Low lvl's for bards?

[FF_Solarwind]

I was wondering how bards are under 20, if its hard to solo? any input is appreciated

[Soonyi]

I think most Bards will say... low level is really not good at all... slow to level up or play solo... and the song you have does not do major effect. For me, I start to really notice I am making the big difference after Lv20. I really did not enjoy to play Bard and wanted to change back to Whm. But after I got Ballad at Lv25, wow~ I love my Bard ever since then! Keep working hard and you will see that Bard is a really fun (and very busy) job to play! Goodluck!

Soonyi.

[Strident]

When do the song effects become really noticeable? I'm lvl 15 right now, and Madrigal and Minuet don't really seem to make any difference. Often, my party members won't even stay together to get the song effects because they feel they don't add much.

Pretty much the only songs that have any noticeable effect are paeon and requiem.

[Vilurum]

Madrigal is always helpful, though at low levels if melees are well-equipped, they'll likely hit quite often anyway. Poorly equipped melees at low levels, well equipped melees at high levels, and especially poorly equipped melees at high levels, will see a very big benefit from madrigal.

Minuet and Minne don't really make a noticeable difference at that level (though you can use Cornette +1 and Harp +1 to give them some extra juice). They're better when you get the II versions of the songs at 23 and 21 respectively. Paeon II (which you should just have gotten) is relatively noticeable. And although later on you won't be using Paeon in battle much if at all, it's actually quite a good choice for the dunes. Make sure your other song is madrigal though.

As for getting the melees to stand still ... just play songs with a stringed instrument and hit everyone. You only really need to use wind instruments for range purposes when you get mage-specific songs (read: Ballad and Etudes), and that's not for another 9-10 levels.

But all things told, I agree. At low levels you can't contribute much melee, you can't contribute much healing, and your buffs are still weak. Don't despair. Just slog through the low levels, and it will improve. Take the opportunity to get weapon skillups in dagger and/or sword, and keep your instrument skills capped by spamming threnodies using a string and a wind instrument. :p