Battlebard Questions

[TheGrandMom]

sub DRK if you want to melee.

I pt'd with battle bards and I finally got to the point where I refused to do it anymore. The straw that broke the granny's back was when I pt'd with a JP brd/drk. He didn't keep the songs up, was too worried about his TP so there was no weapon swapping for songs, and when he did his ws he would stack Souleater and Last Resort. Oh ya he pulled hate BIG TIME and nearly died all of the time. He would suck up my mp like crazy because I was trying to keep his arse alive, though he did eventually die once. This pt had a lot of downtime because of our bard.

While I do think that there are intelligent players out there that could do the combination correctly, I just don't think its worth it. So when my pt contains a battle bard, I don't stick around to see how intelligent this bard will be. LOL

[InuTrunks]

Battlebard is good pre 25 before you get ballad, after that you're too busy pulling mobs, sleeping mobs, buffing melee, buffing mages, de-buffing the mob to even think about melee.

Battlebard = X

[UnnamedGalka]

I pt'd with battle bards and I finally got to the point where I refused to do it anymore. The straw that broke the granny's back was when I pt'd with a JP brd/drk. He didn't keep the songs up, was too worried about his TP so there was no weapon swapping for songs, and when he did his ws he would stack Souleater and Last Resort. Oh ya he pulled hate BIG TIME and nearly died all of the time. He would suck up my mp like crazy because I was trying to keep his arse alive, though he did eventually die once. This pt had a lot of downtime because of our bard.

A prime example of why I refuse to invite Bards subbing anything other than WHM or RDM.

Battlebard is good pre 25 before you get ballad, after that you're too busy pulling mobs, sleeping mobs, buffing melee, buffing mages, de-buffing the mob to even think about melee.

Yup. There's no real problem if Bards melee in the very early levels, when they don't have too many songs available to them.

People who plan on being a "Battle Bard" all the way to the end, however, seriously need a swift kick to the groin.

[redcrimson]

i was reading trough the forum and i had to register just so i could post on this topic.

i'm lvl 71 now on BRD and up until 70 i have been able to melee quite successfully while keeping songs and throwing around the odd cure.

i don't belive you should use /nin /drk or wat ever other crazy ideas anyone can come up with as any brd shd really knw the most useful sub is /whm. however wat you do is figure out a routine which will help you achieve wat you want to do.

for me i make sure i have sword and dagger capped (still working on staff). my reason for this is...

1. Sword 70+ Joyese is amazeing good you gain TP and i generally pull off a ws every 2-4 fights. b4 that it'll take alot longer to gain TP. and as elvaan i do vague dmg its not great but i'm proud of it, in bibki bay i can generally do swd dmg which various from 10-45 which is noramlly just under the pld.

2. Dagger you get status daggers use them stun, def down, wat eva also theres Kard the lvl 67 BRD only Dagger with +5 CHR on it plus it looks like the tonberry knifes. also for all those lucky enough to keep it lvled you get Eviseration at 73.

3. Staff now as alot of ppl have said in post above you get alot of useful staffs use them poke mobs with them and eventully you'll get retribution which i hear can become your strongest WS.

as for song routines from 25-70 i've always song ballads on mages as the mob is coming to camp. then you engage run to the far side of the mob furthest away from mages and sing melee songs, this means you will generally have ACC/ATK or ATk x2 or wateva you sing for melee. for this to really work though you have to keep an eye out for when ballad runs out if your in even a 1/2 decent party they should be able to kill the mob b4 ballad runs out then run back and sing again. i very rarely have to rest useing this routine and i do cast curaga when needed as fighting gobs is always fun >.>

another thing to figure out is how much CHR you actully need. now think about it all you really need chr for is to stick 2-3 songs on to the mob. thats it! i can generally get songs down with 29-31 +CHR with my current full chr gear on i go up to about 36. so what happens to the rest of the slots? i occasinlly stick a venerer ring on for acc or wear an emporess hairpin or use STR gear if i actully have enough acc already. just cus our weapons are B and lower doesn't mean there actully useless.

in saying all this i don't recomend doing this in sky or in roaming partys. you shd go max chr with light staff as youll only be able to sing one or 2 songs before you have to go grab another mob for your party to rip apart,

[Tan'o]

1. Sword 70+ Joyese is amazeing good you gain TP and i generally pull off a ws every 2-4 fights. b4 that it'll take alot longer to gain TP. and as elvaan i do vague dmg its not great but i'm proud of it, in bibki bay i can generally do swd dmg which various from 10-45 which is noramlly just under the pld.

What about changing instruments?

[redcrimson]

changeing instruments doesn't erase your tp you can change all you like if thast what your talking about. as for instrumenst to melee with you can use frenzy fife which gives about +2 str and an extra +4 when you have songs on which is the latent, or the oliphant if you can afford it or manages to camp the 24 hour pop NM which gives ATK and ACC plus and Wind skill +

[Tan'o]

changeing instruments doesn't erase your tp you can change all you like if thast what your talking about. as for instrumenst to melee with you can use frenzy fife which gives about +2 str and an extra +4 when you have songs on which is the latent, or the oliphant if you can afford it or manages to camp the 24 hour pop NM which gives ATK and ACC plus and Wind skill +

I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. Don't you switch instruments with staves to get the most reliability in landing debuffs and threnodies?

[tnt118]

I've recently started working on solo/melee gear .. not really much else to spend gil on since I don't have any plans to level other jobs right now. I feel a lot more "comfortable" in game being able to do so much more by myself (or even as a worthwhile duo partner). I can take up to EP (at 75) mobs (depending on the family, sometimes with no downtime) with no real risks involved. Bard's have pretty good evasion, add to that gear and mambo if needed, and we're good to go.

I think I realized one of the best things about bard's soloing: You can focus on just one set of gear (wither it be accuracy, str, or whatever) and use your songs to fill in the others. Got a slew of ACC equipment, and use Minuet to boost your attack. Have good STR and ATK? Madrigal and Mambo ftw! We're a lot more versital than people give us credit for.

Yes, some melee gear is quite expensive. I've picked up some nice stuff without going pure "top of the line" ... however, between some useful rare/ex items, there's other gear that is very reasonably priced that give bards a lot more power than they are "used" to having.

[Caspian]

I'm afraid I dont understand this obsession with trying to turn on type of job class into another jobclass in a subpar manner. From what I've seen lately it is usually debuffers and support healers that want to DD in xp situations. If you want to DD in a xp party so bad, why not just lvl a DD job?
Now that I think about it. I'm getting pretty bored with shooting arrows and such. I think I'll start subbing whm and be a subpar backup healer. Win freaking win!

[UnnamedGalka]

Even if you keep up songs at a decent rate while you melee, you have to keep in mind, you're still giving the mob unnecessary amounts of TP. With each puny strike of your dagger, you give as much TP to a mob as a heavy-hitting DRK's scythe.

Do you know how annoying it is when mob WS such as Healing Breeze or Whirl of Rage get spammed? It really doesn't take much TP at all for mobs to WS, folks.

[redcrimson]

to the above question about staves no i generally land my debuffs with out the need of a light staff.

also about the subpar thingy why not try have abit of fun with makeing jobs do other things, nin being the prime example of this being the fact when designed it was not meant as a tank but as a puller and debuffer, but hey look at it now i'm not saying everyone is going to take up the idea of useing other jobs for things but we can all have fun its a game.

and theres nothing i can really do about the TP thing its happens and thats that

[Icemage]

to the above question about staves no i generally land my debuffs with out the need of a light staff.

Eh? I still have difficulty landing Elegy without an earth staff, and Lullaby is way more consistent when cast with a Light Staff. Any bard who says their offensive songs land consistently without the use of staves in XP parties is either casting on something that is weak to that element (Lullaby on Weapons, for instance), or is suffering from selective amnesia.

and theres nothing i can really do about the TP thing its happens and thats that

Actually, yes there is. It's called "don't melee". You're not contributing much damage, you're giving the monster extra TP, and any weaponskills you could do will generally hit for very little damage, assuming you hit with them at all.


Icemage

[redcrimson]

sad to say i do land them fairly constently you may have some CHR issues dats all i can think of it may take a 2nd cast but it lands.

and i enjoy to melee i've never had one complaint about my meleeing and yes my ws do land and obviously Spirits within does about 150 at 100% and 550 at 300% thats with my elvaan HP anyway so dunno how it wud be with any other race apart from galka

[tnt118]

To clarify my post, I haven't melee'd in XP since level 30... personally I was talking about soloing/farming/questing, things of that nature ^^.

----quote:--------------------------------
Now that I think about it. I'm getting pretty bored with shooting arrows and such. I think I'll start subbing whm and be a subpar backup healer. Win freaking win!
---------------------------------------------

In certain situations, again *not* exp, subbing whm *is* a wise choice!

[Rai|Kye]

sad to say i do land them fairly constently you may have some CHR issues dats all i can think of it may take a 2nd cast but it lands.

and i enjoy to melee i've never had one complaint about my meleeing and yes my ws do land and obviously Spirits within does about 150 at 100% and 550 at 300% thats with my elvaan HP anyway so dunno how it wud be with any other race apart from galka

i think i know why noone ever complains.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU ARE A BRD


noone ever complains about bards, its outside of political correctness.
ppl like to complain about rdms and ninjas instead because those guys are the coreofall evil and need to be nerved. (wish i had a picture of the Nerf-ball)