XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

[Icemage]

So I logged on last night and decided to spend a couple hours levelling RDM. Well, since everyone and their brother was out levelling PUP/COR/BLU, the party selection was extremely limited, and I ended up in a party that looked like this:

WHM/BLM 62
PLD/WAR 64
THF/NIN 63
SAM/WAR 62
WAR/NIN 62
RDM/BRD 62 (me)

XP camp chosen was Tragopans with the occasional Goblin thrown in.

I notice the melees aren't missing much so I swap in Advancing March for them instead of Sword Madrigal and we start chaining. Not amazing chains - chain 4, sometimes 5, nothing spectacular, but steady XP.

The PLD is holding up well with Auto-Refresh + Refresh + Ballad, until the WHM disconnects about 1 hour in, and there's no mages to speak of in level range. We try killing stuff with 5 and it actually works as long as the PLD gets a couple ticks of rest in between and we're still holding steady at chain 4, when the Samurai asks me if it's ok if he invites another melee.

At this point I'm doing all of the following:

Refresh me + PLD
Advancing March on melees
Ballad me + PLD
Slow
Paralyze
Dia II
Silence on spellcaster Goblins
Plus main healing
...AND link control.

Yowza. So we add another melee (I don't even know what job it was, I was too busy spellcasting to notice - might have been another WAR), and finish up another hour of chain 4/5 with me being the only mage in the party.

Interesting moments included one time when a Goblin Fascinator dropped a suicide bomb and hit everyone for about 400 damage. I actually got some mileage out of using Army's Paeon II, the first time I've used Paeon in an XP party since about level 30.

Ended up after 2 hours with +8500 XP and 0 party deaths. Not bad considering the party next to us had at least 5 KO's in the same period, with a more balanced setup (not sure why, maybe just incompetent mages).


Icemage

[TheGrandMom]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

I had a similar setup in Bibiki Bay on my rdm. Keeps you on your toes thats for sure! The pld and one of the melee was so happy with the pt they asked me to do it again the next day........{I'm sorry.} {No, thanks.} I have enough grey hairs!

[Omni]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

/brd is great if you have the mp pool for it. i'm sure theres other races that can do this sufficiently but i think taru is hands down most suited for it. i set pt with a whm/brd and it was great. he was able to give our rng prelude, melee madigral, mages ballad. we had a rdm in the set so he was free to run around, erase, sing, burst holy and occasionally main heal. have 4mp/tick is great, even though its just 1 more it definately adds up over the long run and makes everything more smooth overall.

[Jei]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

I love /brd ^^ for some MP intense group, ballad is a life saviour.

[Balodoth]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

I think for the limited magery in the group, even with the WHM, but especially afterward, /BRD wasn't as useful /WHM would have been. I'm sure DS+Curaga would have been preferable to Paeon.

But hey, why trifle with minor issues. If it works, it works, right?

[Icemage]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

No way.

/WHM would have been deadly. It would have given me Curaga (only would have used it twice in 2 hours) and Divine Seal (which would probably have been used to DS/CureIV).

Since I was using Regen exclusively to bring up my HP after Convert, DS/CureIV wouldn't have saved me any MP (Regen is 8HP per 1MP, DS/CureIV would have been 8.1:1). Barfira and Curaga would have saved me a bit on the handful of Goblins, but then I lose the 150-200MP per convert cycle from Ballad, not to mention the loss of Ballad to the PLD who was doing much of her own healing, and we were killing things faster with March too (which again saves MP).


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

It's a good testimony for this job combination, but how effective are songs as a subjob? Also, does CHR come into play as it is with main BRD? Because, if so, then it might be useful to a tarutaru (High CHR) but not so for a few of the races I can think of right now...

[Icemage]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

March when subbed seems to give about 5% haste give or take. At level 62, Madrigal feels like it gives at least +7ACC or so - it seems stronger than Gravity's -EVA effect, which speaks volumes considering that Gravity costs 30MP and has both a long recast and is easily resisted.

CHR doesn't even come into the equation really. Ballad doesn't change its power level unless you've got Gjallarhorn (or that new Assault point instrument that has +1 Ballad), and most of the other songs are situational. Paeon II gives 2HP/tick regeneration, which on a party of 6 is the equivalent to a 0MP Regen II (12HP/tick total). Magic Finale is a 0MP Dispel against spell-based buffs on enemies that are weak to Light magic (Weapons, Goblins, Skeletons).

The point to remember about /BRD buffs is that they aren't, in themselves, powerful, but they cost nothing but a bit of time and give tangible benefits, and you can juggle them across the entire party if you know what you're doing.


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

Icemage, I have a question.

How many songs max can you stick on players with BRD subjob? I remember there was a time when this in itself made the job "useless" in the eyes of many players (Way back when I first started on Midgardsormr right after Beta)

It would be awesome to be able to stick two songs, but I guess I could live with just one.

Time to unlock the BRD job and uhmm ... do I want to level it now with everyone leveling their Trials of Ass Hats (tm) jobs?

[qaitakalnin]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

Unfortunately only 1 song can be given to players with /brd, however, as the story shows, depending on the situation that isnt nessasarily a bad thing.

[ultimaknight]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

Yeah, without a instrument you can only stick one song. And you can't use an instrument unless you have bard as your main.

But the idea of /brd has become more and more appealing to me because of the post by Icemage I have read. I was leveling up because I like playing the job, but I think it would be cool to sub it to my RDM just to see how well Imay be able to play it.

[Icemage]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

Only one song when subbed, yes. This is why so many people write off /BRD as being weak and useless, when it's anything but. Main job bards are rarer than diamonds most of the time, and songs themselves cost 0 MP yet have very powerful effects over time.

Generally speaking, you just sing 2 songs, maybe 3 at most: 1 AoE melee, 1 AoE mage, and maybe 1 single target if you're feeling your Cheerios if someone wants an Etude or Prelude.

Each song, taken on its own, is not powerful - it's the fact that the benefits are provided to multiple players at 0 MP cost that makes subbing bard so appealing, assuming you can handle the time management of adding two 6 second cast time spells to your repertoire.


Icemage

[Patchinko]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

I think it is common for a RDM to have BRD subjob available because of things such as your story here. Before I retired, I was levelling it, as it can be very good past 60 when your party has not BRD. Although only one song can be kept up, by proper placement when playing them, a good RDM/BRD could technically keep a number of songs up on the various members of the party as well as keeping up his other duties.

In addition... BRD is just kind of a fun job. So why not level it?

[arkaine23]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

At 75/37 with singing skill capped at 105 songs I've tested give-

Madrigal = +11 acc
Minuet = +14 atk
Minne = +14 def
Ballad = 1mp/tick (duh)
Etudes = +3 to attriubte

If I was to make a guess, I'd say that mambo is probably a reciprocal of madrigal and would give +11 eva. Similarly I'd guess that hunter's prelude would also offer a similar bonus fof +11 or ranged acc. Main bards say the weaker March is around 8-10% haste. My guess is that subbed March is around 3% Haste, but it would take thorough testing to be sure.

These are small effects, but they are free if you've got the time to sing. For best results talk to your melees about their gear/food and the songs you think may be beneficial. A melee who say has a ton of acc equipment, but is using sushi and stacking more of his +atk and +str gear to find a good balance, might do better to use all his acc+ gear, get a madrigal from you, and eat meat for a huge boost to atk and str. At the very least they might be able to take off sniper's ring(s)with you singing madrigal and use str rings to hit harder and not have the negative def stats of the sniper's. Small benfeits can add up- small acc bonus, small str & atk bonus, small def bonus, all just from singing madrigal and having a melee use a different ring.

And naturally the more magic users you can hit with a ballad = less downtime, and more mp for use. But you have to be conservative with your own mp use. Lacking 1/7 or so of your mp pool from a non-mp granting subjob, and lacking Conserve mp which fires prretty frequently from /blm, leaves you stretching your mp to Convert even though you're getting 4mp/tick. Being busier with a 2 song cycle added to your mix leaves even less time for you to take a knee. Let the WHM handle hasting. Only MB if its a sure thing the BLM's MB is not gonna kill the mob or leave it very near death. Eat Maron Glaces instead of pies. Etc, etc.

Double Post Edited:
oops almost forgot!

Finale = mp free dispel and it lands consistently

Lullabies= light-based sleeps, but without a lot of charisma, luck, an enemy's natural weakness to light, these are not so reliable.

[Icemage]

Re: XP party story - RDM/BRD at 62

I never rest as RDM/BRD unless there's actual downtime. You simply can't afford to take 20 seconds out for a tick of rest, because either Haste, Refresh, Ballad or something else will need to be recast sometime during that period.

Under normal circumstances, I usually manage to spend out all 1700+MP I get in a typical Convert cycle (~800MP, Refresh, Ballad 90% of the time, Vermillion Cloak) without running out, even if I'm casting Haste or Refresh on 5 people.


Icemage