[Maeru]

Hey Guys,

I hit 75 on my bard last night (finally) and I have two or three merits to spend. I've been browsing online for some recommendations on what to merit if my main is going to be bard but I havent found anything worthwile. I'd like to merit more towards endgame events than meripos, because it seems silly to spend merits just so I can merit a little better o.o

Anyways, I'd appreciate any input you guys might have ^^

Maeru

[TheGrandMom]

Finale recast is a must, imo. Minuet is another. Troubador is a must in endgame.

[Icemage]

I'd definitely start with Troubadour. Everything else is gravy.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Finale or Lullaby, depending on what you use your BRD for.

Believe me, it makes a difference in merits and Dynamis ><

[Sabaron]

Group 1

Lullaby Recast can give you some breathing room in Crowd Control mode, but is far from necessary considering you can get recast boosts from Haste gear, spells, Sha'ir Gages, etc. Finale Recast is nice if you find yourself dispelling a lot, but I would say they're both pretty good overall choices.


The buff enhancing merits, Minuet Effect and Madrigal Effect are ok, but to really get full potential, you have to double the song. This is pretty cool for zerg buffing for things like Dynamis Lord and Kirin. You should figure out which bard you are (or want to be) and then boost that effect--I wouldn't necessarily go for both.

Minne merit is useless.

Group 2

Nightingale and Troubadour are required if you want to do Zerging (with Troubadour being more important--Nightingale is strongly recommended), and are beautiful anytime you use Soul Voice because they will allow you to do this;

Soul Voice:
Sing 2 songs to melee.
Sing 2 songs to mages.
Hang out until you're about 1 minute, 30 seconds elapsed on melee buffs...
Nightingale > Troubadour
Sing 2 songs to melee.
Sing 2 songs to mages.
and you can push 120 + 240 = 360 (6 minutes) of Soul voice effect which is super, super cool and you can get this with only a 6-point merit investment.


I really like the merit song, Adventurer's Dirge. There are many applications where I have found this song quite handly, not the least of which is for Nyzul Isle floor bosses and mega bosses. The spell cuts down a significant amount of enmity on your mages and when combined with Soul Voice, gives a minimum of -20 Enmity which can really give a mage some breathing room during a prolonged fight.

I'm not a big fan of Foe Sirvente--I can't think of a situation where any tank (NIN or PLD) would want it over another spell like March, Mambo, or Ballad.

Other Merits

Unless you're going to be a Hardcore Bard (e.g. Fully maximize Bard abilities), I wouldn't put anything into Skill Merits (String/Wind Instrument) since you can maximize the potential of your 3 major buffs (March, Minuet, & Madrigal) with skill gear. I wouldn't do any CHR merits either--there is plenty of readily accessible MAcc, CHR, and Skill gear available to get good stick rates on your debuffs without it.

MP merits are very nice for Bards since we have a naturally low MP pool.

My recommendation in summary:

Group 1: One of Minuet or Madrigal Effect and One of Finale or Lullaby Recast, put 5 points into each item selected.
Group 2: Nightingale, Troubadour, and Adventurer's Dirge 1 point each and then divide up the rest of your merits between the three as you see fit (4/4/2 or 3,3,4 stand out as good options to me).
MP Merits: If you're not looking at using HP merits for anything (Taru, DRK, etc.), fill up on MP regardless of race otherwise ignore.

Minimalist Strategy:

If you don't want to devote that much merit to Bard abilities, I would put one point into each of Nightingale, Troubadour, and Dirge and leave it at that. The four good Group 1's don't cost very much, so you shouldn't have trouble putting a bit into one or more of them. Bard merits are largely gravy-like and no one will notice that you don't have them (with the exception of Night/Troub).

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

I'm not a big fan of Foe Sirvente--I can't think of a situation where any tank (NIN or PLD) would want it over another spell like March, Mambo, or Ballad.

I have 1 level of Foe Sirvente. It's handy for certain specific fights like wyrms (Tiamat, Ouryu, etc.), where you have an un-dodgeable attack that deals significant damage. There's a few other attack types that fall into this category (some of Kirin's attacks like Heat Breath, for instance). By and large I find it no less effective than Adventurer's Dirge, it just depends on party structuring (if for no other reason than Dirge being pretty annoying to cast on every BLM in a BLM party).

This is only of interest to players in advanced endgame though -if your only endgame is some minor sky runs and/or Dynamis and /or Salvage etc. then you're not really going to see much use out of either song since both need fights that last a fair amount of time to have any noticeable impact on a battle.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

MP merits are very nice for Bards since we have a non-existent MP pool.

ftfy =3

[Callisto]

I primarily use BRD for Einherjar and merit pulling, so I went with full Lullaby recast...I have one Finale recast but I was a bit drunk when I did that and I don't recall doing it, it's not extremely important. I tend to just cast it in a big chunk of Haste gear and I never really have an issue with needing it again before it's up.

Otherwise for Group 1, Minuet is probably the most useful on a regular basis, Madrigal is probably the best output effect per merit, I'd probably recommend Minuet just because you're more likely to use it.

For Group 2, the enmity songs are interesting at times, but in reality there's nothing they're going to do for a tank or healer that March or Ballad wouldn't be better 99% of the time. 5/5 Troub and Nightengale or ->