Leveling Rotations and Tips for Bard — Endwalker 6.4
Gear Options
When leveling up, you should always choose the piece of gear with the highest Dexterity. Aside from gear you buy for gil at vendors, this will always be the Dexterity gear with the higher item level.
Once you are level 50/60/70/80, you can trade Allagan Tomestone of Poetics for gear of the highest item level available for that level. Get these from Rowena's Representatives near the aetheryte of each expansion's major city.
Rotation Overview While Leveling Bard
Bard's rotation does not change substantially after level 56. Most of the skills and traits after that point are upgrades to existing skills. The ones that are not upgrades are skills you slot in once every minute or two, or support abilities.
Remember to do your class and job quests! There are skills
locked behind those up to and including Refulgent Arrow at level
70. The levels here assume you have all quests complete.
Move the slider below to make the guide update to your level!
Single Target Openers
Stormbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Raging Strikes
Caustic Bite →
Empyreal Arrow →
Bloodletter
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Battle Voice
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Barrage and/or
Sidewinder
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Barrage or
Sidewinder (if not used yet)
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow
Burst Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Empyreal Arrow
Iron Jaws →
Pitch Perfect
Stormbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Raging Strikes
Caustic Bite →
Empyreal Arrow →
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Barrage and/or
Sidewinder
Heavy Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Barrage or
Sidewinder (if not used yet)
Heavy Shot or
Refulgent Arrow
Heavy Shot or
Refulgent Arrow
Heavy Shot or
Refulgent Arrow →
Empyreal Arrow
Iron Jaws →
Pitch Perfect
Stormbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Raging Strikes
Caustic Bite →
Empyreal Arrow →
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Barrage and/or
Sidewinder
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Barrage or
Sidewinder (if not used yet)
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Empyreal Arrow
Iron Jaws →
Pitch Perfect
Windbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Raging Strikes
Venomous Bite →
Empyreal Arrow →
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Barrage and/or
Sidewinder
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Barrage or
Sidewinder (if not used yet)
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Empyreal Arrow
Iron Jaws →
Pitch Perfect
Windbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Raging Strikes
Venomous Bite →
Empyreal Arrow →
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot or
Straight Shot →
Empyreal Arrow
Iron Jaws →
Pitch Perfect
Raging Strikes
Windbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Empyreal Arrow
Venomous Bite →
Bloodletter
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Raging Strikes
Windbite →
The Wanderer's Minuet →
Bloodletter
Venomous Bite
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Raging Strikes
Windbite →
Mage's Ballad →
Bloodletter
Venomous Bite
Heavy Shot →
Battle Voice
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Heavy Shot →
Barrage, or
Straight Shot
Raging Strikes
Windbite →
Mage's Ballad →
Bloodletter
Venomous Bite →
Barrage
Straight Shot
Raging Strikes
Windbite →
Mage's Ballad →
Bloodletter
Venomous Bite
Notes:
- Use
Bloodletter as able.
- Use
Bloodletter as able once
Battle Voice is up.
- Use
Pitch Perfect at three stacks as able.
- Use
Pitch Perfect at two stacks if the next song tick will overlap with
Empyreal Arrow.
- Use any
Pitch Perfect at stacks you have after
Iron Jaws, the expiring buffs make this worth doing.
- Do not use
Barrage if you already have the Straight Shot Ready buff.
Song Cycle
- Use
Mage's Ballad for 45 seconds.
- Use
Army's Paeon for 45 seconds.
- No song for 30 seconds.
- Use
The Wanderer's Minuet for 42-44 seconds.
- Use
Mage's Ballad for 42-44 seconds.
- Use
Army's Paeon for 33-35 seconds.
- Use
The Wanderer's Minuet for 42-44 seconds.
- Use
Mage's Ballad for 33-35 seconds.
- Use
Army's Paeon for 42-44 seconds.
Always have a song up while in combat!
You cannot get a repertoire proc in the last three
seconds of a song, so once the timer is at three or less, you can move to the
next song. If in The Wanderer's Minuet, make sure to use any
remaining stacks of
Pitch Perfect before doing so.
When exiting Army's Paeon, try to use
The Wanderer's Minuet late in the off-GCD window to best leverage
Enhanced Army's Paeon.
Single-Target Rotation
GCD Priorities (in all songs)
Windbite →
Venomous Bite if DoTs are not up or about to run out
Windbite →
Venomous Bite if DoTs are not up
Stormbite →
Caustic Bite if DoTs are not up
Iron Jaws if DoTs are about to run out
Apex Arrow if 100 gauge
Apex Arrow →
Blast Arrow - at specific times*
Refulgent Arrow
Straight Shot
Burst Shot
Heavy Shot
*For Apex and Blast Arrow, you want to use them under
two-minute buffs. To make sure you have them available, use Apex at or before
18-16 seconds left in Mage's Ballad, or when the gauge fills if
that happens first. Then wait until
Battle Voice is up before you
use it next.
oGCD Priorities
In Wanderer's Minuet (after buffs):
Pitch Perfect - at three stacks
Pitch Perfect - at two stacks, if you are about to
Empyreal Arrow at the same time as a song tick
Empyreal Arrow
Bloodletter
In Mage's Ballad
Bloodletter - if at full charges (try to avoid this)
Empyreal Arrow
Sidewinder
Bloodletter
In Army's Paeon
Empyreal Arrow
Bloodletter - do not use if the song timer is 15 or less
Bloodletter - do not use if the song timer is 30 or less
Burst Sequence
You can wait until level cap to fully perfect your burst sequence, but it is good to get familiar with the general idea as you level.
Every two minutes, you should aim to have your buffs
( Raging Strikes and
Battle Voice) active in tandem, and use your biggest
damage dealing skills (
Barrage
, your DoTs,
Iron Jaws
,
Sidewinder,
Apex Arrow and
Blast Arrow
, and ideally some saved up
Bloodletters) during that
window. You will also want to be in
Mage's Ballad
The Wanderer's Minuet.
AoE Rotation
When in dungeons, feel free to use your songs the same
way you would on single target. This can include
using buffs inside The Wanderer's Minuet, which lets you do good
damage on every pack instead of being all or nothing, and keeps bosses mostly
normal.
Against two or more enemies, you want to use
Quick Nock
Ladonsbite and
Shadowbite instead of your
single target GCDs. Use
Apex Arrow
when the soul gauge is full. Use
Apex Arrow and
Blast Arrow at any soul gauge
between 80 and 100.
Use
Rain of Death as able. Do not neglect to use your single
target abilities in AoE. They are free damage - try to put them on higher HP
enemies if you can. Note that
Barrage can buff
Shadowbite.
Be careful of Shadowbite's limited hit
area. It is much smaller than your conal or
Rain of Death, so make
sure you target a central enemy for it.
(Related exception for two targets: If you can hit
both enemies with Quick Nock but not with
Shadowbite, it is better to use
Burst Shot in
those cases.)
Changelog
- 25 May 2023: Updated for Patch 6.4
- 10 Jan. 2023: Updated for Patch 6.3
- 20 Sep. 2022: Updated as of Patch 6.2
- 27 Mar. 2022: Guide added.
Guides from Other Classes
This guide was written by Cetonis, who has been a Bard theorycrafter and guide contributor since late ARR. He is also part of The Balance as a Bard mentor. All good theorycraft is a group effort, and credit goes out to the Bards of the ranged theorycraft discord for helping to work things out.
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