Bard Guide/F.A.Q

[TheJingle]

WOuld it be worth it to melee with a staff instead of a sword or dagger from 15 or so on? I assume you wont be meleeing a TON anyhow , and since the new patch bards have a C- in staff (I think?) which is same as sword . The dmg would be less , but you get a decent little MP bonus from it , and can add at least some melee fro mit (or would I just be better off saying screw it and just going sword anyhow?) .

-Jingle
Mithra 30whm/13brd/15pld/15drk/17rdm

[Darakar]

Hello!

First I'd like to say that I think this guide is great, and I thank you for your time and effort put into creating it

I would just like to suggest that using BST as a subjob only for the extra CHR might not be something you want to promote. Using the Enhanced Skill Calculator (found here ), it appears that as a level 70BRD/35BST as compared to any other subjob class will give minimal extra CHR. Some examples (using Elvaan as an example):

70BRD/35BST will have a base CHR of 73
70BRD/35WHM will have a base CHR of 70 (-3 from BST)
70BRD/35RDM will have a base CHR of 69 (-4 from BST)
70BRD/35THF will have a base CHR of 66 (-7 from BST)
70BRD/no subjob will have a base CHR of 62 (-11 from BST)

And that's at level 70...at level 40 (where CHR apparently becomes more important for BCNM battles) the difference is even less appreciable:

40BRD/20BST will have a base CHR of 44
40BRD/20WHM will have a base CHR of 42 (-2 from BST)
40BRD/20RDM will have a base CHR of 41 (-3 from BST)
40BRD/20THF will have a base CHR of 39 (-5 from BST)
40BRD/no subjob will have a base CHR of 37 (-7 from BST)


Just figured this would be worth pointing out...I can however see that having BST subbed would allow for a bit better crowd control (assuming charming is something you can pull off in a hurry), but that's mostly for emergency situations, I would imagine.

In any case, I hope this helped =)

Darakar,
Sylph

[Neplak]

Very nice guide =)

One thing that i have noticed thou, When running Armys Paeon II with a Maple Harp (no paeon + stat on it) the regen of the song ups from 2hp to 3hp a tick.

There is no diffrence on Paeon I and III thou.

[Neplak]

Very nice guide =)

One thing that i have noticed thou, When running Armys Paeon II with a Maple Harp (no paeon + stat on it) the regen of the song ups from 2hp to 3hp a tick.

There is no diffrence on Paeon I and III thou.

[peptile]

Anything/bard is always a BAD choice.

I play as whm/brd when I need to lvl up my sub job, but thats only because I dont have my blm/rdm/smn jobs above lvl2.

The hit to mp is pretty hard, but most the people in the Dunes are still newbish, so they are more impressed with my sub bard skills then my whm skills.

[Tenison Grey]

Keep in mind, sub bards can only cast 1 spell at a timee if I'm not mistaken.

[stigger]

This is an awesome FAQ, but yet... gave me a little insight on how I will be running my character.

I was hopeing to do a BRD/THF combo, but ... i dunn now.... I have a WHM at 15 allready. I may use that WHM as a boost in lower-levels, but may switch to my THF in the future. I seriosuly cant live without sneak-attack.

I got really ...err...job-ability-home-sick after not being able to use Sneak & Trick after a while. Hopefully it wont turn out too bad.
Yet again, its all about how much fun you have in this game

What do you also think about a THF/BRD combo?

[Osaka]

This is the kind of guide I was going to make, but you did it much better than I would ever have. Thanks so much Teffie, and great job. ( ~ ^ o^~)‚‚. ?ô?`?ò?@?ó?@?B?™?™?B?@?`?ô?@?`?`ƒ~?š

[Teffie]

Originally posted by Rico
I got a question, all the high lvl brds I've seen have a staff like orish weapon why do they have that? CHR boost? and how much? btw nice FAQ.

Its a Monster's Signa Staff
it gives +8 CHR... Highest boosting CHR Weapon in the Game
Thats why they use it
And with the recent patch, Square-Enix gave Bard's the STAFF Skill, so they don't need to have WHM subbed

[Rico]

I got a question, all the high lvl brds I've seen have a staff like orish weapon why do they have that? CHR boost? and how much? btw nice FAQ.

[Teffie]

Originally posted by Gooden
quick question - does minuet affect ranged attacks? i.e. ranger with bow?

Minuet Simply Increases the characters ATTACK Stat. You can see what your attack is currently at by looking at your Equipment Screen. I'm not too sure if thats what Affects Ranger's Range Damage, but Im pretty sure it does.

On the other hand though, Blade Madrigal does not affect Rangers Range Accuracy, Hunter's Prelude Does

[Gooden]

quick question - does minuet affect ranged attacks? i.e. ranger with bow?

[Eldoth]

Nice job Teffie^^

[SyNapSe]

Is there anyway we can get a clarification of the true benefits of having extremely high CHR?

The FAQ made it sound extremely important for a lot of spells, while someone else comes out and says it only helps w/ the enfeebling/threnody type spells not getting resisted.

If there is not a need to wear tons of +CHR items it means more +mana items can be worn.. adding to the total healing we can do for the party.

[Maxim]

As you level higher it will exponentially become harder to land enfeebling spells if RDM is subbed. Same goes for Ninja, because those spells are based off of the skill level of Ninjutsu which only Ninja gets (so subbing Ninja will cut the skill level in half just like when you sub RDM).

So no, Dispel won't land at higher levels. Even Red Mages with their Enfeebling skill maxed occasionally have a hard time Dispelling spells like Enchantment Magic and Spike spells off of Elementals whose level is a bit higher than the RDM's and stuff.