PVP brd advice

[Ksandra]

So I took a break from pvping during the holidays (was at in-laws and their internet is shit), came back and found I am a fail brd.

Before I was doing over 10k dmg by the end of a fight, now I am floating around 2k-3k.

I know that some of the discrepancy is from people now being further geared than me, but I still get into groups where the other dps still has about the same gear pieces, and they are doing at least 2k-3k more than I am.

Before I wasn't worrying about it because I usually was on par or further than the other dps, now I gotta figure out how to maximize my output, so I can at least be on par with dps of the same gear.

So what do people tend to do differently in pvp vs. pve?

Thoughts on pve gear vs crafted (while waiting on warwolf)?

I am only sitting at two pieces atm (neck and gloves) almost got enough points for body. Anyone know the stat cap for melding the gloves/body?


As an aside, I haven't tried it much, but has anyone spent anytime trying out archer vs. brd? I am wondering if the utility might be worth it considering you are really just losing out on songs you really don't need to use anyway.

[Raldo]

I tried PvP as bard, but I didn't feel like I was very helpful, so I can't answer most of your questions

Anyone know the stat cap for melding the gloves/body?

If you're referring to the i70 stuff, they should share the same caps that the i70 crafted stuff does. I compiled a list here.

If you're referring to the i90 stuff, I can crunch some numbers and make some educated guesses, if you'd like.

[Kipling]

As someone who mainly plays BLM/SMN in PvP I can say that a good BRD who sticks to me like glue can make my life miserable. I can LoS them sure, but if they follow me it's super hard to get a cast off without using my PvP ability or surecast. I think that's BRD's strongest point right now. Same could be said for a healer class too I suppose.

[Ksandra]

I tried PvP as bard, but I didn't feel like I was very helpful, so I can't answer most of your questions


If you're referring to the i70 stuff, they should share the same caps that the i70 crafted stuff does. I compiled a list here.

If you're referring to the i90 stuff, I can crunch some numbers and make some educated guesses, if you'd like.

just i70 atm, and ty I'll take a look at that!

As someone who mainly plays BLM/SMN in PvP I can say that a good BRD who sticks to me like glue can make my life miserable. I can LoS them sure, but if they follow me it's super hard to get a cast off without using my PvP ability or surecast. I think that's BRD's strongest point right now. Same could be said for a healer class too I suppose.

Ya, interrupting-wise I still got it imo, but actually taking the blm/smn down while the healer is healing them is rather rough and I wanna fix that. XD

[Gulkeeva]

The PVP skills hit pretty hard at higher ranks, probably what the damage difference is. Also using +1 relic/allagans with PVP gear hits somewhat hard.

[Raen Ryong]

Don't use macros - this is extremely important. A good Bard who properly micromanages everything does dramatically more output in both PvE and PvP to the point it's visibly obvious.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Unless you're using the world's most inefficient BRD macros or something, "dramatically more output" is totally hyperbole.

[Ksandra]

Only difference macro-wise I would imagine is separating BfB from the rest of your buffs incase you want to increase dmg but are getting smacked in the face.

[Judai]

Don't use macros - this is extremely important. A good Bard who properly micromanages everything does dramatically more output in both PvE and PvP to the point it's visibly obvious.

lofuckingl

[Wulfgang]

In theory he is right. In reality and considering the average person's reaction time / micromanaging skill, I would actually probably say a good macro route would actually be close if not on top for an average player. Zero delay on BL (ME as well to a lesser extent) proc activation for the macro masher is a pretty big deal. If you're like a high click per second SC2 player, then yeah, you'll probably do better without macros; I actually think I'd space out occasionally and miss a proc every now and then.

[Raen Ryong]

Hey, can't doubt parses. As a healer in PvP it's also blatantly obvious when someone is using a macro - much lower damage.

[Ksandra]

As a healer in PvP it's also blatantly obvious when someone is using a macro - much lower damage.

Do you ask every brd afterwards whether they are using macros or not? There are several things that can contribute to the differences in dps. Gear, skill, whether they were the focus target of the other team so had to kite or were stun locked, etc.

[Raldo]

Also, BRD PvP damage is affected by distance (though I haven't a clue how much it's affected, or how), but that alone is probably more of a factor than macros.

I guess this is probably the best place to ask that question, actually. How does distance affect Bard in PvP? The XI Ranger in me says max distance in better, but I don't actually know.

[Judai]

The farther you are from the target, the less damage you do. It seems like there is a sweet spot, about midway though but it's hard to test in pvp and I'm usually only able to tell when the tank is the last guy and is standing still but considering I get about 10s of test time, who knows..

[Ksandra]

The farther you are from the target, the less damage you do. It seems like there is a sweet spot, about midway though but it's hard to test in pvp and I'm usually only able to tell when the tank is the last guy and is standing still but considering I get about 10s of test time, who knows..

hmmm, you know I've been doing my best to just hump the person I am attacking 'cause I assumed they wanted the closer the more dmg (penalty being that means you are in range to be smacked back). Never knew of a sweet spot, I'll try to see if backing up a bit helps my output at all. But ya it's hard to tell a lot of times.

[Belragga]

Keep in mind the hardest part of any dps in PvP is knowing when to dump all your damage. There's not much anyone can do when they are at 50% with a stunned healer and a brd with all abilities up in their face.

[Ksandra]

hmmm, you know I've been doing my best to just hump the person I am attacking 'cause I assumed they wanted the closer the more dmg (penalty being that means you are in range to be smacked back). Never knew of a sweet spot, I'll try to see if backing up a bit helps my output at all. But ya it's hard to tell a lot of times.

Just as a note: started taking quite a few steps back and it definitely increased my damage by a fuckton. Before doing this, as I said, I was doing 2k-3k on average. Now I am back up to 10k-12k. Done about maybe 10~ games this way so far.

That is really huge increase.

[Raen Ryong]

Do you ask every brd afterwards whether they are using macros or not? There are several things that can contribute to the differences in dps. Gear, skill, whether they were the focus target of the other team so had to kite or were stun locked, etc.

Yeah, if they're on my server. Macro Bards have always performed significantly worse.

The difference is insanely tiny, it was parsed to see the difference in macro vs pre-loading skills and the difference was so tiny that missing one proc manually, is probably already worse. People really try to cling to omg I'm so much better cause I hit every button manually but it is not in fact "dramatically better" in the slightest. It is possible it could be "SLIGHTLY" better but you would need pretty good apm and concentration to keep it up for it to pull ahead at all.

That differs from my personal experience dramatically. I know of only two Bards who don't use macros; one of them outparses every other Bard I've played with by a solid 40 DPS margin while being worse geared, and the other hit fresh 50 Bard and was already equalling/slightly exceeding Allagan-tier macro Bards.

[Judai]

considering it's a pvp thread;

i use shdowbind every single time it's up in pvp, great skill in there

[Yugl]

Your problem is less related to gear and macros and more related to your poor decisions. You don't take free opportunities to do free damage, you miss critical moments to do burst damage, and you have a poor habit of running into enemy lines/panels when you're on BRD. Some of these are common sense issues (Especially, the BFB issue) but you make the errors nonetheless. If you don't know how to remedy them, you simply need to view twitch streams and learn from better players. Again, this really isn't equipment related.