Just hit 45, I have a few questions.

[Rido]

Hey folks, just hit 45 brd and I was wondering abou a few things:

- I know I'll need Earth and Light Staffs once I hit 50, I was wondering if a Dark Staff i optional since we don't rest for that long anyway?

- Is there any upcoming song that really shakes up your playstyle, such as Ballad did? Will there be a *huge*, noticeable difference in the amount of mp regained with Ballad 2?

- I'm currently sporting a Brigandine, I was wondering if there will be any other armor I shoudl check out before my AF body. How long should I wear the AF body?

- I remember seeing someone say that blm's use alot of lightning spells end game. I don't have any threnodies macro'ed ( I don't like switching sets mid-fights and my two rows are already filled) - but I was wondering if threonides helping bursts become such an issue down the road that macro-ing some in would be suggested.

- Do you find that you have a better invite rate during JP primetime? I don't know why but I seem to get more parties after 9pm EST, during the day there are few parties EXP'ing, even though it's summer for alot of people.

That's it for now, thanks ahead of time for replying. If I have any more I'll post them later.

[Jei]

hmm I think at lower level, JP players appreciate BRD more in general. I think they tend to have more understanding about BRD job and know what BRD cna offer... even at early levels. For example, I got *many* NA PTs that had whm and blm, and still fill the last spot with RDM and ignore the BRD that's seeking...

[Keyura]

hmm I think at lower level, JP players appreciate BRD more in general. I think they tend to have more understanding about BRD job and know what BRD cna offer... even at early levels. For example, I got *many* NA PTs that had whm and blm, and still fill the last spot with RDM and ignore the BRD that's seeking...

seconded, until ballad II, most NA pts don't know how useful to the pt you can be, AF body seemed to last me a long time, SH or minstrels coat, but otherwise probably going to be errant or JSE after that, dark staff, don't worry with it imo, you should have time to rest as busy as you'll be; until endgame, you'll cast debuffs, melee songs then mage songs, then support the curing basically; threnodies, i dunno how much of a difference they honestly make, but they can't hurt, wheres icemage when u need numbers? heh

[Jei]

oo threnody is a great help and you can really see it if you play RDM. When doing MB, spells that normally got resisted more than 60% become soooo easy to do full damage ^^ Fight a caster, stick wind threnody on it to ensure silence sticking!

[Icemage]

Threnody is extremely powerful when used correctly. It lets you do lots of interesting things:

- Dark Threnody against Crabs/Beetles allows BLM and DRK (and higher level RDM/BLMs) to Aspir more MP, reducing down time.

- Elemental Threnody linked to the skillchain that you are using will improve the odds that the bonus skillchain damage will not be resisted. This is especially true in cases where the monster is not normally weak to the element. I took a MNK + THF party once where we were stuck using Scission as our skillchain on crabs in Boyahda. Earth Threnody didn't guarantee the bonus damage, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it greatly increased the odds of at least 1/2 damage (so the 500 damage Viper Bite would sometimes generate a quite respectable 250 damage Scission, on top of improving the stick rate of Stone III magic burst from the BLM).

Mage's Ballad II is even more defining than Mage's Ballad I. The difference in performance on bard between level 54 and level 55 is huge due to the existence of this one song. Additionally, Carnage Elegy is also quite powerful, and will greatly improve the efficiency of your parties.

Armor-wise, I found Vermillion Cloak to be a tremendous help at level 59. This item may be out of your price range, however (it's quite expensive).

Regarding macros, you can probably handle every song you commonly use on one panel. My Bard macro set looks like this:

Panel 1:
Elegy
Finale
Requiem
Threnody1
Threnody2
Foe Lullaby
Horde Lullaby
Barelement spell
/target <bt>
<t> {Found it!}

Panel 2:
Minuet IV
Minuet III
March
Madrigal
Cure III
Erase
Misc 1 (usually Prelude or an Etude)
Misc 2 (usually another Etude)
Ballad I
Ballad II

I edit these on-the-fly as needed, for instance if I need Mambo, I'll edit Misc1/2 for that. Threnody1 and 2 are edited as needed to accomodate up to 2 separate skillchains.


Icemage

[Keyura]

oo threnody is a great help and you can really see it if you play RDM. When doing MB, spells that normally got resisted more than 60% become soooo easy to do full damage ^^ Fight a caster, stick wind threnody on it to ensure silence sticking!

heh, it's been a while since i've exp'd on bard, but i never noticed too much, and from 70+ i was always in arrow/mana/mnk burn pts, so i never had the time honestly ><;

[kuu]

Bards kinda changed since the food update. Before your bard was the only thing to acc boost.

Now with sushi, that's not so important, unless you got a cheap melee member.

Bards are very much in the support range, and do their best when there is contantality.

SMN,RDM,BLM all have potiental to "push" on demand, which bards can't. Such as extra nuke, extra buffs, extra other stuff.

Light staff should be gotten ASAP for lullaby(cause it means life or death very often) and for curing.

[Jei]

still even with sushi, BRD can still strengthen the PT to the point nothing can really compete with them imo. They offer not only accuracy, but finare, offense, defense, stat boost, evasion, HP MP anything you think of they have it. They really have the tool at their disposal to always be able to boost the group no matter what the set up is, or what food their is.

[kuu]

still even with sushi, BRD can still strengthen the PT to the point nothing can really compete with them imo. They offer not only accuracy, but finare, offense, defense, stat boost, evasion, HP MP anything you think of they have it. They really have the tool at their disposal to always be able to boost the group no matter what the set up is, or what food their is.

Yes, before, it was magrial and minuet. Now it's more of Valor and maybe a lesser valor a little bit of dimishing returns there.

Also if 1 DD eats sushi and another doesn't....You got a tough choice... IF you do dual valor, one will miss. if you do magrial and valor, one won't really hit that much more and loses attk.

It's the little things here. Not saying it totals gimps bards, but it makes them a little different now.

[Balodoth]

Well, I would hope the intelligent DD would bring more than one food. Leveling WAR for my sub, I want to go DD, but I bring fishkabobs just in case.

[Rido]

Thanks for the great replies.

If you end-game bards can remember, which threnodies did you end up using hte most, 45+?