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  • A Bard's progression

    I'm hoping some of the experienced bards here can give me some input on how you noticed a bard advances. I recently unlocked the beastmaster & bard jobs and have played them both a little bit. My bard is now level 12 and I'm convinced they have just as tough of a time as thieves at lower levels. Granted, I'll be with PTs almost fulltime soon so this won't be an issue.

    My problem is that it seems like bards don't have a decent impact. When I was deciding on which job I would be I thought bst might be fun because I can solo when I can't find a PT instead of spending hours doing nothing in Jeuno. However, as I talked to more people I started to realize that they're not really what I thought(this is offtopic but leads into my question/problem). Some of my friends that are advancing rapidly with me mentioned that the presence of a bard can turn a decent PT into a great one and turn a 2k exp per hour group until a 3k or 4k one and would love to have a bard with them. Is this kind of presence subtle or not?

    I duoed with a samurai friend today and it seemed like I was almost slowing down the exp he could be getting solo. But since I was getting my butt kicked left and right he decided to group up with me. Besides foe requiem I only really had 4 song choices to use at this level. We experimented with different combinations ended up seeming like Army's Paeon and Sword Madrigal/Virtue Minuet(depending on if he was blinded or not) was best. However, the madrigal only maybe allowed 2 or 3 attacks to land that he would've missed otherwise. The Paeon would only heal the damage done from one attack. The minuet would add only miniscule damage. It seemed like I was valued more for my whitemage subjob casting cures with a whopping 49mp( ).


    There was a time with my samurai partner where we ran into trouble and he died because I frankly didn't make enough of a difference. I could tell things were going downhill in our fight so I used soulvoice and started to resing my songs with the soul voice effect. However, with the long cast time and a slow effect, it was too little too late. It seems like you need a certain amount of foresight for our "emergency special technique" and kind of goes along with the idea that we can't really make a difference.

    My only other experience with bards is when i was playing a whitemage in valkurm. I honestly can't say I noticed anything that the bard was doing that would've helped but its all likely subtle things. After the bard left he was replaced by a black mage and we seemed to be having the same amount of progress, if not better.

    I know that as a whitemage I can heal if things are getting rough. As a melee I can provoke and become a 2ndary tank if the primary is getting roughed up. As a black mage I can cast sleep or do some emergency heavy duty nuking. As a bard I just sit there and hope no one dies.

    I don't want to give up yet. But maybe this isn't the job for me. When do things start to change for bards? 25 when we get Ballad? Do things change at all? Any input is appreciated.

  • #2
    25 is maybe when you notice the first difference. At 55 you really notice a difference. Bard becomes almost necessary for a good PT.
    Still trying to play way too much...
    60 BRD, 75 BST, 37 WHM, 15 THF, 16 BLM
    BCNM40 over 100 wins ><
    BCNM60 |] 3-0-1 [|

    Pallas - 2/16 (Solo'd at LVL 64)
    Alksomething - 0/8

    Comment


    • #3
      Until you get the II songs (Valor Minuet II, etc...) You don't really notice much of a difference. in Valkurn yesterday I was PT'd with 2 PLD's, Knight's Minne helpped their DEF go from the 90's to the 100's. and Madrigal/Minuet helpped them out alot.
      When the Enemy has like a millimeter left of HP, whip out your Harp and play Army's Paeon II and I. With those 2 song's on the PT, you get 3 HP/3 sec, easily enough to heal the puller, and the rest of the PT.

      if Paeon Heals while the Puller Pulls,
      WHM doesn't need to waste time/MP to Heal after the Battle
      WHM can regen more MP
      WHM has More MP = Longer Fights, Less Breaks

      And lets not forget how useful BRD's are when you make a bad Pull (Pull 2 Monsters instead of just 1)
      Foe Lullaby works Wonders!

      See, BRD's are extremely Useful...
      But not as useful from levels 1-15
      | SMN 75 | BRD 75 | WHM 37 | RDM 37 | BLM 37 | THF 37
      Zenith Armor: 5/5 (Complete)
      Bard AF2 Armor: 3/5
      Summoner AF2 Armor: 5/5 (Complete)

      Comment


      • #4
        Thanks for the input guys. I think I might just be frustated with low levels(and no PT) and not being able to help out if things are getting tough. But I think that once I start getting into PTs(and being an emergency healer/support) I'll start to be happier with the job.

        I have one question on the sleep song. Most Pts i'm with fight tough/very tough/incredibly tough monsters. One appeal to a bst in a PT that I originally thought was that they could charm something that linked with the original pull. However some people I talked to mentioned that since wew'd be fighting tough and above monsters that charm would be resisted a lot and that form of control wouldn't be very effective. Is it a similar scenario with sleep? Or is bst's charm resisted a lot more on tougher creatures as a countermeasure to prevent them from charming monsters a lot stronger than the bst? Since some of you are bsts & brds can you please compare the two?

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        • #5
          Tame (aka BST charm ability) is heavily resisted on something above even level, and the chances of taming anything tough for a decent period of time is very low (without using the 2hr ability)

          Bard lullaby on the other hand consistenly works on incredibly tough monsters (I've seen it work 10/10 times on ones 8+ levels above). Charisma seems to have a strong effect on lullaby, and charisma items are plentiful, therefore it is easy to boost this stat and get a strong lullaby effect. As far as crowd control, bard is hands down the best, although there are some nifty tricks that an experienced BST can do that a bard cannot (such as taming something aggro, moving it, then releasing it with no aggro).
          Still trying to play way too much...
          60 BRD, 75 BST, 37 WHM, 15 THF, 16 BLM
          BCNM40 over 100 wins ><
          BCNM60 |] 3-0-1 [|

          Pallas - 2/16 (Solo'd at LVL 64)
          Alksomething - 0/8

          Comment

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