shot. A case could be made for Misery's End to be above bloodletter, but that is probably beside the point. Mr. Happy uses this macro in his youtube video and I've gotten quite a bit of use out of it myself.

Also not sure why it says I'm level 20, but I am certainly a level 50 bard.

[OmegaXtc]

Okay, I can see it as misery's end first, then heavy shot, then bloodletter then buffs. One thing i have noticed is that after having 8 actions in the macro, I had to put a pause between presses in my automated mouse hotkey. It apparently takes about .100ms to get through the whole macro serverside so simply holding down a button that spams it automatically was skipping the last step in the macro.

[pandabearcat]

I'm not really understanding why it would [definitively] be a DPS loss to prioritize Bloodletter.
Can you give me an example?

For example: what happens if River of Blood procs while you are delaying using Bloodletter because you prioritized Heavyshot?

Of course. DoTs tick every 3 seconds, all of them do.

This is the "best" scenario for your case, prioritizing bloodletter.

[0.0 sec] - Heavyshot
[1.25 sec] - Bloodletter
[1.26 sec] - River of Blood
[2.5 sec] - Heavyshot
[3.75 sec] - Bloodletter
[4.26 sec] - River of Blood can proc again

As you can see...even if River procs IMMEDIATELY after you bloodletter, by delaying till the next inbetween you still have 0 chance of missing a river of blood.

[pandabearcat]

Also there seems to be a lot of misinformation in this thread.

You stack cooldowns because it is the most efficient use of cooldowns. Refreshing dots is just a bonus.

Think about it, our cooldowns:

15% damage increase
20% damage increase
20% dex increase
15% crit increase
Triple Autoattack.

If you used them separately...thats all you'll get.

If you use them together...you get

~40% damage increase + 15% dex (can't remember conversion rate here) + 15% crit

And your autoattacks are hitting, 3 times, for almost double damage each time.

THAT is why you stack cooldowns, and the cooldown timers are stacked so you almost always can get 10 seconds (of barrage) doing the most damage possible.

That being said I still don't think you should delay cooldowns by more than 5-10 seconds, just enough to line up the "pairs" of cooldowns, but don't save a 60 sec one for a 90 sec one, etc.

[CatholicFan]

Here's one thing I don't quite understand. There's a slight delay between setting off each CD (i.e. you can't set them all off simultaneously). Essentially, you are wasting some of the first CD's timers to get them all stacked if you are not doing them off-GCD. That seems wasteful. I understand there is some nice burst damage you can get out of it if you wait until they're all stacked before going, but it does not seem to be optimal for maximizing DPS.

Wouldn't it make more sense to keep Heavy Shot going while getting them stacked, and possibly saving Bloodletter/Misery's End for after as many of them are up as is realistic?

Also, slightly off-topic, but is Venomous Bite/Windbite enmity front-loaded? Are people having to pop the -enmity skill before throwing on buffs and putting on the modified DoT's at the beginning of fights?

[pandabearcat]

Yes, this macro is not ideal.

If you split up the macro into a offgcd macro and a cooldown macro, it is much more effective as I've stated before.

I don't think dot enmity is front loaded. If you can wait until he actually HITS the boss (NOT shieldthrow/tomahawk) you will be fine. Remember to open with straight arrow.

If you are having trouble, just put quelling at the FRONT of your chain, not the back. Either way, never put it in the middle.

You have PLENTY of time to stack your cooldowns. I don't know why anyone would waste GCDs to stack them. By the time you get barrage out you will have a full 10 seconds even if you weave them inbetween. And the only time you'll have problems is if you get bloodletter procs, which well, thats a GOOD THING lol, means more damage for you.

Remember, though our dots are OKAY, their main purpose is to proc bloodletter, and thus the only cooldown that you MUST refresh them for is internal release.