What Do You Sing...?

[greydaze]

Now, it's been a good 2-3 years since I dusted off BRD, and I know a lot has changed in that time. I just wondered, what songs do you normally sing during the course of a PT? With a PLD tank? With a NIN tank?

[Icemage]

Depends on the level.

Lv11-24: Not much to choose from, Madrigal is your most potent song in this range. Add Paeon, Mambo or Minuet depending on your preference.

Lv25-50: Usually Madrigal + Minuet on Melees. If all melees have good accuracy from sushi and/or gear, can dispense with Madrigal and use double Minuet instead, or Minuet + March if your main tank is a Ninja. Ballad + Etude for mages. Paladins will want Ballad, so make sure you sing it after you sing melee songs and catch the Paladin on the edge of Ballad. You also might need to use Prelude on Rangers or Corsairs (very important for Corsairs!), and might need to drop an Etude on a Thief who doesn't manage to get out of the way of Ballad fast enough.

51-54: You get Blade Madrigal at 51, so it's often worth using instead of a second Minuet. Otherwise same as previous range.

55-61: You get Ballad II here, so timing of songs becomes very important because chances are you're using a +2 instrument for stuff like Minuet, which means you need to wait about 20 seconds before singing Ballads if you have a Paladin tank. Mages switch full-time to Ballad x 2 always at this point. Manaburn parties begin in this range, so you might be singing Ballad 24/7 in those parties. A lot of melees are subbing /NIN, so adding March instead of a second Minuet can be useful sometimes, depending on how good their attack ratings are.

62-74: TP-burn parties start in this range. You might get asked to sub /NIN for pulling purposes. Song selection for TP-burn greatly favors March, as it measurably drops recast times for Utsusemi (including your own!), so if most/all melees are /NIN, strongly recommend using March + either Minuet or Madrigal for TP-burn parties. Mages are still Ballad x 2. Paladins are still Ballad x 2 by preference.

75: End-game changes things a bit. Foe Sirvente in particular is useful for tanks in NM/BC conditions. Merit parties are very much revolved around speed kills, and melees almost always have adequate accuracy at this point, so Madrigal drops off the desired song list.


Icemage