Is BRD good as a sub?

[psiorian]

I don't if there's a thread for this anywhere...but what about a BRD as a sub???

Since MP isnt required for their songs, couldnt BRD technically sub melee classes as well as mage classes?

[Eros]

BRB is a pretty gimped sub because you can only hold one song on a person and the song's power is greatly diminished. BRDs can hypothetically sub anything.. but as BRDs are -the- support class, a supporting sub like WHM or RDM (mainly for Fast Cast) is recommended for the most efficiency.

[psiorian]

hmm a melee sub?

Could a bard sub a melee class and still be pretty good...say RNG to stay out of the way of the battle and stuff as well?

[Rones]

Brd can work subbed to rdm and whm in specific parties and against specific mobs. A whm/brd at 50+ for instance can throw a weak accuracy buff on the melees and then a ballad on all the mp users. Assuming the average 4-5 mp users in a party (3 mages, pld, drk), that's 4-5 mp every 3 seconds net for the party, which outdoes the 1 mp every 3 seconds for the whm only from subbing smn for instance. The loss of max mp from subbing brd instead of blm at 50+ isn't a very large loss, at 61 I go from 667 mp -> ~590 mp (blm sub only gives me about 70-80mp). Considering you already don't use your entire mp tank anymore at that lvl makes the lower max mp even less signifigant.

Brd main losses a large amount of efficieny by not subbing rdm or whm for curing.

[Faranim]

No.

[Eros]

Originally posted by Faranim
No.

Listen to him. Faranim is the reason I became a Bard. ^.^ *gotta update the FFXIO profile thing -_-*

[Seeker_Onos]

Originally posted by Faranim
No.

^ What he said.

[Miriamel]

Would you get away with subbing a melee class? Sure. I tried it. I subbed my (underleveled) WAR to my bard, went to my mog house and went to bed, I still got plenty party invites over night.

But.. why would you do that? Bards do little damage - I wouldn't melee for any other reason than to keep my sword skill to date (Spirits Within 19 sword levels away ._.~). On top, you'll be far too busy to participate in skillchains etc.

Bard itself is a support class, and you best benefit the job by subbing a support class to it. For instance, I do the bar-spells in my parties. Since I have to run up to the melees on a regular basis anyway, I might as well take that burden from the WHM. I have enough MP to drop a Cure III here and there and/or a -na spell. IMO that benefits the bard class much more than doing 5 additional damage each hit.

[cavill]

BRD is a good melee class, i do as much dmg as alot of the melee in my parties, i fight after i have used all songs needed, since soloing up to lvl 10 i thought it was extremely easy considering i never had to rest, hardly ever had to cure myself either.

[Calroon]

Please do not spread out such wrong information.

Bard is not a good melee class nor meant to be. At the early levels about everyone is a good melee class yea but that will change very quick as BRD.

Soon you'll be busy singing a lot of songs and not melee at all since the 5-10 dmg you'll do are better spend on running over to the mages to refresh ballad or whatever else but melee.

... and no, BRD is not a good sub.

[meeyutu]

For leveling some jobs 1-10 I subbed BRD and just used minne, then later minuet. Other than that I can't see to many levels/job combinations where BRD would be a wise sub.

[Rekiem]

I think BRD could make a decent sub but only when theres no Bard in the PT. Sword Madrigal has a really good effect on melee and Ballad is usefull for Mage. I don't really see a Melee using BRD as a sub but a mage is definatly possible, mostly a RDM. I think a RNG could sub BRD too. He could cast Prelude on himself, which is probably just as good as subbing NIN for a second Archer Knife but he could also give Ballad and Madrigal to his party.

[Kalvin Klien]

Bard has always been a good back-up sub for me, it will raise the stats of your current main class no matter if it it is a mage or warrior type class.

[Karinya]

Originally posted by Rekiem
I think BRD could make a decent sub but only when theres no Bard in the PT. Sword Madrigal has a really good effect on melee and Ballad is usefull for Mage. I don't really see a Melee using BRD as a sub but a mage is definatly possible, mostly a RDM. I think a RNG could sub BRD too. He could cast Prelude on himself, which is probably just as good as subbing NIN for a second Archer Knife but he could also give Ballad and Madrigal to his party.

I haven't tried RDM/BRD yet since my RDM isn't level 50 (if you're not going to get Ballad, don't bother). From what I have heard, although you get to sing faster (especially once you get the AF hat), you still have too much to do - so giving up Conserve MP and having a lower MP Convert is pretty rough. The other mages will probably appreciate Ballad+Refresh though.

I think WHM/BRD might work better, although it doesn't get fast cast - WHM often have extra MP post-41, in my experience (but then I'm a RDM, so all my parties have RDMs in them.)

RNG/BRD is an interesting idea - I haven't seen it tried. How is Bard's AGI? (the other reason for RNG/NIN is that NIN has very high AGI which governs ranged accuracy, and to a lesser extent, utsusemi pulling)

In all three cases, though, if you have a full bard in PT, forget it. They have stronger versions of the same songs you were planning on singing.

Sub BRD is useful solo at low levels - you get minne, minuet, or paeon. In particular I remember using it for THF because nobody wants a THF below level 15, so you pretty much have to solo it 1-15. THF/BRD with minuet and paeon is pretty good for low level soloing. At party levels you will probably want WAR or NIN subbed though.

[Bamce Sylph]

Name: cavill
Race/Gen.: Tarutaru / Male
Main/Sub: BRD/WHM
Level: 13/32 <~~~~~~~
Server: Fairy

sorry, come back when u have some experience on the job.

short answer No
long answer NO!