Brd Mb

[sntangl]

How many of you try to MB a song off of a Skillchain? My static does darkness and distortion. So when i see the animation I cast elegy for darkness and ice or water threnody for distortion. Can Requiem be bursted off a light skillchain as well? Discuss

[Jei]

Re: Brd Mb

Well water elegy won't MB distortion because it's a thunder base.
Earth threnody is wind.
and so on.
im not sure if you can MB. But if you want to try, make sure you're using the right element.

[Taskmage]

Re: Brd Mb

Water threnody*
MBing Elegy seems like a good idea, but I can't imagine MBing a Threnody would have much more effect than non-MB.
Requiem should burst off Transfixion, Fusion, and Light.
It's hard to tell with dubuffs and DoTs whether you get an enhanced effect, but since it only takes a second of your time so you might as well ensure a solid stick.

[Icemage]

Re: Brd Mb

MB'd songs don't seem to get any significant benefit, aside from better stick rate and less resistance.

All offensive Bard songs can be magic bursted (Requiem, Elegy, Threnody, Lullaby).

Of these, the most useful uses are:

Elegy:

Ensures a good solid stick on Elegy. Problem is, it requires Scission/Gravitation/Darkness skillchains, which aren't that common until you get to level 75 merit parties.

Threnody:

The trouble with using Threnody as a magic burst is that it's always an element that's strong against the elemental resistance that it lowers. This is rarely useful, except in the singular case of Distortion against Cockatrice enemies. They're weak to both wind and ice, so adding Wind Threnody (ice-based song) as a magic burst will improve the potency of offensive Air magic used afterwards (Aero II/III).

Lullaby:

This is actually really really useful if you know what you're doing. Generally speaking, skillchains will drop monsters down to very low amounts of health (<10%) if you do them right. When using Fusion or Light skillchains, which are extremely common, using Foe Lullaby right at the END of the magic burst window can sometimes act like a Stun against the special WS the monster will immediately try to use (yes, even if the monster has a damage-over-time effect). It takes really good timing, and some extra luck to avoid having DOT effects or a stray melee attack wake it up, but I abused the hell out of this trick against Weapons in Ro'Maeve and sky while levelling. It didn't work every time, but probably one fight in a chain I could stop a Whirl of Rage or Smite of Rage, and the monster would die before it could try again.

Requiem:

Eh... who cares about tacking on 1-7 damage every 3 seconds? By the time the skillchain goes off the monster is all but dead anyway. I would much prefer to use Foe Lullaby (see above).


Icemage

[neighbortaru]

Re: Brd Mb

Actually, what i always (try to) do is Threnody before the skillchain so the SC and MB damage will be increased.

[Icemage]

Re: Brd Mb

Actually, what i always (try to) do is Threnody before the skillchain so the SC and MB damage will be increased.

Absolutely. But we're talking about actually using a Threnody to magic burst with, which is both tricky (since if you've already applied a useful Threnody, you won't want to overwrite it with a burstable but wrong-element song), and often not useful.


Icemage

[Intensity]

Re: Brd Mb

My wife MB's Elegy off our Darkness skillchain whenever the opportunity presents itself and threnody's prior to the SC for optimal dmg. MB'n isn't too much of a priority tho due to it not making a noticable difference. I do the same with Jubaku, when Our MNK and SAM do Distortion I'll MB my Paralyze off it but I won't worry about it if I'm busy doing something else.

[klvino]

Re: Brd Mb

Actually, what i always (try to) do is Threnody before the skillchain so the SC and MB damage will be increased.

That's exactly what I try to do. Threnody are such short lived spells and do diddly on their own. It's when you couple them with others spells/abilities that they become useful.

[sntangl]

Re: Brd Mb

With threnody then I want to sing the opposite element to the corresponding MB being done? For example, if distortion is being done and water is the MB then I want to sing fire threnody before the SC. I will continue to sing elegy when I can off darkness SC. Thank you all for responding.

[neighbortaru]

Re: Brd Mb

no. if you are singing BEFORE the SC, then you stick with water threnody. If you are trying to MB with your song AFTER the SC then yes, you sing fire.

[Djonma]

Re: Brd Mb

You can't overwrite threnody can you?
I know in my party a couple of days ago we had 2 bards and the other bard would land threnody, and I couldn't land threnody on top of it.
It said it had no effect.

[Regenshire]

Re: Brd Mb

Pre-55 I used to MB for the fun of it. In my opinion it doesn't do much (unless you get lucky enough to have a skill chain you can MB with Elegy), but it was always fun to do. After 55, I don't have enough time. I can't waste precious seconds waiting around to time an offensive song to hit the skill chain.

[Icemage]

Re: Brd Mb

You can't overwrite threnody can you?
I know in my party a couple of days ago we had 2 bards and the other bard would land threnody, and I couldn't land threnody on top of it.
It said it had no effect.

Ordinarily you can. However, if the other bard used a stronger instrument than you did (Sorrowful Harp is +3 Threnody for instance), it might negate your attempt to overwrite it.

I know I've never had any issues trying to overwrite my own Threnodies.


Icemage

[tordall]

Re: Brd Mb

Magic bursting bard debuffs helps mainly with resist rates rather than with the potency of the debuff.

If you want to know what element a song is, look at the color of the notes to the left of the song name.