CHR vs MP Gear

[Outaru]

I have been reading through the various threads in this forum and I see a lot of people have mixed feelings on what is more important for a bard. For example I just read someone saying my 25k noble ribbon was a waste I should have gotten a silver hairpin?!?

We all know CHR is an the most important state for a bard, but when leveling should we favor mp+gear over CHR gear since the debuffing we do well pales in comparsion to other jobs?

I do kind of wish I had more mana, but early on I from what I read it said stock up on +chr gear.

Anyhow let me know your thoughts/opinions on this.

[Damastas]

As a bard, I carry both MP and Charisma gear with me when leveling;

I have found it incredibly hard after about level 40+ to have songs actually not be resisted unless my charisma is around +25, my songs are either resisted half the time, or the duration is very short. This being a Hume bard, so decent base charisma as well.

-Dam

[Vhal]

I currently play Bard/Rdm Taru, and rarely have to heal. And if I do, it's mostly in emergency situations. And in those situations, CHR is alot more useful; a resisted sleep can be the doom of your party, while +MP will let you do what? Cast a few more cures, and that's it.

I'll take the +CHR any day over +MP.

[SyNapSe]

At this point (50th) I still like +MP. I only exp with around +16 CHR and generally have very few resists.

I heal a LOT. For some reason, it's been very rare for me to be in a 2 mage PT.

Almost all of my PT's have been PLD + RDM lately. So, RDM refreshes himself and PLD and does as much healing as he can, so I end up doing a ton of healing.

[Outaru]

I guess the answer is it depends on your party.

[Bamce Sylph]

i'm gonna have to say depends on the peice, at low lvls +2 mp rings vs +2 cha rings? i'll take the cha please, howver at lvl 40 (or astrals) i'll take 20 mp's however for things like bcnm40's i dump all my -hp+mp gear for+cha gear the extra 40 hps from not having electrum, in addition to the +cha is nice. another thing to note as a taru bard/whm at 50/25 i don't have enough mp's w/o gear to cast raise (have about 144) so if things really do hit the fan i would carry something to push you over 150 (providing you sub whitemage) so that u can raise your white red or blackmage. another thing for hte + mp argument, i like to curaga mid battle since i've accumulated little hate from songs, i can usually pull it off w/o worry.

SyNapSe, i've noticed i'm casting alot of cure3's and stuff to, seems some whitemages thin since we're a bard we can heal as much as a supporting redmage, completely ignoring the other things we're suppose to be doing,

[Outaru]

Excellent point on the raise thing. Good thing I did gobby bag quest as it seems like bards carry around a lot of stuff!

[Rekiem]

For rings I suggest MP. I also suggest MP for the headgear. Reason is because those are the area where you can get the least CHR bonus and the MP is far more effective. The rest should be CHR equipment. But at level 70, theres some interesting RSE belt that gives alot of MP and they are worth wearing over Corsette. Its important that a BRD has alot of MP equipment because without it, he can't be a support healer like he's supposed to. Anyone who say that BRD shoulnd't heal or don't need to heal are lazy peoples, don't listen to them. CHR is good but not as much as MP. I've heard the lullaby resist excuse so many times its getting old. You shoulnd't have to cast lullaby in a party. Its the other mages job to do this. Lullaby duration is too short and its too dangerous to let a bard handle to crowd control during an entire fight, mostly on a IT or VT monster. Because we have a C skill with Wind, lullaby can easily get resisted. Sleep last for over 1minutes while lullaby duration is less than 20 seconds even with a Mary Horn, not to mention that theres a 24 seconds recharge timer on it. Bard should never be doing crowd control unless your BLM or RDM suck or they are AFK. Anyway back on topic; its important for bard to have a good amount of MP so we can do support healing, this allow your RDM and BLM to nuke more, you WHM to debuff the monsters and it makes Ballad more usefull since its recovering your MP. The MP you spend healing others are MP the other mage won't be spending on healig so they will nuke more and shorten fight duration.

[PetriW]

I've heard the lullaby resist excuse so many times its getting old.

I think part of the problem is many NA PTs don't handle adds very well simply due to lack of experience. (Notice this is below level 50)
At least that's my experience so far, Sleep takes super long to cast, escape is cast when it's completelly unnecessary... oh and my pet peeves, the melees try to engage all mobs at once to save the mages, don't consider they have auto-target on or simply don't assist the tank...

[Outaru]

I agree with the backup healer comment, sometimes I get lazy and don't cure as much as I should have, in those instances I did notice a bit mroe downtime as opposed to when I used all my mp to backup heal.

So I am leaning towards the mp side of the argument based on what I have heard. I am a lv 41 bard any suggestion for mp+ items, keep in mind I only have about 30k or so at any given instance, when I start doing BCNM's I hope to have a little more :-)

About the sleep thing, everything I read said in BCNM that the bard is responsible for sleeping the no IT mobs? But from what you are saying our sleep is not as effective?

[PetriW]

Bards sleep in bcnm40 because mages get interrupted when hit on, bards don't.

[Damastas]

I have to disagree with saying that Charisma is neglegible over MP.

Your first, and primary job, is bard. You should have high charisma so you can actually do.. what bards are supposed to do.

Have you ever seen a monster with Elegy and slow stacked on it? It makes a VERY noticable difference in attack speed, and without a good amount of charisma, you WILL have Elegy resisted about 25% of the time. That's 24 seconds you have to wait until you re-sing it, and in those 24 seconds your warrior / paladin / ninja will be taking 1 - 2 extra hits that they did not have to. That's nearly 100 - 200 extra damage at level 40+.

Sure you can go light on charisma and have the extra MP, but all you would really be doing is healing those 100 - 200 HP back that could have been prevented with Elegy. You are a bard before a support healer, let the mages deal with HP while you sing your songs, and you will see effeciency increased.

[Outaru]

Some of you are gonna hate me but I bought 2 electrum rings (+20mp each) and put the pearl rings (+2 chr) on the shelf. But I also got some friends, although one of them recultantly to help me get my AF1, paper knife so my net loss in CHR is only 2. I was partying for a little in Gustav tunnel and I landed requiem and elergy all but once. I am a WHM by heart so I like healing an I have seen quite a reduction in downtime when I backup/proactively heal.

I figure when I do BCNM's I will equip the pearl rings as CHR and HP are a lot more important than MP.

Also is it me or is the paper knife a little gimp? I saw on some website it was supposed to have song effective rise, but it doesn't it only has agi +2 and chr +2? Must have been a typo or something on the other site.

[SyNapSe]

I think when I hit 54, I may buy a Jesters Cape +1 (+10 CHR), and at that point I may toss my Pearl Ring, and put on a 2nd Electrum Ring. I'm having *no* problems being resisted at my current level.

Outaru,

The Paper Knife is not that great, use it until 48 and then pick up a Shellbuster (club). It's cheap. Don't feel cheated, pretty much all the AF1 weapons are poor, and only useable for a few levels.

[Outaru]

I am quite happy with the extra mp I currently have. I rarely get resisted. I have 160 mp at lv 45 now, WHM's love me since I actively heal after all songs are sung.

Its funny as hell but recently I am hearing, "Wow this is a really great party."