I am altogether too willing to talk Bard, even if it's the same stuff repeatedly -.-'

My latest open:

Quell + BL -> SS -> IR + RgS -> WB -> HE + B4B -> VB -> Bar + FA* -> HS -> BA* + RpS* -> Priority

• If BL is up, use it instead and push this off-GCD back in your "schedule"

Priorities for GCDs:

1. Straight Shot up at all times

2. Windbite and Venomous Bite up at all times.

2a. If you have 3+ non-Barrage CDs active, you can profitably "clip" as many as 2 ticks off of these, if it means the re-application will get those buffs when it otherwise wouldn't. 2b. If 2 such CDs (or just Raging Strikes) are active, you can profitably clip 1 tick. (Ticks happen every 3s by the way)

1. Straighter Shot if it's up

2. Sing if the time is right. It's a balance of group need, versus seeking to avoid wasting cooldowns or missing re-applications.

3. Heavy Shot

4. If you're going to have a 10+ second break in the fight, or a period where you don't need to do real damage, sing a Ballad or Paeon. You can end it as soon as you need to do stuff again. Popular example is during Shiva's Diamond Dust.

Priorities for off-GCD non-buffs:

1. Bloodletter

2. Bloodletter

3. Misery's End

4. Invigorate if 540 TP or lower, and not about to get a break

5. Keep Flaming Arrow on cooldown, but don't be stupid and drop it right as the target is about to be moved. It can be worth waiting a few seconds if it means you'll apply it with some cooldowns active.

6. Blunt Arrow and Repelling Shot, provided you don't need them for other things / you aren't going to Repel into death etc.

Tips for buffs:

1. Broadly speaking, your goal is to have buffs stacked on top of and multiplying off each other.

2. Do not activate Blood For Blood on its own unless you're in a desperate DPS race during the upcoming 10 seconds.

3. Do not activate IR if you are not going to get a WB+VB application while it's up.

4. Otherwise, do activate IR as soon as possible so that it aligns with your other cooldowns.

5. Try to set up clip-worthy situations with Raging Strikes (i.e. use it right before WB->VB) if you can, but don't obsess over this and wait more than a couple seconds for it.

Other:

1. Know not only when to sing, but when to stop singing.

2. Be aggressive with Battle Voice. Unless you're certain to want it later, just do it now.

3. Don't forget Second Wind and Mantra to make your healers that little bit happier. Second Wind is especially good to make up for your B4B damage.

4. Pack Hi-Elixirs. In addition to spot heals, they can help extend a song a few more seconds if needbe.

5. If you're going to need to save Quelling and can't use it at the start of a fight (due to a major early add or the like), be polite enough to warn your tank. Sometimes they'll assume they can afford a Fracture or something and you tear aggro away in your full-blown-nuke-mode open.

6. Training dummies are your friend. Bard mechanics replace positioning concerns with a heap of timing concerns, so dummies are great for practicing. Use a level 1 dummy if you can so that you don't cheat and pop a bunch of Misery's Ends :)

7. Bard stat weights are screwy and lead to situations where a higher ilvl is not actually better, more often than it does for other classes. See below.

Stat Weights (each point of this is worth X "effective" dexterity):

Weapon damage - 9.1

Accuracy - Get just enough for the content you want to do (you can look it up)

Crit - .31

Det - .31

Skill Speed* - .14

*Becomes detrimental beyond a small dose. It's okay to be around 40ish but no more than 60. Do not cut crit/det to get that 40, but it is at least better than any unneeded accuracy.