Newbie instrument question

[Laehn]

Some of the good equipment past 50 would be the elemental staves, JSE, errant, and opo opo crown. I cant really think of anything other than that off the top of my head. There are some neat weapons and things like that, but those arent really important for a brd.

Get light first. Lullabying is paramount when you get links and it helps with requiem and finale as well as increasing your chr (just slightly) while making your cures and curagas a lot more potent. Earth staff is really only for elegy and its my "oh no!" macro in case things start hitting me.

[lufia22]

Should I just get rid of my elegant shield or what? These staves will make it hard for me to have it equipped.

Also...by what level would I look gimped if I didn't have almost all the elemental staves?

[Dux]

Hi.

Well this is just one opinion of a BRD who is around the same level as you. perhaps the scenario changes at higher levels though.

I wouldn't get too hung up on having all the elemental Staves. I have them all and I have noticed almost zero difference in spell effectiveness during normal usage. There may be a difference however when fighting IT++ mobs. Its all so random its difficult to tell if it was luck or the staff that made the Sleep land when against IT++

In all honesty I use Signa for Sleep even though I have a Light Staff (which is definatly worth it for extra Cure potency). I have found Signa to be far more effective at landing sleep on mobs of any level.

There is a thread on this forum somewhere comparing a completely naked BRD to a full decked out BRD and the results were almost identical, except landing Threnody / Sleep against IT++ mobs.

In all fairness, just get them as an when. Essential are
1) Light
2) Dark
Any thing else just pick up whenever.

Would be interesting to hear a level 70+ view as this is when BRD is consuidered "High Level" IMO.

[Layoneil]

Should I just get rid of my elegant shield or what? These staves will make it hard for me to have it equipped.

since BRDs don't get any shield skill there's really no point in keeping it around unless you want it for level capped stuff or really like to solo with a Shield.

Also...by what level would I look gimped if I didn't have almost all the elemental staves?

51 you should have Light, whenever you get Carnage Elegy (59?) you should have Earth.

Dark whenever, you rarely ever rest in XP PTs so people don't care.

the other ones are completely optional and usually a waste of space imo.

[Laehn]

You wont be gimped even if you dont have any of the staves. Youre still able to do your job without them. I only have 2, and thats all I really feel like i need. Theyre more of a necessity for smns, blms, and rdms, not as much for brds. I think i started using mine early 60s. Thats when the effect on songs were first starting to be realized with the staves, or i would have bought one sooner.

Id just sell the shield or keep it for BCNMs when you cant equip the staves. It doesnt really do anything defensively and its only 1 point of chr and some pretty miniscule bonuses in MP.

[Rilu]

I'd personally get earth staff first, then light then dark. I don't use light staff all that much, and have never had problems sleeping anything, even at lvl 53 when we got like 4 lizard links, I kept them sleeping like babies with a earth staff equipped. I'd rather have my horn +1 and earth staff land elegy every time so the nin tank has an easier time than worry about MAYBE not landing a lullaby.

At 56, this is my gear, and I usually have no problems whatsoever landing songs or sleeping things, etc.

Earth Staff
All instruments are +1 (won't list them all, like 9 of them I think I carry)
Nobles ribbon
Bird Whistle
Melody earrings x2
Royal Squires Robe
RSE gauntlettes
Chr +3 rings
Jesters Cape
Corsette +1
Bard AF legs (choral cannions or something like that)
RSE feet

I'm elvaan, so the RSE is nice cause i get like 50mp from those 2 pieces. My barding is somewhat repetitious, but is extrememly effective for our party setup. We are getting about 6-7K per hour. I hit elegy on the mob, requium, threnody then madrigal and minuet, then double ballad for mages and then back to the mob , melee and mages again. We kill pretty fast, so idon't have time to melee at all. As far as chr, I have like +27 or something like that above my base, don't know exactly how much that much chr helps, but I hear you should have chr, so i got it.

[RuneGrey]

As my sig says, I got a Dark Staff for an excellent deal off of the AH - should I toss it back in for twice the price I got it for and use the proceeds to pick up a light staff instead? I've noticed that I don't really have much 'rest time' since I picked up Ballad II, nor do I really need it - but the +10 resting MP regen does help a lot at times. Any real thoughts on this?

Ideally I'd like to just farm enough to get both, but given how much time I've had for mining of late, I'm not sure how realistic that is going to be. ^_^;;;

[Rilu]

Depends on the price of everything and if you are planning on lvling either whm, blm or smn any time soon. Dark staff is great for those jobs, but not really necessary for brd I don't think.

Prices for staves are really all over the place. I bought mine about 8 months ago (light, drk, earth) for my whm and I got the earth just for kicks, figured I need it and since there was a huge influx of cheap staves (all of them for around 100K each) I went ahead and purchased. I'd make sure you have earth and light staves, drk is optional.

[lufia22]

How long will Hume RSE pants and body last me? I would assume the pants would last me till AF, but what about the body?

[Rilu]

Woah, you're on my server, cool. Anyways, I"m not sure on the stats of the RSE for hume, but I know I see alot of hume brds use it for a while. Its all up to you really. I use the royal squires robe for the extra 10mp basicly, but you can use anything you want really, there isn't a "set" of gear you HAVE to have as a brd. Staves are optional, nice to have but not necessary, I mean, most the lvl 75 brds I know lvl'd to 75 with the AF dagger, since that was a year ago and they didn't know anything else.

Oh, about stats, I think you can be benefited by extremely high stats. Only reason i say this, is my 75brd buddy pwrlvl'd my ranger from10-16ish by giving me minuet IV and prelude, and I was able to chain 5 on IT++ stuff, doing sick damage with just wooden and bone arrows. That was before the whole "update" thing that messed with songs and food effects, but still I figured i'd mention that.

[Laehn]

Originally posted by Dux

There is a thread on this forum somewhere comparing a completely naked BRD to a full decked out BRD and the results were almost identical, except landing Threnody / Sleep against IT++ mobs.

In all fairness, just get them as an when. Essential are
1) Light
2) Dark
Any thing else just pick up whenever.

Would be interesting to hear a level 70+ view as this is when BRD is consuidered "High Level" IMO.

Light and earth are the most important staves for brd, not dark. You really should be rethinking party dyanamics if you have a lot of time to rest.

The thread was about a fully decked out brd in chr equipment, not with elemental staves.

There have also been threads and multiple tests showing that the elemental staves have a far greater effect on resists than signa staff.

Raw chr wont affect any of your buffs at all or make you a better power lvler as a brd. There have been many many tests showing how boosting just one stat up a bunch has deminishing returns. Even equipping all the skill equipment you have wont make a real big difference on buffs although every little bit does help.

No offense Rilu, but it sounds like the people who have been giving you advice have been either giving you bad advice or youre misunderstanding why they equip the things they equip. I dont know a single brd who used their AF dagger to lvl 75, most brds at least put it away once they can equip a shellbuster.