Bard DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.55

The opener is designed to align your buffs with the rest of the party while maximizing those buffs yourself. It sets up for clean two-minute burst sequences later on as well.

1. Grade 6 Tincture of Dexterity (fight-dependent) at 2s left on countdown
2. Stormbite → The Wanderer's Minuet → Raging Strikes
3. Caustic Bite → Empyreal Arrow → Bloodletter
4. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Radiant Finale → Battle Voice
5. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Barrage and/or Sidewinder
6. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Barrage or Sidewinder (if not used yet)
7. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow
8. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow
9. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Empyreal Arrow
10. Iron Jaws → Pitch Perfect

Use Bloodletter and Pitch Perfect as able throughout. For Pitch Perfect, use it at three stacks, or at two stacks if Empyreal Arrow is coming soon.

" Barrage and/or Sidewinder" is there because you might have a Straighter Shot proc already. If so, you do not want to use Barrage until after spending that proc on a Refulgent Arrow. You could also have a Pitch Perfect to use there too, so you may not be able to use both Barrage and Sidewinder even if there is no proc. Prioritize Barrage in that case.

Make sure to spend any Pitch Perfect stacks you have after the Iron Jaws. All the buffs that are about to run out there make it well worth even a single stack usage.

Use Grade 6 Tincture of Dexterity before the opener in most cases. In fights where you can use them on bursts at 2:00 and 6:30 or 2:00 and 8:00, without losing a potential usage, do that instead.

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 33s (leave at 12s or less on the timer)
3. Army's Paeon for 42s (leave at 3s 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.

Although Mage's Ballad is a tiny bit weaker than a fully stacked Army's Paeon, it is better to use it as the middle song for a host of reasons. These include the timing of Mage's slightly better party buff, Army's warmup period, Enhanced Army's Paeon and other things.

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. Bloodletter

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

1. Empyreal Arrow
2. Bloodletter - do not use if the song timer is 30 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 → Grade 6 Tincture of Dexterity (if available)
2. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → wait → The Wanderer's Minuet (as late as you can)
3. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Raging Strikes → Empyreal Arrow
4. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → use Bloodletter if at three charges
5. Burst Shot or Refulgent Arrow → Radiant Finale → Battle Voice

After that, there is no set order - that will depend on your Soul Gauge and your procs. But the six GCDs you use under the 15 seconds of buffs should be:

• Apex Arrow
• Blast 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
• 3x Bloodletter
• 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 sixth GCD

If you keep Empyreal Arrow on cooldown, save up Bloodletters 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. Use buffs on The Wanderer's Minuet to have strong output in two songs for trash packs (not just Mage's Ballad). You can use your usual rotation on bosses this way 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 Bloodletter.

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. Sidewinder, Empyreal Arrow, and Pitch Perfect should all 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.

However, you need to be careful about Shadowbite, since it has a smaller five-yalm radius around the targeted enemy. When that procs, you may need to swap to a target near the middle of the pack to hit everything with it. Then, get back to your priority target(s) afterwards.