Question

[Tibiam]

I just started lvling BRD, and I love it and may have it be my FULL-TIME job!! Its so much fun. Anyways here is my question.

I am using Swords right now, and heard everything that Daggers are better, and you can get the Final WS. Should I start using Daggers, I don't mind I should. I would change any second, but I want your guyz opinions. Also, I plan on getting Monster Signa, when I am lvl 16, or 18... Forget wat lvl.. hehe. So wat should I do, I think I may go with Daggers, also cuz the BRD AF Weapon is Paper Knife, which is a Dagger.
Ok you guys tell me everything, please answer my question?

[Schozie]

well, I dont know what the best thing is to do, but I know up until around 85 skill level (thats probably somewhere around the 25 level mark right? heh) I managed to keep both dagger and sword levelled easily. After that it seemed to be harder and harder just to keep my dagger levelled. I'm ;v50 and my swords still stuck somewhere in the 80s, and I think my dagger is about 128, so i'm a few levels behind (not sure how many exactly). I have signa and my staff skill is about.... 45? I dont know really.

I'd probably reccomend levelling dagger regardless of whether you decide to level sword or not, but thats just my opinion.

Thats me anyway.

[meeyutu]

Well once you hit about 30 your damage is going to be pretty much useless compaired to the rest of the pt with any weapon you use. Dagger however is the BRD AF1 weapon so having that leveled up would be good.. Before whatever level Apir Dagger is (I think 12) sword is your best bet because you will probably melee with the pt some and be able to do ok damage. Once you hit 12 I would recommend switching to your higher level job and killing Ivy the Iron Breaker (I think thats his name) he is one of 2 NM Yag's down in the caves of Giddeus. The dagger will occasionally steal some MP from the Mob and can come in handy for low level BRDs.

[Schozie]

"occasionally" being once a week!

[Reaperx90]

Sword is probably the best thing to level - you can squeeze the most damage out of it. I think BRDs have higher dagger skill, but you won't be meleeing by the time your higher skill in daggers really starts to stick out, and swords just flat out outdamage daggers in every way.

As for party situations, you'll actually find yourself using staves or clubs by level ~51. You'll feel incomplete without your light staff, but if you can't afford it, shellbuster is a perfectly suitable replacement.

But you probably don't wanna solo with clubs or staves. For soloing purposes, I'd say keep sword levelled. Daggers, staves and clubs just don't kill things fast enough ><;

[Venkelos]

Well...

I am planning on staves at 51, I always carry my crimson sword because that puts me into raise MP range, I also have a Shellbuster for debuffs. I keep sword levelled by soloing RDM and I'm sure it'll be the weapon I use vs Maat. I've heard that the battery operated weapons go off on every hit so I think I'm gonna use one of those against him. Regardless, even as an Elvaan BRD I never melee, it just hampers my mobility and with so many songs to sing, who has time to swing in battle anyway?

[Schozie]

I dont know anything about sword WS i'm afraid, but i've found cyclone helps alot with my farming

[manga101]

read the Maat post.

Sword is the way to go.

[Laehn]

All the weapons bards can use have obvious benefits over one another.

Sword
Spirits Within (ignores def and arguably the best WS for brds)
Relatively high dmg/delay ratio
Low skill rating

Dagger
Crappy WS overall, none are high dmg, cept evisceration.
Most proficient bard weapon (you'll hit more).

Staff
Highest dmg rating of all bard weapons!
OK skill rating
Spirit Taker WS (changes dmg to MP)
Strong WS (full swing)
Bard can equip few melee staves, only weak +mp +hp ones like signa.

[Rekiem]

Does anyone know if a Bard using a Joyeuse with capped skill will outdamage another Bard using a Daylight Dagger or Misericorde, also with capped skill?

Anyone tested?

[Vilurum]

My guess would be that Joyeuse would win if the enemies were sufficiently weak for you to hit them equally reliably with either weapon, and that the daggers would have an increasing advantage the higher the level the enemy is (so the Joyeuse would miss relatively more due to 220 skill vs. 240).

In a strict sense of damage over time assuming you have a 100% hit rate, I'm pretty sure Joyeuse blows the others out of the water. Not only for being a sword but for all the double-attacking.

[Rekiem]

Im thinking about T-VT-IT monsters here. Not Easy Prey or Too weak.