Bard DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Dawntrail 7.1

The opener is designed to set up long-term alignments, and of course put a lot of damage under party buffs. The former takes precedence, as we do more 2-minute bursts than openers in a fight.

Use Heartbreak Shot and Pitch Perfect as able throughout. You should be able to get four Heartbreaks total under buffs, using the first one where shown.

You should be able to hold Pitch Perfect for three stacks throughout. But make sure to spend any remaining stacks after that last GCD, before Raging Strikes expires. Most other buffs (save for your own Battle Voice) should still be up at that time.

You will not always use Grade 1 Gemdraught of Dexterity in the opener. If saving it for later (bigger) bursts, do not fill the gap with anything. Wait a bit and then use Battle Voice at the end of the weave window.

Song ticks (proc chances) happen based on the song timer - at 42s, 39s, 36s, and so on. You can not get a proc in the last three seconds. You want to use your songs in this pattern:

1. The Wanderer's Minuet for 42s (leave at 3s or less on the timer*)
2. Mage's Ballad for 42s (leave at 3s or less on the timer)
3. Army's Paeon for 33s (leave at 12s or less on the timer**)

*Use any remaining Pitch Perfect stacks before leaving.

**Use The Wanderer's Minuet as late in the oGCD window as you can, so that Enhanced Army's Paeon covers five GCDs.

Bard's rotation is very simple outside of the two-minute burst sequence and its setup. The general between-burst skill usage is covered here first.

Here is your general GCD priorities (in all songs):

1. Stormbite → Caustic Bite - if DoTs are not applied
2. Iron Jaws - if DoTs are about to run out
3. Apex Arrow → Blast Arrow - at specific times*
4. Refulgent Arrow - if available
5. Burst Shot

*For Apex and Blast Arrow, you want to use them during your burst window. To ensure that you have enough gauge to do this, only use them once between bursts. Use them either when your gauge fills during Mage's Ballad or before the timer on that song hits 18 (so long as the gauge is at least 80). You will sometimes fill the gauge during Army's Paeon - do not use it. Wait for your burst.

Your handling of oGCDs will vary based on which song you are in.

Outside of the burst sequence:

1. Pitch Perfect - at three stacks
2. Pitch Perfect - at two stacks, if you are about to Empyreal Arrow at the same time as a song tick
3. Empyreal Arrow
4. Heartbreak Shot

1. Heartbreak Shot - if at three charges (try to avoid this)
2. Empyreal Arrow
3. Sidewinder
4. Heartbreak Shot

1. Empyreal Arrow
2. Heartbreak Shot - do not use if the song timer is 35 or less

Every two minutes, you will be able to stack Raging Strikes, Radiant Finale, and Battle Voice, alongside other buffs from your party. You want to land as much damage as you can while you have this large total damage increase.

To start, you ideally want to lead in with this sequence as you get to the end of Army's Paeon:

1. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → wait → The Wanderer's Minuet (as late as you can)
2. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Empyreal Arrow
3. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Radiant Finale → Battle Voice
4. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Grade 1 Gemdraught of Dexterity (if available) → Raging Strikes

After that, there is no set order - that will depend on your Soul Gauge and your procs. But the eight GCDs you use under the full stack of buffs should be:

• Radiant Encore
• Apex Arrow
• Blast Arrow
• Resonant Arrow
• A Barrage'd Refulgent Arrow
• Iron Jaws
• 2x Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow

Then for your oGCDs, you should have:

• Sidewinder
• Barrage
• Empyreal Arrow
• 3-4x Heartbreak Shot
• Any three-stack Pitch Perfects you get
• A two-stack Pitch Perfect (if needed to protect the Empyreal Arrow proc)
• Use any Pitch Perfect stacks you have after the last GCD

If you keep Empyreal Arrow on cooldown, save up Heartbreak Shots during Army's Paeon, and use Apex Arrow as described earlier, this should all come together nicely every two minutes.

In dungeons, it is fine to use your songs in the same order. Do not be shy about using buffs and burst skills on trash packs. You can use your usual rotation on bosses too, though you will need to start in whatever song you happen to be in.

Against two or more enemies, instead of Burst Shot and Refulgent Arrow, you want to use Ladonsbite and Shadowbite. Also, use Rain of Death instead of Heartbreak Shot.

You can use Apex Arrow and Blast Arrow on mob packs at any gauge from 80 to 100. There is not a large gap in efficiency. This may put them at odd times on bosses, but hitting multiple targets is well worth it. This is true for raid bosses, too - working your Apex usage around chances to hit two or more targets is usually a gain.

Make sure you still use your single-target oGCDs in AoE, since they are free value. Empyreal Arrow and Sidewinder should still be used.

Ideally, use these on the enemy with the most HP. If you put that damage on enemies that are already going to die first, the damage is effectively wasted. Blast Arrow puts its 600-potency hit on the targeted mob, too. Make it a goal to get the whole pack to die around the same time.

As part of this, a common occurrence in Dawntrail is for some enemies in a dungeon pack to have a lot more HP than others. Even if not immediately efficient, it can be worth tossing Stormbite and Caustic Bite on those (and Iron Jaws if it comes to it) to reduce slow single-target burn time.

Lastly, be careful about Shadowbite and Pitch Perfect, as they have a smaller five-yalm radius around the targeted enemy. Try to mainly be on a target near the middle of the pack to hit everything with those, swapping to high-HP enemies as needed.