Is it better to use Pitch Perfect at 1 stack, or 3 stacks?

[The Stig]

Sod's law is against me here, if I purposely save 3, I'll hardly get it. If I use it at 1 stacks, I seem to get lots of stacks.

[Fiye]

I don't think it matters how many stacks you have. You might want a DRG, SCH, and AST.

[Vaspinne]

As I'm currently leveling Bard myself, this is something I'm curious about too

[Appie]

Isn't the question supposed to be at 2 or 3 stacks?

It's been a while since I read about this, but I believe the general rul of thumb was if you can get your crit rate above 60% to use at 2 stacks if not use at 3 stacks.
In case of dungeon pulls, the general rule of thumb is: if you got more than 4 dots up on the mobs: use at 2 stacks.

Unless something changed in the recent months on BRD, it is never good to use at 1 stack unless you're on your last tick of Minuet. The above rules of thumb are for limiting the risk of "double procs" fucking your 2 stack into a 3 with a wasted 4th proc.

[The Stig]

Thanks, I just also googled this "guide" and read up more on it. I'll try to adjust according to my crit.

[LinktheDeme]

On opener I'll use it during two stacks frequently if I have a DRG and a SCH during chain and litany. Another thing to consider is how many OGCDs you're going to be hitting pretty soon too if you want to use it. Also if I have 1 stack and another tick is coming soon and i'm about to use empyreal arrow I'll use it and then do empyreal arrow. (Or the other way around if I know I have more than 1.5s before the next tick happens)

Just a fair warning bard really isn't a fun class to play if you don't have a meta comp. Like the DRG actually giving you the tether and having a DRG and SCH for crit at the least. Otherwise you're literally just spamming heavy shot and fishing for procs and playing MCH would probably be more enticing.

[Vaspinne]

I definitely noticed that Bard gets a lot less frantic and a lot more "heavy shot spam until I need to re-apply shit" when I hit level 64 and my 2 dots jumped from 18 seconds to 30 seconds each.

Out of the 3 songs, which should I prioritize using? On big pulls I do Mage's Ballad and spread Caustic+Storm bite to get Rain of Death procs, but what about just bosses and higher-HP mobs? Mages and Wanderer's seem pretty even and Paeon seems fine but the lesser of the two given the lack of a new attack to use. But then 16% haste is nothing to scoff at either.

[Raldo]

General wisdom is...

Single target: WM > MB > AP
Multi-target: MB > AP > WM

AP gets a lot of shit, but if MB just wore and you have a lot of DoTs still up, you can probably get to 4 haste stacks really quick and spam the hell out of Quick Nock.