Green Bard hot bar set up?

[slowpoke68]

Have my bard on green up to level 7. I have 1-4 as macros for /stop song /cast.

Have an inc message and assist macro on other two.

What are you guys doing for other stuff like weapons swaps etc.?

First bard and looking for tips.

Thanks!

[pink grapefruit]

get rid of the song macros; just set your song gem casts to keys. and either use up 4 of your 6 hotbar slots for weapon/instrument swapping or play with your inventory open always.

[Videri]

get rid of the song macros; just set your song gem casts to keys. and either use up 4 of your 6 hotbar slots for weapon/instrument swapping or play with your inventory open always.

Nailed it. Great pink grapefruit post.

Do I get an achievement for being the first person to say that? :p

OP, I’d suggest putting the inc macro on page 2. I find it easy enough to do Shift 2, 2, Shift 1. I hope it works for you.

So perhaps the following:
1. Primary
2. Secondary
3. Inventory slot 1 (or 6)
4. Inventory slot 2 or 3 (or 8)
5. /assist macro (bound to F or G or something else close to WASD)
6. I don’t know!

Page 2 can have assist macro in the same spot, inc macro, maybe a “how’s mana?” macro, Sense Heading...

What do you think?

[Wallicker]

Omgawd y’all double tap for every song? Gross

[pink grapefruit]

Omgawd y’all double tap for every song? Gross

go hard or go home imo. this isn't a fucking game :mad:

i'd go:

1: primary
2: secondary
3: inventory
4: inventory
5: forage
6: track

pages 2-3 would have the rp macros and all the other skills.

Nailed it. Great pink grapefruit post.

Do I get an achievement for being the first person to say that? :p

mean.

[Wallicker]

go hard or go home imo. this isn't a fucking game :mad:

i'd go:

1: primary
2: secondary
3: inventory
4: inventory
5: forage
6: track

pages 2-3 would have the rp macros and all the other skills.



mean.

Hmmmm lol I go with the work smarter not harder mantra but you enjoy hitting twice the keys to do the same stuff

[pink grapefruit]

Hmmmm lol I go with the work smarter not harder mantra but you enjoy hitting twice the keys to do the same stuff

it's not smarter tho. it's less efficient. and when you start getting insta clickies each one needs a hotkey slot too, if you want to do everything you can to protect against dispells. wasting hotkey slots as the class with the most skills (and needing to have inventory slots accessible out of necessity) in an era where there are only 6 slots per hotkey page is downright bad barding.

*tap tap* .... *tap tap* ...

[Wallicker]

I have no issues using all my skills, swapping instruments and using clickies while not double tapping every song, I’m hitting less buttons than you every session and doing just as much not sure how it’s less efficient. I Guess I’m just a bad bard. Maybe you should give me lessons sometime

[Videri]

Omgawd y’all double tap for every song? Gross

I don't double tap. I roll. I hit 1 then 2, super fast. 12! The 1 turns off the current song and the 2 starts Song 2. Then I hit 2 then 3, super fast. 23! And so on.

I have no issues using all my skills, swapping instruments and using clickies while not double tapping every song, I’m hitting less buttons than you every session and doing just as much not sure how it’s less efficient. I Guess I’m just a bad bard. Maybe you should give me lessons sometime

Naw, both ways are valid! There are pros and cons. Plus, once your fingers know a way of doing things, you stick to that way because your fingers are already fast at it.

[Videri]

i'd go:

1: primary
2: secondary
3: inventory
4: inventory
5: forage
6: track

pages 2-3 would have the rp macros and all the other skills.

But wait! What about a /assist macro? With only one hotbar...isn't this the only way? Is there another way to do /assist with a single keystroke without making a macro?

Personally, I don't want to forage that much, and I like to have the tracking window closed some of the time. Those go on Hotbar Page 2 for me. But even more important, with only 6 buttons, I bet we could put something more critical in that last slot or two.

[LemmingVR]

I only cast with /st /cast macros and I use shift+whatever to go through hotbar pages

Page 1: 1-4 is my normal twist, 5/6 might be selos, Mez, /assist, or a call for primary depending on what I'm doing. When I start casting 4 (which is always hymn) I swap to page 2 so I can swap to lute

Page 2: 1 is the first song of my twist, 2 is hymn, 3-6 are two inventory slots with instruments (always lute and usually drums) and primary/secondary. Most of the time I only swap to lute for hymn and dual wield for the rest of the songs (I don't think there's too much impact from most of them to have an instrument, usually). Since slot 1 is the first song of my twist, I can start casting it after hymn finishes, then swap back to weapons and go back to page 1.

Page 3: this one's for pulling, I have snare/Mez/lull on 1,2,3, inc macro on 4, 5 is selos if I'm outside

Page 4: for charms, 1 is charm, 2 is pet attack, 3 is pet back, 4 is charm message macro. I also have a button for Hide somewhere. I need to add Mez in here and make it my overall CC page I think.

I don't use my 6 key much but I think if I remap it to F or something I'd use it more. I find I can do everything quicker if I don't move my hand very far and stick to the left hand side of the keyboard

[slowpoke68]

I only cast with /st /cast macros and I use shift+whatever to go through hotbar pages

Page 1: 1-4 is my normal twist, 5/6 might be selos, Mez, /assist, or a call for primary depending on what I'm doing. When I start casting 4 (which is always hymn) I swap to page 2 so I can swap to lute

Page 2: 1 is the first song of my twist, 2 is hymn, 3-6 are two inventory slots with instruments (always lute and usually drums) and primary/secondary. Most of the time I only swap to lute for hymn and dual wield for the rest of the songs (I don't think there's too much impact from most of them to have an instrument, usually). Since slot 1 is the first song of my twist, I can start casting it after hymn finishes, then swap back to weapons and go back to page 1.

Page 3: this one's for pulling, I have snare/Mez/lull on 1,2,3, inc macro on 4, 5 is selos if I'm outside

Page 4: for charms, 1 is charm, 2 is pet attack, 3 is pet back, 4 is charm message macro. I also have a button for Hide somewhere. I need to add Mez in here and make it my overall CC page I think.

I don't use my 6 key much but I think if I remap it to F or something I'd use it more. I find I can do everything quicker if I don't move my hand very far and stick to the left hand side of the keyboard

Wow. That is something!

[Omsk]

I've bound my spell gems to the number keys and made a /stopcast macro on a hotkey that I've got bound to E. I move with WASD so hitting E between songs is pretty easy, I prefer it to double-tapping spell keys. So hotkeys 1-6 I have Stopsong, Inc, open inv slot 1, inv slot 2, primary, secondary. With assist on page 2 (shift+1). ez.

[Manafee]

With some testing and help from a friend i was able to find a way to put 2 songs on one button. If you set it up right u can keep 4 songs up at the same time and only having to use 2 buttons to keep all of the songs up.

This is how i have them setup

Button 1 (song 1 & 2)
/stopsong
/cast 1
/pause 30
/stopsong
/cast 2

Button 2 (song 3 & 4)
/stopsong
/cast 3
/pause 30
/stopsong
/cast 4

I was testing it last night and i was able to keep 4 songs going with no issue. You will need to get used to songs sometimes dropping and have to take over manually. When it comes to switching weapons out for instruments i have them on a different hot bar page and i have gotten used to doing shift+1 or shift+2 depending on the page to quickly switch hot bars. Hope this helps a fellow bard

[Graahle]

I would love to see a tandem video shot that has one camera fixated on the bard player's hands/keyboard and another camera portraying their game screen.

[Manafee]

I would love to see a tandem video shot that has one camera fixated on the bard player's hands/keyboard and another camera portraying their game screen.

[Satinna]

go hard or go home imo. this isn't a fucking game :mad:

i'd go:

1: primary
2: secondary
3: inventory
4: inventory
5: forage
6: track

pages 2-3 would have the rp macros and all the other skills.



mean.


If you're using all 6 of your hotkeys for things like this, where are you putting your /assist and /attack buttons? Are they just on a different page of hotbar 1?

[Wallicker]

With some testing and help from a friend i was able to find a way to put 2 songs on one button. If you set it up right u can keep 4 songs up at the same time and only having to use 2 buttons to keep all of the songs up.

This is how i have them setup

Button 1 (song 1 & 2)
/stopsong
/cast 1
/pause 30
/stopsong
/cast 2

Button 2 (song 3 & 4)
/stopsong
/cast 3
/pause 30
/stopsong
/cast 4

I was testing it last night and i was able to keep 4 songs going with no issue. You will need to get used to songs sometimes dropping and have to take over manually. When it comes to switching weapons out for instruments i have them on a different hot bar page and i have gotten used to doing shift+1 or shift+2 depending on the page to quickly switch hot bars. Hope this helps a fellow bard

This is the worst idea as a missed note or needing to swap to a different song is impossible bc you are locked in to the pause for a while 3 seconds no matter what

[Manafee]

This is the worst idea as a missed note or needing to swap to a different song is impossible bc you are locked in to the pause for a while 3 seconds no matter what

Well, it worst is subjective here. I definitely recommend having a button for each song first of all, but if there are 4 party buffs i want to keep up consistently it makes life alot easier hitting a button every 6 seconds as apposed to every 3 seconds constantly. If the first song on the macro fails you will have to wait 3 seconds to correct it, but if fails on the second song you can correct right away. Yes this is not "Meta" and i wouldn't recommend it in a raid setting by any means. This works for me and you can take it with a grain of salt if you like.

[enjchanter]

Double song macro deff sounds like a bad idea

[zanderklocke]

I love that playing a bard is so versatile that there are many ways you can set up your keys, play, and succeed. Definitely a fun class.

I haven’t played since they removed multiple hotkey bars and 10 key hotkey bars. I’d definitely have to rethink how I do some things.