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  • Questions for fellow Lv 75 Bards ...

    after i got to Lv 75 about a month ago, i've kind of put my BRD on hold. doing quests, missions, leveling other jobs, etc. eventually, i'd like to get back to improving it and i'd like to do some research to help me plan what i want to do.

    1) Merit Points - where are you putting your Merit Points (Singing Skill, Wind Skill, CHR or Max MP)? all in one place or spread out?

    2) Skill vs CHR - I've never owned a Wind Torque or a Minstrel's Coat and the only time I considered resists a problem is against Aura Statues. Even at Lv 75 with around 60 CHR from equipment, it seems like this is the most resist i have ever gotten on any mob (once or twice per XP Chain vs once per hour or two). will Skill make a difference or are Aura Statues just annoying like that? i don't mind having Skill+ stuff just to help me with Merit Point Parties but i wouldn't want to invest in it if it doesn't matter.

    3) 2 x Melody +1, Terra Staff, Apollo Staff, other Elemental Staves, Monster Signa, Wind Torque (depending on answers for question #2 of course) - in what order would you get these? already have Dark, Earth and Light Staves.

    4) this is kind of a n00b question. does Light/Dark Threnody help Light/Dark SC resists? i got to Lv 75 in a couple of really long Magic Parties so my experience with the Lv 3 SCs is a bit limited. i use the Threnody for the MB but often see the SC effect gets resisted. should Light and Dark Threnody be used for the SC? at Lv 75 most BLMs don't get their spells resisted anymore. i don't see Fire/Ltg. Threnody helping with the Light SC from getting resisted.
    Sendoh - Bahamut
    BRD
    AIM: Layoneil

  • #2
    1. Merit points. My understanding is that you can boost MP, CHR, *and* skill. The only question is what order you want to do it.

    The more applicable question, though, is what if any other jobs you plan to take to 75 ... and whether they would benefit more from merit point upgrades than your BRD would.

    For example, if you're gonna take other mage jobs to 75 but aren't really gonna take melee jobs or tank jobs to 75, then MP would be an excellent investment because it'd be useful for all of them.

    However, CHR is something which would only really be useful for BRD and BST, while INT would be useful for RDM and BLM, VIT would be useful if you wanted to level PLD, etc. Same rule applies to skills. There's also the miscellaneous stuff. Do you want to lower enmity to keep your magely self alive, or are you thinking of being a tank in future for which enmity- would be a Bad Idea? Stuff like that.

    Merit point allocations are not permanent. You can always cancel them ... it's just that you throw away the 10K exp per merit point you spent, when you do so. So although it's not a permanent consideration it's nevertheless an important one.

    If BRD is always gonna be first and foremost in your mind and other jobs are just plain gonna have to put up with your getting upgrades for BRD rather than the other jobs, then by all means ... MP, CHR, wind instrument skill. Combat skills and miscellaneous upgrades are your call.

    2. I have every last bit of skill+ I can get my hands on, except a Taillefer's Dagger and stuff from Dynamis. Honestly, much though I hate to admit it, I'm a little unimpressed. Many of my buffs are unchanged, or only change by 1 point, between 0 skill+ and 13 wind+ and 10 singing+.

    Debuff success rate, in many of those slots you have to give up big CHR for small skill (10 and 7 CHR on Errant body/legs vs. 3 and 3 skill on Minstrel's Coat and AF), and I've found that (unfortunately) the CHR generally helps more. Wind Torque vs. Star Necklace is really the only big question for me, primarily because the skill number is bigger in that case. Singing skill, as far as I can tell, doesn't help land debuffs at all.

    My opinion is that it's perfectly useful but not worth killing yourself to get. More helpful as you're levelling, before your songs' effectiveness caps. Also useful for miscellaneous low-stress situations, because among other things, Errant also has a number of nasty stat minuses on it too.

    3. My personal suggested order: Terra's Staff, Apollo's Staff, Wind Torque (if you decide to get one), Monster Signa, 2x Melody +1, other elemental staves (upon getting all of those, you can consider reselling the signa).

    4. Don't know that one either. I generally just threnody with what's actually being bursted, it seems skillchain damage is a bit too random (even with threnody) to tell, and I'd rather do something where I knew it'd help.
    Averter of the Apocalypse~
    Unique quests complete: 330-something, keep losing count.
    Mission plot lines complete: Windurst, Bastok, San d'Oria, Zilart, Promathia.
    Maps not yet obtained: Promyvion-Dem, Promyvion-Mea, Promyvion-Holla, Promyvion-Vahzl, Sacrarium.

    Comment


    • #3
      1. i put them in evasion for my ninja, i don't really see anything that you can boost that will help BRD. if your attitude is "i'm a BRD and nothing else" then i think you can decrease your hate/enmity on one of them, i'd do that.

      2. my opinion is that the two things that matter are +CHR and -enmity. the elemental staffs make a big difference to landing bard enfeebles i've found. singing/wind/string skill is a can of worms i'm not going to go near^^ suffice to say that you won't need anything beyond AF gloves and pants to cap your buff songs.

      3. elegy is the most important enfeeble so i'd say terra staff, the rest... as you want i guess, i don't think its going to really matter i wouldn't bother with a monster signa tho.


      4. in my experience yes, its hard to say it conclusively tho.
      Wandering Minstrel~

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      • #4
        double post sorry newb
        I play to have fun....

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        • #5
          Wow great question... this will require my frist post

          I've spent a lot of time trying out differnt gear, and IMO what you need to be an effective Bard post 75 (God's/HNM's etc) is a bit differnt from an EXP group. If your working on a budget this could mean a few shifts in what you keep on your character.

          EXP: I use 2 sets of gear for EXP.
          - 1) This set has all +skill (mainly wind) equipment in which I sing all the party buffs. I have to say that AFTER using +1 instruments/Minstrals Coat/AF1 pants/AF1 mitts I see little benifit from +skill equipment. Infact I saw only a +1 increase per song from anyting beyond this gear with Wind Torque etc. With this gear equiped I get about +10 per song. (so if Minne IV was giving +41 now it will give +51) +1 added on to that just didn't seem worth the expense.

          -2) This set is all out +chr along with the correct staff and instrument for the debuff I will sing. I think my Chr is currently +72 with a base of 70 (will be base 71 after using my merit point). Apollo staff is very nice for doing this but not a necessity for exp as you will rarely get a resist even with signa equiped.

          God/HNM/Having fun:

          -For these fights I use my +Chr gear trying to land a few debuffs at the start of a fight. After that its all MP for me trying to keep people alive. With Zenith gear/Vermillion Cloak/Demon Earrings/ and Astral Rings on you can push close to 500 mp as a Bard of almost any race. Most of these battles I've found you end up singing ballad and ballad and o yeah ballad lol so although I bring my +skill equipment with me it is seldom used.

          Merit:

          -Still trying to gain more of these things I've only done 5 so far which have been mainly MP. Enmity seems like such a waste to me as I never get aggro even using all 500mp on cure III's during a HNM/God fight. So I will boost MP > Chr > Skill first.... keep in mind I do not plan on doing another class.

          In the end I think its much a choice of style which only RDM's and BRD's have that choice. I see lots of BRD's running around Juno (and EXP'ing) with +att/+acc gear, a demon helm, and a joyeuse having a blast. Although this may not be my opinion of a best used Bard I hear very few people complaining

          I change my mind all the time around this I love the idea of good gear... I'll keep in touch if I find something different out there.

          Bia
          I play to have fun....

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          • #6
            I have a completely unrelated high level question as well if thats ok...

            just out of curiosity, i've heard that when fighting HNMs its all about getting as much CHR as possible right? rather than skill etc. Does this mean that you'd use an instrument with CHE rather than the appropriate songs instrument? (eg using a sandorian horn for elegy instead of a horn)

            thats all

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            • #7
              No. Using the appropriate "+2 to Song" instrument is MUCH better than using the Royal Spearmans Horn (or any other +CHR Horn).

              I personally only have 2 sets of equipment:
              MP Set
              CHR Set

              I've determined that +Skill is useless at 75, since you can hit any "normal" mob without difficulty regardless of your CHR, and no amount of +Skill will help you on HNM (possible exception for Wind Torque, +7 Skill > 3 CHR) Compared to wearing +CHR Gear. The minimal gain in buffs from the +Skill is not worth the effort IMO.

              With my current MP Gear I have around 380 MP with Pamama, but I hope to get it up to at least 500 eventually. I still have a lot of room for improvement (RSE Belt, Blue/Errant Cape, Dalmatica, Serket/Vivian Rings) so that goal isn't too far off.

              For CHR, the new Sha'ir Set has some very nice +CHR pieces (namely the legs, hands, and feet) which are quite affordable as long as you know a crafter who can make them for you (AH is still heavily overpriced except on gloves). Errant is a nice alternative to Sha'ir.

              Getting 70+70 CHR is quite easy at 75 with all the CHR gear available on the AH.

              http://www.livejournal.com/users/Faranim

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              • #8
                Yeah I would agree with Faranim +skill has shown very little benifit post 75....I've always wondered if it has some effect that I am unaware of, but have yet to see a translation from the JP tests. I switched a few items out of my inventory for the new Sha'ir gear its fun to wear around town....just need the dang manteel /sigh let me know if you have any advice on getting Cashmere Cloth.
                I play to have fun....

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                • #9
                  I would get the elemental staves first. Those staves are endgame items for many many jobs so the sooner you get them, the better imo. Then id get the wind torque and other stuff. You shouldnt need a signa staff with all the staves though.

                  Merit points, well i thought they only effected your job you used them on. But if thats not that case, i would go for MP boosts. If they are job exclusive, then chr, enmity, or mp. I dont really see a few extra points in any of the areas would make a real large difference, so your choice would be just as good as anyone elses.

                  Skill chain dmg is pretty sparatic. Ive only seen conclusive changes in the MB or the actual weapon skill damage when using the appropriate threnody. Id assume it makes a difference, but its always best to threnody for magic attacks.
                  /ja "poop pants" me

                  My Character!

                  Tu'Lia is COOL!

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                  • #10
                    My thoughts on merit points, since my Eventual Goal (whether or not I ever get around to it) is 75 in the five mage jobs.

                    HP or MP: MP, obviously. They all benefit far more from it than from HP. BRD in particular will get a big percentage difference from 50 MP.

                    Stats: BRD needs CHR, BLM needs INT, WHM needs MND, RDM needs both INT and MND, and SMN doesn't really need much of anything. Of those, I think BRD is the most dependent on pure stat+, as you don't see any of the others bothering (or needing) to get +70 in a stat, so therefore we go CHR here.

                    Combat skills: Evasion benefits all of them, so 4 points go into that. (You can't put more than 4 of your 6 combat skill upgrades into one thing.) For the remaining 2, pick a weapon, whatever you melee best with. Probably meaning sword (Joyeuse?) for BRD and RDM.

                    Magic skills: Elemental, Enfeebling, or Wind Instrument. In other words, landing your spells/songs unresisted. Could also go Dark, Divine, or String Instrument, but those are less useful. (Could even go Healing or Singing, but those will practically never be used on enemies - Singing doesn't affect resist rate unless you use no instrument, though it does, as we know, affect song power - and putting merit into Enhancing or Summoning is next to pointless.)

                    Depends mostly on which job has the hardest time landing stuff to begin with. I'm thinking I may go with Wind Instrument for that, just because RDM and BLM get good enfeebling and elemental (respectively) without any assistance, but our music skills are all C.

                    Miscellaneous: Enmity+ and critical hit rate+ are quite obviously the worst choices. Enmity- is good, but if you're ever contemplating tanking it's a bad idea. Spell interruption is of greatest use to jobs that can get hit (such as soloing RDM, or hate-drawing BLM). Enemy critical hit rate- is also good. So I'm still undecided of how I'd distribute my points among those.

                    So anyway, those are my thoughts. The best thing is that they basically all end up being the same thing as you'd choose if you went pure BRD. Because general "mage increases" of MP, evasion, and enmity-/spell interruption-/enemy critical hit rate-, are useful regardless of mage job. And for stats and magic skills, BRD suffers from the lowest skill and thus needs the most help.

                    Note: if you decide to play an entirely different job (i.e. *not* a mage), then avoid my recommendations like the plague. Non-mages benefit more from a lot of these things (like stats and combat skills) than mages do.
                    Averter of the Apocalypse~
                    Unique quests complete: 330-something, keep losing count.
                    Mission plot lines complete: Windurst, Bastok, San d'Oria, Zilart, Promathia.
                    Maps not yet obtained: Promyvion-Dem, Promyvion-Mea, Promyvion-Holla, Promyvion-Vahzl, Sacrarium.

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                    • #11
                      heh, my biggest problem with Merit Points is that my next 75 job currently is a toss up between BLM, NIN and BST with SAM a low but slight possibility.

                      the current economy on my server is such that getting the 5 elemental staves i'm missing is maybe 50k more than getting a Signa. and since my BLM is almost at 51, that might be a better choice than Terra/Apollo.
                      Sendoh - Bahamut
                      BRD
                      AIM: Layoneil

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                      • #12
                        I think having the entire set is better than having a few HQ elemental staves. Having them all will put you ahead of most brds i see around and most blms too.
                        /ja "poop pants" me

                        My Character!

                        Tu'Lia is COOL!

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                        • #13
                          help plz

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