Use Confiteor on kill targets, ideally into groups of enemies. The debuff left on enemies heals your teammates when they attack the target.

Ensure kills on low-hp targets by charging into Shield Bash.

Never stay in the teamfight for long unless you have to or are not being attacked.

Some players do not know they can Elixir while covered, try and learn who can & who cannot Elixir.

Try to use your LB blade combo on a single target where possible for maximum damage

Try to use a Confiteor on the kill target & keep your distance. Holy Sheltron if you think the enemies will dive you.

Prepare to cover any teammate out in the open. If the enemy team dives them and they haven't guarded, chances are that you will need to Guardian them.

In most cases you should never charge in first but against low damage teams you can so long as you guard fast & early. Ensure that you Elixir so that you'll be able to Guardian+Guard when they're off Cooldown.

Be the relief for your teammates with cover but try to stay out of direct melee combat unless you're helping to ensure kills or you've won a teamfight and are cleaning up the enemy.

Keep and eye out for enemy LB's or general heavy damage. You'll need to use your own LB shortly before to ensure your allies are best protected.

Don't be scared to push the crystal outside of teamfights or engage to ensure kills. Your damage is low but your utility is still needed to win.

In a winning fight, stick around and Shield Bash enemies coming out of guard. Try to find time to leave & Elixir when low just in case

In a losing fight, stay back and follow the Guardian Angel playstyle. Do not engage for too long if at all possible as your LB is often what wins an overtime game

A well timed Holy Sheltron can be used to save you from some LB’s such as Samurai

Use charge/intervene for extra damage between attacks during post-teamfight cleanup

Use Confiteor before your LB's blade combo on your target for extra damage

Distance yourself from your cover target so that you can break off as soon as possible

Guardian is tethered by distance & is unaffected LOS, you can wrap around pillars in Guard for a little extra safety.

Holy Sheltron just before guard ends if you're going to take damage

Don't feel pressured to cover immediately after your LB if your team isn't in immediate danger.

While Guard is usually required with cover, it's not always necessary with situations such as saving a low hp ally in your backline from a pursuing ninja being more than manageable with a Holy Sheltron in most cases.

Target the Paladin first and force them to Guard, this prevents them from Covering until Guard or LB is ready

Once a Paladin has used their cover they are extremely vulnerable & should be focused as the target priority.

AOE deals significantly more damage to a paladin when they're next to their cover target.

Roots, binds & silences prevent paladins from covering targets.

Monk, Reaper & Ninja LB's are a significant threat to their cover.

Chase down Paladins that attempt to escape the team fight where possible.

A paladin that cannot escape a team fight will never be able to safely utilize their kit.

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Hit em hard

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Hit em hard

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Tank: Nebula: Reduces damage taken by 20% and delivers an attack with a potency of 4,000 every time you suffer damage. Duration: 10s.

DPS: Blasting Zone: Delivers an attack with a potency of 10,000.

Healer: Aurora: Restores own or target party member's HP. Cure Potency: 12,000. Additional Effect: Regen. Cure Potency: 3,000. Duration: 12s.

Each of these Continuation abilities have a bonus effect that depends on the role you have junctioned: Tank will generate shields for yourself, DPS will cause it to hit harder, and Healer will heal yourself and those around you

The Gnashing Fang combo all use the same hotbar button as Gnashing Fang, and hit for 5->6->7k regardless of your Junction

The Continuation abilities all use the same hotbar button as Continuation and hit baseline 1-2-3k and are oGCD meaning you can immediately follow Gnashing Fang combo with its corresponding Continuation.

Continuation effects are as follows:

Tank: base potency damage, generates a 4-> 5-> 6k shield for self

DPS: raises base potency damage to 3-> 4-> 5k (this raises the combo’s overall damage to 8-> 10-> 12k which is very good base damage)

Healer: base potency damage, heals for 2-> 3-> 4k in a 15-yalm radius

Burst Strike hits for 7k and can be used for 10 seconds after using Junction on any role or if you complete all three strikes of your basic combo

Hypervelocity hits for 3k baseline and like the other Continuations Tank Junction grants 6k shield, DPS Junction raises potency to 5k, Healer Junction heals 4k, all oGCD to follow-up the burst strike

Don’t drop Burst Strikes! The buff only lasts for 10s so it should be prioritized over the Gnashing Fang combo.

If you use your basic weapon combo in between your Gnashing Fang combo it will cause it to reset and waste it

Using Burst Strike and Hypervelocity will not interrupt your combo

Your Gnashing Fang combo has a 15-second cd, each step of the combo gives you a 5s buff that lets you use its respective Continuation oGCD, if you fail to do this it will drop off. The Gnashing Fang combo has its own 30s combo timer. Only your basic auto-combo will break your Gnashing Fang combo.

On a dummy you can quickly work through the combo but in practice with targets moving, GCDs going to Recuperates, Double Downs, etc. you’ll rarely work through the Gnashing Fang combo so quickly you’ll have time to fill with the basic combo basic attacks

Do not let your Gnashing Fang combo drop to the best of your ability!

Double down does a 12k AoE underneath the GNB, it has no correlation to your target’s location

Make sure you’re actually on top of your target or within a step of them when you use it as it’s a 5-yalm radius, same as your LB’s radius.

Each No Mercy lasts ~3 GCDs. To maximize value, don’t overwrite No Mercy early

Skill priority for No Mercy is approximately as follows:

Relentless Rush = Terminal Trigger > Double Down > Blasting Zone > ALL Continuations > Burst Strike = Wicked Talon > Savage Claw > Gnashing Fang >>>>>>>>>> Auto-combo

Nebula’s DPS output can also benefit from the No Mercy buff, but that’s contingent on you taking damage during it.

Whenever possible, you should try to heal (Recuperate/Aurora) within NM windows to improve your MP economy and survivability.

If you’re out of Rough Divide charges, consider holding LB/DD/BZ until you have one again. (though ideally, you should be holding a charge of Rough Divide for an imminent LB instead.)

In order to maintain uptime on a fleeing target without overwriting NM, you should position yourself in advance to be ahead of where they’re trying to go.

Relentless Rush charges in 60 seconds.

You spin like a beyblade for 4 seconds, dealing 4k potency and applying a 4% stacking vulnerability up and a 4% stacking damage down on anyone hit. You take 25% less damage during this.

Terminal Trigger: This can be activated one second after you use Relentless Rush to trigger it early or it will automatically occur at the end of your spinning after 4 seconds. It deals 12k damage around you and stun targets for 3 seconds.

Most of the value of your LB comes from the damage and stun in Terminal Trigger, so 99% of the time, you should hit TT ASAP.

WHEN IN DOUBT, TERMINAL TRIGGER.

If the enemy team has a tank, get yourself Tank Junction

You can either use Nebula on engage, or engage, guard, and then use Nebula after the enemies have hopefully wasted burst into your guard
(the second is safer)

As a tank you’ll want to follow the typical Tank opening strategy of absorbing as much enemy burst as you can without dying, and running away to Elixir as you run out of mana.

Exceptions, of course, if your team is slaughtering the enemies to the point you don’t need to retreat.

You can take DPS junction in the opening and use your near-instant ~26k burst (RD>DD>BZ) to get a quick pick on the first vulnerable target.

Just be wary of counter-burst by the enemy team.

The more tanks/melees you have frontlining with you, the safer this opener becomes.

After the opening, if you’re not being harassed, switching to DPS junction may be the move, but be careful as the enemies might swap to burst you.

In a match where you’re hugging the crystal you may spend more time in Nebula than not.

Tank Junction is preferable in neutral and disadvantaged fights

DPS Junction is preferable in advantageous fights

Healer Junction is useful only when fighting into AOE bleed/MP burn (like SCH) or against an enemy that is trickle-stalling near their spawn

How many enemies have Guard?
(Starting it on a Guarding enemy right before it finishes is not a bad idea if they can’t escape)

Are there un-purifiable ccs that might ruin your LB like WHM’s Miracle of Nature or Monk’s Enlightenment

Do you have Double Down up, Rough Divide, and ideally DPS Junction’s Blasting Zone?

Ideally to make sure you get your LB off you cant to have someone cc you, then use Purify and launch into your LB

If you’ve just purged a cc with purify you get 5 seconds of immunity where only knockbacks, draw-ins, Miracle of Nature, DNC and RPR LBs can affect you

Alternatively, if you have a melee engage partner, you can have them soak the cc for you and then dive in and RR/TT after the enemy has burned those resources.

After this, activate Terminal Trigger ASAP (It will always inflict 2 stacks minimum.)

Your LB’s greatest use is the 12k damage + 3-second stun, not the vulnerability debuff

After executing Terminal Trigger you want to use Double Down and Blasting Zone if you have it

Do this and you’ll have AoE’d those around you for at least 24k, and hit one target for 34k. This rises to 28.4k with Rough Divide, and 40.4k for the single target

If you expect to be focused during your LB, you can pre-pop Nebula

Combined, RR and Nebula will give you 40% mitigation, plus the additional mitigation from inflicted Shrapnel stacks

While it’s always ideal to use your LB to burst and kill, it also has considerable stalling power if channeled for its full duration

Cc them when they’re LBing to prevent them from being able to execute Terminal Trigger early

Knockbacks are particularly effective since even purify doesn’t stop knockback effects

Spread out so they can’t cleave multiple people with their LB and double down

If the GNB telegraphs an impending LB by diving at you with LB active, hit sprint and just run, you can escape the AoE before it goes off. You can bind the GNB to help escape.

Generally speaking, all cc is always a problem for GNB, since it gets so much value from uptime.

White Mage is at its best during teamfights, and getting the most value out of its considerable AoE and burst on both its offensive and defensive abilities.

Miracle of Nature by itself can give your team the upper hand during any square ups, such as the opening fight. Use it to initiate, getting the jump on the enemy with its instant cast, or to secure kills by pinning them down after they use Purify.

Outside of MoN or LB considerations, your play will boil down to a basic rotation of using your burst combo, repositioning while using instant-casts as necessary, delivering heals as needed, and spamming Glare/popping Elixir from a safe distance while waiting for cool-downs.

When it's all said and done, your biggest asset is your versatility and flexibility. There isn’t a specific order to the aforementioned rotation, and switching gears to meet the demands at hand is the core of White Mage play.

Effective use of MoN and LB + Keeping people alive > everything else

Make the most out of your AoE

It’s better to keep something on CD instead of holding for optimal uses that may never come(within reason)

Save MoN and your burst combo for the kill target.

Use Cure III, Aquaveil and Afflatus Misery to assist with movement if needed.

Counter enemy aggression with healing. Keep an eye out for any disabled allies to purify with Aquaveil. Cure III grouped teammates for value or combo with Aquaveil for formidable burst healing.

As the fight slows down, start setting up for your first LB.

More than most others, your mid-game is defined by your LB.

The very first LB that you use is often the most important because the enemy team will rarely have any of their own to answer with. You will have to decide between using it aggressively to build or maintain momentum, or to hold it for a big teamfight.

Be prepared to run a lot. You want to be within reach of as many of your teammates as you can to answer their needs, despite any engagements that may happen to break out separately and away from each other. Exercise good map awareness and try to stay on top of everyone’s position.

If you’re playing with momentum/tempo, you want to be in the front and making the most out of your offensive kit trying to clean-up and stagger the enemy. Just make sure to read your team and push the crystal yourself if needed.

If you’re on the backfoot, prioritize keeping your teammates alive. Bolster your team with liberal Seraph Strike + Cure III usage until you and your team can put together a turnaround play.

Ultimately much of the same logic one would use for any major teamfight ability applies to your LB. Hit as many targets as you can, within range of your teammates' support. Stay on top of LB economy, and general game state, and understand which enemies are the biggest threats to your team.

In a teamfight, the earlier you can use it, the better, in order to get the most out of Temperance and Regen. Initiating with it is ideal.

Understand how much momentum your team is working with before you use your LB. If you are playing with an advantage, be aggressive, otherwise play around your team. Aggression is rewarded with more uses per game, but make sure you ask yourself and double check if your team will need your LB for the very next fight before using it for solo pickoff.

Plan your rotation ahead, and try to make sure you at least have at least Afflatus Misery and MoN, preferably with Seraph Strike, to combo if possible.

Depending on composition and strategy, Regen can be the more valuable half of your LB. If your team is struggling less with damage or execution, and more with sustain, focus more on using your LB as a support tool and providing Regen in a timely manner.

Use corners to your advantage to help lineup targets. Targeting enemies in their back-line can also help with accurately lining up your LB.

As mentioned above, MoN’s optimal use is to pin down targets who have just used Purify, securing kills that otherwise would have gotten away.

Use MoN defensively by getting the jump on enemies initiating. Help out teammates retreating and disable enemies attempting to clean-up, possibly even setting up for a turnaround.

With a deft hand and mind you can ‘ghost’ enemy abilities that have a delay between when they’re activated, and when they snapshot. Particularly LBs, for example Samurai and Reaper.

Be mindful of the instant-cast, as well as mechanics such as spell-queuing. Once you press that button you’ve committed to using it, even mid-animation, and can end up whiffing if your target uses Guard during your animations.

Seraph Strike is the backbone of your kit, and prints value. During fights it should be used as much as possible.

Use Cure III to burst heal whoever is getting focused, AoE heal a dog pile, and to help reposition while keeping uptime.

Pair Cure III with Aquaveil to bailout someone getting focused. Precast Cure II if you have a read on the enemy to really pump heals.

Seraph Striking into a Cure III is faster than casting Cure II.

As with other gap closers, can ‘phase’ through corners with correct positioning.

As with most things, it is better to use it on CD for uptime than to hold on to it excessively. If you’re playing a slower game with less aggression, use it to harass and chip away enemies.

Make the most of its instant-cast to weave and reposition.

When bursting a target it is better to Misery first into Seraph Strike.

Use liberally against teams with less CC, against CC heavy teams you should try to be more selective. Ideally it is best used before Purify, but you can’t count on that especially in SoloQ/uncoordinated environments.

Over the long-term, it’s still better to use it as much as you can when people are taking damage. Plan ahead of time, and try to keep track of enemy CC usage for when you need to hold.

If you’re using it strictly for healing, prioritize using Aquaveil before other heals since it's both a barrier, as well as being instant.

While far from the strongest part of your kit, it is still immensely valuable as a source of in-combat healing outside of Recuperate.

The easiest use of Cure II is healing teammates under Guard.

Requiring a hard cast is both an advantage and disadvantage. While you will need to be proactive, and anticipate damage ahead of time, you can also cancel and switch to a target in more need without wasting a charge.

Don’t forget about slidecasting, and the open oGCD window.

Don’t forget about slidecasting, and the open oGCD window. Always be casting until your last breath, because you’ve still got Glare.

While it is never good to die, it is preferable for a White Mage to die before others given the circumstance.

The main consideration here is WHM’s top heavy kit. You can spend all of your primary abilities in 2 GCDs, dump your Cure IIs, and then spend the next 10-15s spamming Glare, waiting for cooldowns. In this case, if someone on your team has to die, you’re probably the best fit.

On the contrary, WHM is the last person who should die if their high-leverage tools are ready and available.

Understanding and exploiting what risks and rewards are available is the name of any game at any sort of high-level play, and for WHM a large part of this is when and where you die. At the very least make sure to empty the tank before you die.

WHM is still dependent on working with their team to obtain results, and doesn’t want to get singled out.

Falls short playing against tanky, high sustain compositions who can shrug off WHM’s burst.

Lacks a quality escape, will die easily if caught unprepared and out of position.

Always, always, always, use Expedient whenever it comes off CD, even if teammates aren’t nearby. Sometimes the sacrifice/trade-off in not giving your teammates a speed boost and damage reduction can come in the form of dealing more damage with Biolysis. This has to be considered with good judgment; use it wisely, but frequently.

Do try to keep Adloquium up on your teammates as long as possible. You get two charges for a reason: 1 to cast on self to then spread with DT, and a second one to get those that may have not been in range for Deployment Tactics, or when DT is on CD. Remember that Scholar’s Adloquium buff can be the difference between securing a kill, or letting an enemy live by 4-5k. You’re essentially, (and potentially) a permanent The Balance buff from AST. Consider and gauge the situation wisely and ask yourself: “Do my teammates need more damage to push checkpoint from Adloquium, or do they need more damage from an Expedient + Biolysis at the cost of a Deployment Tactics?”

Use Mummification as often and as frequently as possible. While it can be a bit dangerous and risky to get yourself in melee range of most enemies, the trade-off can be moderate to almost game changing if done properly. Also, consider using it on 2 or more enemies, rather than just 1 singular enemy, (unless that enemy happens to be a super low HP target with hardly any MP to get a heal in, for kill securing’s sake). Again, use best judgment.

EVER USE BIOLYSIS WITHOUT EXPEDIENT BUFF!!! I can’t stress this enough, but seriously don’t try it. You’ve essentially wasted what could have been free 10,000 extra damage. Not only that, but the math comes out to a mere 15,000 damage un-buffed by either Adloquium or Expedient, which means that the damage dealt would have been healed back by the time the duration of Biolysis is over by the MP regen of the target. TL;DR DONT USE BIOLYSIS EVER WITHOUT RECITATION BUFF.

EXPEDIENT THEN SUMMON SERAPH EVER! This was stated earlier in the guide, but here I’ll emphasize it more. If you use Expedient, make sure to make use of the Recitation buff on either an Adloquium or Biolysis, THEN Summon Seraph. Otherwise, you waste a Recitation buff; they don’t stack!

DO NOT JUST USE ADLOQUIUM OR BIOLYSIS ONLY, use Broil IV whenever you get the chance. Kind of common sense, and pretty self explanatory. 5000-5400 damage is small, but adds up over time!

DRG is best played as the team’s primary dps, participating in engagements on the crystal or large group fights where it can exploit its high damage cleave for maximum gain. Its high 1 GCD burst with Geirskogul + WWT + Nastrond, paired with team burst and crowd control is enough to kill unaware targets and punish others that are vulnerable or out of position. Furthermore, Sky Shatter becomes much more lethal when paired with other LBs and crowd control from teammates.

As a priority target for the enemy team due to Life of the Dragon and its high damage, it is prudent to stay in your backline while preparing your burst and before engagements begin– DRG suffers if it cannot execute burst safely, or when forced to be the first one in.

In addition, its high burst and mobility with High Jump and Elusive Jump allows DRG to act as an assassin for weak targets trying to escape at low HP and MP. Both jumps can be used to catch up to targets and steal medkits on the ground to deny them healing while you secure the kill. Only do this if you know you can guarantee the kill– you do not have crowd control to lock a target down; accept that some targets will get away and return to help win the team fight while they elixir.

In short, play back, play safe, and play to cleave.

Elusive Jump is a 15y backflip that cleanses Bind, Heavy, and gives a speed boost in addition to turning into Wyrmwind Thrust (aka WWT). WWT does more damage the further the target is, up to a maximum of 16k when the target is 15 yalms away. Always try to use WWT at its max distance whilst cleaving as many enemies as possible.

Geirskogul grants Life of the Dragon (aka Life) for 10 seconds, increasing damage dealt AND taken by 25% for the duration. Life can be dispelled early by using Nastrond, which Geirskogul turns into.

Fit your highest damage abilities such as Heavens Thrust and WWT under Life of the Dragon.

You are always a priority target when entering Life; keep your burst window short (1-2 GCDs) and end the buff quickly with Nastrond in order to reduce the amount of damage taken.

Geirskogul and Elusive Jump both have a 20s cooldown; every Life window should include at least 1 WWT.

Geirskogul, Wyrmwind Thrust, and Nastrond are all cleaves with a range of 15y or more; avoid entering Life in point blank melee range and line yourself up to cleave as many targets as possible in addition to your primary one.

Horrid Roar is a 10y self-centered AoE, and all targets you hit with it deal 50% less damage to you for 10s. Try to hit as many targets as possible with Horrid Roar, especially enemy ranged and DPS, and pair it with when you are entering Life and bursting.

Sky High/Shatter, your limit break, inherits buff effects such as Life of the Dragon and Elusive Jump’s speed boost (and other teammate buffs). Every use of Sky High should at least be under the effect of Life; it turns into a large 40k damage AoE when unmitigated.

You will automatically land with Sky Shatter 5s after using the limit break; pressing Sky Shatter after entering Sky High allows you to land early. There is a ~2s delay between being able to press Sky High and landing immediately.

You are __conditionally__ invulnerable during the effect of Sky High; you are untargetable, but delayed abilities and damage over time effects will continue to tick on your health. Don’t attempt to LB at low HP; you’ll likely die midair and lose the use.

Sky Shatter is easily countered if enemies have Guard and see your reticle approaching them; use it only if you’re confident they are not aware of your LB, do not have Guard, or are being stunned/debuffed by other teammates.

The nature of the job (dmg taken from Life, priority target, WWT damage based on distance) encourages DRG to be played and positioned like a ranged DPS.

When you’re not bursting or preparing to burst, play at a distance– hover near your team’s backline, and try to keep yourself near walls for easy cover. Good players will have CC ready if you go into Life right in front of them or in an easy to reach position, and DRG is a common target for opening burst in extremely high level games.

While you are bursting, adjust in a way that lets you cleave as many targets as possible. Even though you might have a primary target in mind, anyone you hit as collateral is still likely going to use recuperates and burn their MP even if the team doesn’t CC them. Low MP players become solid targets, and the more enemies that are elixiring give you opportunities to kill their teammates left on point.

Most of DRG’s core abilities have a cooldown of around 20s, and your goal is to ensure that you make the most out of that burst window with Elusive and Geirskogul on a 20s CD; especially since DRG’s filler outside of Life is incredibly weak.

While you should be prepping WWT by using Elusive 2-3s before you burst, avoid trying to use it upwards of 5-10s earlier and then using WWT seconds before the buff falls off. A decent goal is to fit at least WWT in every Life window, so you want to keep their cooldowns aligned as much as possible.

Life of the Dragon itself makes the burst window beyond WWT very flexible. If you’re being pressured or expect to be a target, your burst can be as short as 1 GCD:

(pre-Elusive > Geirskogul > WWT > Nastrond)

“Flashing” the Life buff for such a short time reduces the likelihood of you being stunned and bursted in the time it takes you to purify the debuff and use Nastrond.

On the other hand, if you aren’t being focused or taking too much damage, you can also extend the Life window to include more hard hitting GCDs, such as High Jump + Heavens Thrust or Chaotic Spring; getting an enemy below 50% for Nastrond’s extra damage does add up.

Trust your gut with Life– it is usually better to end early with Nastrond than late and die as a result if you realize the enemy is turning on you, or if more enemies show up while you’re hitting your target.

Try not to let Life expire on its own either, even if you’re wailing on a target with no HP and no enemies around to save them. Nastrond is a sizable portion of damage and does more damage if the target is below 50% HP.

There is an important note to be made with Chaotic Spring (aka Cspring)— when you’re on the defensive, it’s a decent play to flash Geirskogul just for your 1 GCD to be CSpring because of its substantial heal; 12k without Life and 15k under Life. It’s essentially 1 free Recuperate every 15s or so and can be the difference between life and death in tight engagements, and can be flexibly put in Life anyways for extra damage.

Not high on the list of things to be looking for, but the heal is nice enough that you want to avoid sending it on shielded targets and those in Guard. The heal is based on DMG dealt, so sending it into shields heals you for nothing.

Regardless of whether it goes in Life or not, High Jump should also be used around your 20s burst window when possible; it has a 10s CD and keeping it aligned means you can have HThrust to pair with your 20s burst and another one at 10s. (see Elixiring)

Since HThrust is a 10s buff granted by High Jump, which also shares a 10s CD, holding the buff to the last second allows you to do 2 HThrusts back to back, which can be a decent source of damage if you didn’t put the first HThrust into Life and your important buttons are still on cooldown.

Since so much of DRG’s kit is used around the 20s burst with Life and it only contributes raw damage to team fights, DRG can often find itself with downtime inbetween the next Geirskogul. Its 123 combo filler is incredibly weak compared to its burst, and if you have nothing important to contribute outside of burst (ie: pushing point, using Roar to frontline and soak damage), __the best move can be to leave and elixir frequently__, not just when you’re near dead. Having full HP/MP for the next engagement makes you a harder target to kill and you won’t be missing out on a lot of damage anyways (barring the High Jump + HThrust you get at 10s).

Due to the nature of latency in the game, Roar should be used preemptively like most defensive cooldowns, not when you’re being bursted. It takes a second for the button to go out and for enemy clients to register the debuff, and it probably won’t save you if you use it in the middle of being burst instead of before.

Good Roar usage lets DRG soak high amounts of damage while still being in a comfortable position to burst.

The more you understand about the game state and all the jobs, the more value you get out of Roar as a defensive CD. Being able to identify the biggest threats to you in a teamfight– the DPS, a WAR in Inner Release, or a DRK focusing you, and debuffing them instead of the healers or someone who does not have burst allows you to soak as much damage for your teammates as possible while still contributing your own.

Try to stagger Roar usage with Guard; 50% reduction may be enough to keep you alive and leaves Guard available for map mechanics (ie: samurai bots on Clocktown, turbulence on C9) or for another 5s of mit after Roar wears off.

You will rarely be able to Roar all 5 enemies without putting yourself in a bad position; ranged are often too far and can spread to avoid it. Be cognizant and abuse LoS on missed targets to make up for mitigation when possible.

The 50% reduction is also massive if you can identify and deny high burst/kill combos on yourself– examples include but not limited to MCH’s Wildfire + LB, MNK’s one-shot combo with Meteodrive, or an enemy DRG’s burst. Using Roar on just that one person mid-combo is the difference between eating 50k damage and dying, or baiting a wasted LB and walking away from it alive. While the intricacies of this are far too long to include in a guide on just DRG, common tells include debuffs on you or some enemy buffs.

Aside from turning into WWT, Elusive being a target-less 15y backstep gives DRG an incredible amount of mobility. It can substitute as a gapcloser, and allows you to cleanse bind and heavy without wasting your purify.

If you backflip towards a corner, you will actually “snap” and teleport around the corner to the other side. It’s easier to do on maps like Clocktown or Palaistra without corner pillars (looking at you, VH), and easier compared to other gapclosers since you don’t require a target, and can allow you to break LoS very easily for getaways.

If you just want WWT without displacing yourself too much, you can also aim yourself into a close corner or a wall so you don’t move the full 15y.

Being able to comfortably and consistently aim Elusive Jump on whatever control scheme you use is important. I personally play on MnK and use LMB + RMB to face my character, but do what works for you.

Like the rest of DRG’s kit, Sky Shatter is an incredibly potent AOE LB that can facilitate entire team wipes, but requires good judgment and the support of teammates to use in high level games. Beyond Platinum+ in ranked, people won’t let you LB in front of their face and eat the full damage; they will sprint to outrun you or Guard if they have it.

Looking for multi kills and LB targets– you don’t want to just LB into clumps of enemies, but aim for specific individuals who don’t have Guard and have no way to escape your LB. While the AOE is fantastic, high ranked games have fewer opportunities where you’ll ever get 5 man LBs on the enemy team, and being surgical with it allows the team to secure kills on priority targets.

Examples include enemies who just used Guard/are in Guard (lasts for 5s, you can stay in the air for 5s, so LBing anytime after Guard will work) and have no gapcloser or escape, enemies who are being stunlocked by your team with no Purify, and people stuck in LB animation lock.

Another high priority target worthy of its own listing are PLDs covering targets so they can elixir– if they are still in range of their cover target when Guard expires, Sky Shatter can one shot them if you land it on both the PLD and their cover target (40k x 2). Good paladins will be ready to break the tether as soon as their target elixirs, and can use Holy Sheltron to mitigate the hit to prevent OHKs, but Sky Shatter is still an excellent tool to punish poorly positioned covers and raw covers without Guard.

While in the air, you are conditionally untargetable and invulnerable to SOME map mechanics.

The keyword is conditionally– late snapshotting abilities and DoTs can still tick on you for full damage when you go into the air. Respect the enemy and avoid LBing at low HP, you’ll probably die and miss a use.

While in the air, you can contest the crystal and move it if no enemies are on it; desperate overtime situations may force you to use the full 5s of Sky Shatter as a pseudo-invuln to stall the crystal.

You are also immune to bombs on Volcanic Heart, turbulence on C9, and the samurai OHK robots on Clocktown.

You can enter Life, then actually use Sky Shatter from behind walls and terrain to hide your reticle and then come around the corner with the LB. Good players may spot it but hugging a wall covers most of the reticle and can catch players offguard who otherwise might have guarded it. Doing this also LOSes enemies so they can’t CC you in Life or catch you at low HP while you go up.

A list of common and versatile map interactions:

Volcanic Heart - each orb from the bomb explosions is +5% damage and 5s of LB gauge; the buff caps at 30%, but in addition to boosting your regular damage it makes Sky Shatter a near-OHK to bruised targets.

Cloud 9 - Tailfeather Boost from getting a turbulence feather is worth 30s of LB gauge and gives a MASSIVE speed boost that affects Sky Shatter– you can catch up to sprinting targets in LB with it, and start your LB from unexpected angles and distances.

Prepping Life before turbulence hits, then guarding the knock up and LBing right after lets you land on anyone who did not Guard turbulence or get a feather; the 35k hit on top of the 30k from turbulence is enough to OHK most jobs before they can recuperate.

Being in the air during Sky Shatter does make you immune to turbulence’s knock up, but you will land before everyone else does and hit no one with your LB; you must Guard then LB if you want to kill someone who ate the knock up.

Clocktown - Invulnerable to the samurai bot OHK AOE, directly landing on targets mini’d by the gaze bot is a 72k hit, coins give LB gauge.

Sky Shatter’s massive 24k eHP shield from landing can be used to bait SAM’s Zantetsuken sometimes; you recup to full HP and proc their Chiten with a low damage ability and live the Zantetsuken because of the shield. Keep a close eye on your own HP if you do this, and avoid baiting near teammates who also might have touched Chiten.

Bad LBs happen; you might’ve miscalculated or someone might have Guard when you didn’t expect them to. Make the most out of a bad situation and force out as many Guards as you can, at worst it zones enemies and gives the team a 30s window to kill a target who burned Guard for your LB.

Pairing Sky Shatter with other jobs and their LBs gives you a larger variety of viable LB targets and provides more opportunities for multi kills and teamwipes. Some are easy to execute while others may require precise timing and teammates to be on the same page. Common synergies include:

WAR - their Primal Scream LB disables Guard on all the targets they hit; unguarded targets without movement skills are easy hits for Sky Shatter. Enemy WARs cannot use Guard under the effect of the LB either, and Sky Shatter can be used to burn their massive 75k HP pool to set up a kill. 90s LB like Sky Shatter; can be synced together immediately if neither player dies in the first 90s of a match.

DRK - Salted Earth’s pull can bait out Guards and pull enemies together for a big Sky Shatter hit. Eventide is a 105s LB but can also be synced for damage at some point in the game.

DNC - Contradance is an AOE charm and guard break for up to 4s; obvious multikill potential. Also a 90s LB for timing purposes; riskier for the DNC to LB first since they have animation lock and are vulnerable. DRG can LB first or second in reaction to Contradance in this combo.

RPR - Tenebrae Lemurum is a 45s AOE guard break with a 2s uncleansable Hysteria; assuming neither player dies their second LB will line up with Sky Shatter around 90s. DRG MUST LB FIRST in this combo, then RPR fears targets out of Guard; DRG cannot reactively LB in response to RPR lb going out or Hysteria will wear off by the time you land.

SMN - Also a 90s high damage AOE LB; useful pairing by raw damage although targets can easily Guard both without extra crowd control.

AST - Celestial Tide LB is a potential 30% damage boost for Sky Shatter but sits on a 105s CD.

WHM - Afflatus Purgation’s stun can allow a Sky Shatter hit in the second it takes for stunned targets to Purify then Guard if synced well; otherwise still useful for damage sync in some cases.

Ranked compositions are a coin toss and DRG has a massive responsibility to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses of a random composition. You may be the primary DPS for one game, and the damage sponge the next and these outlier comps demand unorthodox and patient play.

Solo melee - being solo melee with 4 ranged on your team means that you must play upfront and act as the tank with Roar. Your life windows may be short and limited to WWT or CSpring alone, and you might be forced to pot more frequently, but you trade your own DPS so your fragile ranged players have the space to back you up. Avoid chasing targets and leaving your team for too long.

Solo DPS - in comps with numerous tanks and healers and only one or two DPS, you must play for attrition and point control. Focus on staying alive and outliving enemy burst with the support of your healers, each death by you can cripple the team’s kill potential.

Patience is a virtue. If you’re uncertain on team or enemy comp, it’s best to play around the point with an attrition mindset. Accept that people will get away and elixir and take the opportunity to attack someone else instead while your team has a numbers advantage; taking fights with the team gives DRG the crowd control it needs and lets you cleave and burn more MP. Chasing and overextending on a target who’s clearly gotten away or taking ego 1v1s you know you won’t win is an easy way to get turned on and lose the game.

DRGs will melt if they are bursted under Life of the Dragon; they also visually glow red during the buff’s duration as an easy tell. CC and burst them during the buff when possible.

Like all melees, they are helpless if they reengage without Purify; they can be stunlocked and deleted in team fights easily if caught without it.

Spreading for Horrid Roar and their cleave abilities greatly reduces the strength of their mitigation and the value they get from burst windows; each person that isn’t hit by Horrid Roar doesn’t have to overcome a 50% damage down when they try to kill the DRG.

Likewise, bursting them during Roar downtime leaves them with few mitigation tools other than Guard or running.

DRGs do not possess crowd control or Guard break, and their burst windows are highly telegraphed (literally). You can run away and steal medkits to force them into bad positions to burst you, and without the support of their teammates, you can generally Guard Sky Shatter when you see the massive reticle to negate most of the damage.

Signs that a DRG is setting up burst include entering Life of the Dragon and backflipping to prep WWT.

If a DRG doesn’t have a speed boost from Elusive Jump or a C9 feather during LB, you can sprint away and outrun Sky Shatter entirely if you see the reticle approaching you from afar. It only does full damage within 5m of the center of the LB, so even if you’re forced to eat it without mitigation, make an effort to be on the outer edge of the blast radius.

Their highest damage ability, Wyrmwind Thrust, is tied to a backflip and only does the most damage when 15y away. If a DRG “preps” their backflip, you can line of sight them entirely as they enter their burst window to force them to pick another target or misposition, or use a gapcloser and remain in point blank range to minimize damage taken.

Since Elusive Jump is often reserved for dealing damage instead of cleansing Bind/Heavy or movement, you can generally trust that a DRG who has just used WWT cannot backflip away from you in the next ~10s.

When NIN is the strongest DPS job on a team, you’ll be forced to play more offensively with heavy-hitting mudras

Force enemies to burn purifies, steal potions in the front and backline, harass ranged, and create space for your teammates by baiting bursts and taking people off the crystal; this playstyle has a heavy focus on survivability

A combination of the two in moderation. This is how you should play in premade parties in order to utilize all of NIN’s capabilities to the fullest. You can chase, focus on hard DPS, burn purifies, and even cc targets when you know your teammates are down a purify

NIN specifically requires a good grasp of fundamentals in order to function properly.

These include knowing who the burst target currently is, knowing the crystal’s position, which enemy just used guard or purify, where those enemies are, your own position in relation to them, and how to play the current map.

Start your opener 3 seconds before the gate opens: start with Bunshin or Mudra. If you use Mudra you'll hold it until the final second and then cast it before the opening fight for either Huton or Meisui (shield or heal + HoT). Then you want to start the fight with either Goka (flame + heavy hitting AoE DoT) or Raiju (stun). Never open with Assassinate or Hyosho.

Keep your GCD rolling. You can always fill in gaps with Shuriken, but don’t underestimate your 1-2-3 combo. A common mistake is when people over-rely on their ranged options and LB and end up underutilizing their kit.

If you’re properly positioned, you can survive any incoming cc and heal up. You’ll always be going in and out of melee range, so purify and guard are your primary resources.

Don’t rely on LB too much and play too defensively; one of NIN’s greatest impacts is being able to create spaces for their team. This comes with reading the fundamentals once again.

Make target calls when it makes sense to do so. As a Ninja, you should always pay attention to everything, including enemy buffs and debuffs; when you see someone without purify within your team’s range, call the target out and use your 4-second stun on them.

You can be your team’s primary target caller, but ideally, you will just be a spot caller since you’ll often be chasing stragglers and preventing elixir uses. When chaining your LB, mark the next target you have in mind so you can keep it rolling and your team can assist in getting them below 50%.

Mug is a strong tool but rarely gets fully utilized. There are three uses for Mug. The first two are obvious: to increase damage or to replenish Shuriken stacks. However, the third use is mostly only for LP play. You can fake-Mug to trick people into thinking you’re about to use your burst, baiting their Guard and setting them up for an easy kill.

Always be using your Mudra, never let it cap at 2. Sometimes it’s good to reset it with Huton or Meisui, as you want options between burst, AoE, or cc.

Doton is mostly for cc. Ideally, place it where there are several fights already happening to pad your damage and maintain pressure with Slow. At the same time, pay attention to enemy buffs to make sure there isn’t a Samurai with Chiten up, as Doton will trigger Kuzushi. You can also do the PvE Doton trick with Shukuchi as well.

Hyosho Ranryu - Goka Mekkyaku - Fuma Shuriken. The 6.38 patch “nerf” (in which those three skills were reduced from 25y to 20y) is actually a buff, or at least helps with balancing. It now flows better with Shukuchi and Seiton (LB). With this change, you’ll have a snappier play without finding yourself out of range on either skill.

Shukuchi can be used either defensively or offensively. The update in 6.3 (which increased Shukuchi’s CD by 5 seconds) forces you to be more precise in your decision-making, while the 5y range decrease in 6.38 brings it into line with Mudras and Shuriken, allowing for greater overall flow. Use this to your advantage!

Raiju has a 1 second travel time.

All Mudras are instantaneous; damage/healing comes first, then the animation.

Shuriken has a 1 second animation, then applies damage.

Assassinate has a 1 second animation, then applies damage.

The shadow animation in Bunshin will start your GCD after a 1 second delay.

Seiton (Death Link) has a 1 second travel time and a 2 second animation lock when activated; whether you get the kill or fail, the effect will apply after the animation. The difference is, when you manage to get the kill, the target locks into a “death animation”, then dies after the animation. If you die during that 2-second animation lock, the target survives. If you fail to get the kill, the target will stay in whatever motion they were in, and the damage is applied after the animation ends.

Non-targeted AoE skills like Black Mage’s Superflare will reveal a Ninja from Shukuchi’s hide, even when the Ninja doesn’t have any Black Mage stacks on it.

Astrologian’s Macrocosmos will really mess up Seiton because of its ability to restore health instantly.

Scholar’s shields will often prevent damage from Goka, and along with their LB can negate much of NIN’s burst.

It’s hard to perform with an unskilled team; Ninja enables many possibilities, but when no one capitalizes, it’s like opening a box of coal.

The ideal position for samurai to be in is to assist your team’s primary engagers (i.e. WAR, DRK, etc) in getting picks or creating space. It lacks the raw durability of a tank and requires considerable uptime (3+ GCDs) to complete its burst, which is often not feasible as the primary target. SAM benefits tremendously from the space created by another frontliner.

It does, however, have the tools to survive and escape when targeted. AOE bind to lock down pursuers, Chiten to absorb damage, and Meikyo to deny cc. Using these abilities to cover disengagement can be necessary to survive, but it is not optimal, as they also contribute significantly to your dps output. Ideally, SAM’s abilities should be used offensively, but they have great defensive value.

Having LB and chiten both available makes SAM a risky target. Just hanging close to a vulnerable teammate can be enough to make the enemy think twice and stymie their burst. Zantetsuken can “mitigate” by limiting the enemy’s options, but only so long as you make good on the threat.

Like RPR, SAM has a protracted burst extending across multiple GCDs. You’ll have more luck dumping them into an isolated target rather than in the thick of a teamfight. With 3 gap-closers, a bind, and a stun, you have everything you need to chase down targets with low MP/no defensives and finish them off.

Keep in mind however that your strongest moves all have cast times and only 8y of range so they are hard-countered by a cc-immune target sprinting away, or a high MP target standing in place and recuperating after every hit. Gauge your available resources against the enemy’s before committing.

Similar to the off-tank section except don’t anticipate being allowed to play the game. Your aim should be to use your kit to absorb as much damage as possible, away from your team, and then elixir it off. Rinse, repeat.

Try not to overlap mitigations. Purify and Meikyo give you 8 seconds of cc immunity combined. Guard and Chiten give you 10s of mitigation combined. By overlapping, you cut into the time each is independently effective.

Always prioritize AOE Ogi. Ogi Namikiri needs to hit multiple targets, twice, to give the full 16k shields (8k per hit). Losing this healing is huge when your goal is to soak as much damage as possible. Similarly (but to a lesser degree), you should try to fish for AOE Okas to improve your MP economy. This can be difficult as it’s 4 GCDs deep into an engagement (both ogis, yukikaze, and gekko) and is often too slow. Don’t greed for it, but don’t forget about it either.

(Also, I find that cc generates a lot of “aggro” so if you need to get the enemy to focus on you for limit break, Hyosetsu can provoke them. Though this might be a superstition on my part.)

(Efficient and intelligent Soten use is what separates a good samurai from a great samurai. More on that in the Advanced section.)

The cc immunity is a versatile tool that should be used to either guarantee an iaijutsu cast while in the action or cover a sprint escape. Samurai has no burst movement that can be used without an enemy to target, so fleeing while cc immune is your most reliable disengagement option. Try not to overlap this with the Resilience effect from Purify.

It’s worth noting that while Meikyo will prevent half-asleep, it will not prevent half-asleep from becoming sleep.You have to either guard or purify to do that.

If it hits a single target, it does 12k.

If it hits multiple targets, it does 8k to each and gives you an 8k shield.

Decreases damage taken by 25% for 5s

Deals back 2k of reflect damage per hit taken

Anyone that hits you is afflicted with Kuzushi, which increases the damage you deal to them by 25%. This lasts 3s, but is refreshed each time they hit your Chiten.

The target(s) need to afflict themselves with Kuzushi by hitting your Chiten. You need the enemy’s help in order to kill them. An enemy with a brain will most likely avoid hitting you if they don’t know the status of your Chiten, or can see that it’s up. (You can use this to your advantage.) If you want to be successful, you need to be patient and clever.

The target(s) need to be at or below 100% HP. There are a plethora of shields in the game that can raise an enemy’s effective HP above 100%, allowing them to survive the hit and heal back up. Consider hitting the enemy beforehand with an AOE cleave to clear out any lingering shields, and be wary of deliberate baits. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Check their HP bar. Additionally, the target cannot be invincible at the time of execution. This is especially important to remember because Zantetsuken aligns naturally with two invincibility LBs: PLD’s Phalanx and SGE’s Mesotes.

You cannot be cc’d. Every cc but heavy and half-asleep will prevent Zantetsuken. You will most likely need to be cc-immune, either through purify or meikyo, to even be able to cast Zantetsuken. And even then, special cc (Fear, Charm, Meteo, Miracle) can bypass these immunities.

You cannot afford to die during the cast. Zantetsuken takes almost a full second from initiation to completion. While the damage is calculated when the button is pressed (i.e. the enemies in the AOE area are checked for Kuzushi), it is only applied when the animation concludes. Given that you will be actively taking damage during the cast, it is not uncommon to die and “ghost” the limit break, spending it but doing no damage. A perfectly timed WHM Miracle of Nature cc can also cause the lb to ghost.

Killing 2 or more targets with Zantetsuken is enough to decide most fights.

A high value target is one with full LB, or a channeled LB that can be neutralized by killing them (SCH Seraph, SMN Bahamut/Phoenix, SGE Mesotes, etc).

High HP targets like tanks are often inaccessible to typical one-shot combos (like MNK’s and MCH’s) so picking them off is useful. Just be wary because they all have ways to bait you.

You should hesitate to spend Zantetsuken on a single lower HP target without LB, unless it’s a situation that will help you gain a crucial lead or win the game. (Such as preventing stall in OT, for example)

Hit as many people as possible with Soten. This may mean targeting someone behind/past your primary target, and can make SAM very targeting-intensive when played at a high level. The Soten line is fairly wide, experiment on the WDP striking dummies to get a feel for it.

Don’t overwrite or waste Kaiten, the auto-combo upgrade buff. If it’s up, spend it before using Soten again, and try to avoid using Soten if it upgrades a skill you don’t need. (ex. don’t use Oka at full health)

Conserve Soten for skills you need, such as saving a Hyosetsu to help you bind and flee, or an Oka to help you hold the crystal longer. Alternatively, if the enemy isn’t focusing you, spamming Mangetsu will add up fast. (Soten + Mangetsu is a 12k cleave on a ~7s cd assuming full uptime)

Knockback is basically a 1-2s silence to a SAM, and they’re often in prime position for it, being a melee frontliner. So long as a SAM is moving, they can’t use their best buttons, so jobs with AOE displacement moves (ex. DRK, MCH, SMN) can grief them out of their burst by knocking them around like a pool ball.

Watch their buffs and LB status closely. Know what Chiten and Meikyo (see below) look like and what they do, and respect them. Don’t throw your cc into a black hole and don’t throw your life away on a stray hit.

Special cc is strong against every job, but especially so against SAM as it relies heavily on its normal cc immunity to execute its gameplan. Miracle of Nature can safely stop a SAM in their tracks, even when they have LB available.

Flee. Run. They can’t burst you down without standing still. If you run, you’ll force them to either burn cc to keep you in place, reduce their damage significantly to attack while chasing, or give up.

Abuse LoS. Breaking line of sight will cancel their casts and can even prevent them from using Zantetsuken on you if you react quickly enough.

Guard (duh)

Recuperate (duh)

Arcane crest: 12k shield (10% dmg buff while shield is up) + 6k AoE apply HoT on shield break

Hell’s Ingress: can gap close away from crystal after DCDs are down, sneak a quick pot in if you’re not chased, and port back into the fray

Be mindful you’ll be vulnerable coming back in without DCDs, and will need to position carefully. Your enemies know your dmg is combo based and will exploit it if you get caught out!

You cannot port back if you are LOS’d from your portal! However, you can use your gap closer to ride along walls and flip around a corner for quick LOS in a pinch

4k base dmg, ramps up to 24k at 8 stacks

Stacks are generated by kills/assists and usage of Soul Slice

First harvest should be dumped ASAP (without dying) for first LB close to 45s

Subsequent Harvests should ideally be used with stacks for strong 1-2gcd burst

4k ogcd conal aoe that applies heavy for 3s

Unlocks two charges of Gibbet/Gallows (8k dmg gcd) for 10s

Will typically be used either under Death Warrant (typical burst), between warrants (shallow burst), or immediately following Communio under Death Warrant (short-circuit/full LB burst)

Lasts for 6s, 50% of all health dmg (not shields!) applied during the warrant will “pop” as true damage when the warrant expires (true damage will ignore mitigations, including guard! Think MNK RoE before it was changed)

Warrant will change to Harvest Moon upon usage

Ideally combo’d with a double weave from Soul Slice into Grim Swathe immediately followed by Harvest Moon. If the target has not guarded, immediately follow with Gibbet/Gallows (I will refer to both as Gibbet from here) and the second Gibbet charge if the target still hasn’t guarded

This opener exists in a bubble: in reality expect your target to guard or gapclose away. Your first warrant typically won’t get much true dmg value outside of forcing a guard, but forcing a guard is still good! In this scenario you can look to apply your remaining 8k gcds (and any ogcds) on the next burst target, or continue with the same target after their guard drops

This opener is also your typical warrant burst window. Harvest Moon can be moved around, but ideally you’ll still apply Grim Swathe near gcd1: the heavy will help you land an entire combo on targets that won’t guard

If you’re near LB, it may be better to drop Death Warrant+Harvest Moon and use this as a shallow combo to force DCDs: when you see that guard and purify go up, it’s time to FEAR YOUR ENEMIES INTO SUBMISSION

Applies Hysteria/Fear for 2s to all enemies in AoE around you for 2s

Fear will break enemy guards and ignore purify, they will run away from you for 2s

Strong combo potential after a friendly DRG goes up for Skyshatter, or right as.after a friendly GNB executes Terminal Trigger, the 3s aoe burst dmg stun at the end of their LB.

The timing for these combos is much tighter than a DNC LB!

Gives you 5 stacks of enshrouded for 15s: each stack will give you one usage of Cross Reaping (8k fast gcd, single weave window), and all remaining stack(s) can be used to cast Communio: 16k dmg 1.44s cast

Gives you one charge of Lemure’s Slice, a 4k ogcd 3s conal aoe bind that will be available as long as enshrouded stack(s) remain

Actually using all of your enshrouded stacks will be highly situational: in reality you may have to retreat to reset and not die, or it may be better to short-circuit your LB burst: doing an early Lemure’s Slice into Communio + Grim Swathe + Harvest Moon into Soul Slice/Gibbet

Aim for the target your teammates are beating up.

Save Silent Nocturne for after the enemy has used Purify at least.

Open with Apex Arrow and Blast Arrow to give your team a 10% weaponskill/cast speed and 5% damage up buff.

Your burst rotation should look something like: Apex Arrow - Blast Arrow - Empy Arrow - Paean (on a teammate getting targeted) - Pitch Perfect - Silent Nocturne - Pitch Perfect - Emp Arrow.

If you’re hanging back, put Paean on your teammate who’s getting the most beat up once they’ve used Purify or before they have to use it. The healing up and purify itself can be life-saving.

Paean is a powerful ability, so use it smartly, but sometimes if you’re out of burst options and have Paean you can use it on yourself to get that Pitch Perfect charge for an 8k burst (at max range) and however many Empyreal Arrows you have on hand.

Pitch Perfect reduces the charge time of Empyreal Arrow by 5 seconds, so try to clear your Emp Arrow’s 3 stacks (all stacks fire at once) before using Pitch Perfect to get that benefit.

Pitch Perfect is generated by using Nocturn or Paean, they do not stack so try to use Pitch Perfect from one ability before using one of the abilities that generates a charge.

Repelling Shot is a very powerful CC that is underutilized in my opinion— for basic use it’s simply an escape that roots the target and launches you backwards. This is great for kiting and forcing enemies to burn gap closers if they want to keep up.

If you’re playing forward like in the Advanced strategy below, you can often make a target burn Purify just to cleanse it off, this makes them an easy kill for Nocturne once the Purify buff ends if your party is paying attention

You can also run forward to stop a runner from leaving the team fight and be launched most of the way back to a safe position

For basic Bard play do NOT be on the point unnecessarily

Do be on the point when necessary

Times to Not Be on the Point

The enemy team has heavy AoE or Guard Break LBs ready like DRG, SMN, WAR, DNC

When the enemy team has high cleave classes like DRG, BLM, DNC, SMN, or SAM bullying the front line

When your team has lost the team fight and you should be retreating (unless you're trying to die fast to rez with your team)

Times to Be on the Point

When your team has run ahead of the point and needs someone to push the crystal—BRD is a good choice to stay behind

When your Tank/Melee needs to swap out so they can go Elixir and you have Guard, Purify, and Mana so that you can hold and retreat once they return or swap with someone else

When someone needs to be on the point in Overtime or make sure Overtime happens

We like to call it "Ranged Disease" when ranged players are not willing to risk stepping onto the point, even when the team desperately needs it

See the Advanced section for the exact opposite of ranged disease playstyle

In general, don't be afraid to be on the Crystal when necessary—there are times when even the ranged classes must step up!

This is a Bard’s strongest ability. Used right you can help secure kills almost every CD

There are no absolute rules, other than don’t waste it on a target that has Purify or Guard up, but think before you shoot, and don’t keep it on CD, it’s okay to save the charge for the right moment

There’s some general use cases to consider:

The Opening

Debatable usage, at low ranks the opening target may not use Purify fast enough and die in the silence window

At high ranks it’s better to save till at least Purify has been used if not Guard as well

Purify Up

Nocturne is really hard to notice if you’re on the receiving end, and sometimes it might not be noticed at all till the target tries to recuperate and realizes they can’t

In this 1-2 seconds you might buy your team enough time to finish them off before they can Purify + Recuperate

This is a good strategy if a target has dipped really low, even if they have Purify, and your team is laying into them

If you have a WHM on your team watch for their Miracle of Nature target, if you hit it with Nocturne right as Miracle of Nature ends they should be dead after 4-7 seconds of cc depending on if they have purify (and if your team is worth anything).

Secondary Target

Do you see a WHM or AST spamming heals or casting them? Is the Paladin rushing forward to probably Guardian cover a teammate? Stopping them while your teammate finishes off a target may be the best use in this scenario

LBs

Part of what makes great BRD great is the number of LBs you can help shut down

In general, Silencing someone before an LB goes off may be the right move to save your teammates

Specific LBs you can help shut down:

GNB: You won’t stop a GNB’s LB but you can prevent them from activating their stun and damage early, which is what high-level GNBs do — just watch that they don’t have purify up when they begin their lb just for this reason

DRK: Generally a DRK wants to wait to heal till near the end of their LB or stall for more time on point with Guard, watch their buff timer, and strike with Nocturne before it falls off to throw a wrench in those plans

NIN: After countless nerfs NIN LB has an increasingly tight window of time it can LB again if it successfully instant kills. Hit them with Nocturne to prevent the LB from going off when a Teammate is low, or hit them with it immediately after they’ve used to it keep it to a one-kill LB. In general, you should always dogpile a NIN that has used their LB to prevent them from getting multiple kills.

SAM: For SAM LB to be an insta-kill they have to hit a target while they have Kuzushi, which is a 3-second debuff. Coincidentally, Nocturne is a 3 second CD. Apply it near the end of a SAM’s Chiten and you may prevent them from getting their LB off on multiple teammates. You will also give yourself a debuff and be open to insta-kill, so be at max range and run or LOS them immediately and hope you don’t get snapshotted.

RPR: After RPRs pop LB they’re Enshrouded for 15 seconds. They get 5 charges that they can spend on 8k basic attacks or use Communio which hits for 16k AoE and consumes any remaining charges. Most Reapers will greed and try to do 4 slices and finish with Communio, which can bring them near the end of their Enshroud window. Nocturn and stop them. Additionally after using their LB RPR is animation locked for a bit, your team may want to turn and burn the Reaper, and your Nocturne can help keep them from running.

MNK: Monk can’t use LB if silenced or rooted, this means if you see a Monk use Enlightenment on your teammate, you can stop them from being able to follow-up within the short time they have to capitalize on the extra 12k damage to their LB provided by Pressure Point. This can stop it from being a guaranteed one-hit-kill on your teammate.

SMN: If a SMN has just used Bahamut they’re typically looking to secure a kill with Crimson Cyclone combo and Fester. Hit them with Nocturne to buy your teammates the time they need to hit Recuperate

DNC: DNC’s LB animation and when it goes off are quite long, hit them with Nocturne before you get charmed (if you were even close enough). DNCs can extend the length of their LB's cc if they hit anyone charmed during the initial two seconds. There is, however, a long animation lock before they can actually use a damage-dealing ability after LBing. By silencing them for three seconds you can prevent them from extending the cc on your teammates.

WHM: White Mage LB is typically followed by Afflatus and Seraph Strike to capitalize on the damage from the laser. Using Nocturn here can again buy your team the time it needs to heal or get out of LoS.

Do not waste Nocturne trying to silence a WAR in LB or PLD, or a PLD’s Guardian’d ally in general as it will not work

Opening:

Get Apex and Blasting off as fast you can on the nearest target so your team has the buff

Throw Paean on yourself while running in to start the real team fight

Guard as soon as you've aggroed the enemy team

With any luck people will waste burst and even cc into your Guard

Ride out Guard in full or cancel a few seconds early with Sprint

Enemies are often waiting for Guard to end to hit you with cc, expecting its full length

Canceling early and with sprint + Paean saves you a GCD of having to cast Sprint after Guard ends and gets you a head start on retreating

Repelling shot off a close target if you can or run like a bat out of hell, spamming recuperate as you go to the nearest place you can hide behind LoS

If you’ve lived and aren’t being chased, stop and elixir if low on mana

If you’ve lived and are being chased, keep running, there’s a high probability the class chasing you is more important to their team’s team fight than you are

Once you’re healed/mana’d up get back to the fight, hopefully, your team has scored a kill or at least forced one target to burn Purify/Guard

Note that you have burned Guard if not Purify as well, so play safer now and revert to basic Barding

Aside from the opener you basically repeat this throughout the match, positioning yourself in ways to bait them to focus on you and split their damage. This may mean from here on letting your melee engage, then slide up to the front so that someone on the enemy team thinks to switch to trying to snag the “easy kill” that is the out of position Bard. Your goal is to frustrate them by living.

The Rest of the Match:

Continue being a distraction, the best way to do this you'll have to judge by your enemy's reactions

If the enemy team is running at your team to start a fight, can you step out in front and bait again?

Is there LoS near you for you to retreat or Ground Potions for you to steal?

What LBs can you soak?

In general you can remain a distraction by pressing forward to a point adjacent to the front line, but don't stand within it unless you want to be cleaved by AoEs.

You should be standing far enough away from your teammates so that AoEs targeting you are wasted by only hitting a single target.

Addendum:

If your team is suffering from ranged disease or lacks a real front line, it may be on you to step up and tank on the crystal

If the question is between nobody at all making a front line, or you placing yourself forward so the rest of your team can operate, you're better off trying than not

Your Limit Break is a DPS boost for your teammates, a weaponskill and movement speed boost for yourself, and an LB gauge boost for all.

Your Limit Break is now an aura around yourself that will apply to teammates as they come in and out of range of 30 yalms

By being an aura it means if you die there’s no more buff, unlike how it was before, so try to play safer while it’s up or don’t just try to use it shortly before dying

The ability lasts 30 seconds and the animation lock is fairly long, you want to use it ideally before the next team fight

If your team is close to LBs you may want to use it early to get them to full LB before the next team fight

The movement speed provided by the LB effectively negates how slow you walk while casting basic attack, meaning you’re much freer to use it during this time

Bard makes an excellent target calling class

I highly recommend using a target-calling macro and calling out your Nocturne kill target if no one on your team is calling targets

Calling targets can be awkward at first but you should strive to be better at it no matter your class!

See the “Fundamentals” section for more advice, but in general, try to kill targets front-to-back, it’s the simplest strategy for solo queue

/merror off

/pvpac "The Warden's Paean" <1>

/micon "The Warden's Paean" pvpaction

Replace <1> with 2-5 to have a macro auto-targeting each possible team member on your bars

/merror off

/pvpac "Silent Nocturne" <e1>

/micon "Silent Nocturne" pvpaction

Replace <1> with 2-5 to have a macro auto-targeting each possible enemy as they are listed (keep the e before the number)

/merror off

/micon "attack1" enemysign

/mk attack2 <t>

/mk attack1 <attack2>

/quickchat "Attacking Target" <t>

Ignore them and kill their teammates, then kill the Bard. Almost every other class is a greater threat than a Bard outside of its absolutely annoying CC. Damage wasted on them is damage that could be better spent on a higher-priority target.

If your teammate is being effectively taunted by the Bard into splitting DPS, switch to focus with them. There's a higher chance or scoring the kill and making your teammate's bad decision into a kill rather than a complete waste.

Bard’s one escape is Repelling Shot and Sprint, you can pin them down if the team coordinates.

8000 AOE Damage to target and surrounding enemies.

Creates a ring around target, anyone who enters ring takes 4k DoT damage.

Increases movement speed of self and party members who are in ring by 25%

5000 Damage GCD

Basically use this if you have literally nothing else to do/use.

Two part ability, where the first cast is a dash to target dealing 8000 to target and surrounding enemies. Ability changes to:

Which deals 12000 to target and surrounding enemies, as well as knocking them (those around your target) back.

Puts a barrier on target ally or self that grants 10000 potency shield, as well as 20% damage reduction.

Note that the damage reduction aspect of the ability is removed if the shield is broken.

Deals 4000 damage in a rectangular shape to target and nearby enemies.

Afflicts target with a root, and surrounding enemies with a slow of 75%, both of which last 3 seconds.

Draws surrounding enemies in to first target.

Really powerful setup ability, use it wisely!

Deals 4000 damage scaling to 8000 damage the lower the target’s HP is, (capped when target is at 50% HP).

Ability is an oGCD, so use this in between GCD casts or spam it when target is below 50% HP

Summons Bahamut to target area for 20 seconds doing two things immediately, and two things during/after the cast.

18000 AOE Damage!!!

7500 damage GCD

Same deal with Ruin III: Use this if you literally have nothing else to use.

12000 damage AOE to target and surrounding enemies.

You activate this by hitting the LB summon button again while Bahamut is out.

Which is 6000 pet damage.

REALLY ANNOYING IF IN LOS, SINCE IT CAN CANCEL THINGS LIKE YOUR ELIXIR!

Gradual 4000 HP heal for self every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.

If HP is below 25% or if duration is over, heals for 12000 HP.

Basically a built in Summon Seraph from Scholar which is huge.

Deals 5000 damage to target on instant cast GCD speed.

Spam this if you have nothing else to use. Damage adds up!

6000 AOE damage to target and surrounding enemies.

3000 DoT damage

4000 potency pet damage.

Reduces target’s damage dealt by 50% for 5s.

Try and use your Crimson Cyclone + Fester whenever they come off CD. These abilities alone can sometimes be game changing and can essentially secure kills for your team when you have really low health targets.

Put Radiant Aegis on the teammate that you expect to take a significant portion of burst/opening damage such as a tank or front line melee like MNK, SAM, etc. The Damage Reduction aspect of the ability should not be underestimated, and should be used as often as possible. Try not to be greedy with it either, by casting it on yourself, (unless absolutely necessary). In summary, use Aegis wisely and frequently!

Use Slipstream in really tight corners, (if you can) in order to maximize its effectiveness. The DoT damage from the ring, as well as the movement speed buff that is created from the cast is more confined and will allow for a better result than if used in an open space.

USE BAHAMUT OR PHOENIX WITHOUT USING THEIR SECOND GCDs!!! Seriously, they’re there for a reason, and to use the summons without their second abilities, is very, very bad.

Use Mountain Buster or Slipstream on a single target. unless absolutely necessary

Fester targets that aren’t <=50%, (pretty self-explanatory).

This combo is essentially how you 100-0 someone as Summoner. This is probably the deadliest combo there is, and if paired with anything else, (i.e. WHM LB, RDM LB, etc.) then consider your target and potentially surrounding targets dead.

Use your AoEs as much as possible on groups of players, being resolution silence, verflare/ verholy, limit break unless of course going for specific kill on someone.

Use displacement and corps-a-corps to reposition yourself in fights and to escape being bursted

ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN FOR ESCAPE there will be more on this later but if you don’t have any movement cooldowns, probably don’t charge into the enemy team.

In general you want to be getting ready to leave team fights at 4k or less mana. This goes for just about any class, but with how squishy RDM is it’s extra recommended.

The most general opener is to use magick barrier before the fight begins

No matter what, charging in first will ALMOST ALWAYS get you killed. Please do not do this as even if you do survive you’ll need to use a lot of resources to get out.

Wait until the fight starts, ideally there will be a juicy target that others will go on too. If there’s no one marker, make your own! Don’t be afraid to go for tanks, or the enemy squishy if others are able to get there with you.

I like to be in white stance for the silence, then charge into my target. Swap to black stance, melee combo as much as you can in black shift, displacement and verflare.

Focus on keeping resolution and your melee combo on around the same rolling cooldown.

Frazzle is most common for applying kill pressure especially when pushing into enemy team

Magick Barrier is most often used for defending your position/ checkpoint or when you know the enemy team is going to be using a bunch of LBs

DON’T spend a lot of time fighting on the point, if you do you’ll need to be in white shift for most of the time to keep yourself alive. This is viable especially when you need to defend the point by yourself in overtime.

Utilize LoS whenever possible (like the pillars on Volcanic) to still be able to melee your target while reducing the amount of enemy ranged players that can target you

You can use black resolution to bind enemies before they get to potions, then charge and steal them for yourself.

You can use displacement on enemies to flip out of LoS from enemies, or to push yourself forward into a different position to interrupt an enemy’s pot or chase down somebody trying to get away.

Silence will automatically stop someone’s pot, even when it’s gotten to the ‘slidecasting’ stage that most other damage will not prevent it from going off.

Keep track of the enemy's purifies/ guards and abuse that by using your silence if the rest of your team is fighting them or simply chasing them with black shift melee combo and beat them up

Use silences to follow up on ally’s cc to help secure kills

Use frazzle as close as possible to when the fight actually starts, sometimes there’s a case for using frazzle on the opener but it’s certainly more rare.

If people are really going on you, be mindful of using displacement or corps-a-corps to make yourself a less desirable target.

When using silence try and aim using a target behind your actual target for extra value.

If people are going for you within your opener, try weaving in white shift once or twice on your melee combo before swapping back to verflare for chunky burst.

If you can distract 2+ members from the enemy team by dancing around in their base using displacement and corps-a-corps to kite them, then corps-a-corps back into the fight and help your team kill someone you have created huge value.

Similarly you can create space in the enemy’s team base by forcing them to come back to chase you especially if the person you’re fighting doesn’t run back to the main fight.

Be careful doing this though, as you can end up not contributing much and your team might die and lose the team fight.

Using silence or root on enemies that get pulled and rooted from DRK

Using a well-timed frazzle + verflare + lb on the point in overtime especially if you see anybody on your team using their lb or setting something up can win games.

Things to look for: LBs from: DRG, WHM, AST, WAR, DRK

CC and burst damage especially when the RDM doesn’t have a purify.

Really just focusing them when they come in for melee combo forces them to either play defensively, use white shift, or a combination of the two.

Other displacing abilities like DRK and SMN will throw RDM off their game. If you do this or run away from them when they charge you it’s possible to get them to use up their second corps-a-corps trying to catch you.

This makes them a squishy target, or very controllable/killable with roots, silences, and other CC.

Lots of AoE will mess up RDM especially if they try to fight within the team fight.

Guarding the RDM’s melee combo and burst will render them ineffective, forced to either swap to a different target or wait for the target to get out of guard.