[2.1][PvE][Support] Leather & Legato 40Bard/36Tact With Macros

[Saerasha]

I have noticed a severe lack in a concise guide to what I affectionatley refer to as the T.Ard Spec. That is 40 Bard 36 Tactition with a 0 point in your preference. I personally prefer Riftstalker for the blink, but others may prefer a speed increase instead. I'm not overly technical, and you won't see a lot of math here, but if you're new to Barding or even an old pro, I hope you can take something away from this.

The Purpose of This Spec

• Constant AoE Healing, higher than normal Bard
• Greater Endurance for better survivability
• Energy regen on Crit (this build loves crit)
• Healing/Dmg increase on Crit
• Battle Remote for 20% increased healing/dmg for 1/6 of every fight (CD)

What you trade:

• Fervor (not really needed if you have Living Energy available)
• Verse of Joy (Nobody has really missed it yet)
• Verse of Occlusion (Doesn't heal for enough to save a raid most times)
• Orchestra of the Planes (On fights where you can't aoe adds, you tend not to use it, and this spec has so much going out, that you don't need it.)

Leather & Legato Build (aka T.Ard)

There are 2 points in Tact that are flexible, those would be the 2 in Enhanced Necrotic Torrent. They are kind of place holders for me, however, on trash pulls I do like to drop a Necrotic Core and torrent my heart out, but if there is something else you might like, move those points, those are more "style" points than anything else.

But You Didn't Put Points in...

Spoiler!

There aren't any points in any "Bard Ability Buffing" That's right, I didn't grab Power Chord for an extra little heal, I only have 3 points in Deafening Music, I didn't get Invigorating Soul. You may be asking "Why?" Let me explain. This is a healing spec. It's not about buffing your DPS from Bard abilities, it's about getting all the healing you can out of 76 points. The Cadence heal only hits 5 people for 6% of your AP, Empyrian Bolt with Curative Engine heals for more on 10 people. EB may do less DPS, but this isn't a DPS spec. I didn't get Anthem of Glory either because when you have to make a choice between a little more armor or a faster raid team, you go with speed. If your raid team runs a BM that can keep runspeed up, then swap that point around.

I don't have Riff/Vituoso. These talents are debatable as needed, here's why: Some people want them so they can get 5 stacks of resonance right away, without them it will take you max 30-36 seconds to get those 5 stacks, and lets face it, the first 20 seconds of most fights generally aren't that healing intense. If you find they are, your first 5 combo points need to be used for Curative Blast, a hot that ticks away while you get those 5 stacks of Resonance. Everything on the Tact side is to increase those heals and your Endurance. Bard aggro can be a pain, so extra health is nice for you. I personally rock 24k fully raid buffed with consumables. I'm usually one of the last to die. I am decently geared (a few raid drops and 1 mark piece) I pull about 2.5k Dps, but, on Matriarch, I pull anywhere from 7.5 - 10.5k Hps.

If you're not in a fight with loads of AoE dmg, your team may either drop a healer, or you can use a more conventional 61 Bard spec.

How It Works:

Buffs(make sure they are up, and reapply fanfares if someone dies)

• Anthem of Competance (Runspeed)
• Fanfare of Vigor (70 Endurance to all)
• Fanfare of Power (70 Str/Dex/Wis/Int to all)
• Restorative Engine (Causes 10 people to get a heal when Empyrean Bolt is used, possibly the most important, put this up first if you are the one that dies)

Entering Combat

• Curative Core
• Battle Remote
• Empyrean Bolt to 5 combo points
• With 5 CP you can choose one of the following

Always use Empyrenn Bolt to build Combo Points.

3 Main Debuffs

• Coda of Jeopardy - +physical dmg per attacker (Spotter's Call (BM), Illuminate (Archon), Thorns of Ire (Druid))
• Coda of Distress - +non-physical dmg by 7% (Crumbling Resistance (Archon), Spiritual Deficiency (Inquisitor))
• Coda of Cowardice - +physical dmg by 5% (Ashen Defense (Archon))

Use these debuffs if not already covered, don't waste combo points trying to overwrite someone else. Be prepared to take over debuffing if that other person dies.

Manual Heals

• Coda of Restoration - Refreshes Motifs, use when Curative Blast is already up
• Curative Blast - This HoT lasts 15 seconds, don't clip it if you don't have to.

Other Abilities

• Barrier Remote - This is a personal shield, very handy when Bard aggro gets rough

Macro 1

#show Empyrean Bolt
suppressmacrofailures
cast Curative Core
cast Battle Remote
cast Empyrean Bolt

Argue putting Battle Remote in a macro, however, it's handy to use it right off the bat to up the heals off your EB while you get debuffs up and it's harder to forget about it. You can however choose to keep it out of the macro and use it when needed. Since both Curative and Battle Remotes stack, there is no reason not to use it as often as possible for the added heals or dps.

Macro 2

#show Curative Blast
suppressmacrofailures
cast Curative Remote
cast Curative Blast

My Keybindings

1. Motif of Bravery
2. Motif of Tenacity
3. Motif of Regeneration
4. Macro 1
5. Macro 2
6. Coda of Restoration
7. Necrotic Core
8. Necrotic Torrent

All my debuffs and Barrier Remote are on mouse keys, plus I have Shadow Shift on the E key, and Break Free on my Q key. As you can see, I play predominately on the left of my keyboard and use my mouse for all movement.

Using It

If you are fortunate to have a nice Tank that gives you a countdown, use it. Make sure you are at the back of the pack, and once your Tank says 3, start casting Motifs (Bravery, Tenacity, Regen) This will save you some time in the beginning. If you find your Tanks have some aggro issues and you die fast, skip this and start Motifs once the Tank has the mob, otherwise, you can start the real "rotation" as you run in.

Set yourself up to be a healing machine, literally.
Drop that Curative Core first off, and use Battle Remote to help get the raid through those first adjustment moments, while people are getting situated.
Empyrian Bolt until 5 Combo Points

What you do next will depend on the fight. You may need to put up debuffs, however if you find a lot of dmg going out right away then get Curative Remote and Curative Blast up first, then move to your debuffs. If the party wipes then your debuffs won't matter, so help keep that from happening. Making an alert for Curative Remote is a good idea, since this will always go up right before Curative Blast and they both have a duration of 15 seconds, you'll always know where you are and what you should be doing next. At this point your motifs may be dangerously close to falling off, it's ok, keep going. 5 more CP's with Empyrean Bolt and then Coda (either debuff or Resto). Your motifs are reset now, although you may need to cast one of them to bring it back.

Now it's just a matter of keeping everything up. Your debuffs will last 60 seconds, allowing you some time to get some real healing done. A full "normal" rotation will look something like this: 3 motifs before pull, Macro 1 x's 7 while running in, Macro 2 x's 2, Macro 1 x's 5, Coda (either debuff or Resto). Rinse and repeat. You will find that because your Core will drop automatically that you will alternate Macro 2 and Coda (either debuff or Resto), you may clip Curative Blast by a second or 2, but more often than not you'll see Curative Remote fall off right as you hit it again, eliminating most clipping.

Even in the best raid groups, your archon may die at some point, you need to be able to fill that gap and put up all three debuffs at this point. On a fight like Twins, you and your Archon may be on seperate targets (preferable) so you will be in charge of completely debuffing your own target while the Archon takes care of thiers. Or your Archon may prefer doing all the debuffs themselves, in which case all you have to do is heal.

[Saerasha]

Edit* Verse of Occlusion = Shield, not heal
Didn't put points in...Resonance should be Reverberation

[Saerasha]

I would like to get Guide Writer status so I can edit this post.

[Zazen]

You neglected to mention Power Core. You don't always need to have Curative Core running since you will already be overhealing by quite a bit anyway.

Also you want to cancel and reapply Restorative Engine when you have 5 stacks of Reverberation + other raid buffs that boost your AP.

Other than that a decent guide that you should have posted in the Rogue guides forum

[Saerasha]

I know it needs to be moved. I didn't mention Power Core because that will be based entirely on situation. I use it some fights, but more often than not find that keeping Curative going is better for me personal group comp, but that's rather subjective and due to change with gear and experience.

[Mirimon]

power core>curative.. it has a massive cd on it, and you will squeeze in 3-4 curative cores between this cd. One of the selling points for this build.. which is now well known, well used, and as old as sl release itself, is that you can buff the raid's effectiveness every minute.. vs. the 2 min cd of full bard.. not using this is folly, as regardless of how you spend the points or what you do in between, your primary job in this role is buffing the raid>debuffing mobs>fight mechanics> and heals/dps as needed.

not a bad guide, though.. pretty much exactly what 5 other people over a month ago have posted.

and zazen's posting about buffing then reapplying engine is only if you plan on exploiting a current healing bug, doing this with necrotic engine actually nerfs it's effects.

[Mirimon]

also.. curative blast.. while still in need of some smart healing improvements, it will not always land on the same people. since it only hits 10 at a time.. randomly on any 10 including yourself within range of you, it's ok to "clip" it.. in fact.. you want to clip it, increases the chances of landing a hot on somebody that didn't have it, which increases number of heals that might crit, and in turn proc a skilled buff and help to keep that skilled buff running almost all of the time.

no matter how you run.. heal rotation, or dps rotation, its all the same: 5 empyrean bolt, 1 coda, 5 emp bolt, 1 "ray", repeat. and yes.. there is more than enough time not only to pop remotes and drop cores, but to also cast that 1.5 second ray.

other than that.. guide is pretty clean, defined, layed out pretty good.

[Engi]

[*] Fervor (not really needed if you have Living Energy available)[*] Verse of Joy (Nobody has really missed it yet)[*] Verse of Occlusion (Doesn't heal for enough to save a raid most times)[*] Orchestra of the Planes (On fights where you can't aoe adds, you tend not to use it, and this spec has so much going out, that you don't need it.)
.

Missed Joy? Do you raid with mages?
Occlusion? Shields are technically stronger than heals.
Orchestra? Huge Raid dps buffs

and this spec does not have a whole lot going on
/disagree

[Dunharrow]

Wrong forum.

[Zazen]

Missed Joy? Do you raid with mages?
Occlusion? Shields are technically stronger than heals.
Orchestra? Huge Raid dps buffs

and this spec does not have a whole lot going on
/disagree

You don't know much about current raid set-up, do you?