Bard Guide/F.A.Q

[Osaka]

This is the kind of guide I was going to make, but you did it much better than I would ever have. Thanks so much Teffie, and great job. ( ~ ^ o^~)‚‚. ?ô?`?ò?@?ó?@?B?™?™?B?@?`?ô?@?`?`ƒ~?š

[stigger]

This is an awesome FAQ, but yet... gave me a little insight on how I will be running my character.

I was hopeing to do a BRD/THF combo, but ... i dunn now.... I have a WHM at 15 allready. I may use that WHM as a boost in lower-levels, but may switch to my THF in the future. I seriosuly cant live without sneak-attack.

I got really ...err...job-ability-home-sick after not being able to use Sneak & Trick after a while. Hopefully it wont turn out too bad.
Yet again, its all about how much fun you have in this game

What do you also think about a THF/BRD combo?

[Tenison Grey]

Keep in mind, sub bards can only cast 1 spell at a timee if I'm not mistaken.

[peptile]

Anything/bard is always a BAD choice.

I play as whm/brd when I need to lvl up my sub job, but thats only because I dont have my blm/rdm/smn jobs above lvl2.

The hit to mp is pretty hard, but most the people in the Dunes are still newbish, so they are more impressed with my sub bard skills then my whm skills.

[Neplak]

Very nice guide =)

One thing that i have noticed thou, When running Armys Paeon II with a Maple Harp (no paeon + stat on it) the regen of the song ups from 2hp to 3hp a tick.

There is no diffrence on Paeon I and III thou.

[Neplak]

Very nice guide =)

One thing that i have noticed thou, When running Armys Paeon II with a Maple Harp (no paeon + stat on it) the regen of the song ups from 2hp to 3hp a tick.

There is no diffrence on Paeon I and III thou.

[Darakar]

Hello!

First I'd like to say that I think this guide is great, and I thank you for your time and effort put into creating it

I would just like to suggest that using BST as a subjob only for the extra CHR might not be something you want to promote. Using the Enhanced Skill Calculator (found here ), it appears that as a level 70BRD/35BST as compared to any other subjob class will give minimal extra CHR. Some examples (using Elvaan as an example):

70BRD/35BST will have a base CHR of 73
70BRD/35WHM will have a base CHR of 70 (-3 from BST)
70BRD/35RDM will have a base CHR of 69 (-4 from BST)
70BRD/35THF will have a base CHR of 66 (-7 from BST)
70BRD/no subjob will have a base CHR of 62 (-11 from BST)

And that's at level 70...at level 40 (where CHR apparently becomes more important for BCNM battles) the difference is even less appreciable:

40BRD/20BST will have a base CHR of 44
40BRD/20WHM will have a base CHR of 42 (-2 from BST)
40BRD/20RDM will have a base CHR of 41 (-3 from BST)
40BRD/20THF will have a base CHR of 39 (-5 from BST)
40BRD/no subjob will have a base CHR of 37 (-7 from BST)


Just figured this would be worth pointing out...I can however see that having BST subbed would allow for a bit better crowd control (assuming charming is something you can pull off in a hurry), but that's mostly for emergency situations, I would imagine.

In any case, I hope this helped =)

Darakar,
Sylph

[TheJingle]

WOuld it be worth it to melee with a staff instead of a sword or dagger from 15 or so on? I assume you wont be meleeing a TON anyhow , and since the new patch bards have a C- in staff (I think?) which is same as sword . The dmg would be less , but you get a decent little MP bonus from it , and can add at least some melee fro mit (or would I just be better off saying screw it and just going sword anyhow?) .

-Jingle
Mithra 30whm/13brd/15pld/15drk/17rdm

[Phorest]

Teffie, you posted this a while back and I found it very helpful. So helpful in fact, that I made it my own macro setup

I thought it would be useful to add to the FAQ or at least post here...

My Macro Bar looks like this

Macro Set#9
ALT - Light | Dark | Earth | Fire | Wind | Water | Thunder | Ice | Magic Finale | Mambo
CTRL - Light | Dark | Earth | Fire | Wind | Water | Thunder | Ice | Foe Lullaby | Hoard Lullaby

ALT = Threnody Songs
Ctrl = Carol Songs

Macro Set#10
ALT - Paeon I | Paeon II | Minuet | Minne | Requiem | Madrigal | Ballad I | Ballad II | Soul Voice
CTRL - Sighted | CHR | MND | INT | Dagger | Signa Staff | Harp1 | Harp2 | Flute1 | Flute2

Sighted = Regular /p command for < t> Sighted!
CHR = Song that raises CHR
MND = Song that raises MND
INT = Song that Raises INT
Dagger = Switch to Dagger-Weapon
Signa = Switch to Monsters Signa Staff
Harp1/2
Flute1/2 = Switch to specific instrument

[kuu]

I use a whm/brd in lvl30+ levels and it's pretty effective

The idea is not to do things too broadly since your main theme will be partying

You can ony have 1 song active at once since you can't equip a instrument.

And I obviously use Army's Peon to no end.

Basically I start off with Peon which is mass group hp regen, and then business as usual. No need for any other songs, it's not my jobs hehe.

With Peon and Hp regen casted on the tanker, he recovers about 6hp a second, this makes my job much easier, and all other members are healing too.

The sacrifice is a blk sub, which I don't find it very worthly anymore. Since we fight VT-IT stuff in parties, blk magic is next to worthless, with exception to maybe drain and bio. MP conservation might be useful, but that's lvl20, meaning lvl40 main, and it only works sometimes, so bad luck saving 7 mp if it lands on a hp regen

The other choice would be Summoner, which MP boost reallly helps, though recoverly is a little lacking. Though MP regen at level 25 isn't bad

But BUT BUT what do bards get at lvl25 Mage ballad!! It won't benifit just you but probably other mages or mage subs as well.

And for Japanese parties, which tend to be called uber parties, they have blks that plays more like whms that cause both relief and frustation to a WHM. so Army's peon just makes that much more sense and in my opnion worth it.

This isn't to say you would want to sub a bard solo or in other situations. Blk = warp = very nice traveling.

Party wize it's pretty good for just Peon and Mage Ballad.

P.S. Oh yes silence resist isn't bad bonus either.

[ExodusRage]

this was a awesome guide! i loved it... the XXXX days i think either tef didnt reach that high or ppl go to different areas....also san d'oria is probably the easiest to go down through valk dunes and all...

[Sevalle]

Nice guide
Just a question, what job should I start with if I wanna be a bard later on?

[Lerican]

Cookiecutter version for Bard:

Level Whitemage to 18
Get Subjob
Level Blackmage to 15
Sub Blm to Whm
Level Whitemage to 30
Get enough jeuno fame and complete Bard Subjob quest
Level Bard to 60 or level Whitemage to 37
Level Whitemage to 37 (if not already done)
Level Bard to 75

You can interchange Whitemage or Blackmage for Redmage if you're going the fast sing route like I am or want to try it out later/buy fewer spells. However, you won't get the benefits of Brd/Rdm over Brd/Whm until 30/15 when fast cast kicks in.

-Lerican

[IheartBards]

Im level 29 on my first job, and Im very interested in the bard profession. My question is quite simple, can Elvaan Brd/Whm's preform whm skills fairly easily and effectivly even with the MP loss?

oh yeah, 1 more thing..could you give me a general idea of how much it costs to equip a bard at level..10, 20, 30, ext..?

If you could answer this, Id be grateful.

[Trev]

i dont think u need fame 2 do any adv. job quests

correct me if im wrong