Bard
The Feast PvP Guide
Patch 4.45
Written by:
Kaze Hishiro
Nikoza Envy
Claire Clavier
Angelus Demonus
Skills, Abilities, and Your Gauge ➤
Your Role in The Feast
As a Physical Ranged DPS, Bard responsibility in The Feast is simple on the surface yet complex. Being able to utilize the crowd control (CC) abilities as well as keeping up with your melee co-DPS through communication and coordination are the keys to success.
Bard comes together as the product of its incredible mobility, CC, and fast burst potential. Through good positioning and awareness, Bard is deceptively hard to catch while providing consistent pressure and bursts.
+ Consistency in applying damage pressure
+ Silence + Bind CC
+ High mobility
+ Flexible and can do well when paired with most other jobs
– “Mediocre” damage for bursts
– Damage over time “DoT” preparation, which can often be a kill target indicator
– Restricted burst options
Bards are the only job that have a ranged and instant Silence CC–Blunt Arrow. Pairing it with no resource cost to execute and no damage inflicted, it is ideal to use on the enemy healers for a burst. Repelling Shot, on the other hand, is a close-ranged Bind CC that, unlike PvE Bind and from recent PvP changes, is unbreakable.
This Bard guide will introduce you to basic concepts, teach common understanding of how to optimally utilize certain abilities, and ideally improve your Bard gameplay.
Skills, Abilities, and Your Gauge
Key actions:
Heavy Shot
- 500 Potency
- Recast: 2.3 seconds (GCD/Weaponskill)
- Grants Repertoire Stacks when used on a target inflicted with Caustic Bite
- Grants a Straight Shot proc for 10 seconds upon use, otherwise reverts back to Heavy Shot
Straight Shot
- 1000 Potency
- Recast: 2.3 seconds (GCD/Weaponskill)
- Duration: 10 seconds (no visible timer)
- Grants Repertoire Stacks when used on a target inflicted with Stormbite
- Reverts back to Heavy Shot upon use or no use after 10 seconds
Caustic Bite
- 250 Potency (Initial Hit)
- Recast: 2.3 seconds (GCD/Weaponskill)
- Additional Effect: 250 Potency (DoT) for 15 seconds = 1,250 Potency over 15 seconds
- Grants a Stormbite proc for 10 seconds upon use, otherwise reverts back to Caustic Bite
Stormbite
- 500 Potency (Initial Hit)
- Recast: 2.3 seconds (GCD/Weaponskill)
- Additional Effect: 200 Potency (DoT) for 15 seconds = 1,000 Potency over 15 seconds
- Reverts back to Caustic Bite upon use or no use after 10 seconds
- The core Bard rotation revolves around two “Song Stances”:
- The Wanderer’s Minuet and Army’s Paeon
The Wanderer’s Minuet:
- First Song Stance available at the start of a match,
- Available after using Army’s Paeon
- Potency: 1,000, Duration: 30 seconds, Recast: 25 seconds
- Replaces Bloodletter with Pitch Perfect
- Pitch Perfect can only be used when Repertoire Stacks are present (minimum 1 stack, maximum 3 stacks)
- Requires Caustic Bite and Stormbite on an enemy target to build Repertoire Stacks
- Heavy Shot used on a target inflicted with Caustic Bite will yield 1 Repertoire Stack
- Straight Shot used on a target inflicted with Stormbite will yield 1 Repertoire Stack
- 1 Repertoire Stack = 500 Potency when Pitch Perfect is used
- 2 Repertoire Stacks = 1,250 Potency when Pitch Perfect is used
- 3 Repertoire Stacks = 2,000 Potency when Pitch Perfect is used
Army’s Paeon:
- Second Song Stance available subsequently after using The Wanderer’s Minuet
- Potency: 1,000, Duration: 30 seconds, Recast: 25 seconds
- Replaces Bloodletter with Barrage
- Barrage is a 5 second duration buff that triples the initial hit of a subsequently-used single-target weaponskill.
- Barrage works with:
- Caustic Bite , 250 Potency * 3 = 750 Potency
- Stormbite , 500 Potency * 3 = 1,500 Potency
- Heavy Shot , 500 Potency * 3 = 1,500 Potency
- Straight Shot , 1000 Potency * 3 = 3,000 Potency
- Empyreal Arrow , 1000 Potency * 3 = 3,000 Potency
- Requires Caustic Bite and Stormbite on an enemy target to build Repertoire Stacks (maximum 4 stacks)
- Heavy Shot used on a target inflicted with Caustic Bite will yield 1 Repertoire Stack
- Straight Shot used on a target inflicted with Stormbite will yield 1 Repertoire Stack
- Each Repertoire Stack reduces GCD cast & recast time by 5% (up to 20%)
Other Important Skills:
Bloodletter
- 750 Potency
- Recast: 15 seconds
- Default action when in neither Song Stance (The Wanderer’s Minuet & Army’s Paeon)
- Shares action slot with Pitch Perfect and Barrage
- Does not share recast timer with Pitch Perfect and Barrage
Sidewinder
- 500 Potency
- If used on a target with Caustic Bite or Stormbite = 1,000 Potency
- If used on a target with Caustic Bite and Stormbite = 1,500 Potency
- Recast: 30 seconds
Empyreal Arrow
- 1000 Potency
- Recast: 5 seconds
- Cost: 250 TP
Repelling Shot
- 500 Potency
- Recast: 10 seconds
- Range: 5 yalms (close-ranged)
- Effect: Bind, Duration: 2 seconds
- Effect: 10-yalm backstep
- Cost: 250 TP
Blunt Arrow
- Effect: Silence, Duration: 2 seconds
- Recast: 40 seconds
Troubadour
- The Wanderer’s Minuet Effect: Increases damage dealt of all in-range teammates by 5%
- Army’s Paeon Effect: Reduces damage taken of all in-range teammates by 5%
- Recast: 45 seconds
- Duration: 10 seconds
- Can only be used while in The Wanderer’s Minuet or Army’s Paeon Song Stance
Terminal Velocity
- Delivers an attack to all enemies in a straight line before you
- First Target Potency: 6,000
- Second Target Potency: 4,500
- Third Target Potency: 3,000
- Fourth Target Potency: 1,500
- Cast: 1.5 seconds
- Effect: Reduces target’s HP recovered by healing magic and non-magic abilities by 25%
- Effect Duration: 15 seconds
- Can only be used when Adrenaline Rush gauge is full (Limit Break in PvE content)
Additional PvP Actions
The importance of Additional PvP Actions could not be stressed enough as these are your primary survivability tools when playing defensively and/or resource tools when playing offensively.
Safeguard (Preferred #1 Pick)
- Reduces damage taken by 25%
- Duration: 10 seconds
- Recast: 60 seconds
Out of all the additional actions, Safeguard is the most important additional PvP action to take into The Feast. Having limited defensive capabilities (Army’s Paeon Troubadour, Repelling Shot, Blunt Arrow), Safeguard provides a straight reduction to incoming damage with no downside when used. Unlike Safeguard, relying on Army’s Paeon Troubadour, Repelling Shot or Blunt Arrow solely for self-defense will limit your offensive capabilities and options in the next few seconds to a minute. Developing the ability and awareness on when to use Safeguard in a match comes with experience, especially since additional PvP actions are now visible to both teams in a 4v4 The Feast match. Burst targets are primarily decided on whether Safeguard is available to use or not, so it is crucial to know how to use it and being aware of when you do not have it available.
Recuperate (Preferred #2 Pick)
- Instantly restores 25% of maximum HP
- Recast: 45 seconds
Recuperate is another pure defensive ability that heals 25% of your maximum HP. Having Recuperate will most likely save your healer from a heart attack having to see your HP drop immediately from a coordinated burst and not having any healing abilities ready to react to the damage. It’s a useful PvP additional action with a pretty short recast time making it a perfect ability to fill the “lack of defense” gap Ranged Physical DPS have.
Bolt
- Increases movement speed
- Duration: 10 seconds
- Recast: 30 seconds
Despite the short 30 second recast time, Bolt is a controversial additional PvP action. On one hand, you can use Bolt frequently with its short recast time to catch up to targets running away or kite the enemy melee DPS and tank. On the other hand, Bolt doesn’t provide an “immediate” defensive relief, and will be easily countered with a stun, bind or heavy. Bolt can be effective in some situations such as keeping up with high-paced bursts and spread apart targets, but most of the time the effects of Bolt can be fixed with better awareness and position, which when paired with Safeguard and Recuperate is essentially like having 3 additional PvP actions. Since the current Feast map is also quite small, Bolt’s effectiveness is hindered. In a larger map or setting however, it may prove more useful.
Enliven
- Restores 50% of maximum TP (500 TP)
- Recast: 60 seconds
With 2 Bard actions that require 250 TP each, TP usage can become quite daunting. Enliven relieves the constant TP pressure slightly by allowing more TP-based actions per minute. Sure, it’s nice to have more TP available for more pressure, but comparing Enliven to Safeguard or Recuperate makes Enliven seem like the weaker option. TP issues can also be fixed by not using Empyreal Arrow or Repelling Shot on cooldown, saving these abilities for when you absolutely need them.
Concentrate
- Creates a barrier preventing 1 Stun, Sleep, Bind, Heavy, Slow, Silence and Knockback effect.
- Duration: 10 seconds
- Recast: 60 seconds
Concentrate has a lot of flaws in its kit, so I would recommend you do not use this if you are new to Bard. Concentrate will prevent only 1 CC, and it also does not give a “duration of resistance” buff when it successfully blocks a CC. Concentrate is also a predictive ability, which becomes really difficult to use.
PvP Traits
Although traits are passive, they provide invaluable bonuses to Bard that complete the offensive and defensive utility.
Increased TP Regeneration (Preferred Pick)
- Increases TP regeneration by 40%
Increased TP Regeneration is used as a passive deterrent for TP issues. Where you give up Enliven from your additional PvP actions, you gain back with Increased TP Regeneration. With a base TP regen of 50 TP per tick, Increased TP Regeneration provides you with an additional 20 TP regenerated per tick. This adds up to a fair amount of extra TP especially in a 6-minute The Feast match. This trait essentially has 100% uptime as well if your TP is never capped at 1,000.
Increased Damage Dealt (Preferred Pick)
- Increases damage dealt by 3%
Increased Damage Dealt is always a safe route to go, as the role of a Bard is to do damage. 3% may seem really menial, but with all the other damage multipliers out there (Troubadour, Soul Survivor, Butchers Block, etc.) it will slightly increase effectiveness overall. Similar to Increased TP Regeneration, dealing damage is a 100% uptime responsibility as a ranged DPS, applying consistent pressure throughout the match.
Increased HP (Preferred Pick)
- Increases maximum HP by 500
Similar to recuperate, Increased HP is a trait that straight buffs your maximum health pool. This HP increase slightly increases the effectiveness of recuperate and a white mage’s Divine Benison as well, since these abilities heal/shield based on maximum HP. This trait is preferred so you have at least 1 defensive-based trait that can further help with overall defense as a naturally low maximum HP DPS.
Decreased Damage Taken
- Decreases damage taken by 3%
Decreased Damage Taken is similar to Safeguard in the sense that it is a direct damage reduction trait. The only difference between Decreased Damage Taken and Increased HP is that after some mathematical calculations, Increased HP soaks slightly more damage than Decreased Damage Taken. You could also replace this trait with Increased Damage Dealt if you want to be more defensive with your build, but unlike Increased TP Regeneration and Increased Damage Dealt traits, Decreased Damage Taken is not 100% uptime as you aren’t always being inflicted with damage (or at least shouldn’t be!)
Increased Action Speed
- Decreases weaponskill and spell cast and recast times by 3%
Increased Action Speed only affects weapon skills (GCDs) recast timers, allowing more quick usage of actions. With certain classes, this trait may prove more useful than Increased Damage Dealt, but strictly speaking with Bard it does not seem like a required trait. One reason being that you already receive increased action speed benefits from Army Paeon Repertoire stacks. Furthermore, the usage of “Off GCDs” such as Empyreal Arrow and Repelling Shot can be used back to back, clipping the GCD. GCD clipping is not frowned upon as action use is strictly situational. These situations prove Increased Action Speed to be not “as effective” as the other traits, but still has a 100% uptime.
Increased Resistance Duration
- Increases duration of resistances by 50%
With a natural duration resistance of 10 seconds, Increased Resistance Duration increases your trait resistance after a CC has been used on you by 5 seconds, bringing a full total to 15 seconds. As this trait is preferred on healer and melee DPS roles vs high CC comps such as a PLD/DRK with a NIN, WHM or MCH, physical ranged DPS do not need Increased Resistance Duration, especially Bards. The likelihood of getting stunned twice back to back right after the 10 second duration resistance is small, unless the enemy tank really dislikes you! With every situation being different, if you feel that a tank is constantly CCing you for every burst, this trait may come in handy. Similar to Decreased Damage Taken, Increased Resistance Duration is not a 100% uptime trait (unless you’re getting CC’d nonstop!)
Rotation
The core rotation of Bard revolves around The Wanderer’s Minute and Army’s Paeon. With this, action usage is situational and “hard hitting” bursts should not only be saved, but coordinated with your melee co-DPS to ensure maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time.
When it comes to rotations for PvP, there are some similarities to PvE. Being able to maintain uptime on your offensive abilities to apply pressure and keeping track of where you are in your rotation are keys to success. Being extremely comfortable in action placement on your hotbars and understanding of your rotation will free more brain space for situational awareness and on-the-spot decision making.
Upon the opening of the gates, your priority is to ensure your DoTs are applied first immediately so you can start building The Wanderer’s Minuet Repertoire stacks for Pitch Perfect. Tanks and Melee DPS are your go-to first targets, as they will be the closest to your side of the map since they have to be in close range to also build up their bursts.
Opener:
+ > + > + > >
For your opener, you want to follow the priority system of applying DoTs on a target. Use of Bloodletter is appropriate following the first DoT because Bloodletter does not share a recast timer with anything other than itself so it is a free 750 potency attack. Subsequently, you want to apply the 2nd DoT and use The Wanderer’s Minuet as it puts you into your first Song Stance, deals 1,000 damage to the target that you use it on and allows proccing of Repertoire stacks for Pitch Perfect . Empyreal Arrow is used after the first Heavy Shot so you don’t sit at full TP so your Increased TP Regeneration trait can do its work. Empyreal Arrow will return by the time you have 3 stacks of Repertoire for Pitch Perfect , which should mark your first burst.
Small Burst (The Wanderer’s Minuet):
+ + >
(3 stacks of Repertoire)
Small Burst (Army’s Paeon):
+ + >
OR
+ > +
Bard’s small burst varies depending on the Song Stance you are currently on. With The Wanderer’s Minuet , you will only have access to Pitch Perfect so your burst will be as shown above. Under Army’s Paeon , you have two options. Since Barrage works both with Straight Shot and Empyreal Arrow and they’re both 1,000 Potency, either weaponskill works. I generally prepare a Straight Shot for Barrage over Empyreal Arrow , as it is an Off GCD skill that I can follow up immediately but the difference is very minimal. Repelling Shot is a good filler as well when Sidewinder isn’t available for a semi-burst. Just watch your TP!
Medium Burst (The Wanderer’s Minuet):
+ + > +
(3 stacks of Repertoire)
Medium Burst (Army’s Paeon):
+ + + >
OR
> + + >
To simply put it, your Medium Burst is an exact replica of your Small Burst, except with the addition of Sidewinder . This burst assumes both DoTs are applied on the burst target prior to the burst. For advanced level Bards, Sidewinder acts as a “damage forcer” for a Barrage’d weaponskill . As some players may be aware of, certain skills have animation delay from when they are used to when the damage comes out, such as as Barrage’d weaponskill . Using Sidewinder (an instant, low delay action) right after a Barrage’d weaponskill will force the damage of Barrage to execute immediately. Remember, the name of the game is to get out as
much damage as you can in the shortest amount of time! Typically this burst will be more frequently available than your strongest burst. Troubadour can be generally used with this burst if your
strongest burst is not available.
Strongest Burst (The Wanderer’s Minuet to Army’s Paeon Transition):
> + + + > + +
(3 stacks of Repertoire)
Oh dear lord look at all those GCD clips!!!! Fear not, this is your strongest burst despite the GCD clipping. Ideally, Troubadour should be used here as this is your strongest burst. This burst is not as
frequent as your medium burst due to having strict criteria. To pull this burst off, you need to be in The Wanderer’s Minuet with 3 Repertoire stacks and between 1-5 seconds left on The Wanderer’s Minuet . Once this criteria is met, you can Troubadour before starting your burst to
acquire the increased damage dealt by 5% and execute the burst above. The whole idea behind this
burst is using the strongest “individual” bursts from each song together to form one huge burst. To put it in perspective, this burst with Troubadour does (500 + 2,000 + 1,000 + 3,000 + 1,500 + 1,000) *
1.05 = 9,450 potency over the span of 2 GCDs. This doesn’t even consider the DoT damage ticking from Caustic Bite and Stormbite !
Tips and Strategies revolving Bard optimization
Bard follows a loose priority system in regards to what you need to do. Offensively, your goals are different while under the effects of each song. While The Wanderer’s Minuet is active, your objective is to Caustic Bite and Stormbite a single target then Heavy Shot/Straight Shot for your three Repertoire stacks as soon as possible as described in the Opener rotation above.
Following maxing your Repertoire stacks, you should keep Caustic Bite and Stormbite DoTs on two to three potential targets until a target to focus is called. Keeping both DoT’s on as many targets as possible without exposing yourself to the enemy is key to maximizing Sidewinder’s potential damage and is often enough to tip a kill in your favor. Keeping yourself hard for the enemy to target is important for an additional reason covered a bit further down. When you spend your Repertoire stacks for Pitch Perfect, your goal is to once again refresh them as soon as possible. If you were diligent on spreading both Caustic Bite and Stormbite, you may even be able to refresh your stacks on someone you’ve inflicted DoTs on previously.
In contrast to The Wanderer’s Minuet, while under Army’s Paeon, Repertoire stacks are not as critical. While four stacks of Repertoire will grant 20% GCD recast time, the majority of your burst is oGCD abilities and thus not affected. Your general strategy of spreading DoTs, acquiring Repertoire stacks, and spreading more DoTs is still the same. You are however, free to burst without maximum Repertoire stacks if needed.
Even though transitioning from The Wanderer’s Minuet to Army’s Paeon does offer Bard’s greatest burst potential, the timing may be too strict for your team to take advantage of. Instead an alternative is to not immediately activate Army’s Paeon, and the rotation instead becomes the following:
Second Strongest Burst (No song active to Army’s Paeon Transition):
+ + + > + +
It is not as strong as the version coming directly from The Wanderer’s Minuet , but this variation has the benefit of being 100% on demand with no time constraints provided your two DoT stacks are on the target for maximum Sidewinder damage. This rotation does a total of (500 + 750 + 1,000 + 3,000 + 1,500 + 1,000) = 7750 potency over the span of 2 GCD’s along with DoT damage.
While the offensive potential of Bard is certainly formidable, you will often find yourself the target of your enemy’s aggression. As the ranged DPS of your party, and as Bard in particular, your highest priority is arguably to stay alive. You need to be mindful of all the players’ positioning so that you can use your range as an additional defense. Generally you have a few goals in mind in regards to positioning. You should make yourself as scarce as possible through distance or breaking enemy Line of Sight to decrease the probability you are targeted. At the same time, you should be able to pop out and burst a target when one is called. Striking a balance comes with practice and experience but is crucial to success.
When the enemy does make it to you, that’s when Repelling Shot comes into play. Repelling Shot is a deceptively powerful CC ability due to its 10 second cooldown and the fact it binds AND pushes you away from the enemy. With it you can immediately take the enemy tank of DPS out of any burst they may try. It is effective in helping your allies with minimal risk to yourself just by running in and using Repelling Shot to back out and buy your entire team valuable time to retreat and reposition.
Helpful Tips and Macros
- Practice the several different burst rotations on dummies to develop the muscle memory and try to execute it as quickly as possible.
- Set one of the dummies as a focus target and practice bursting a dummy, while silencing the focus target dummy.
- Always be conscious of your positioning, whether inside the Feast or in a Frontline match. Distance from your enemies is ultimately your best defensive tool.
- To expand on positioning, learning to understand where you are standing can determine whether you are a viable target to kill or not. Being a potential target for an enemy to go for can produce stress for your healer, and it’s possible to die not because you were caught in a bad spot, but because your healer may need to worry about too many targets possibly getting hit (melee/tank/range), and just picks the wrong target to heal. On the flipside, being “hard to get to” can reduce the stress your healer has overall, making it healer to keep everyone up.
- Safeguard (assuming you bring it with you) does not always have to be used defensively to reduce damage coming at you on a burst, but can be utilized offensively if you push into the enemy or push forward. Best case scenarios if you use Safeguard when pushing up is they decide to burst you with damage reduction, or they ignore you because of defensives…both of which can give you a clear path to burst for the duration of the ability.
- Using Repelling Shot to peel someone off of you can help keep you alive, but don’t forget it can also be used to peel enemies from your teammates when they are in trouble, too.
- When in Culling Time, it is especially powerful to use Terminal Velocity (your Limit Break) and hit multiple players with it, as the damage and healing reduction is often too much for the enemy healer to handle.
- If your tank is bad about stunning the kill target for you to Limit Break, you can Repelling Shot the target yourself and then proceed to Limit Break to make sure it will hit the target.
Blunt Arrow on Focus Target
/micon “Blunt Arrow” pvpaction
/pvpac “Blunt Arrow” <f>
By setting an enemy healer or caster as your focus target, this macro will allow you to use your Blunt Arrow and silence them while keeping your current target.
Blunt Arrow on Healer
/micon “Blunt Arrow” pvpaction
/pvpac “Blunt Arrow” <e2>
This macro will silence the enemy healer while keeping your current target.
Blunt Arrow on Ranged
/micon “Blunt Arrow” pvpaction
/pvpac “Blunt Arrow” <e4>
If the enemy has a caster DPS, silencing them will disable the caster DPS’ ability to attack and allow you to relieve some pressure from your team.
Repelling Shot on X Target
/micon “Repelling Shot” pvpaction
/pvpac “Repelling Shot” <e1-4>
Depending on the position of the enemy list, repelling shot macros will allow you to immediately bind someone without having to target them first. This is crucial for immediate pressure relief so you don’t have to fidget around with targeting macros first.
Target Macros
/target <e1-4>
These target macros will be more efficient than tab targeting, getting used to them will help a lot!
