How to Upload a Parse to Fflogs

[four.1] FFlogs Guide: Singing to the Summit

Past Seu Hana

Introduction

Hi! I'm Seu Hana, currently a bard main on Leviathan. While I don't think of myself equally ane of the premier or best bards in the game, I've spent a lot of fourth dimension helping new bards look over their logs. Normally that process involves identifying their mistakes, explaining it to them in a cohesive manner, and so offering them potential solutions. Having mulled over many of their logs for criticism, I noticed a number of consistent patterns that I thought would be important to bring to light. FFlogs in general can be difficult and daunting to sift through for newcomers and this guide aims to explicate how to navigate your logs and thereby improve your play past isolating weak points in your rotation. I promise this guide is useful and helps yous become a improve player overall, as many of the concepts I introduce in this guide can be applicative to other jobs. Delight annotation that while this guide was made in Patch 4.1 the data is all still relevant, minus the raid examples, as Bard has not inverse since then. However, I will no longer exist keeping this guide updated unless I cull to return to FFXIV.

Bard 101: Your GCDs and the Priority Organization

Before we get into more complex topics, nosotros demand to talk over Bard's priority system get-go. This priority arrangement evaluates everything on a GCD to GCD footing. It also helps identify which GCD has priority over another if a scenario arises where you may need to use over the other. For instance, Iron Jaws is listed at the summit because maintaining your DoTs has priority over the rest in about all scenarios. The GCD priority arrangement is listed below in order of most to least important.

Fe Jaws

Refulgent Arrow

Straight Shot

Heavy Shot

While this topic seems extremely trivial, most of the issues new bards have stem completely from dropped dots, missed Refulgent Arrows, and Directly Shot falling off. All of these mistakes volition continually add upwardly and particularly if you drop dots for an extended flow of time. Exercise annotation that since Bard is non a strict rotational class, small mistakes will not impact your dps in a large way at first, simply extended periods of dropped DoTs, or not keeping up your Straight Shot, volition.

At that place are a lot of reasons why it is important to beginning at the nuts, only the biggest reason is highlighting uptime. As a ranged player yous are not jump by melee or casting restrictions–you have free roam from nearly every direction of a boss loonshit. Y'all should always be pressing your buttons simply because you lot can. Your DoTs and GCDs brand upwardly a large portion of your dps, and so never end using them!

Topic 1: DoTs

The majority of this data tin be easily found in the "Damage Done" tab of your log and is often the first ready of mistakes I look for when a bard asks me to criticize their log. Below is a screenshot of one of my O1S runs, url provided here: https://www.fflogs.com/reports/Ljx1hPHKFZVkmJDy#fight=29&type=damage-done&source=59

Regarding your DoTs, there'southward really simply a few specific areas to pay attention to.

I highlighted the ii key parts of the log that you need to pay attending to. The upper two DoT rows indicate DoT ticks–essentially how many times the actual DoT did damage. The two that are below betoken how many times you really casted the respective power. Find that I merely used Stormbite and Caustic Bite once each, meaning that I had kept the DoTs upward for the entirety of the fight, and only used Iron Jaws to refresh them.

Another area you can look for is under the "Uptime %" column, where Stormbite had 98.76%, and Caustic Bite had 97.90%. In my feel, so long equally you did non have to refresh your dots manually, your uptime % should be >95%. Anything lower normally implies that you dropped DoTs for an extended menstruation of time. Proceed in mind that in O3S, yous will utilize DoTs on the adds, and so your casts for Stormbite and Caustic Bite will be greater than 1.

In full general, dropping DoTs is an extremely like shooting fish in a barrel fault to place. However, if you notice that you consistently drop DoTs on a specific fight, I would propose you go to the top correct of your FFlogs tab, and click on Timelines.

This volition bring up a comprehensive timeline of your damage assuming you are still in the "Damage Done" tab. It should look something like this:

I highlighted the key takeaways to this page. At the pinnacle, you come across both Stormbite and Caustic Bite'south uptime. The line resembles how long the DoTs are ticking. If in that location is a gap in the line, it means that you dropped DoTs for a menstruation of time before picking them upward again. The two lower circles highlight when you actually pressed the GCD. Keep an center out for gaps and extra casts of Stormbite/Caustic Seize with teeth when troubleshooting your parse.

This is a log from my first impale of O1S where I dropped DoTs once. Notice that the line for Stormbite and Caustic Bite stops abruptly and and so picks upwards a few seconds after. I noticed I dropped my DoTs almost instantly and in general, if yous drop your DoTs, they should be picked up as apace as I did here. If your gaps are longer, you demand to pay more attention when yous're raiding. Dropping DoTs isn't the stop of the world but if it is for an extended menstruum of time, your entire game plan is ruined considering of how our procs are tied to our DoTs critting.

As well keep in mind that the longer your DoTs tick the more damage they will do. It's a very elementary concept but ane that many people overlook when really doing a fight. A lot of bards will tend to Iron Jaws early on when they have no reason to practice so thereby losing a hundred potency for each missed DoT tick. For this reason, in a vacuum you will always desire to refresh your DoTs at the 0-1s mark. If you refresh at the 0s mark, your DoTs may disappear momentarily for a few moments before reappearing again afterward if you were properly on time.

Of course, a lot of that is as well based on comfort and should be a gradual affair as you get better with bard. Dropping DoTs is a lot worse than refreshing DoTs as shut to the cease every bit possible, but unless yous practice button to extend your DoTs for the maximum elapsing, y'all will be losing dps overall. Early Iron Jaws add up every bit they replace potential DoT authority and Heavy Shot potency.

Topic 2: Refulgent Arrow

Refulgent Arrow is your strongest authority skill and will besides be your ideal Barrage target. It beingness tied to Straighter Shot introduces a few nuances that may be difficult for new bards to identify which warrants the inclusion of this section. The nigh common mistake is that in the heat of the moment, young bards may fail to utilize Refulgent Arrow properly and instead press Straight Shot out of habit or because their Directly Shot buff is falling off.

In that location are a number of ways to rectify this state of affairs entirely but I will cover that specifically in the Wanderer'due south Minuet section equally it pertains to that song. However, like DoTs, you can place your mistakes very hands nether the Damage Done tab.

The key takeaways from this screenshot is under "Casts" and "Hits." The Casts cavalcade designates how many times you physically pressed the GCD. The Hits column designates how many times the skill actually "Hit" the target which can be used to run into how many times you Barraged either skill. In this instance, I Barraged 2 Refulgents and two Empyreals as indicated past a +4 to Hits for both skills.

Refulgent Arrow usage boils downwards to RNG so it is crucial that y'all make use of it every time the opportunity presents itself. In order to bank check this on FFlogs, make sure that your grapheme is nonetheless selected, and and then click the Buffs tab.

This slice of information is what'south well-nigh important. I had xviii Straighter Shot procs, and xviii casts of Refulgent Arrow, meaning that I wasted none of my procs on Straight Shot. There is only 1 instance where yous might legitimately use Straighter Shot for increased DPS (UCoB Phase Transitions), but in every other scenario, if yous encounter a situation where yous have to refresh Directly Shot because y'all need to refresh DoTs the adjacent GCD, y'all messed up , and demand to be more aware of your surroundings.

Bold that y'all do finish up in that solution, I would suggest the following assuming that you have an RA proc, Straight Shot is falling off, and DoTs are falling off.

By doing so, you lot volition maintain Directly Shot on your Iron Jaws, not waste your Refulgent proc, and refresh Straight Shot. This follows the priority organisation I introduced previously. Of class, this situation should non occur under optimal play considering your Directly Shot and Atomic number 26 Jaws volition non be synchronized together under most circumstances.

One final matter to go on in mind is that in an ideal state of affairs, Avalanche will always be used with RA. Our rotation makes it so that we volition sometimes choose to Barrage EA instead, as a mode to avert losing a usage of Barrage entirely over the course of the fight. This also keeps Barrage lined up with Raging Strikes. This information is covered more in depth inside the Minuet section, but if you lot are just starting out, ever try to Avalanche RA or EA, and never annihilation else. Ever try to make sure your terminal Avalanche in an encounter is e'er RA'd as you volition not get another usage!

Topic 3: Straight Shot

Straight Shot is your most crucial personal buff as it is a damage increase to both your GCDs and a crit vitrify for the rest of your crit mechanics. It is third on our priority listing however, as maintaining DoTs at all costs is by far the about important, and wasting a Straighter Shot proc on Straight Shot instead of Refulgent Pointer is a dps loss.

 It is likewise of import to see how well you kept Directly Shot up over the form of the fight. To view how well y'all kept Straight Shot up over the course of the fight, just go to your Buffs tab, and it should look something like this.

If you click on "Straight Shot," it volition take y'all to another graph, which will requite you specific timestamps on when yous dropped Straight Shot.

Any big gaps in your uptime indicate a mistake in which you dropped it for a period of time, most likely because of deaths or negligence. Information technology is fine to driblet Direct Shot for a few seconds, mainly if y'all get a RA proc as Straight Shot is running out, but any longer periods of fourth dimension are a direct impact to your dps particularly if you lot used Iron Jaws without Straight Shot. Remember that Straight Shot benefits your autos and other potential procs, and missing the crit vitrify on those will add up!

To determine if there were any situations where yous used Fe Jaws without Straight Shot requires a bit of extra work than before. To start, you will need to become to the Bandage tab.

Click on your proper name, and so click on "Iron Jaws."

You should now meet a graph that tracks all of the times you pressed Iron Jaws. Click on the "+" sign at the bottom correct. This effectively "pins" your graph and starts a new i to compare. Yous should now see something similar this.

The top graph is the graph that is now "pinned," and the lesser graph is whichever graph you have open right now. Click on the Buffs tab over again and and then click on Straight Shot again. Your graph should at present look like this.

Hooray! At present you have a direct comparison of when you lot used Iron Jaws and if your Iron Jaws were under the effect of Straight Shot. If you do take several instances where either skill was used improperly, try dragging beyond the graph and looking for yourself at what went incorrect at the GCD level. Usually, the solution is identical to Refulgent Pointer optimization: Iron Jaws first, and then Refulgent, then Straight Shot. Letting Direct Shot fall for a single GCD is non awful, but every bit mentioned in the previous section, should be avoided entirely if playing optimally. If you follow your rotation perfectly, your Direct Shot should almost always fall off after your next expected Iron Jaws. Iron Jaws usage is dependent on raid vitrify timings, merely if you are in progression and lack coordinated raid buffs, so that is a good rule of pollex to follow.

Endmost Thoughts on 101

These iii topics are the fundamental basics to performing well every bit a Bard player and should be of utmost importance if yous are but starting on Bard. They are the foundation to everything else y'all will be edifice on then learning to identify these issues early ensures that you can meliorate with ease every bit nosotros become into the more than circuitous topics of bard. I neglected to include Heavy Shot because Heavy Shot optimization largely warps around pressing information technology more often and squeezing as many GCDs as possible in a fight, which is not something you lot should worry about at first. With this in mind, let'due south move on to Bard's most iconic feature in Stormblood: songs.

Bard 201: Singing Properly

The songs that Bard got in Stormblood are a unique concept that functions both as a dps tool for yourself, and a minor dps vitrify for your group. For these reasons, it is admittedly crucial that you always go on your songs up and rotate them properly to reach the maximum amount of dps. Currently the accepted rotation for songs goes every bit follows:

1. 30s of Wanderer's Minuet
2. 30s of Mage's Ballad
3. 20s of Army'south Paeon

The vocal rotation changes for AoE pulls and certain in-fight optimization, but since the difficult content of FFXIV stems around savage fights, which have but had single boss fights since a2s, this rotation of songs should be the get-to if you lot are learning new content. The reason our song rotation hinges around 80s instead of 90s is because of Raging Strikes too as Paeon being the weakest of our iii songs, thereby making the ultimate goal of our rotation to be maximizing Minuet fourth dimension and minimizing Paeon time.

Topic 4: Enhanced Empyreal Arrow

Before we really can talk about songs however, we need to focus again on a foundation, which is Enhanced Empyreal Pointer.

This passive is huge and gives a lot of additional power to Empyreal Arrow to the bespeak where information technology is worth delaying your Empyreal Arrow by a few seconds every eighty seconds. Let's break downward what exactly this passive ways start.

Essentially, if yous are singing a vocal (which you ever should be doing), whenever y'all utilize EA, you will also gain a proc of the respective song. For example, if you lot are in Minuet and you employ EA you will gain a stack of repertoire on your Pitch Perfect. Likewise, you will gain a Bloodletter proc in Ballad, and a repertoire stack for Paeon. This effectively gives EA a greater potency amount and a reason to min/max it per song usage.

In brusk, because EA is a 15s cd, you want to use it twice per song simply but once during Paeon because Paeon has the weakest repertoire issue. With our electric current crit rate we will nearly probable have three stacks of repertoire by the 20s mark and naturally any stack over four is a complete waste thus making a second use of EA extremely worthless. Furthermore by saving an EA during Paeon you also ensure that your Minuet has two EAs as Paeon's lower recast fourth dimension tends to mess with EA timings if you practise non concord the 2d EA. Here's how the songs look like now, with these assumptions in mind:

In Minuet, you have Pitch Perfect as your proc if i of your DoTs crit. EA gives y'all some other stack of PP, generating an additional amount of potency for you for free. The amount of potency generated is dissimilar based off how many stacks of PP you already have, but there is no existent reason to hold EA unless you already have iii stacks. In every other scenario, it is a gain!

Similarly in Ballad, every EA yous use generates a Bloodletter proc, meaning that every EA is giving you 130 potency for free.

And lastly hither'southward Paeon, who only gets i EA because information technology'southward the ugly sibling of the three. Maybe 1 solar day its stacks will be meliorate and requite free Refulgents or something.

1 affair to keep in listen is to always proceed track of your procs, particularly in Minuet. Triple weaving is not necessarily a bad matter for Bard, particularly if you lot are to lose a potential proc if you lot do not triple weave. Our OGCDs are stronger than most of our GCDs, which is why triple weaving tin can be worth it and is covered specifically in the side by side section.

Now, if you put all the songs together, y'all will have the following rotation:

Looking at this you tin encounter that there is a specific number of EAs every lxxx seconds assuming yous practice not extend Paeon. For this reason, yous can finer quantify the amount of EAs you should be using to the number of songs you sang. For instance, if y'all sang 5 Minuets, 5 Ballads, and iv Paeons during the fight, you should have:

5*two + five*2 + iv*ane = 24 Empyreal Arrows

Naturally yous may alter the number of Empyreal Arrows used based off specific fights, which I volition cover in the Paeon section later, every bit they usually involve extra usages of EA inside Paeon. All this is easily findable in FFlogs right inside your casts tab.

This is again the O1S parse from earlier. If we become by our normal EA math, I should accept 20 uses of EA. However, my raid group chooses to pop raid buffs at 4:xxx because this was a speed kill. I extend one Paeon for 30s instead of 20s in order to put more of my Minuet inside our raid buffs. Because of this, I utilise i actress EA inside Paeon, leading to 21 EAs instead of 20.

Mathematically, I may accept lost an unabridged EA if we kept going, as by around the 5:35 mark, I should have been able to employ 22 EAs over the course of the fight. (Total Seconds / 15). For this reason, you but delay EAs in Paeon, and nowhere else.

You can fifty-fifty go more in depth than this, and make sure that you divided all of your EAs properly by clicking on the blank space to the right of "Empyreal Arrow." Then click on Paeon, Minuet, and Ballad respectively.

Your graph should look like this. Scroll into the document if it'due south too pocket-sized. On this graph, red is EA, green is Minuet, bluish is Ballad, and teal (?) is Paeon. Notice how in most cases, Paeon simply gets 1 EA, except for one instance at the 4:00 range, where I chose to extend information technology and then that my Minuet would line better with raid buffs. Shoot for a graph similar this earlier anything else, every bit this is the "macro" part of Bard. The post-obit sections encompass the intricacies within each song.

Topic v: The Wanderer's Minuet

Minuet has a lot of different things that yous get out of your way to ensure that the things yous do inside the phase go smoothly. These 30s will exist where your dps spikes and where y'all will most probable complain most poor RNG and low crit openers.

To begin with, allow'due south look at the transition from Paeon into Minuet. Information technology should look something like the following sample transition.

You must make sure that your Minuet and Raging Strikes are in sync with one another. This also ensures that your two EAs inside Minuet will besides receive the Raging Strikes vitrify. And naturally, the almost obvious reason for this is because Pitch Perfects apply RS the all-time out of our possible procs. Minuet comes first because of the hazard of getting a proc.

Straight Shot should be used at SOME point, ideally earlier RS. The reasons for this is twofold. The offset is the more obvious i: by making certain SS is used prior to RS, you trade a possible SS within RS for an HS, thereby leading to a authorisation increase.

The 2nd reason is the real reason yous want to utilize SS here. Call back the rotation I indicated in the previous topic. In reality, Minuet's rotation has an add-on, because of Barrage. Information technology should really look more like this.

Because RS and Barrage have identical cooldowns, you desire to pair these two together all the fourth dimension. This is to both ensure your Avalanche falls nether RS and that you practise not lose a usage of Barrage over the course of a fight.

Naturally however, the ideal Barrage usage is with RA. You just want to use it with the 2d EA inside Minuet every bit a last resort. Therefore, nosotros enter the "fishing" stage of Minuet, which is brusk for "spam HS and hope you get an RA" phase. Ideally, your Minuet rotation should wait something like this.

The full general rule of pollex is earlier you become into Minuet, cheque both the cooldown of Barrage and the remaining time on SS. If SS is longer than the remaining fourth dimension on Avalanche, feel free to transition without a SS. If it is lower however, utilise SS so you can ensure that you don't driblet SS and you won't feel awful about not having SS up for a few seconds while yous're attempting to fish.

There's no existent style to cheque if you're consistently doing these solutions as information technology is very much on the wing decision making. One roundabout method involves using pins like we did in the SS section in order to make sure that your Avalanche, RS, and WM are all timed together. Get to the casts section and click on the "+" sign for Minuet and Barrage. We aren't doing EA here because Barrage may be used with Refulgent, and it would be needless ataxia on your graph for this scenario. Your graph should look similar this:

Now navigate back to your buffs and pivot RS. You tin can also pin SS if you want to check if yous're putting up SS consistently earlier Minuet. At present click on "Graph: Separate," and modify information technology and so that it says "Graph: Primary." This mode, you can clearly see how long RS is up for.

Now become back to Casts and click on the GCD you want to focus in on. In the graph below, I chose to click on SS.

Here yous tin can see when you used Minuet, when you Barraged, how long RS lasted, and when you used SS. Y'all can click on EA or RA if you want to focus on either of those as well. This should give you lot a good idea of how you are prepping your WM phase.

With the main rotation out of the manner, there are likewise a few things we need to keep in listen for Pitch Perfect. PP is a unique skill in that it uses stacks for damage and besides relies on crit RNG to gain said stacks. This introduces a few intricacies and thresholds for it that will exist in very specific scenarios. In full general, you volition want to PP at iii stacks, and that's often as far equally you'll go unless you lot have a DRG and a SCH. If you have both, things get interesting.

These two buffs are what change PP pivotally. With our BiS set nosotros accept around 34% crit rate factoring in SS buff as well. If you lot add both of these crit buffs, nosotros go around a 64% crit rate, which is a reasonable threshold for both of our DoTs to crit. What this means is that PP has a reasonable chance to gain two stacks instead of one for every DoT tick. Considering of this, under the furnishings of both Battle Litany and Chain Stratagem, y'all will want to PP at 2 stacks instead of 3. This threshold will change as we get more crit over the next few patches but for right now, you lot need both Battle Litany and Chain Stratagem to employ this strategy.

The concluding bit of PP optimization comes from a scenario where yous take three stacks at around the tail stop of Minuet (0-6s). In this scenario, you should proc erstwhile at 4-6s to prep for a possible another PP stack at the 1-3s. Since PP has an innate cooldown (thanks Square), if you PP too late, you may completely nullify the chance of using your last stack. With how potent PP is, this is actually a large deal if information technology happens consistently. Don't forget to employ PP at 1s if this scenario does not occur though as your repertoire stacks do not carry over into Ballad!

That covers the gist of what you need to know nearly Minuet. Call back to continue two EAs within of information technology, and sync RS and Barrage with it as well!

Topic half-dozen: Triple Weaves and Ballad

Ballad by itself is not a very circuitous vocal and it plays very similarly to ARR and HW Bard. In that location is very little optimization involved with Ballad, just the primary surface area I want to highlight is triple weaving inside it.

But Seu! I thought yous should never go above double weaving ever!

While information technology is truthful that nigh classes never get above double weaves, Bard has an incentive to triple weave from time to fourth dimension because of the strength of our OGCDs and the weakness of our GCDs. In fact, these situations tend to popular up a lot and most notably in Ballad. There are a few very specific scenarios and they both pertain to Ballad and Minuet.

This scenario is pretty obvious: You're preparing to Barrage EA, but PP decides to proceeds its third stack. If you use EA immediately yous'll lose a potential proc and for that reason you must triple weave. This is a natural consequence of RNG and tin can't be helped. Information technology is advisable to exercise this as yous'll otherwise Barrage a HS or lose a PP proc. Y'all tin't physically avoid the triple weave here and yous will definitely clip your HS which isn't a big deal in this case.

The 2d is a much more specific scenario. Assume that BL comes off cooldown naturally right equally yous're nigh to utilise EA. In this instance, there are 2 options. The kickoff is to triple weave BL EA BL together between i GCD. The 2d, is merely doing BL EA, and so doing the second BL after the second HS.

Triple weaving here is i of the biggest finesses of Bard, every bit there is a very fine line where triple weaving might be a dps loss or a dps gain. You cannot merely triple weave nonsensically as you are actually better off just double weaving everything and potentially losing procs equally opposed to losing HS time. Evidently that rationale applies just to the Carol scenario every bit the Minuet scenario is a very clear case that makes triple weaving worth it. The main affair to continue in mind for triple weaving is that it is entirely dependant on when your next DoT tick is.

This introduces the concept of either watching your vocal gauge persistently, or having a mental metronome of when your DoTs will tick next. While the second option is much more independent, yous will nevertheless have to glance at your song gauge to get a vague idea of when your DoTs are going to tick.

Ballad will normally await like this. Unassuming, and a bland shade of pink.

This is what Ballad looks like when a DoT crits. You can run into music notes emanate from it and the entire bar line as well glows white for a moment. DoTs operate on a 3 second wheel in FFXIV which means that the adjacent DoT tick will be at 16s. Y'all tin can exercise this with Paeon or Minuet as well but I find it harder to pay attending to them every bit they are based on stacks.

Now with this cognition we tin make an educated solution every bit to whether or not we should triple weave. If you know that there will not exist a DoT tick you should not triple weave and instead delay the BL to the next GCD. If the reverse is truthful, you should triple weave, in case yous become another BL proc (which you will use on the adjacent GCD).

All of this comes with a great deal of practice and does circumduct around RNG due to how ridiculously crit dependent nosotros are as a course. Do not triple weave just because it's cool and you accept a few justifications to do and then as you may be gimping yourself out of dps like I did in the past. I actually triple weaved too often to the point of losing dps to other bards because I was severely behind in casting heavy shots (which is still your largest source of dps!).

Either way, double weaving and splitting upward your BLs is the much safer option than triple weaving carelessly. It comes with a lot of do, and is very nuanced, merely is the fundamental to optimal play. Identifying when to double weave and when to triple weave is absolutely crucial as Bard in summary is literally "play the class, and suit to unique scenarios every bit they happen." Bard is not a rotation based class like many others like MCH or DRG–it is an extremely adaptive grade that focuses on scenarios that occur that will change how you fundamentally play.

Because the complexity of this topic there isn't really a manner to show this on FFlogs and is much more of a "during-raid" type of thing. It'south something to go on in heed of and information technology will ameliorate your dps if you lot're actively enlightened of this situation.

Topic vii: Stupid 3rd Vocal

Paeon is the simplest vocal to talk about considering song optimization basically revolves around limiting Paeon usage. If for instance, downtime allows it, yous might completely skip Paeon.

Even so, the inverse of this scenario is also important, and that'southward extending Paeon for the sake of raid buff alignment / Minuet optimization. Notably, O1S, O3S, and O4S have specific portions where y'all'll want to extend Paeon. In all of these cases, it is a affair of looking at what other people do with their songs and asking yourself, "Does this make sense for my raid group?"

Extending Paeon is not always going to be the same and is unlike for every fight. Virtually cases are associated with downtime reasons in which going into Minuet is non ideal at that specific point in time. For this reason, information technology isn't so much as extending Paeon every bit it is maximizing Minuet. The following section refers to Deltascape every bit I exercise non have a lot of logs for Sigmascape yet, only they should get the point across for now.

For O1S, like I mentioned before in Topic four, you will want to extend Paeon to 30s at some point if you lot are doing a iv:xxx raid buff timing. This of class means that you're shooting for a kill time before 6 minutes as otherwise y'all will exist losing a employ of Litany. I tend to extend it by 10s around the 3:l mark so that I go into Minuet at the iv:twenty marking.

For O3S yous will exist in Paeon during the third set of Folios in which you will be unable to assault when y'all stand on some of the books. If you transition into Minuet earlier you go into one of the books you will lose valuable Minuet uptime and therefore you should extend Paeon. This occurs around the 5:00 mark.

For ExDeath you lot volition want to both skip and extend Paeon during Decisive Boxing. The first Decisive Battle ends correct as Carol ends and your Minuet will be up right equally he respawns. Therefore, you can use Paeon equally simply a 100 authority OGCD here. This Paeon occurs at around the 1:00 mark.

The 2nd Decisive Battle occurs after the first Shooting star where you lot will be in Paeon phase at around ii:30. If you choose to transition into Minuet you will waste material a ton of fourth dimension to Decisive Battle, effectively wasting your procs. Thus, you will extend Paeon to 30s and also become songless for a few seconds. Some of the very peak bards cull to go into Minuet hither back when they were attempting to skip the second Decisive Battle–in every other instance though, you should not become into Minuet.

For Neo ExDeath, yous will want to extend Paeon in the aforementioned way as you lot did for second Decisive Battle, correct earlier Grand Cross Omega. The aforementioned rationale is backside this, and is especially important because Omega ends right before the 6:00 mark meaning all of your raid buffs volition be up again allowing you to perform a 2nd opener.

UCoB also has three instances of Paeon extension with one occurring during Twintania and the other in Nael. Both of those phases have a iii:00 enrage meaning that ideally you will want to start on Minuet for the adjacent phase because of Litany being bachelor. For this reason, you volition want to extend Paeon in some shape or grade before going into the adjacent phase. Twintania dies as Paeon ends, as does Nael, and then I normally merely extend the very terminal Paeon.

On Bahamut you lot don't even actually utilise Paeon for the vocal so much so every bit use information technology for the potency. In fact outside of attempting to realign songs because I died, I will never utilize Paeon during any of Bahamut'south trio for its event. In my feel Paeon is exclusively used for the 100 potency during this phase largely considering Minuet and Carol can both be used dorsum to back and and then properly realigned due to downtime.

On Teraflare you lot volition want to exercise a RS MB instead of a WM. At two targets and with our electric current crit rate RoD tends to take a more favorable outcome than PP. Your vocal order in Teraflare volition follow equally MB → WM → AP with this logic. This is largely considering based on our electric current crit percentages it is more likely that only one or ii of our DoTs will tick (which favors RoD) instead of 3 or 4 (which favors PP).

Currently I tend to extend the AP before your 2d circular of openers on Golden Bahamut, which is the one during the fourth Exaflare. This allows more of your WM to land inside of your raid buffs which follows the same logic you would utilize in o1s.

For how atrocious of a dps song Paeon is, information technology is still a good filler to realign your other songs if y'all mess upwards your rotation. By this, I mean that you should extend Paeon so that the remainder of your songs come up off CD properly in your 80s rotation. If for case you misclicked Carol early, y'all can extend Paeon so that Ballad has more time to realign with the rest of your kit. The easiest way to see if everything is realigned is the following checklist:

• Minuet is off CD.
• Raging Strikes is off CD.
• Ballad has 30s or less on its CD.
• Paeon has 60s or less on its CD.

Endmost Thoughts on 201

This covers song optimization which I remember should be the 2d chief topic you should focus on as information technology directly builds upon your GCD foundation. If you lot can maintain both your GCDs and your songs properly you can hands perform in the majestic range and score oranges with even a mediocre group bold you're well geared. The side by side two sections are much more nuanced and focus on split decision making that should non take precedence over your GCDs or songs unless you're admittedly comfy with them.

Bard 301: Raid Buffs and Iron Jaws

Topic 8: DoTs are Stupid

Raid buffs are some of the more min/max parts of the job and to utilize them properly depends both on yous as the player and on your fellow teammates. If yous aren't already enlightened, DoTs "snapshot" whatever furnishings are on y'all and on the boss when practical. What this ways is that if you lot have RS on and you utilize IJ, your side by side 30s of DoTs all take that x% increment in damage.

This is incredibly of import equally nosotros now have new powerful crit buffs to account for in improver to flat damage increases. Beneath is what I consider to be the tier list in how you should prioritize your raid buffs when choosing to IJ assuming that the previous set of DoTs had no buffs on them.

Tier 1: The Crit GODS

With how much our kit revolves around crit, it's no surprise that Chain Stratagem and Battle Litany are at the very peak of the tier listing. With both buffs providing a 15% crit boost, y'all'll almost always desire to snapshot these buffs twice over the form of their duration. Their forcefulness as crit buffs and their positioning with other strong raid buffs make them extremely desirable.

Tier 2: Crit Runner-Upwards

Spear's change into a crit vitrify has made it an extremely desirable card for Bard now. While still weaker than the Rest for our dps overall, the Spear places higher on the IJ tier listing because of its benefit to our procs. Even past itself information technology's a ten% crit buff which discounts the fact that it may be enhanced or extended by Purple Road. In general, you can double snapshot a single Spear if it's enhanced or extended and I personally like to use a trigger for this in speed runs and then that I know exactly what it is that's coming my way. An AoE Spear may non always be worth the double snapshot, notwithstanding.

Tier three: Mister Trick Set on and The Balance

These two are the OG buffs that take warped all of FFlogs around them. Trick Set on has an added benefit in that it'due south a infinitesimal cooldown meaning that information technology should always line up with your Sidewinder. This may seem like a pocket-size deal but it will add up over the class of the fight if y'all do non capitalize on your Ninja.

The other is the Residuum, the card that has symbolized padding everywhere. In general you will not be the receiver of a single target Residual, only if you do, be certain to capitalize it. A single target Balance is equivalent or double the power of RS as well every bit being longer in elapsing.

In general, Fox Set on is not very double snapshot-able because of its low elapsing. Even so, y'all volition often tend to catch it at the tail end of more than important buffs like Chain or Litany and it is still a proceeds over naked DoTs. These buffs in conjunction with another buff however, are definitely worth double snapshotting. I like to phone call this tier the "philharmonic" tier since it'due south by and large ideal if they're paired up with something else to double snapshot them, specially in regards to buffs in Tier four.

Tier 4: All the Other Crap

These buffs aren't necessarily bad, they only kind of bladder under the radar or do not stand out in item compared to the meridian iii tiers. They're essentially nice sort of "add-on" to Tier 3 buffs and otherwise do not stand out in terms of snapshotting. They volition e'er be a vitrify to naked DoTs and should still exist defenseless if you get the chance! Do note that this tier is in regards to AoE Balance and Spear instead of single target.

Summary

So with all the tiers mapped out, I'll endeavour to organize this into physical rules of pollex when you're looking at raid buffs for Fe Jaws.

1. Tier 1 should almost always be double snapshotted. The second snapshot should as well line upwardly with other minute buffs such as Trick Attack, Hypercharge, Embolden, and Devotion. The exception lies in if you're going into Paeon as the buffs are wearing off. Paeon doesn't apply crit finer, making the Tier 1 buffs actually worse than a straight dmg % buff in Paeon. Information technology is the just circumstance in which I would not double snapshot these buffs, barring reanimation.

1. Unmarried target Spear is very powerful and should be double snapshotted in a vacuum, especially if enhanced or extended. AoE Spear is relatively weak and is treated as an add-on to meliorate buffs. The same rules with Tier 1 apply with Spear as it is too a crit buff.

1. Fox Attack should ever be lined upwards with Sidewinder unless your Ninja is accented garbage and tin can't put them up in time consistently. Otherwise, y'all have no reason not to utilise these skills together.

1. 10% Buffs like the Balance, Trick, and Raging Strikes should be double snapshotted if they are in conjunction with other raid buffs.

1. ten% Buffs like the Residuum, and Raging Strikes should be double snapshotted if you do the first IJ when your remaining DoTs are at 15s or less. This is especially imperative with RS as you will encounter this 15s threshold many times equally y'all transition into Minuet. Play a joke on isn't mentioned here because of its low duration.

1. The remaining % buffs should only ever be single snapshotted, and should be treated equally philharmonic pieces for the other, stronger buffs.

Phew! That is a lot to take in, so allow'due south put it into a visual on FFlogs to keep track of all this nonsense. First things outset, go to your Impairment Done tab, and select IJ. Now, click on the Events tab on the top right.

Only look at how much useful information in that location is hither! You tin see all the buffs that affected your Iron Jaws on the right giving you a firm thought of when raid buffs were used and whether or not they were capitalized on properly. Of course, if your raid group does non care nigh raid buffs every bit much as they should, they may exist all over the place. Even in that case however there is no reason for you to not follow the guidelines I listed above as they will notwithstanding exist a boon to your dps, regardless of how improperly the raid buffs were used.

At present obviously this graph does accept its limits as while it does show you lot what buffs you lot snapshotted successfully, it does not show what buffs you lot did not snapshot successfully. While there is no clean style to brandish every single cast without looking messy, you can create a format like to what we did with SS. The divergence here is that we will either be looking at your buffs (like SS), or looking at the boss'due south debuffs. In this case, I'll show what you need to practice involving your debuffs.

First yous'll desire to click on "Enemies," and so navigate to "Debuffs." Here you should meet all the various debuffs that were put onto the dominate. At the lesser of this, you should see stuff similar "Vulnerability Upward" or "Chain Stratagem." Click on the debuff you want to look at in depth, and so pin the graph.

Next, click on "Friendlies," go back to "Casts," and click on "Atomic number 26 Jaws." Now click on "Separate" until it turns into "Principal." Your end consequence should expect similar this:

Hither you can see that two Stratagems were properly double snapshotted, whereas the second Stratagem I messed up and did non press IJ again after CS went up. In this case, CS was slightly belatedly which threw me off. Ideally, you lot should IJ again in this scenario because of how stiff crit is for Ballad and Minuet (in this example, 2d CS lines up with your Carol). Likewise, you lot can use this method to await at your other debuffs such equally Play a trick on Assail, as well as buffs such as Battle Litany.

Always watch both your own buff bar and the dominate'south debuff bar as they are imperative to optimal Bard play. Do non forget your previous Iron Jaws either as you may overwrite a very stiff crit buff with a mediocre damage % buff by mistake!

Closing Thoughts on 301

IJ optimization is the final main hump I tend to recommend to newer bards that are merely asking, "How practice I get amend?" By this point, if yous tin principal IJ optimization, you can self-troubleshoot nigh of your bug. While I do explain two topics I thought were imperative in the post-obit department, in that location isn't much else to being "better" at bard other than reacting properly to specific scenarios. You need to identify when raid buffs are going up, if yous want to extend Paeon, or if you messed up your DoTs and need to improvise. Bard is non a rotational class–it's all virtually adaptation, and if yous tin can practice all this, I'm sure you lot're already a stellar Bard. The last department volition embrace abstract portions of optimization and are more than conceptual every bit opposed to "look at FFlogs."

Bard 401: Final Optimization

Topic ix: Heavy Shot

When I first started this guide, I introduced the concept of "never terminate doing something," because bluntly, that is precisely why you lot are playing ranged: you have the liberty of having no cast times as well as range from the dominate, finer allowing yous to always be attacking the dominate. This is very key, and if y'all've been doing everything else I've been telling yous yet still wondering why your dps isn't up to par, first, identify where you might be losing GCDs.

The reason for where you might be losing GCDs can be from about everywhere and is completely fight dependent. It may exist not getting a GCD off before you slide in o1s, respecting mechanics (later the fight is on farm) so much that yous forget to do GCDs, or in my case, triple weaving as well much.

If you lot're at this point, it's self troubleshooting. I've provided y'all with the tools bachelor so use that noesis to place where your trouble spots may exist for certain fights. The easiest way to see if you lot're "where y'all're supposed to be" is wait upwardly top rank bards, and see how many GCDs/OGCDs they go in a similar time to i of your logs. Chances are, they'll have more Heavy Shots than y'all, or more GCDs overall than y'all, or perhaps something completely unlike that you should be doing (or not!). What'southward important here is knowing what you lot yourself are doing wrong, comparing yourself to other players, and seeing how they stack confronting you. Are they doing something different that makes them perform ameliorate? It tin can be and then many factors.

An piece of cake style to do this is to use the compare role on FFlogs. I'll utilize my v:xiv parse as a comparison with one of Miyuri'due south parses when she was subbing for my group (which conveniently had a nearly identical impale fourth dimension). First, you'll desire to go to the compare window and then click on the "Compare Reports" drop down. Hit "Compare with URL," and so put in the series of words right later /reports/. You'll now come to something similar this which may include multiple kills if the logs have them. Click on "Show All," and it should wait something like this.

I highlighted a few things to expect at here. The cardinal thing to notation is where the blueish and purple circles are. The royal circumvolve is the parse your log is being compared to, and the blue indicates parses from your original log (which may signal multiple kills). In my case, I'll be clicking on the five:14 blue circle to ensure that my log is properly compared to the v:12 imperial circle.

It will end up looking like this. Head over to the Damage Washed tab and so click on the two bards you are comparing (likely yourself and someone else). In my case, information technology's me and Miyuri.

Yous at present have a direct comparison between the 2 parses, and where you may have had less or more casts than the other bard. When looking at GCDs, be sure to compare all of them, pregnant not just HS, only RA, IJ, and SS equally well. Your songs are as well important to await at equally there may be different things they are doing that atomic number 82 to unlike results. Miyuri's log and my own are extremely shut in regards to GCDs and sometimes it may even be a matter of proc RNG that led to a ameliorate parse. In this parse I did not triple weave at all, which explains why Miyuri had more BL procs but less HS procs than I did.

 The best way to compare is to click on a cast and then look at how they are spread out over the fight. Perchance there's a portion of the fight where you aren't GCDing for some reason. One easy thing I can put out in that screenshot is that Miyuri has one more Paeon than I do because she uses the last one at the last second for a free 100 authorisation. Do keep in listen that if you exercise non have a like impale time, y'all tin can drag beyond your parse to cut into a section similar to the parse you're trying to compare to. While this is not a perfect solution, your GCDs should match for the most part.

This is the type of cocky troubleshooting yous need to exercise at this level for non just lost GCDs, just also diverse extremely small nuances that can increase your dps. You're at this level, and you are more than capable of performing it–you just demand to know where to search for it. Thus for that reason, the only legitimate advice I can requite is the post-obit:

PRESS YOUR GODDAMN BUTTONS.

Topic 10: Foe Requiem

You know, this is another abstruse subject considering of how Foe works and because using Foe by itself is definitely a dps loss for yourself, every bit the 3% gain is not going to make up for the lost Heavy Shot.

What people fail to recognize is how strong Foe Requiem really is for the group, and past simply using it at full mana, you are already giving your squad a big amount of raid dps. I recently came beyond this site that I institute useful at painting a mental epitome at how much raid buffs actually contribute. The link is here, and you can plug in whatever of your FFlogs easily and information technology will evidence you lot your raid dps contribution in an instant.

Merely look at how much Foe contributed–half the amount that Trick Attack / Hypercharge provided, and exceeding how much your crit passive ambiently produced. It'south a powerful buff that should be fully utilized (do annotation that the site calculates crit every bit apartment damage percents estimates, so they are slightly inaccurate).

But then of grade is the always present question: "Why should I give something that's affecting me negatively?" The grab here is that it really isn't affecting you negatively, in fact it'due south going to improve your dps (which is why I imagine yous're even reading this guide). By giving more dps to your group you increment their dps which also increases the speed at which you kill the boss.  This and so increases your ain dps as a shorter impale fourth dimension almost always means higher dps.

Then at that place remains the matter of how to use Foe properly which has spawned a lot of debate with new versions being tested for specific encounters. I'm certain for 4.2 we may run into completely different things as well, but I'll highlight what I personally do, and what I remember is the norm for virtually groups that run double ranged.

The Opener: Pretty self explanatory. Everything's lined upwards, and y'all Refresh after your Foe is done.

i Infinitesimal: Use Foe about half-dozen seconds earlier Play a trick on Attack. Machinist Refresh should be used right after your MP ticks to 0.

2 Infinitesimal: No Foe hither. This rotation opts out of a ii minute Foe in favor of a 4 minute one. The 4 minute one naturally lines upward with your Minuet too, which is a major boon.

three Minute: 3 infinitesimal with Litany. Refresh once more afterward Foe is done.

4 Minute: Same bargain with the ane Infinitesimal marker, only this time a lot more buffs are aligned properly. It also very conveniently lines upwardly with one of your Minuet phases!

five Minute: Poor lonely Flim-flam Attack.

The half-dozen infinitesimal mark repeats from the opener, and this should provide a good visual for how Foe might be used in a double ranged comp. If you lot're running with a caster, it might be better to forego using this method and instead rely on Foeing every 3 minutes, while using Refresh before using Foe. This extends your Foe time, but compromises chances of another Foe usage earlier your mp naturally ticks. Besides be certain to ask for Mana Shift at around the 3rd or 4th GCD!

There are a few other variations of Foe that tin can be used, but I personally am not very well versed in them, and they are more often than not experimental from my understanding. If you want a more in depth expect on MP ticks and Foe usage, I would suggest looking at the other guides in the appendix as they both become into it very well.

Final Thoughts

Welcome to the terminate! I hope this guide has helped y'all in some way shape or form. If there's any i have away I can requite you, it'southward that Bard is i of the well-nigh reactive classes in this game. Every fight can be different if things are not planned accordingly and you can't simply "practice the rotation" and expect to go results. Mistakes volition always happen, whether it'southward your mistake, or your grouping's mistake for misaligning raid buffs (or dying). It's not a serial of button presses that you tin can do every unmarried time–you take to understand that every DoT tick, or variation in raid vitrify, can modify how you play. Be ready to adapt, because that is really how you will go a meliorate Bard for current and new content to come up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Appendix:

Miyuri'south Bard FAQ

Aileena Chae's and Sana Cetonis's Comprehensive Guide

Collaborators:

[Behemoth] Yumiya Nagatsuki

[Sargatanas] Miyuri Latte

rudolphhisch1995.blogspot.com

Source: https://gamerstips.com/fflogs-guide-singing-to-the-top/

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