Brd Af+1

[Iloria]

Which AF+1 item is the best for BRD? I recently got my second material from limbus for my brd, and I'm trying to decide which piece to upgrade. At first I was thinking to go with hands, since the singing skill boost is massive, and they have nice CHR and VIT. The HP and enmity would not hurt either. However the more I read on various forums I'm starting to doubt my choice. I'm only 68 atm, so I really don't know too much about endgame BRD yet... is the +wind skill on the pants more useful than the singing on the hands? I've seen a lot mention the body, but really I think errant will suit just fine until I can get osode/manteel. Is that a poor choice? Thanks in advance!

[tordall]

Probably depends on what other end-game gear you have and your playstyle.

IMO the Gloves, Body, and Legs are all amazing and are comperable to other end-game gears.

The hands would probably the last of those three that I upgrade because of the amazingness of the Sha'ir Gages though.

The AF+1 body is a nice combo of the +vit fromt he osode and the -enmity from the Hauplande with some other boni thrown in, so that would probably be the first one I'ld upgrade if I had a choice.

[Yeargdribble]

I just finished going through a large amount of discussion about this. I ended up going with the pants and haven't regretted it. Incase you're unaware tests have shown that Mary's > Nursemaid's and the pants will probably have the largest effect on your ability to land ALL spells (as ideally you should be using winds > strings for all songs). I think I'll personally go with the hands next after legs and then aim at the body. It really depends on what you are doing though.

For landing power though I'd say legs > hands > body.

[_11of8]

Singing skill does nothing to increase the power/ability to land any debuff songs; it is only good for increasing buff songs, such as Knights Minne and Valor Minuet, but even high quantities of + singing skill only marginally increase the strength of those songs. The stat factors for debuff songs, like threnodys, elegy, or lullaby, is your chr and your string/wind instrument skill, and of the two, wind instrument is stronger then string.

Choral Roundlet+1 - Good headpiece for HNMs. It has nice CHR and MND (Stoneskin) + HP and -2 Enmity. Only head better for HNMs is AF Relic Hat from Dynamis

Choral Justaucorps+1 - Very nice body piece. It has +10 VIT/CHR + 20 HP and it has -3 Enmity and 6 Sting skill, if you use harps. An over all body piece that can be used in any situation. I use this in place of Osode for some HNM fights where - enmity is more important. It is far superior to Errant, which I only use for + healing MP.

Choral Cuffs+1 - So so piece. It has nice VIT/CHR +14 HP and the - Enmity, but singing skill does nothing for landing debuffs and negligable increase to buff songs.

Choral Cannions+1 - A really odd piece. The STR and DEX don't do much for us, but the +8 Wind skill is very nice as is the - Enmity, along with +18 HP. The only problem is that many pants items are also nice to have, so it can be a difficult choice, depending on what is available to you.

Choral Slippers+1 - Not very worthwhile. Only stats that are helpful are the +2 HP/MP healing.

If I had to order them based only on the set, and not comparing it to anything else, I would rank them like this:

1 - Choral Justaucorps+1
2 - Choral Cannions+1
3 - Choral Roundlet+1
4 - Choral Cuffs+1
5 - Choral Slippers+1

[Regenshire]

Singing skill does nothing to increase the power/ability to land any debuff songs; it is only good for increasing buff songs, such as Knights Minne and Valor Minuet, but even high quantities of + singing skill only marginally increase the strength of those songs. The stat factors for debuff songs, like threnodys, elegy, or lullaby, is your chr and your string/wind instrument skill, and of the two, wind instrument is stronger then string.

What data do you have to support that Singing skill does not affect debuffs? Here is data supporting that it does in fact increase debuffs: http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/bar...t.results.html

Assuming these results are accurate (And I believe they are), singing skill has a measurable impact on debuff rates. I have never understood why some people believe that Singing does not impact debuffs when the Singing skill goes up when you sing debuff songs.

[_11of8]

What data do you have to support that Singing skill does not affect debuffs? Here is data supporting that it does in fact increase debuffs: http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/bar...t.results.html

Assuming these results are accurate (And I believe they are), singing skill has a measurable impact on debuff rates. I have never understood why some people believe that Singing does not impact debuffs when the Singing skill goes up when you sing debuff songs.

The data that + Singing did not affect debuffs has long been the norm in here, and other forums since before the game was available in English. Gameplay has changed in the time the game was released, so it's possible Sining skill has been changed to have a stronger role in debuffs. This is the first time I have ever seen any data that suggest this line of thought.

Looking at the data, it is interesting that it does appear to affect Lullaby, but the test span is far to short to say exactly how much. It also only shows that Lullaby has some relationship to Singing skill; it would have been much more worthwhile to throw out Elegy and a Threnody while it slept, and record those as well. For now, the most you can say is that Singing has some relation to the Lullaby song, in regards to helping it land.

Lets assume, for argument sakes, that + Singing is as potent as + Wind skill, that it affects all Debuff songs, and that it uses the greater of either Singing or Wind/String to determine the debuff. At best, Singing is = to Wind/String skill, and going by the gear, you can reach 269 Singing Skill and still have a good dose of CHR and MP, which are also important stats to a bard. A compliment of 269 Singing, 96 CHR, and 400 + MP is attainable through merits. This would bring you to almost an A- in that skill.

Here's the thing though, I currently sport a 256 Wind skill, 100 CHR, and 438 MP. This allows me to consistently land every song, but Foe Requiem (Damn you...), on everything but Gods and some very high lvl NMs such as Dynamis Xarcabard Deamon NMs. The real question is, could 269 noticably increase your chances on those types of mobs? Maybe it can, but I don't know. So far, all we have is a very small test that shows + Singing helps with Lullaby; it will take a lot more testing to prove it works just as well and on every debuff, like Wind skill does, though I suspect it probably does. Now that I've seen some evidence it might work that way, I may try it out sometime.

Hypothesizing aside, I know that 256 Wind skill and 100 CHR lets you debuff 95% of the mobs with ease. That being said, it's posible + singing skill is as useful up to that point as well.

If so, then what Tordall says is correct in that it will depend on what gear you have access to.

*edit* made an assumption there was a Singing Torque, and there isn't one, so max Singing skill was adjusted.

[Yeargdribble]

Actually there have been more recent tests that prove that Singing Skill does infact affect debuff landing ability so the hands are definitely more worth it than you may think. In fact they are without a doubt the best hands in the game for landing songs with their combination of skill and CHR with the VIT as a nice bonus for pulling.