[Silversky]

so, i know bards are not meant to solo, really. which im totally fine with.

however, if i was just interested in some light, casual xp in like an hour or so, where i didnt have time to commit to a party, or if i was waiting for a party and wanted to solo while i was seeking (my comment would say that i had other subs available, obviously) ...

...could this combination be viable? more specifically, is this combination ideal? or would it make more sense to sub something else, like nin, for example?

on paper, i feel like this combo makes the most sense, since you wouldnt need to rest as much for MP from /WHM, and your healing ability uses the TP you gain that you probably wouldnt use for WS's since, well, your a bard not known for doing a lot of WS damage.

[Sabaron]

When I'm campaigning, I like to bring /WHM because it allows me to buff cycle for XP, raise others, etc. "Casual solo for XP" basically translates to {Campaign} nowadays, so it's my recommendation. Dancer sub is primarily used by jobs that don't have natural Refresh.

Now that doesn't mean you can't use Dancer, I just think that WHM is going to be an all around better choice. -na spells, Erase and Cure III and you can replenish your MP without resting. Save your TP for Evisceration or Savage Blade.

[Celeal]

I am not a BRD, but as for melee/DNC solo --- which I assume taking damage from mob directly is a given --- it depends on how hard and how often the mob can hit you physically and non-physically. There is a limit on the rate of HP recovery for /DNC: If your HP goes down at a rate faster than your /DNC's tools can recover, you need to seek supplement from your main job or else you are KO'ed.

[Lunaryn]

It depends on what you're trying to go after; at 74+ /NIN is going to be the way to go against anything that hits fairly hard, but by and large NIN sub is only really an ideal solo sub for mage jobs. /DNC is a really powerful subjob that should not be taken lightly. As a THF, I tend to use /DNC almost any time I have sub discretion, and it's hands down the best solo sub for that job IMO. I'd suspect things would be similar for BRD, unless you have trouble getting TP due to casting (hopefully most of your casting would be between mobs anyway). For main jobs that melee and have no native MP, I find /DNC much preferable to /WHM. Don't forget that Healing Waltz will cure most negative statuses, so if you don't expect to be hit with them often /DNC is often quite sufficient.

BRD of course has refresh options, and FoV and Sigil both make for potential ways to increase this, so /WHM is going to be more viable on these grounds, if you don't need song buffs besides Ballad. Honestly, you're probably going to want to make this decision based on what mobs you're going after, rather than as a set "best" sub.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

People are forgetting here that BRD has Paeon IV and V to play with before Drain Samba, Steps, Waltzes and the two Accuracy Bonus traits from /DNC. If your sword skill is low and you lack a multihit weapon, then you may wish to consider /WHm instead, but if you have a Joyeuse or another multi-hit weapon, DNC is something worth considering. Even without multi-hit I've seen BRDs and CORs fare just fine with DNC so long as they have a good swordarm.

I personally use /DNC all the time on my COR and end up tanking a bit o the fights I get into. Thanks to Dancer's Roll (regen effect), Drain Samba and Waltz, I can go a long time and likely won't die. BRD and COR aren't terribly far removed from each other when it comes te defense or sword skill, so a BRD/DNC should do OK in Campaign.

For soloing otherwise, I'll be honest, BRD solo is so painfully slow its pathetic. I'd much rather watch paint dry or put a hole in my head than do any soloing on BRD. Sure, I've soloed and survived on BRD, but taking forever to kill mobs in the 40s or 50s as 75 BRD is rather absurd.

Wouldn't reccomend it for BRD in EXP/Merit PTs though, the constant need for reapplying buffs or even pulling tends to make /DNC hard to pull off.

[ospeff]

It isn't worth doing with any SJ.

[Raydeus]

I've tried soloing as BRD and while their dmg output is decent the 2 song limit is what really gimps your performance in my opinion.

If you are talking campaign then /DNC is a good option but in my case I prefer going /rdm for that kinda thing (gotta love Elegy + Slow ).



PS > If you are taking dmg or Elegy is enough for you to keep shadows 24/7 then /nin is probably the best option.

PPS > Also don't discount Evisceration, BRD can deal much higher dmg than RDM with it, specially if you have the right songs on you.

[Silversky]

so the way it sounds is that, if you've got capable sword ability, then BRD/DNC could work in campaign, but in most other circumstances, its better to stick with a /WHM, /RDM, or /NIN situation.

in general however, outside of campaign, its not a good idea to solo much at all as a BRD...great.

the main reason why i brought up this scenario is because, while i understand that BRDs can find parties with wonderful ease, parties demand a strong time committment that i can only offer so much during the week. sometimes, i'd like to just solo a bit for an hour or two. i understand BRD is not the job to do that, and i'll party heavily at various times during the week, but i'd like the option as well.

as far as /DNC goes, i enjoy what it has to offer on other jobs. i thought it might work well for BRD as well, or at least i hoped it did. i completely understand that it has no place in an xp/merit situation, but it seemed like an exciting notion for some soloing options.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If time commitment of PTs is an issue, it may be best to avoid BRD entirely because you will be endlessly hounded for PTs (even if you go /anon, melees can be punkasses that rat you out if they've seen your BRD before). It may actually be in your best interest to pursue jobs that can solo effectively by nature if you only have small amounts of time to play.

Solo EXP on BRD pretty much blows.

[Raydeus]

About the sword thing.

If you have Joy then go with that, but if you don't then you'll probably be better off with a good dagger as BRD gets access to a lot of nice toys. Then again I don't know if they have added decent swords for BRD in recent times so I might be wrong about that.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Nah, barring Joytoy, BRD's sword selection still sucks.

[Raydeus]

Ouch.

[ospeff]

If you want to solo when you don't have time why dont you just level, like, any melee job with dnc sub?

You're basically wasting your time doing it on bard, it isn't worth it. Levels come fast enough on bard, there's no need to rush it by trying to solo xp every moment you have, and again it isn't worth it anyway.

[Raydeus]

I don't think it's not about if it's worth it or not though, but rather if he wants to do it or not.

If he wants to give it a try there's no reason not to do it. Specially considering technically any time you spend playing a MMOG is time wasted; no matter how "successful" you may think you are in-game.

[Callisto]

In my experiences it hasn't done well against normal mobs, though BRD/DNC can do fairly well in Campaign at higher levels with Joyeuse, I do it when I don't feel like meritting and need to top off my buffer a bit every now and then.

Against normal mobs if I use Joyeuse to have enough spare TP for healing and occasional WS I get stuck with shitty Sword WS(BRD needs full merits and Fort Torque or Suppa to use Savage Blade, and even then Savage is a total piece of junk), if I want to use Evisceration I usually can't manage to get one off between curing myself...needless to say fights are slow.

If I were forced to pick a solo sub I'd almost say /BST would be preferable if you had it available, but otherwise, yeah I'd go with /DNC and stick to EP mobs.