Bard Guide/F.A.Q

[Teffie]

Originally posted by IheartBards
Im level 29 on my first job, and Im very interested in the bard profession. My question is quite simple, can Elvaan Brd/Whm's preform whm skills fairly easily and effectivly even with the MP loss?

oh yeah, 1 more thing..could you give me a general idea of how much it costs to equip a bard at level..10, 20, 30, ext..?

If you could answer this, Id be grateful.

BRD's are very inexpensive to be honest.
I used a Level 10 Doublet until level 44 when I changed to a Gambison XD
Really... BRD's NEVER EVER get Aggro'd. So Armor isn't too much of a problem. Just have all Up-to-date Instruments (+1 Instruments) and Songs and you will be fine.

[Ryouga]

Hey, first of all great job on the guide.

My question is what is the direct effect of having a higher singing/wind/string skill lvls? sorry if i messed it in the faq m(._.)m

[Kabuki]

Hello, Im currently 70 and is it ok to fight Maat with a sword skill of 124?:sweat:

[Teffie]

Originally posted by Ryouga
Hey, first of all great job on the guide.

My question is what is the direct effect of having a higher singing/wind/string skill lvls? sorry if i messed it in the faq m(._.)m

Higher your Skill Is, the Higher the Bonus Songs will Give with the Instrument.

Play Minuet with a Maxed Out Skill Flute, and Play Minuet with a 50% Skill Harp, and the Flute will give Higher ATK Bonus

Originally posted by Kabuki
Hello, Im currently 70 and is it ok to fight Maat with a sword skill of 124?

I suggest getting together with some friends for a Skill Up PT
You might have some difficulty beating Maat.

[Huing]

I have 2 questions

When you use Soul Voice 2hr, and sing Mage Ballad, do you recover more mp, or recover mp faster? (normal: 1mp - 3sec)

How many songs can you stack on a mob?
Is it 2 songs like in a party? For example: Ice Threnody + Lightning Threnody --> mob.

Thx

[Vilurum]

Soul Voice doubles effect, it doesn't double rate of HP or MP regen. So Soul Voice Ballad is 2 mp/3 sec, Soul Voice Ballad II is 4 mp/3 sec. Not sure whether the songs last longer or not ... I haven't bothered checking. ;

You can have a threnody, an elegy, and a requiem on an enemy at once, but you can only have one of each. (So best elegy and best requiem, but threnodies you'll have to change based on situation.) You can also have lullaby on an enemy, but not at the same time as requiem (or any other damage over time spell like Dia or Poison).

(In other words, we're not limited to two songs per enemy, but we are limited to only one song of each type, and lullaby has its usual limitation of wearing right off when the enemy loses HP.)

[Huing]

very enlightening, thank you

[Seeker_Onos]

I have a question concerning the value of "those less often thought of songs"...

Most often, BRDs have a set repetoire of songs... I generally use:

Minuet + Madrigal on melees

Ballad + the INT+ Etude (will change to a double Ballad when I get Ballad II ) for mages. If for some reason, we have no BLM in the PT, I'll use the MND+ Etude.

If we have a RNG in the PT, I'll throw a Hunter's Prelude on him before he runs out to pull the next mob, if the timing works out.

The offensive songs - Requiem, Elegy, Threnody, and Finale: debuff the mobs. Lullaby for crowd control.

But what about "Fowl Aubade" or "Herb Pastoral"? Or "Sheepfoe Mambo" ? (I used that once to dodge some goblin adds once, seemed to help me make it to the zone border ^^ )

The only time I could really see those coming into play is in a double BRD PT, which seems rather rare.

The Carols seem helpful in certain situations (I am not yet high enough level to participate in the Prime Avatar battles, but I've heard that the respective elemental Carols are very handy for dealing with them) ... and Water Carol+Barwatera+Herb Pastoral+Barpoisonra from the WHM saved the bacon of a few of my PTs to fight Exorays for that hated part of Genkai I.

Yet we BRDs have a ton of other songs...

I'd like to hear from other BRDs if they use the non-standard PT or BCNM songs in their exp. PTs, skill-up PTs or other situations.

Thus far, I've never been asked for "the DEX+ Etude" or "Golden Cappriccio" by a PT.

I understand Mazurka and the other high level songs will come in handy much later in the game... I guess what I'm looking for is the "what not to buy" song list from level 50+ ... :sweat:

[Vilurum]

The question is really, is it worth giving up melee accuracy or damage (either via more accuracy, more attack, or more attack speed, depending on what you add to madrigal), and/or MP regeneration or mage stat boosts, for the other things. Like status defense. Sadly, the answer is usually no.

If singing Scop's Operetta reliably prevented silence, I'd see that as a godsend for enemies which use AOE silence (never mind that mages shouldn't be near them). But it doesn't. Not even with Barsilencera added to it. Goblin Gavotte is practically useless ... how often is bind ever an issue to begin with? Herb Pastoral and Barpoisonra? Easier and more effective just to use a few Poisona's.

Of the non-standard songs, carols are the only ones I can see as being useful, and that's only in cases where you're blocking a very specific powerful elemental attack like a bomb self-destructing. Otherwise, the elemental defense it adds (much less than a Bar-element-ra spell too, though we do get Light and Dark) is, again, not worth giving up the "useful effects" for.

I'd love to be able to stack more than two songs. I'd be singing and singing all day, maintaining accuracy and attack and defense and evasion and status defense and elemental defense and all sorts of other neat goodies. But we can't. So we pick and choose, and we prioritize the songs that will have the enemy die the fastest and the party have the least downtime.

[tnt118]

Not to go off tangent here, but this is one thing I thought of they could do to spice up the bards life: a job ability that let you sing a third song on PT members, activatable once every 10-15 minutes. Goblin add? Use the "Conductor" job abililty to sing Fire Carol. (No, I couldn't think of a cheesier name on short notice). Or what about a job ability that took made a song single-target only? I think some very simple things like that would make a world of difference in making bard a more "adapatable" class.

[Taruhealingwind]

Everything seems pretty much correct to me, I would just like to
give a macro idea that I use myself and that saves a lot of time, that you did not spoke of.

/so "Song Name" <me>
/wait 5
/equip Range "Instrument's Name"

example:

/so "Valor Minuet" <me>
/wait 5
/equip Range "Cornette +1"

I use the /wait 5 for all 8 seconds songs ( dont know how it will work on prelude as I'm not 48 yet), it saves me the time of equiping, then casting. Only thing that I dont like is it cuts the music

[Radamvice]

Even in a pt with several brds...if that somehow happened, those less common songs have little use as alot of them seem to be resist status (which i belive shorten duration of given status effect) or evasion (near useless versus IT+ enemies pt should be killing)...These songs just arent effective enough to enough members of the pt at once when you consider the fact you can stack madrigal of the same lvl with multiple brd, or stack minuet, or ballad...

The rule here would be a given player can have the effect of any 2 different named songs per brd in pt. Songs of the same name from different brd stack.(at least on players...)

[Sky Pirate]

so what are some reasions why you wouldnt wont your bard to have a black mage subjob?

[UnnamedGalka]

so what are some reasions why you wouldnt wont your bard to have a black mage subjob?

Short and sweet:

- Can't backup heal, and no backup bar-ras, poisanas, paralynas, erases etc.

- No added job traits to improve your song casting ability (i.e. /RDM's Fast Cast)

- Less CHR bonus than what /WHM or /RDM would give you

- Your nukes will always suck

[felpa_de_osa]

Re: Bard Guide/F.A.Q

just wanted to make out a small point out that Sage Etude is INT and Logical Etude is MND