Any musician worth their salt knows that playing a Bard isn’t a solo act. This extends to the PvP version of the job included in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 14’s 6.1 PvP overhaul, which saw iꦗt become a powerful ranged utility machine. Unfortunately, with an emphasis on buffing the team’s damage over their own, this job won’t net you much personal glory on the battlefiel൩d. If you're a support-minded player, though, you'll find Bard is a great job for keeping the band together.

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The Bard provides a strong repertoire of support abilities that work in concert🅰 with their team. What the Bard lacks🦋 in personal damage, they make up for in their ability to secure kills on low-health and out-of-position enemies.

Overview

In PvP, the Bard relies on a good situational awareness of its enemy’s HP and MP, and is most effective when it stays close to its team. While the job does provide consistent damage, its burst damage potential is lacking when compared to its DPS counterparts. Instead, you can think of the Bard like a spotter for a sniper, singling out low-health foes to secure kills with its ability to silence, bind, and its humble burst potential in Empyreal Arrows.

Similarly to its PvE counterpart, the Bard provides a good balance of consistent damage and utility. While waiting for pick-off opportunities, you’ll be helping the whole team deal more damage, take more hits, and charge up their Limit Breaks.

Job Action Breakdown

The Bard’s basic attack is Powerful Shot which, like many Bard abilities in PvP, deals more damage the further away you are from your target. Otherwise, you’re equipped with powerful utility options in The Warden’s Paean, Repelling Shot, and Silent Nocturne. You’ll spend most of the match laying down consistent damage and buffing your team’s output with Apex and Blast Arrow.

The Bard's optimal range for range-affected abilities is 15 "yalms", Final Fantasy 14's unit of measurement. You'll get a feel for this as you play, but here's a visual guide, using the striking dummies you can find in the Wolves' Den Pier (X:6.5, Y:5.8).

Basic Combo

The Bard’s basic abilities are very straightforward; you’ll be building up stacks of Empyreal Arrow with Powerful Shot, then spending them either at three charges or when an enemy is at low health. Apex Arrow combos into Blast Arrow, both of which grant damage to you and your team. These damage bonuses stack with each other, so it’s important to fire both abilities at least once during any en🏅gagement.

• Basic Combo: Apex Arrow (Empyreal Arrow) > Blast Arrow > Powerful Shot until at three Stacks of Empyreal Arrow > Repeat.

Over the course of a fight, it's vital to keep contributing damage with Powerful Shot, Apex Arrow, and Blast Arrow. You are the master of death by a thousand shots - you won’t have an opportunity to burst anyone down if you’re playing too conservatively, to begin with. Take advantage of your range, mobility, and the powerful defensive tool The Warden's Paean to keep your foes at bay.

However, when your enemies get low on either HP or MP, it’s smart to keep your Apex Arrow and Empyreal Arrows banked for a golden opportunity. Keep reading to see a full explanation of the Bard’s burst combo.

Toolkit Breakdown And Burst Combo

The real star of the show for any Bard is their utility toolkit, which is made up of the following actions;

• Silent Nocturne: The deadliest arrow in your quiver. Being silenced prevents the target from using Recuperate, turning them from competitor to sitting duck.
• Repelling Shot: A useful way to get out of melee combat. However, its Bind makes it potent for locking fleeing enemies down.
• The Warden’s Paean: An incredible defensive tool for either you or your allies. Use it when you or your team are under heavy fire, or offensively during your burst combo to grant Pitch Perfect.

Silent Nocturne and Repelling Shot make the Bard a potent kill-securing contributor; Silent Nocturne especially, as it will shut down the majority of your opponent's defensive tools. It's important not to use it on an enemy with Guard active, however, as the silence won't take effect.

During play you’ll be biding your time in the back line, building and spending Empyreal Arrow, and maintaining your AoE Damage buffs. Then, once an enemy is at low HP or MP and being focused by your team, you can target them and let fly⛄ with a hail of debilitating arrows.

This burst combo helps you secure kills on low-HP targets with your team. For this purpose, we recommend placing the enemy party list somewhere visible on your HUD, as this will allow you to scout out and target vulnerable enemies. Keep your opponent's MP in mind too, as a low-MP foe will have limited access to Recuperate.

• Burst Combo (When at three stacks of Empyreal Arrow): Apex Arrow (Silent Nocturne + Empyreal Arrow) > Blast Arrow > Pitch Perfect (The Warden’s Paean) > Pitch Perfect (Empyreal Arrow) > Powerful Shot (Repelling Shot).

We open with Apex Arrow and Blast Arrow as they do equal or more damage than Powerful Shot, despite being Area of Effect abilities, as well as providing a damage buff for🃏 you and your team. We proceed to weave Silent Nocturne in, as the silence will lock the enemy down for three sec♕onds.

Even though your first Empyreal Arrow would technically deal more damage if cast after Blast Shot, in PvP, how fast the damage comes in is generally more important than a slight damage increase. We use The Warden’s Paean aggressively to refresh Pitch Perfect and then, if the enemy still isn’t dead, tag them with Repelling Shot to stop them from running away.

Since this combo also starts with Apex and Blast Arrow, it can also be used in situations where the enemy team makes the mistake of clumping up to take 𝔍full advantage of their Area of Effect damage.

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Limit Break Breakdown

Final Fantasia is one of the strongest Limit Breaks in PVP, but it's also the most subtle. It provides a small personal buff to the Bard in terms of weaponskill cast, recast time, and movement speed for its duration, but the real show-stopper is its AoE damage buff and Limit Break generation.

Limit Breaks are incredibly important in both Crystalline Conflict and Frontline, allowing you and your allies to turn the tide of combat. If your entire team has its Limit Break up before the enemy does, you’ll be at a massive advantage in the next fight.

*While Final Fantasia technically has an instant cast, there is a short animation that locks you in place. For this reason, it’s best to back up or get behind cover before using it, as eagle-eyed players might spot its activation and focus you. You can also take a running jump before using it to gain a little extra movement.

Limit Break Usage

The most important rule of using Final Fantasia is to not die once it’s activated. While the advice "don't die" seems obvious, Final Fantasia's charge time is hefty, so if you die right after burning your Limit Break gauge, it can spell defeat in the shorter game modes. Once active, play conservatively; the longer you stand, the more use your allies will get from the damage buff (which stacks with Apex and Blast Arrow) and Limit Break regeneration.

Conversely, it’s also important to avoid activating this when the fight is already over, or if everyone’s Limit Break gauges are already full. You want your team to get the full use out of its duration.

Frontlines are far more chaotic, so a misspent Final Fantasia is less impactful in this game mode. Try to stick with your party members rather than the alliance raid at large, as Final Fantasia only impacts your party, and save it for large team fights around important objectives.

Common Actions Breakdown

General Strategy

If the PvP version of Bard were in a real-life band, they would be the drummer or the bassist. You aren’t there to hog the spotlight, you’re there to keep the rest of your team on tempo. As such, it’s vital to avoid showboating or hunting down kills; stay a healthy distance away from the enemy team and use cover to keep off their radar until tꦰhe time is right to pounce.

That doesn’t mean you want to be absent entirely. Like any other DPS class, the Bard is responsible for applying pressure to the enemy team. This pressure will help you create opportunities against low HP and MP enemies.

Your damage, however, won’t be enough to secure kills on its own. Pay attention to who your team is focus-firing and join in with your deadly harmony. It’s also important to use Apex or Blast Arrow regularly. While a five percent increase to damage might not seem like that much at face value, when applied to four or eight other players, it has a major impact.

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Crystalline Conflict Strategy

In Crystalline Conflict, you have two responsibilities: apply pressure from a distance, and keep your buffs active. Before the match starts, take a quick look at the enemy lineup and decide which targets you’ll keep the 🗹heat on.

This will often be a healer, but as a Bard you also struggle with jobs that can chase you down, such as Monk, Ninja, Dancer, and Dragoon, so it's worth it to pressure them as well.

Play the objective, but hang back. All of your abilities deal more damage at range, so you don’t want to be in the thick of fights. Make sure the buffs from Apex and Blast Arrow have been applied and direct your Powerful Shot spam towards anyone who looks too comfortable.

You want to make sure you aren’t wasting charges of Empyreal Arrow, so avoid using Powerful Shot while already at three charges. However, as the battle progresses, you can switch up your tactics and keep three stacks in your pocket for when someone is low on HP and MP. Then, when an enemy is being focused by your team, unload with your burst combo.

When your Limit Break is ready, use it and stay alive. Crystal Conflict games are very short, so making sure your Final Fantasia doesn’t go to waste is vital.

Lastly, use The Warden’s Paean on either yourself or party members when they’re in trouble. The Purify component is nice, but the 20 percent damage reduction can turn a tank from a difficult target into an un-killable nightmare, or save the life of an all-important healer.

Frontline Strategy

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Frontlines, due to the sheer numbers involved, are more straightforward. Make sure you’re sticking with your party, as many of your damage buffs only apply to party members (rather than the entire alliance). Tracking enemy HP and MP is much harder, but you can still pay attention to health bars and direct your fire to anyone who looks out of position.

The Bard benefits from playing the objective with their team in Frontlines. Your damage buffs are technically twice as effective in this game mode, thanks to there being twice as many players in your group, so it’s important to contribute to big fights.

You may also be able to save party members with The Warden’s Paean, although there’s only so much to be done if🗹 they’re being melted by twenty angry Black Mages.

You can afford to be less careful with Final Fantasia in this game mode, as you’ll have more opportunities to cast it. The same rules from Crystalline Conflict otherwise apply; make sure you stay alive to make use of the ability’s entire duration. Keep an eye on enemy movements, and avoid getting “pinched” (caught between two enemy teams).

Keep your enemies at arm's length, make use of your damage auras, and you’ll be conducting y🌳our Grand Company to victory in no time.

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