[Icemage]

Here are some questions that I believe new BRDs might find helpful if answered by experienced BRDs:

Would it be possible to pull on BRD/DNC without the aide of Shadows?

Yes, but you'll take some hits no matter how good/fast you are. Someone's going to have to patch you up from time to time if you do this.

Would it be possible for another job such as RNG or THF to pull while the BRD sleeps the pulls

Yes, but not as fast. Elegy is a much faster attack than any ranged attack. This is OK with Corsair, however.

THF could still contribute DMG with RNG ATK, SA, TA, and WS. RNG could still contribute with RNG ATK and WS. The BRD would just need to assist with sleeping the pulled enemies.

I wouldn't want a THF away from melee in a merit setting. Too inefficient. RNG is OK.

Would you enjoy playing BRD more if you didn't have to constantly pull?

I may be in the minority but I don't mind pulling.

Would it provide enough healing to allow for the following setup?
PLD/WAR, DDx2, RNG/NIN, THF/NIN, BRD/DNC

Not enough for consistency. Bear in mind that as /DNC, you still have to hit, and Bards only have B in attack skill, so even when you're not playing songs, you're not hitting as often (and thus not activating Samba consistently).

There's also the issue that most merit-worthy targets still pack quite a punch, so your PLD is going to get overworked with spot-healing things like Firespit or Pecking Flurry or whatever.

I was mostly thinking about how to make BRD more helpful with DD heavy groups since at all levels they are plentiful.

I have never had a melee complain about getting Minuets in a party. Ever.

Other jobs which have low WS DMG and might benefit from /DNC are PUP and RDM, but I was trying to leave those out of this forum.

Puppetmaster I can see as a prime example of a good use of /DNC. Their WS are so unspectacular, and they're in melee anyway. RDM is less so because they suffer from caster-itis like Bards - too much time spent casting to make any melee configuration optimal.

Quite frankly a SAM/DNC could do all your healing if a SMN, WHM, or RDM was unavailable.

I should hope my friendly neighborhood Samurai would have something else to spend the TP on, but to be fair, it usually ends up that they WS at 140% TP anyway on Meditate, so tossing in a dance isn't a horrible idea.


Icemage