minstel's ring

[strangelove]

im just gonna copy what i posted on alla.

lvl 50, latent effect song casting 25% quicker.
trigered by 75% hp.

does anybody use it? i picked 1 up and tried it out, makes song cast seem alot faster, but the problem is, how do you stay below 75% hp?

i could get there by just using a poison potion or something easily enough, but what about the auto regen trait from the whm sub?

does anybody have any tips on how to avoid it, cancel it out, or make the best of it?
please help, its a really nice ring.

[Peanut_Midgard]

I had one thinking that I would use it occasionally but I ended up not using it at all, so I resold it. As a taru it's pretty scary for me to stay in the yellow

As far as staying in the yellow, it's pretty easy actually. Just sing elegy as the mob comes in before the tank vokes, then you should be in the yellow rather constantly.

[Rekiem]

I know a Taru can trigger the effect just by swapping on and off a bunch of HP+ items like Cassie Eearring, Bomb queen Ring, Physical Earring.. etc. With alot of those items, his HP will turn yellow and the ring will take effect. But to keep his HP low, he has to carry another set of MP+&HP- equipment. A whole lot of trouble for a +25% spellcasting boost

You can also use it for Ballista. The main utility is that you will be able to recast Sleep on someone before they are able to use a Poison Potion. Its also usefull when youre against a RDM. Their fastcast ability allow them to cast Sleep just as fast as you cast Lullaby so you end up both asleep. But with this ring, you always have a small edge in speed over a RDM, just enough to not allow them to sleep you when youre trying to cast lullaby on them.

[Vilurum]

Keep in mind that not only do you need yellow HP or worse, but you also need under 100% TP. Not that this is very difficult for bards, but if you do melee, keep it in mind that if you can WS, you won't get the benefit of the ring.

[Peanut_Midgard]

Nice reminder, though I don't think I ever have more than 10% TP these days due to rapid weapon changing ^^

[Hugglebunny]

it's more of a BRD/RDM item
the ring stacks with fast cast and you wont have that pesky auto-regen constantly screwing it up. The bards ive played with that use it play BRD/RDM and they also wear the minstrels earring making being in yellow a little less scary. with the second fast cast and minstrels ring songs go off really fast too. you'll end up having a ton of time to do more stuff after giving everyone there songs.
I'm not 70 yet so i don't have much fast cast and can't use minstrels earring but the few times i've used it i find i have tons of time to do extra stuff than the usual routine. BRD/RDM works really good for stuff that doesnt do mass status effects that the bard needs to help cure.

one example of where this works well is ro'maeve. as BRD/RDM you have finale and dispel and with minstrels ring/fast cast you cast them both in about 1 second so you can tear off those weapons buffs in a big hurry(remember to diaga first for blink). You can also blink/stoneskin yourself so fast that whirl of rage doesnt mean a thing to you and your stoneskin will last extra long thanks to your minstrel's earring.
In fact the one bard i was with that used this in ro'maeve instructed us on how we should align ourselves then proceeded to keep up for every battle madrigal, minuet, mambo(NIN only), prelude(RNG only), ballad, ballad II, and sages etude(BLM only) and still had time for dispelling and elegy/threnody. the only magic she ever really used was just stoneskinning herself between fights. It really was a sight to see, seemed like all the fast cast she had cut singing times about 50%

[Vilurum]

Much though I love my status cures and curagas, when I hit 75 I'm gonna have to level RDM to 37, and try Fast Cast + Fast Cast II + Minstrel's Ring + Warlock's Mantle (latent effect Fast Cast boost with RDM sub) and see just how fast my songs get. :D

Besides, a little flexibility in subs never hurt anyone. I do still think WHM is more generally useful, and I'd rather get BRD to 75 than RDM to 37 at the moment. So it's more something to play with later, than something I plan to use for levelling.