Bard Job Changes and Updates — Dawntrail 7.1

To start out, see the job action trailer showcase for Dawntrail Bard below:

Here are the changes and skill updates for Bard in Dawntrail, circa 7.01. Remember that things may change in 7.05.

• Songs will not need a target anymore. To prevent long pre-pull sequences, songs will only be usable in combat.
• Battle Voice and Radiant Finale now last 20 seconds, as do most/all other party-wide buffs or enemy debuffs that used to last 15.
• Pitch Perfect will deal AoE damage with 50% falloff.
• The buffs that enable Refulgent Arrow and Shadowbite will be combined into one shared buff.
• Barrage now grants its own buff for Refulgent Arrow and Shadowbite to consume, instead of overwriting the existing buff Bard can get from its regular GCD skills. Also, only the two enabled skills can consume Barrage's triple/damage increase buff (no more Barrage'ing Iron Jaws).

Skill Name	Category	Changes
Heartbreak Shot	Ability	Upgraded version of Bloodletter (which is now 130p). Heartbreak Shot is 180p and is learned at level 92.
Resonant Arrow	Weaponskill	Barrage will turn into this new skill once activated, for 30 seconds. Resonant Arrow deals 600 potency in an AoE (50% falloff) and is learned at level 96.
Radiant Encore	Weaponskill	Radiant Finale will turn into this new skill once activated, for 30 seconds. Radiant Encore deals 500-900 potency, depending on coda, in an AoE (50% falloff)and is learned at level 100.
Wide Volley	Weaponskill	A new, lower level version of Shadowbite, learned at level 25. It deals 140p (220p under Barrage) and upgrades to Shadowbite at level 72.
Apex Arrow	Weaponskill	Potency increased to 600 at level 94.
Empyreal Arrow	Ability	Potency increased to 260 at level 94.
Sidewinder	Ability	Potency increased to 400 at level 94.
Second Wind	Ability	Upgraded from 500p to 800p at level 94.
Troubadour	Ability	Upgraded from 10% damage reduction to 15% at level 98.

In terms of Bard's rotation, the most impactful change is the shift to a 20 second party buff window. This incentivizes us to look for a way to fit two Empyreal Arrow within that buff window. It also means that using Raging Strikes later for more buff overlap could be valuable.

As a result, we have two rotational options. The vast majority of players can and should stick to standard, but a more advanced "3-6-9" rotation exists as well. To describe them in brief:

As a standard rotation, we will run Mage's Ballad until it has 3 seconds left, then swap to Army's Paeon, going into The Wanderer's Minuet after that timer reaches 12. The rest is much like the current rotation, save for using Raging Strikes one GCD later in 2m+ burst windows. This rotation runs best at a 2.47s to 2.49s GCD.

You can find information on the standard rotation in the rotation guide:

In "3-6-9", our song swaps are after the 3, 6, and 9 ticks on the song timers respectively, with the same song order. Precise Empyreal Arrow timing is key to making this work. There other technical details too that make it more of an "advanced" rotation, best reserved for cutting edge optimization. "3-6-9" works at a 2.50s GCD, but can be run at 2.49s.

More details on this will come in a future advanced guide. Some specifics are still being worked on as of writing.