Brd puller

[Croix]

I'm planning on trying out Brd as my first advanced job so I'm trying to educate myself on all things Brd. I've read that Brd's will sometimes act as puller for the group. How do Brd's typically pull....throwing weapons or song/spell?

[Olorin401]

I usually pull with Elegy.. you can never go wrong with that, unless a Greater Colibri mimics it at you when your Utsusemi shadows are down
I suppose you could also pull with Ninjitsu.. something benign to BRDs like Kurayami. If you're subbing WHM, Dia II, Paralyze or Slow work well also.

[Ellipses]

Songs. Specifically, Elegy.

[Truece]

And try to avoid pulling with a DoT spell/song/ninjitsu as you may want to sleep the mob when it gets back to camp.

[Pavlyn]

my bard just entered the point where colibri are exp mobs and i have an additional question about bard pulling. i often hear about ridicously high experience chains that groups get when using a bard puller. what are the mechanics of this? do most bards keep just one or two mobs slept at the camp, but still keep pulling as normal while keeping an eye on the one or two at the campsite?

i am 55 now and don't have a lot of experience pulling. i've only been asked to pull twice. one was way back in garliage citadel and the other was recently in the boyada tree fighting crabs. both of these were easy enough, but i was not employing sleep or anything in my pulling tactics. we typically got chain 4 with the occasional chain 5, but i hear about chain 150+ in merit parties and have no idea how this is achieved.

[Croix]

Thank you all for your responses ^_^

[Icemage]

my bard just entered the point where colibri are exp mobs and i have an additional question about bard pulling. i often hear about ridicously high experience chains that groups get when using a bard puller. what are the mechanics of this? do most bards keep just one or two mobs slept at the camp, but still keep pulling as normal while keeping an eye on the one or two at the campsite?

i am 55 now and don't have a lot of experience pulling. i've only been asked to pull twice. one was way back in garliage citadel and the other was recently in the boyada tree fighting crabs. both of these were easy enough, but i was not employing sleep or anything in my pulling tactics. we typically got chain 4 with the occasional chain 5, but i hear about chain 150+ in merit parties and have no idea how this is achieved.

Pull a mob, sleep it, sing 1-2 songs for the party, reset Utsusemi/Blinks/Stoneskin if necessary, go grab the next mob. The number of songs you can sing is directly related to how close the party is to killing off the previous mob.

You can save some time by pulling pet-enabled enemies like Dragoon or Beastmaster types since the pets will keep chains alive and die quite quickly.

If you do this efficiently and plan your pulls correctly so that respawns happen in a manageable order, you can create effectively infinite XP chains. My personal best is XP chain #241 (but don't expect this before level 74+, if it ever happens). Note that you DO need very good players to pull this sort of thing off. I've never seen these sorts of results in a pickup party - only in LS parties with my HNMLS where everyone has good gear and great playing skills.


Icemage

[Olorin401]

my bard just entered the point where colibri are exp mobs and i have an additional question about bard pulling. i often hear about ridicously high experience chains that groups get when using a bard puller. what are the mechanics of this? do most bards keep just one or two mobs slept at the camp, but still keep pulling as normal while keeping an eye on the one or two at the campsite?
i am 55 now and don't have a lot of experience pulling. i've only been asked to pull twice. one was way back in garliage citadel and the other was recently in the boyada tree fighting crabs. both of these were easy enough, but i was not employing sleep or anything in my pulling tactics. we typically got chain 4 with the occasional chain 5, but i hear about chain 150+ in merit parties and have no idea how this is achieved.

It pretty much involves having at least two mobs at your party camp at once - one that the group is actively fighting, and one on hold (usually asleep) so that the party can start right away. Repeat this fast enough and you get theoretically infinite chains.

Problems you can run into include people going afk, other parties moving in on your camp, and links.. this is a HUGE problem with Colibri too since you are risking your entire party if you dare to use Horde Lullaby.

Personally my highest chain is 186, though I'll frequently get 100 and the party will want to stop for a rest. Not a big deal, the EXP isn't going anywhere.

Edit: Had a party the other day at the colibri camp in Thickets.. Chain 340!

[Pavlyn]

thanks a lot Icemage and Olorin.

what you described doesn't sound too bad, but i'm sure it will take quite a bit of practice to get halfway decent at it. i like to think that i learn quickly, but as i stated in my first post i dont have much experience pulling. i know i still have a long way to go until i'm at the point where crazy chains will be expected. before that though i'll need to finish leveling, level ninja to 37 and get my hands on a Mary's Horn.

fun times ahead.

[Croix]

Not to derail my own thread, but.....I keep seeing people mention leveling Nin for their sub. Is having Nin as a sub pretty much expected once you get into the upper levels as a Brd?

[Pavlyn]

i think it depends who you ask if you'll get an answer saying bard needs nin as an available sub or not. i've read arguments from both sides that are reasonible. i know i'd prefer not to have to level nin sub, but i understand it's usefulness and i also like to have options to provide for whatever the party wants. some people say /nin is needed to making pulling easier and minimize the chance of downtime, while others argue bards are supposed to provide total support which /whm is the only sub that will do that and that /whm does not hinder pulling.

[Olorin401]

Not to derail my own thread, but.....I keep seeing people mention leveling Nin for their sub. Is having Nin as a sub pretty much expected once you get into the upper levels as a Brd?

Yes. WHM and NIN are the two major subjobs for BRD that most people will ask you to bring. You can manage with WHM but Utsusemi:Ni casts much faster than Blink+Stoneskin.

(Off topic note.. a weird thing happened the other day - my new ls claimed Khimaira and told me to switch to BRD/BLM for Troubadour+ES Elegy..)

[Callisto]

For XP pre-74 stick to /WHM, Ichi isn't always enough on its own, and through camps such as Caederva Mire you're going to help your party alot more having status cures than shadows.

74+ /NIN is the most efficient puller, and always use Elegy unless the timer is down, in which case use Finale. Don't worry about Colibri casting Elegy back at you, in most cases they won't have high enough relative CHR to land it on you even if it does take down shadows.

Add: That's the new rage for HNM Olo...I don't know what they do when Elegy wears off after 2 minutes and you have 8 left on your timer though lol...

[Croix]

Ok, thanks for the info! Looks like I'll have to add Mnk, then War, then Nin to the list of jobs I need to level up. Good thing is that Nin/War looks like a fun combo, but an expensive one. I guess I'll save Nin for last and hope that I have more gil by then ^_^

[Olorin401]

For XP pre-74 stick to /WHM, Ichi isn't always enough on its own, and through camps such as Caederva Mire you're going to help your party alot more having status cures than shadows.
74+ /NIN is the most efficient puller, and always use Elegy unless the timer is down, in which case use Finale. Don't worry about Colibri casting Elegy back at you, in most cases they won't have high enough relative CHR to land it on you even if it does take down shadows.
Add: That's the new rage for HNM Olo...I don't know what they do when Elegy wears off after 2 minutes and you have 8 left on your timer though lol...

The other day they had me and our Gjallarhorn BRD bring sub-BLM - We used Troubadour+ES+Elegy and for him it lasted almost 10 mins and for me it lasted about 7. That just about covered the Troubadour timers.