Weapon of Choice

[UnnamedGalka]

the using a Dagger and Energy Steal / Energy Drain will probably help the PT more.

It all depends what you're talking about. If you're farming or facing off against lower level NMs and the like, then yes, it can be useful.

But as for regular EXP PTs and HNM battles, hell no. Bards rarely ever get the chance to melee in those situations, nor are they normally encouraged to do so. Hitting an IT mob or HNM for 0-5 damage (if we're lucky enough to actually land hits) instead of keeping all your buffs and debuffs fresh does not help the PT at all.

[Miriamel]

Well, most useful for the *PT* would be not meleeing at all, considering you give the mob about 8 TP each time you hit it. Admittedly though, I melee on bard to keep my sword and club skill maxed. It is rather selfish, but I level in a set PT and they understand that I want to keep my weapons capped.

This doesn't mean I slack when it comes to keeping buffs and debuffs up. My usual routine is balladx2 on mages, Bewitching Etude on myself (by this time the mob is either in place or coming), Carnage Elegy, Engage Mob, Madrigal+Minuet (or Mad+Mad if mob is hard to hit), Requiem+Threnody. Remove target lock to recast ballad if it's about to wear out in-battle.

Ah, my weapon of choice hence is a sword, but as soon as I max it, I switch to the +4CHR club and Elegant Shield.

[Bamce Sylph]

i used dagger for a while b/c cyclone is 125 skill, where as circle blade is 150 (i also hear circle blade isn't as good, anyone back me up on it?) for going and farming lower lvl area's en mass

[Vilurum]

Have Cyclone, Circle Blade, and Earth Crusher, and honestly I find Earth Crusher to be the most effective of them and Circle Blade to be the least. Despite the fact that my staff skill is almost 100 levels less than my dagger skill and the fact that it's gained at the lowest skill level of the three.

Circle Blade does physical damage rather than elemental damage, which means that since our physical stats play a role in it, the base damage suffers a lot more since we're weakling bards. It can also miss. It does not have any issues with elemental resistance like the other two do, but you're not gonna be using Cyclone or Earth Crusher on hard enemies as much as you are when farming anyway, when resistance is kind of a non-issue.

[Bamce Sylph]

i thought u needed /whm for earth crusher?