Bard Guide/Stormblood

See also: Bard and Guides

ATTENTION

This page is designed to help Bards with an optimal rotation and priorities. Each player may have their own rotations and could vary per Bard so keep in mind this page is to give you a general idea. As mentioned in the macro section, they're usually looked down upon but always think of it this way: If you use the macros and don't care for maximum damages then by all means, go ahead. People will argue otherwise but the way I see it is and this is how I play the game myself, as long as you can kill bosses and clear content, your damages shouldn't really matter. The only time the macros may cause an hindrance is if it's a damage race and you can't kill the bosses quick enough but take heed, I have yet to fail against killing bosses with the macros so at the end of the day, it's your game and your money, play the game as you wish.

Raid and Personal Rotations

This is how I personally handle Bard Rotations. Everyone plays a little bit differently so feel free to edit to your own playstyle.

• Set up your DoTs first and foremost.
  • Put up Straight Shot first thing, that critical damage boost it gives all your other attacks, especially for you your other two DoTs are very important. Once it reaches about 4 seconds left, you want to throw Straight Shot back up to keep it going.
    • Sometimes Straight Shot will go into Straighter Shot. You are Guaranteed either a critical hit with Straight shot or you'll have a chance to use Refulgent Arrow if you're level 70 and above. You'll always want to take advantage of this.
  • After Straight Shot is up, you'll want to throw up Venomous Bite and Windbite next if you're below level 64. Above Level 64 they turn into Caustic Bite and Stormbite.
    • Once the first one you put up hits about 4 seconds left, you want to start recasting them both, or if you're level 56 and higher, you'll want to use Iron Jaws to reset the timer.

• Play a song. They all get their abilities/lights/progs off of your DoTs getting a critical hit. When one song ends, start another and loop between the 3.
  • The Wanderer's Minuet is normally the first one I start with if I'm in a raid of if I'm dealing with one big enemy. The critical hit bonus it gives my party members is valuable. Plus the Pitch Perfect attack is pretty powerful when all 3 of the lights are lit.
    • I always wait for the lights to stack 3 times before I pull off Pitch Perfect, either that or I will pull it off with about 3-4 seconds left. Try to get as much out of this as you can.
  • Mage's Ballad is the second one I pull off in raids, or the first one I do if I have a group of enemies by myself. Again it gives the critical hit bonus which is nice, but it resets the timer for Bloodletter and Rain of Death allowing you to sort of spam the attacks depending on how many critical hits your Caustic Bite and Stormbite are racking up.
    • Neither Bloodletter or Rain of Death are as powerful as Pitch Perfect if you get two or three light on The Wanderer's Minuet which is why this goes second 99% of the time.
  • Army's Paeon is always 3rd. It's extra ability of reducing cast time isn't noticeable even at 4 lights. I will Always cut this song off and Recast The Wanderer's Minuet or Mage's Ballad over it as soon as one of them becomes available.

• Use Foe Requiem at every chance you can. Usually I'll play this right after I select what song to do for the first time, then wait for my mana to get to a respectable amount before triggering it again. This might change with 5.0 and the combination of the MP and TP bars.

• From here I use my weaponskills and abilities to get extra abilities/lights/progs off on my songs and use the song abilities as they come up
  • I'll start with Bloodletter or Rain of Death while spamming Heavy Shot depending if single or group, then I will stop spamming Heavy Shot and do Barrage into Empyreal Arrow or Refulgent Arrow if available, and lastly do Sidewinder and start spamming Heavy Shot
    • I will do Barrage for Refulgent Arrow over Empyreal Arrow anyday based on how much harder Refulgent Arrow will hit for.

Optional Rotation

This skill is debated as part of the rotation, it's up to you on how to use them. Do not use them if you must get away from a mob/shooting yourself off Titan's platform.

• Repelling Shot

Spamming Macros

Use these at your own judgement. Damaging macros are generally hated among the community due to the skills taking longer to fire versus just hitting them. Also with macros, it's a damage loss. But use these until you're comfortable with hand weaving/hitting the skills on your own.

• /macroicon "Venomous Bite"

/ac "Misery's End" <t>

/ac "Venomous Bite" <t>

/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

• /macroicon "Windbite"

/ac "Misery's End" <t>

/ac "Windbite" <t>

/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

• /macroicon "Heavy Shot"

/ac "Misery's End" <t>

/ac "Heavy Shot" <t>

/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

• /macroicon "Bloodletter"

/ac "Misery's End" <t>

/ac "Bloodletter" <t>

What they do is they always fire Bloodletter when it's available and Misery's End as well. If Bloodletter/Misery's End is proc'd, be sure to hit the macro again to fire the other skill on it.

Wait Macros

Same as the spamming macros. Use at own judgement.

/macroicon "Bloodletter"

/ac "Bloodletter"

/ac "Misery's End"

/ac "Straight Shot" <wait.3>

/ac "Windbite" <wait.3>

/ac "Venomous Bite" <wait.3>

/ac "Heavy Shot" <wait.3>

/ac "Heavy Shot"

This macro is probably a bit easier to do but still results in a loss of damages. Just hit the macro and it will do everything in order. Bloodletter is the icon so you can see when it renews itself and of course at 20% health hit the macro to fire Misery's End. Hit the macro first when Bloodletter is active then hit it again for the Straight Shot.

Tips and Tricks

Endgame Bard Guide by KrietoR Credit for this page goes to his guide. It also includes videos and damaging parses.

Song Usage

• Use Foe Requiem if you have a BLM/SMN.
• Use Army's Paeon when you have your Invigorate on cool down and you have 200 TP or less.
• Use Mage's Ballad if a healer/SMN is running out of mana or after a healer dies.
• Use Battle Voice to augment any of the voices described above, by an extra 10% (the augmentation won't affect the caster unfortunately).

Multi-Dotting

If you have a maximum of 3 targets make sure you have Straight Shot buff up and then do Windbite and Venomous Bite on all 3 targets while using Bloodletter procs in between.

AoE

If you have 2 targets do multi-dotting, if you have more than 3 targets do the following: Flaming Arrow It should always be used in an AoE situation. Quick Nock is your go to AoE skill if you can position yourself correctly, otherwise just use Wide Volley + Rain of Death (Rain of Death only if it proc's).