Military Parade/Courtly Measure

[Callisto]

Ok, I just hit 70 BRD last night, which means I can now bid for BRD AF2 in my Dynamis ls. I'm ridiculously far out of the race for the only piece I actually want(RDM hat, been 4/5 forever :( ) so I figured I could spend some points on BRD. We're doing Glacier tonight and I was thinking about going for BRD, but I've been wondering: Exactly wtf do Military Parade and Courtly Measure do? I don't have access to allak/wiki at work, only MysteryTour and they don't have that info, could someone please let me know on here?

[Amele]

military parade is +8 to physical stats -8 to mental/magical stats when engaged (weapon drawn)

courtly measure is -8 to physical stats +8 to mental/magical stats when not engaged.

[KingOfZeal]

Also, according to the wiki, if you have the Cannions +1 (for Courtly Measure), the physical stats -8 don't appear anymore... if I'm reading this right, anyway.

[pounce321]

military parade is +8 to physical stats -8 to mental/magical stats when engaged (weapon drawn)

courtly measure is -8 to physical stats +8 to mental/magical stats when not engaged.

Is there any reason a bard would use the Military Parade body full time? I know this 1 bard who uses it full time, not engaged, and I can't think of a reason why he would. (He actually uses almost full dynamis bard armor).

Also, I see more bards using Courtly Measure leggings over AF+1 Limbus leggings. IMO Skill>CHR&MP. Actually, in almost every bard forum I read they all agree Skill>CHR&MP. So my question is, why don't more (hardcore bard, not exp pt princess bards) going after these? Only maybe 50% of the badly equipped bards I see it may be a question of Sea access, but what about the others? I hate to ask it, but are they... stupid? The ppl I see around think they are good bards. Pulling 150+ chains does not make you a good bard. But knowing what to sing, when to sing it, and what to wear at the right time does.

As for the legs, 8CHR & 48MP is a 1 time only combination of stats. It is a very nice alternative to Errant Leggings. But a bard can fill up enough CHR in almost any slot available to them. IMO an MP piece should not be a major decision when choosing armor unless you have more than enough Chr/Skill in the other slots.... which usually is not the case when i examine them.

[Malacite]

Skill is way more important because BRD only has a C rating in music >. <

[Lmnop]

As a non-bard, I'm under the impression that the C rank is misleading, since they have 2 skills checking for each action (singing + X instrument). But I'm a friggin' Warrior. >.>;

[Olorin401]

Skill is way more important because BRD only has a C rating in music >. <
The C rating doesn't mean a thing, since almost all mobs are weak to sonic damage. That doesn't mean that piling on the singing and instrument skill is useless though - in fact I like to think it's more important than CHR most of the time because skill levels makes all your songs more potent, including party buffs.

The effectiveness of bard songs is a combination of your singing skill -and- the instrument skill that applies to whatever instrument you're using at that moment. CHR is your modifier for landing a song on a mob.