Bard tank.

[RunningDemon]

Best use of BRD tanking is to take NMs form RMT who are too stupid to turn blockaid on. :p

[Mini Neruto]

Yay! this thread has hyped up. My original point of making it was for Yeargdribble to post and mabey turn some heads twoards the idea so many people have automatically denied.

[Manayan]

Wow! Yeargdribble how did you get your defense up that high? I never knew a bard could achieve that much defense.

[Yeargdribble]

I've done the claim steal at Ulli before against RMT. It's quite satisfying ^^

As for my DEF, I took that shot while testing out my meat shield abilities. I'd never tanked anything with /WAR, but I was put into a position to do so simply because there was a lack of a PLD for a particularly difficult BC. I tried to recreate the situation I'd be in for the BC.

That is Protect IV, SV+2xMinne, Tavnazian Taco, and Defender. Incase you are curious, without SV my DEF is 778. However, I think BRD/WAR is more optimal for BC type situations as a PLD substitute. With Troubador I can get SV+2xMinne to last for around 7 minutes, which would be more than a sufficient amount of time for my purpose.

[Heimdal00]

I'm currently lvl 55 bard/nin with jaridah gear and mix of chr+, agi+, and eva+ gear.. as well as an earth staff for -20% dmg reduction. With 2x minne's active, my def is 282 (this is without protect or food). The average def of a pld my lvl is surprizingly about the same. I tested this on IT mobs (lesser colibri), and took between 50-100 dmg/hit, about on par with what a paladin would take. It would be tricky, but I could effectively tank using a combination of ninja and paladin style. If I went brd/whm, I could tank similarly, leaning more to a paladin style specifically (but blink instead of utsusemi). Raptor's Mazurka gets more hate at my lvl than 1.5x provoke. I know this because a nin/war had to provoke twice to finally get hate off me after I used mazurka (and I did practically nothing else for hate).

In real party action, I've saved my tanks a few times already with my utsusemi + zurka-voke.

Bard versatility rocks! ^_^

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

In real party action, I've saved my tanks a few times already with my utsusemi + zurka-voke.

In reality, you could have also saved them by just curing then through /WHM. What you did most likely is give your healer another MP sponge to deal with. Additionally, you likely wiped useful buffs out for a pseudo-voke and Minne.

I've done the claim steal at Ulli before against RMT. It's quite satisfying ^^

Is it just RMT, though?

[Heimdal00]

In reality, you could have also saved them by just curing then through /WHM. What you did most likely is give your healer another MP sponge to deal with. Additionally, you likely wiped useful buffs out for a pseudo-voke and Minne.
Is it just RMT, though?

Not always. In most of the cases, I couldn't have cured them as fast as they took dmg. Such is the problem with nin tanks who get their shadows wiped all at once with a mob ws. Fortunately with utsusemi I didn't take any dmg at all, so no mp sponge either.
I wouldn't use Minne either, unless I'm for some strange reason playing full-on main tank to begin with.

[Yeargdribble]

I've only ever used Mazurka as claim steal against RMT. However, sky RMT aren't as much of a problem on my server any more. Additionally, I almost never do sky these days. I'm strongly against stealing from other LSs. I hope it never becomes exploited enough to get nerfed.


The biggest thing that I've gotten out of BRD tanking is that I'm able to help. When I was a lowbie I always wished that I could help people like people had helped me. For the longest time I was a 75 BRD and could offer very little to others. I couldn't tank or DD for ZMs, AF or Missions. BRD tanking has allowed me to give back to my community. Now that I'm slightly less involved in endgame, I enjoy being part of mid-range LSs that are just getting start with sky and still have people wanting missions and even needing AF and LBs.

[Achaicus]

Use of lullaby as a cast interrupt might be of use while tanking. I used this vs. anticans and, later, against a NM Demon.

The meelees were quite happy to not be one-shotted But, I only did it about half of the time in those instances. I'd have to try it more to see if I can be consistent (as in the timing of when to lullaby).

Also, I recal a thread on Allakhazam about Bard tanking. One post mentioned that 75% is the cap for damage reduction gear - does anyone have any info on this?

Other commentaries mention that there is a point of diminishing returns since, of course, you want to have enuf def with with to reduce damage at all (or however it works).


- Greg W.,
Achaicus on Gilgamesh - tho Ive not played 4 a yr - too much in rl

ps - my employer has me in a remote location, so sorry i could not put in more details about the Antican, Demons, and such. In fact, it may well be that the network might 'learn' this site is game oriented so idk if I'll b 'back' b4 a few months or so

[Tirrock]

You should probably know that in the months since this topic was made, they've changed mazurka so it doesn't give nearly as much hate. That hurt bard tanking a lot.

[Achaicus]

Aw.. oh well, I still like the idea of it. I suppose that I could at least solo to some degree with the various physical damage reduction stuff (or w/e it takes). I won't have significant game time in the foreseeable future to level another job.

- Greg W.

[Susurrus]

Yearg, any word on if you're still able to hold hate?

[IfritnoItazura]

Yearg, any word on if you're still able to hold hate?

He put it this way:

On a side note.... SE broke me. I've prided myself in being a good BRD/NIN tank. It was one of my favorite things about the game. They have now taken that away, but it still stands that they made progress in a way that they have not in quite some time.

[menamataru]

once somebody asked me to tank as bard and i said fuck you.

[Taskmage]

Good to know, thanks for sharing. <_<;