BRD macro for dummies

Recently I'm slowly facing an issue while playing BRD in XIV......

Not enough keys if I'm playing with a controller D;

Further more, it's hard to move around AND fire off perfect rotation. As a BRD it's pretty much a requirement to run and fire at once, but due to the design of controller, using default controller setup, it's hard to hit directional pad ability/macro while running with an analog stick.

After a bit of research about macros, I decided to start using macros to improve my DPS ability, a bit! D;

This is standard controller mode interface.

The icons marked A/B/C are my macros, everything else are just JAs.

The left side buttons are the ones on directional pad, the "hard to hit while running and dodging AoE" one. So I just put them on to check recast.

The right side of of the buttons are my key spam buttons, and they're usually more important than anything else, which requires me to key spam for best output.

Note that this does not include AoE move rotation, I think it's better to use a 2nd set for AoE spam situations.

My "A" macros are offensive buffs: Hawk's eye/Internal release/Raging strikes/barrage etc.

So it looks like this:
/ac "Internal release"
/ac "Barrage"
/ac "Hawk's eye"
/ac "Raging strikes"

Certain buff are pretty situational, such as Invigorate and  Blood for Blood, so it's better to leave them out of macro and pop it manually.

My "B" macro are offensive ability that has it's own GCD, starting from highest output one:

/ac "Misery's End"
/ac "Bloodletter"
/ac "Repelling shot"
/ac "Blunt arrow"

Can probably fit in Flame arrow after blunt....maybe.

Ignore my "C" macro, it's just /ac "Mantra" /ac "Second wind" , which I use for solo. You may use it in dungeon too though. I found second wind extremely weak and may not worth a slot for group play :<

The thing about GCD skill and none GCD skill+ buff is, you should always use none GCD skill while waiting for GCD recharge. So you don't waste time and able to click as many offensive skill as possible.

Currently I use this rotation:

Straight shot and put buff up(GCD)
Bloodletter while waiting for GCD
Venom bite/windbite (GCD)
Heavy shot(GCD)

Repeat heavy until I need to straight shot again.
Use none GCD skill such as Bloodletter/Repelling/Misery/Blunt if I'm waiting for GCD recharge.

Between each GCD skill, I spam "A" and "B" macros to use none GCD skill and DD buff, unless I need to save DD buff for w/e reason.

As long as I click macro "B", it'd automatically use strongest none GCD move, and use next move if strongest move on cool down. So all I ever need to do is spam macro "B" if my GCD abilities are on cool down.

Same applies to "A", as long as I click it, it'd just pop w/e buff available so I don't ended up DD unbuffed. Obviously there may be situations you may need to save buff, can always switch to manual if that happened.

I've seen ppl use /wait on forums, which imo, not very good idea. The way /wait is designed, you won't be able to fire off rotation on time, it's much faster to key spam manually.

I also seen ppl use /ac "Misery's End" /ac "Bloodletter" /ac "Heavy shot". However, Heavy shot comes after Venom bite/wind bite. That means if for w/e reason you need to use none GCD move between DoT moves, plus you won't be able to put repelling/blunt because they're weaker than heavy, and you may ended up accidentally popped heavy shot when trying to do DoT moves. Personally I don't find it as convenient as just put every none GCD move in one macro and key spam them between GCDs.

I put all the key spam moves on none directional pad slot, so I can key spam them while running around :)

There may be some situations that you'd need to pop them separately and do it manual way, so just adjust the strat based on situations.

BRD, easiest DPS job in FFXIV, 2 macro key spam saves the day, hurray :D


Edit: At this point of time I'm not sure whether an out of range repelling shot would block next ability or not, if not, and you're in a situation that you can't run close to the target at all to pop repelling, it's probably better to put blunt before repelling.

Archer and Bard

It's pretty obvious what my favorite job in XIV is, based on the title of this blog. I wanted to play COR in XI before I start XI, just like I want to play BRD and main BRD in XIV, before BRD job released. I'm a really support/DD hybrid player at heart, after a few days of playing as tank, I realized tank is not the job for me at all.

However, I'm not too sure whether I'm happy with ARR BRD or not.

BRD in ARR is very different from XI BRD, XI COR and XIV 1.0 BRD even.  It's classified as DPS role, since ARR has no "support" role. And it's A LOT more DD than 1.0 BRD or XI COR ever can.

Basically, Archer/Bard is one of the top DPS in ARR atm, one main reason is because they can run around dodging AoE moves and DD while moving.

Based on info on ARR(since my BRD isn't 50 yet), there are 3 type of songs, only 2 songs are buff songs, which is less than 1.0 if I remember correctly.

Further more, putting up MP refresh or TP refresh song reduce BRD's output by 20%.

Basically, you're asking a top DPS job to lower it's own output by 20% just to buff other DD.

No matter how I see it, it sucked D:

Further more, BRD can no longer use Conjurer abilities, BRD's subjob is now all DD ability: Lancer and Pugilist.

From what I've seen, now it's a very DPS focused job, while having a healing limit break, which I don't understand why.....probably to balance it's OPness.

While BRD being DPS focused, I see Archer being more support hybrid with more defensive ability access from Gladiator and Marauder.

BRD has higher stat, 3 songs, 1 of them is debuff song on enemy, that does not lower DPS, and probably the song worth using.

BRD also has 1 more AoE move.

Archer has more defensive ability such as Bloodbath, foresight, eye for an eye, mantra, and spells.

Applying FFXI sense, BRD is probably better choice for endgame raid and archer good choice for lower lv pt with smaller pt size.

Note that Archer at lower lv dungeon is extremely OP. I had pretty lame experience playing as GLA in lower lv dungeon. Almost every DF pt I went with, they have serious kill speed issue.

Ifrit Normal: Can't kill the nail before Ifrit use special attack, took 100000 try but nail just won't die. I can't help much on GLA cuz GLA so bad at DDing D;

Mines pt: DDs just can't kill adds fast enough on boss, and fail 1000000 times due to way too many adds.

All dungeons fodder takes 1000 years to die, if I'm not on archer. The fact that GLA took slightly more dmg at that lv doesn't help much.

But doing Mines pt on archer:

All fodder dies much faster, all adds die fast enough. 1/1 on boss and adds never pop more than 1~2.

Pretty much every run I did on archer, it went much faster on every fodder and boss.

Note that I play extremely aggressively in lower lv dungeon, since there's no way I can die on fodder. I usually pop foresight + internal release+ raging strikes + hawk's eye then go quick nock spammy spammy. If I get aggro, just pop bloodbath, which recover quit a bit of HP with quick nock spam. Links and adds usually die fast before mages run into any problem anyways. Never have issue with dying too fast in lower lv dungeon. Instead of attack mobs one by one and kill slow, may as well AoE all the way if dying isn't an issue.

I'm not sure if straight shot effect is up, I should do heavy shot+ heavy shot for 150 potency attack x2, or heavy shot+ straight shot for 150 potency+ 140 potency, with 20% chance to crit on 140 potency one.

However, I do key spam like crazy so I don't waste cool down time on offensive JAs and lose DPS as soon as they're up :)

Afania = DPS fanatic as usual :D Kinda sad that in XIV DPS isn't as important as tank/healer though, as everyone plays DPS.

Or rather, this game just has way too many DPS jobs.

2 tank class, 5 DPS class, 1 healing class, with 1 extra healer job after 30. Lack of healer made Yoshi-P hand special mount to Conjurers.

Can only fate chain all the way up for DD job and keep tank lv up if I want to progress in story it seems. Since lv 1~49 content is already dying due to "your life start at 50" design.

But I guess I no longer have to play the job I like, and ended up not being treated as a DD job. Every time when other FFXI players treat BLU COR as none DD job, my heart dies a little. Parsing last in Tojil run on BLU/WAR with 2 R15s and lots of spread sheeting/gear set optimization doesn't help :<

Early punishment

After days of fighting against 1017 fantasy and fail client, I finally start pting as tank role on my 20ish level Gladiator this weekend.

I admit I'm completely noob when it comes to tanking aspect in MMO. I'm a DD or support/DD hybrid at heart, and pretty much always pick DD job in other MMOs. Recently I started to fall in love with healer role and start to play as a healer in other MMOs.

I never pick tank class in other MMOs, so I never get to play tank. In XI tank job's kinda dead atm, so I also don't get to play as tank in FFXI, barring lving NIN as SJ before Abyssea. Then again, tanking on NIN is more about staying alive and counting shadows, less about real tanking such as enmity generation.

I also didn't play tank in XIV, I couldn't stand gladiator's kill speed in 1.0 so I ditched it early, and I leveled MRD when it was a DD but not a tank(or more like 1.0 at that time has no distinctive job role). So when ARR was out, and I wanted to experience the new story/content on a low lv job, Gladiator happened to be few job choice. The fact that in ARR players can lv up by doing group content or quest, means it's more enjoyable to lv up Gladiator.

So, I did a couple of low lv dungeon, pretty much followed standard tanking procedure that I'd do in XI.

1. Use target marker on my current target, marked it No.1.

2. Pop defensive JAs

2. Pull/run in aggro.

3. Use flash to get adds.

4. If enmity bar not capped, use enmity combo. If I need enmity immediately, use that 120 TP enmity move.

5. If my enmity's capped, use stun when appropriate. Mobs seems to resist stun after 2 stuns, so I try not to spam them ;x

6. If my MP runs low due to flash spam, use MP recovery combo.

I'm not sure if that's doing right or wrong, maybe doing wrong, because I often still see adds on DD and healers. Sometimes DD tend to attack adds before I can grab them, despite I already tried my best to grab them.

Most ridiculous thing is, Archers tend to cap enmity, running in circle kiting NMs, AND still DD while kiting the NM.

Because the NM's chasing after Archer and often run out of range, it's nearly impossible to get hate back with 2.5 sec global cool down(little to no skill speed+ gears on that lv to lower the GCD, mind you). And archer's enmity never drop below cap because they can just keep doing dmg while kiting the NM.

From what I've seen, it's either I'm doing wrong during this situation, or it's completely broken at that lv. Especially when early lv DD/healer won't die if they get hate.

Even if DD/healers get hate, they won't die, cuz healers can just cure spam them and still won't run out of MP.

What's the result? The result is every DD happily get hate, healer happily spam cures, until higher lv everyone cried about duty finder group wiping in higher lv content on forum.

In XI, first pt experience start at lv 12 in dunes, and it was a punishing experience. Link gobs when you pull? Sorry that's a wipe. Mages don't conserve MP? Sorry another wipe. Tanks don't voke every 30 sec and DD/healer got hate? Sorry that's another wipe.....even if you don't wipe it's still much lower pt efficiency due to more cures needed and more time to rest MP.

Every wipe in dunes, noobs had to /shout for raise, or just HP. And sometimes noobs didn't set HP in Selbina, so you'd have to walk all the way back lol. Not to mention painful 10% EXP lose.

So there, after noobs got face slapped in dunes, noobs learned not to make mistakes, remember to set HP, remember to pop enmity moves ASAP, remember to conserve MP and no happy cure spam.

So when noobs finally reach endgame, they'd be more careful and less likely to suck.

In XIV they started easy, made me wonder whether I just suck at tanking, or everyone else in pt been doing wrong. And I can already see inc wipe if the endgame/higher lv dungeon gets harder and start dealing more severe dmg to DD/healers.

In that sense, I think XIV's early lv dungeon should really have dunes lv of challenge. Not just because new MMO player won't just quit cuz early lv dungeon way too easy and bland, but also because it's a good practice for higher lv content.

Also so that I won't fall asleep on early lv....I mean, XI was exciting as early as lv12 :X

DD stuff

So I got bored because 1017 fantasy won't let me log in, and Matsui fantasy's pretty dead cuz everyone in 1017 fantasy. I decided to play with awesome spreadsheet, to clarify several questions regarding current DD hierarchy in delve boss runs. Mostly just to find out how much delve DD can do, when it comes to DPS.

Compare COR, a job ppl still debating whether you DD or not.
v.s BLU, new hot ceizak DD job.
v.s MNK, everyone's favorite delve boss DD job.

Universal setup: 6 +5 songs, march x2 mad x2 min x2, SV.
GEO def down/eva down+ AF2 augment angon+ light shot dia
Boost STR
25% attack boost chaos
16% DA Fighter

All the gears use best I can find on spreadsheet, I may* miss certain setup being higher in that situation, but I just use w/e gear I find higher number. Yes, some Mani R15 gear actually > skirmish 2 gears with no augment, and I still have no idea how it'd end up like that!

I'm gonna floor every final number because I'm lazy :)


Start with COR:

COR/DNC, RCB

TP
R15 dagger x2
Donderbuss, delve bullet
Whirlpool
asperity
DW set earring
Thaumas body
R15 mani hands/legs/feet
atheling
Windbuffet
Epona rajas

Melee DPS: 424.821

Req set:
Whirlpool
gorget
moonshade/brutal
elemental belt
R15 mani body
Nahtirah pants
Iuitl hands/feet
Aquasoul x2
Atheling

WS dmg: 3196

Last Stand set:
Ukuxkaj
Gorget/elemental belt
Moonshade/auster
Khepri aug
Stormsoul x2
Terebellum
Nahtirah
Iuitl feet
Sigyn hands

WS dmg: 2437

Note that Last Stand acc is clearly not capped with this set up, as soon as I add 1 prelude I got 3221 WS dmg.

However, if I swap out dmg gear/food to more acc, my WS dmg dropped. Change stormsoul to Hajduk or Terebellum to Libeccio, or change RCB to sushi, I got lower WS dmg.

So I'm just going with the conclusion, that unless you're getting prelude, or during weak against pierce phrase, req is a superior WS.

Note that LS easily hit 6k dmg on fodder with same setup, so it also has something to do with amount of attack you have!

Assuming using melee TP+ req(that means not during piercing phrase), add 38 DPS from QD, total DPS for COR/DNC is 609. You usually won't get 38 DPS from QD though, due to mobs has pretty high MDB.

What about COR/WAR with ranged only, getting prelude instead of madrigal? Sweet spot on:

RA set:

R15 STR dagger(There's a possibility that AGI path ended up better, but I'm too lazy to add it :<)
Whirlpool
Ocachi
Clearview
volley
R15 RNG mani body
Sigyn
Pyrosoul x2
Terebellum
Elanid
Nahtirah
Iuitl

Ranged DPS: 134.534

Last stand set same as above

WS dmg: 3749

Total DPS, with 38 extra DPS from QD: 228

If using staff, which add 4 more DPS from QD: 232

Note that this is assuming your QD does full dmg, which is 1.7k. If it's not it's probably better with a dagger.

I'm not sure how to make QD TP gain work on SS, I just add other TP gain/loss= QD TP gain, and got less than 20 DPS increase.

This spreadsheet also didn't calculate snapshot correctly, in optimal situations you'd shoot faster with a snapshot set. But in real life it's also very hard to really shoot that much faster with a snapshot set, because fuck XI manual /ra system.

So yeah, /ra COR is completely dead atm, like, TOTALLY dead. I can't reach over 300 DPS on spreadsheet while spamming bullets, but melee is possible to hit double amount of DPS.

However, is 500~600 DPS "good" in a delve boss run?

Let's check out BLU and MNK!

BLU/WAR, triple attack/store TP/DW3 trait, RCB, tojil sword+R15 STR sword offhand(there's a better offhand sword atm though, IF you get cool augment on it)

Berserk/aggressor up, and assuming you keep it up entire time due to WC resetted it:

TP:
Same as COR, except thurandaut head+twilight belt, Iuitl hands/legs, Mani R15 feet.

DPS: 540.091


WS:
Same as COR mostly, except thurandaut for feet, Iuitl body/hands, Neptune pearl x2 for ears(/WAR has higher attack and DA, makes Neptune pull ahead I guess)

WS: 4551

Total: 782

Around 182 more DPS higher than COR. So COR/DNC can do nearly 80% of dmg BLU can do. Not counting piercing dmg + on bee/gnat.

Personally I think COR/DNC is well worth DDing in Ceizak, Considering BLU often parse high on those target, COR should be pretty close to top too. However, it's only good if COR's getting double mad, acc kinda sucked on this job due to lol 30k plasm melee weapons.

Now v.s MNK:

TP:
Same set as AH set,

Oatixur, Hagneia Stone
Otronif head/hands/legs/feet
Thaumas body
DA set earrings
Rajas Epona
Atheling
Windbuffet
Asperity

DPS: 855.527

WS:
Potestas
Uk'uxkaj
Justiciars
DW set earring
Mani R15 body
Otronif hands/feet
Mani R15 legs
Wanion
Atheling
Epona/thundersoul

WS:5165

Total DPS: 1166

See how DW jobs got fucked completely now? :) I wasn't even using optimal buff for MNK.

BLU can do about 67% of dmg MNK can, COR/DNC can do around 52% of MNK can, COR/WAR spamming bullets with /ra can do less than 25% of dmg MNK can.

Square enix hates Dual wield jobs, also hates ranged attack.

They consider COR a "ranged attack" job, gave it item lv 117 gun, but not melee weapons, all the same time making COR ranged attack completely suck in every single way, while WS 3 times slower than using daggers.

And still refuse to give COR delve boss weapons! Not even skirmish 2 melee weapons!

If it isn't for req, BLU will never get to DD in a delve boss run.

Although I have to admit they kinda do NM mechanic right, so in the end BLU did get a DD spot in Ceizak.