[Maeru]

Hello Everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted since I've been busy leveling up a storm!

I'm nearing 75 on BRD and would like to get involved in the endgame scene, my gear is rather laughable so I wont post what I'm wearing currently, but I'm basically looking for some equipment I should be wearing before I find an endgame shell

Also, up until now I've been looking for a balance of +instrument skill and charisma. I've read in some other points that I should really load up on the CHR because 1-75 = wind skill 75 = CHR as the most important stats. Is this true?

Also, keep in mind that this is my first job to 75. Things like Sha'ir Manteel might be a little bit out of my reach. I have access to assault and am in a linkshell that currently runs them twice a week so I was thinking yigit gomlek for my body.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,

Maeru

[Ameroth]

Doesn't matter, if BRD is you're only 75, and only endgame job, you'll want to shoot yourself soon enough. All I can say is good luck.

(I don't know about BRD gear).

[Sabaron]

When you start accumulating pieces, this is your priority goals for maximum efficiency:

• Wind/Singing Combined Skill of 486
• Casting Speed Gear
• Magic Accuracy
• Singing Skill

Wind/Singing:
Ok, we'll start with the most important Gear Set, your Wind Gear for buffing:

Your basic goal is to achieve 486 total skill which, with both Singing and Wind capped and no merits, requires +36 skill from items. This makes your Victory March 11% rather than 10%. The easiest set to acquire is this one:

Head: Bard's Roundlet (Dynamis - San d'Oria): +5 Singing
Neck: Wind Torque (Purchasable): +7 Wind
Minstrel's Coat (Novv the Whitehearted): +3 Wind
Choral Cuffs +1 (AF + Limbus): Singing Skill +10 (+5 without the upgrade)
Musical Earring (Limbus or purchase ABC's): Wind + 5
Nereid Ring (Purchasable): Wind + 3

This gets you +38 skill which is over the cap. Now I realize that Cuffs +1 are kind of hard to get, so you can substitute this:

Another Nereid Ring: Wind +3 will get you to EXACTLY +36 with NQ Cuffs

or you can get:

Oracle's Pigaches: Wind +5

Obviously, if you have a bigger budget or are doing Salvage, there are a lot of awesome options available to you. Once you have +36 total skill for wind buffs, the next cap is 508 for maximizing the effect of your Madrigal buff. This will require you to obtain some more powerful gear still. The set below will achieve this goal:

Choral Cuffs +1 (10 Singing)
Choral Cannions +1 (8 Wind)
Marduk's Tiara (7 Singing)
Wind Torque (7 Singing)
Musical Earring (5 Wind)
Astute Cape (5 Wind)
Oracle's Pigachets (5 Wind)
Minstrel's Coat (3 Wind)
Singing Earring (3 Singing)
Nereid Ring x 2 (6 Wind)


Speed Gear:

The second set you should be looking for is the Super Fast set for zerging, meripo, and buffs that don't require skill bonuses to maximize (Paeon, Ballad, etc.).

Yigit Gomlek (10%) OR Sha'ir Manteel (12%)
Minstrel's Ring (25% Speed, but REQUIRES you to have HP-Yellowing gear)
Rostrum Pumps (2%)
Loquacious Earring (2%)

The Yigit Gomlek is more accessible than Sha'ir Manteel. Minstrel's Ring requires you to add another gear set to yellow your HP. I won't go into it because the amount of HP>MP you need varies based on race. You will essentially need Serket Ring, Ether Ring, and then enough Zenith or other HP>MP gear to equip so that when you switch back to your speed set, your HP is yellow. If you don't have this gear set, you'll find it very frustrating that healers keep healing you.

Magic Accuracy Gear:

The third gear set is your debuff set. Essentially, when you are debuffing, we are trying to increase the Magic Accuracy of your various debuffs.

This involves:

Magic Accuracy - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

1 Skill = 1 Magic accuracy = 2 Spell Stat (INT, MND, CHR) = 1% hit rate

in general. So, with those ratios in mind, you will start with the basic Wind skill gear set and swap out any skill pieces for MAcc or CHR pieces with a better return rate thusly:

Head: Bard's Roundlet (Dynamis - San d'Oria): +5 Singing
Neck: Wind Torque (Purchasable): +7 Wind
Kirin's Osode (Purchaseable): +10 CHR or Choral Justaucorps +1 (+10 CHR)
Choral Cuffs +1 (AF + Limbus): Singing Skill +10 (+5 without the upgrade)
Musical Earring (Limbus or purchase ABC's): Wind + 5
Nereid Ring (Purchasable): Wind + 3

and ADD:

Balrahn's Ring (+4 MAcc) or Nereid Ring if you don't have Balrahn's.
Melody Earring (+2 CHR) or Singing Earring if you don't put Loq here instead.
Choral Cannions +1 (Wind +8) or Sha'ir Seraweels (CHR +8) or Bard's Cannions (CHR +8)
Sha'ir Crackows (+4 CHR)

There are advanced substitutions available from the Goliard, Marduk, and Valkyrie Coat sets.

String Gear:

Your final gear set is your String gear set. I won't go into detail because it's going to be the laziest of your sets, but when you're in certain kinds of parties like Mage parties or Paladin Tanking parties, you will want to make sure that your Ballads go as far as possible:

String Torque (+7 skill) VERY cheap
Bard's Slippers (+3 skill)
also keep Minstrel's Coat and Musical Earring on unless you have a Choral Justaucorps +1 which has +6 skill.

There's also the matter of the Chanter's Staff which is +4 singing. You can add or substitute this item to any build.


Dream Gear:


When you're dreaming about gear, dream about these:

Marduk's Jubbah Set - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki
Goliard Saio Set - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki
Valkyrie's Coat Set - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Sabaron: He said a beginner's endgame set.

You're talking about endgame goals for BRD, which is completely different. Not that its not good advice, but much of that is a ton more work thank I think the OP's looking for here. Also, Osode is wasted on everyone but RNG, kthx.

Headpiece: Walhra Turban (quested) +30 HP/MP, +5% Haste
Body: Errant Houplande (for debuffing) Scorpion Harness (+10 Evasion for pulling, optional)
Hands: Choral Cuffs for buffing, Sha'ir gages for -2 song delay on things like Elegy and Lullaby.
Legs: Sha'ir Seraweels or Errant Legs, same means to same end.
Feet: Sha'ir Crackows, otherwise whatever has CHR or MP
Back: Jester's Cape +1 still good til endgame options come along
Neck: Wind Torque.
Waist: Swift Belt (NM) or Stick to Corsette for now.
Earrings: Melody Still good for now
Rings: CHR and Nerid rings will work for a while. Consider doing Missions for Tamas and Balrhan's Rings.

As for the CHR question = it only affects debuffs. That's all it oever does for BRDs. Doesn't add skill in any way.

For EXP situations BRD is generally invited to these days, I'd only worry about CHR for sticking Lullaby and Elegy, otherwise you don't really need that much CHR. For endgame events like sky, you're going to want to load up on CHR, preferably an amount that's at least half your base CHR. Don't feel bad if you can't stick debuffs, though, most people will have trouble doing so on endgame mobs anyway.

That said, jumping into endgame as BRD only is a recipe for immense burnout, you may wish to consider levelling a job that can rival it power to get a little break from the monotony of being a BRD. My suggestion would be look into WHM, RDM, SCH or your counterpart, COR. Or even a melee class just so you have something to do to get your mind off being a BRD or a while, because you will be seeing a lot of it. Biggest mistake I ever made with this game was jumping in endgame as a BRD first and only as a BRD. Let's just say its a bit too popular for its own good.

[Sabaron]

Oh, I know, kitten, but if you're going for a career Bard thing (which is not bad like Ameroth says), you want to know what type of event shells to get into, and what sort of money you need to generate to get to where you want to go. A good portion of the pieces I'm recommending are things you can go farm. Some of them require a good bit of money, but that's just another kind of farming.

You've given a good starter set, so there need not be any additional input from me on the subject of beginning end-game bard gear, and you did hit a couple of slots I forgot about, Waist and Back. I like Gleeman's Belt better than Corsette/+1; it's cheap, has the same CHR+6, no negatives and it has Acc+8 as a bonus.

I also didn't mention a Haste gear set which is primarily used when you're doing a lot of Lullaby. You already mentioned Walahra Turban and Swift Belt, mix in with the Speed gear set I have above and then add these:

Sha'ir Gages - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

You have to balance the Haste gear set for your Lullaby recast with the MAcc set so that you can sleep your target mob reliably and at the same time minimize recasts. It's probably the "tweakiest" gear set you'll have. Cuffs are probably the hardest piece to give up, but the Sha'ir Gages can't be beat for improving recast times.

[TheGrandMom]

Originally Posted by Maeru

I'm basically looking for some equipment I should be wearing before I find an endgame shell

Brds NEED good gear to get in an endgame ls? When did this happen?

Doesn't it go more like this....

Brd goes to ls website and posts an app "I'm a brd. I sing and play instruments. I am useful in 99% of endgame"

LS members see brd app "A BARD!! PEARL HIM NOW!!"

[Mog]

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

Brds NEED good gear to get in an endgame ls? When did this happen?

Doesn't it go more like this....

Brd goes to ls website and posts an app "I'm a brd. I sing and play instruments. I am useful in 99% of endgame"

LS members see brd app "A BARD!! PEARL HIM NOW!!"

Ugh..sad but true.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Yeah, that's my complaint about BRD - its easy to be a whore with bad gear and still get into an endgame LS. But I fault endgame shell leaders for not holding higher standards in that particular case, they'll take the whore BRDs at the same rate they'll take a quality BRD.

This OP's showing he cares though, he's asking questions.

[Ameroth]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

but if you're going for a career Bard thing (which is not bad like Ameroth says)

I never said playing BRD was bad. But BBQ did backup what I did say with his own experience. Entering endgame with only BRD is a huge roll of the dice. You either like it, or you go insane. But that's kind of my feelings towards endgame in general. >.>

[Aksannyi]

In most pearls that's true, but there are shells that have standards! We're one of them! Also, Ghorn or gtfo. Kthxbai.

But that's just us. I do see a lot of shitty bards running around at endgame.

Sabaron's list is pretty good, depending on what type of shell you are looking to get into, should determine what gear you need to start with. If you are just planning to join sky and/or Dynamis, you really don't need a lot, since you're obviously just starting out. If you're trying to get into an HNMLS I'd recommend getting a bit more gear, as they tend to be more picky.

Really it's sad to say that a lot of people don't give a shit about your gear if you're a Bard.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Its sad people don't care about a BRDs gear because they're a very gear-intensive job when played right. Most just don't invest in the HQ instruments because they want to manage the inventory (an excuse people will still make post-Mog Satchel, no doubt). Instead, they just toss on the San'dorian Horn (for the CHR, lol) and levell the job without the HQs.

[Aksannyi]

Bard is kicking my inventory's ass. I have so much shit cycling through my delivery box from leveling bard it's not even funny. I could gimp it to 75 but why? What's the point? I never understood that mentality.

[TheGrandMom]

Ya sad but true, I was leveling brd occasionally on my main and my alt is already 75 brd. So I would leave the equips on my alt since I used brd for events occasionally but recently needed brd to do Promies on my main. So I thought..."Oh brd, ya np I'll get my equips from my alt...." BZZZZZZZZT My alt is currently in "your characters data may be damaged" limbo still so no brd gear for j00! But with the new awesome addition to our inventory soon, I can buy equips for my main and not have to swap back and forth......well if I COULD swap.... f'in SE....

[IfritnoItazura]

More on Magic Accuracy Gear:

Will want HQ Elemental Staves to match offensive songs; Apollo's Staff and Terra Staff at a minimum. Add others based on the Threnody needed.

There are also element accuracy grips (Earth Grip, Light Grip, etc.) which should contribute M.Acc+2 for corresponding element songs, but I've no personal experience with them.

Singing skill supposedly affect accuracy much more than instrument (or just Wind Instrument, in practice) skills. If CHR for Bard behaves anything like INT for BLM, each 1 CHR is equivalent to 1 Magic Accuracy up to certain limit compared to the target's stat (likely its CHR). Once over that limit, it contributes 0.5 M.Acc. Again, that's assuming Songs work like Elemental Magic spells.

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by IfritnoItazura

More on Magic Accuracy Gear:

Will want HQ Elemental Staves to match offensive songs; Apollo's Staff and Terra Staff at a minimum. Add others based on the Threnody needed.

There are also element accuracy grips (Earth Grip, Light Grip, etc.) which should contribute M.Acc+2 for corresponding element songs, but I've no personal experience with them.

Singing skill supposedly affect accuracy much more than instrument (or just Wind Instrument, in practice) skills. If CHR for Bard behaves anything like INT for BLM, each 1 CHR is equivalent to 1 Magic Accuracy up to certain limit compared to the target's stat (likely its CHR). Once over that limit, it contributes 0.5 M.Acc. Again, that's assuming Songs work like Elemental Magic spells.

Warning: Speculation and Conjecture

The limit on the 1/1 ratio conversion would be dCHR = 10 or Bard's CHR - Target's CHR = 10 if it mirrors INT. I think the greatest problem that exists WRT the testing of this is that it is unknown exactly what rank mobs are wrt CHR. This is the list of currently quantified attribute ranks for mobs:

Translated version of http://www.geocities.co.jp/Playtown-Part/6371/

[Non-mithra, non-galka] BRD75/WHM37s are D/B/C and will have base of 70CHR. The only online attribute calculator says that I should have 75, but I have 70.

A 90th level D/D/D monster would have 85 Charisma (D/D/D is an assumption. Therefore, in order to fill out your 1:1 ratio CHR, you need +15 CHR. Anything above +15 will be halved versus high-level NMs. A D/D/D mob like a Heraldic Imp would have roughly 76 Charisma for which you would need only +11 to cap it out. This is provided the calculator is correct on its estimation of mob attributes. Noting that the calculator for PC attributes (which has a viewable in game display to check against) is off, apparently by a lot.

That notwithstanding, there also may be a point at which Skill points diminish in value. Now they don't go down to 0.5:1 like attributes. I think it's something like 0.9:1 after a certain cap is reached provided MAcc operates like Acc.

As for Singing vs. Wind, I haven't heard that... Singing, in general, is a better choice since it stacks with both Wind and String anyway.. Therefore, when there's an option, I would always recommend singing over wind; thus the point of Singing vs. Wind is moot since singing is better anyway for more obvious reasons.