Questions from a beginning Bard

[littlecatlost]

1.) As you can see from my profile, I play a Mithra. Will I be severely gimped or less effective as a Bard with my low CHR?

2.) In a typical exp party situation, in what order should I start playing my songs?

3.) Before I learn Mage's Ballad at 25, is it really that important to seperate mages from melee? Most parties at lower levels seem to stay somewhat clumped together even though they shouldn't, with or without a Bard in the party.

4.) Besides the obvious stat, CHR, what other stats are important for me to increase?

5.) As I've read from other posts, Bards need to be masters of their macros. Sometimes occupying 2 seperate palattes. Can someone recommend me a good macro set up?

6.) As I increase in level, I'll gain access to more instruments that boost the effect of certain songs. I understand that most Bards add an /equip "So and so" command to their song macros. What is the minimum /wait number that I should add between the /equip and song macro so that the instrument's boost will take effect?

7.) Kinda related to the last question, what if I have "So and so" instrument equipped already when I hit a song macro that inlcudes an /equip command for the exact same instrument? Will it unequip the instrument or will I simply sing the song as normal with the boosted instrument?

Thanks! ^.^

[Vilurum]

Re: Questions from a beginning Bard

1.) As you can see from my profile, I play a Mithra. Will I be severely gimped or less effective as a Bard with my low CHR?

Severely, no. Slightly, yes. Exp party situation, not really ... the CHR difference (8 points at 75, isn't it?) between galka/mithra vs. hume/elvaan/taru, is not gonna make any visible difference on "wimpy" exp enemies. By the time things start resisting, massive +CHR equipment starts appearing. HNMs are another matter, but even hume/elvaan/taru bards loaded down with +CHR can't reliably debuff the stronger ones. Your success rate will be a little less than that, but it's far from reliable either way.

2.) In a typical exp party situation, in what order should I start playing my songs?

Because melees are hyperactive little punks running around between battles (i.e. they're out pulling), between battles is when you take care of your mages. (And Madrigal on melees, if and only if your one and only puller is a RNG who thus does not need Madrigal.)

If your party's not good enough to position particularly well, that may be your only opportunity to Ballad a PLD as well, which is all the more reason your Ballads should be played between battles.

That being the case, your melees' buffs will need to be refreshed some time during the battle. I prefer to put melee songs on them at the beginning of battle, because sometimes battles are over sooner than you expect, and they cheerfully go running off to pull when you want to buff them.

(Melees will always be more aggravating to you than mages. Mages are well-behaved and sit still. Melees move around. Particularly annoying is when they chase an enemy to on top of the mages ... and then stay there.)

3.) Before I learn Mage's Ballad at 25, is it really that important to seperate mages from melee? Most parties at lower levels seem to stay somewhat clumped together even though they shouldn't, with or without a Bard in the party.

All you could really give them are mambo, minne, and paeon, none of which should matter if they're not getting hit, and if they are getting hit the party has bigger issues. I personally didn't bother - I just harp-buffed the entire party (well, Cornette +1 for Minuet).

4.) Besides the obvious stat, CHR, what other stats are important for me to increase?

Max MP, music skills, and miscellaneous effects such as MP regeneration or decreased song casting time. Max MP is the only one of those which has a plentiful selection of equipment to choose from ... the rest are a few specific pieces (mostly hard to get) that offer those benefits. Mostly high level too, so don't sweat it.

As far as traditional stats, it's up to you what else you want to raise besides MP and CHR. At low levels you can melee passably, so consider melee boosts. Defense is always useful though in general you will not be getting hit. You will never be good at landing WHM debuffs with your half-level enfeebling skill, but boosting MND can slightly compensate for that.

5.) As I've read from other posts, Bards need to be masters of their macros. Sometimes occupying 2 seperate palattes. Can someone recommend me a good macro set up?

Everyone has their own. I'd tell you mine except I've been needing to rearrange it for a dozen levels. It's got stuff like Mambo and Minne and March, but not Curaga or Erase or Divine Seal. Important things to include are Madrigal, Minuet, both Ballads, Elegy, both Lullabies, Finale, Prelude, and at least one Cure spell. Throw in anything else you regularly use, such as threnody-du-jour and any status ailments your target enemies will be using, that you can help cure. Until your mid-40's or so when it becomes inefficient to use it, keep Paeon in your main macro set as well.

6.) As I increase in level, I'll gain access to more instruments that boost the effect of certain songs. I understand that most Bards add an /equip "So and so" command to their song macros. What is the minimum /wait number that I should add between the /equip and song macro so that the instrument's boost will take effect?

It does not matter what instrument is equipped when you start playing the song. It matters what instrument is equipped when you finish playing it, and it "kicks in" (somewhere between 70% and 80% casting time assuming you're not lagging). As such, you can /equip even after you start playing the song, just as long as it's not too long after.

(The same holds true for all equipment checks when casting spells. RDMs only need their MND equipment for Slow, when Slow is about to land, and they only need their INT equipment for Gravity, when Gravity is about to land. Of course, their cast times are a lot shorter than ours too.)

Personally, I suggest just putting /song "____" <target-usually-me> as your first macro line, and then any /equip lines after that, with no /wait. It'd work just as well to put the /equips first, then the /song.

Be careful though, that you don't hit macros early if they have /equip macros. You don't want to hit your Minuet macro halfway through Madrigal, because you'll switch to your Minuet instrument and Madrigal will be played with the Minuet instrument rather than the Madrigal instrument.

Also, you'll blink in and out a lot and lose out on the song animation. Once you've heard it a few hundred times you probably won't feel it's too much of a loss. Only way to avoid that is to equip the instrument a second or two before starting your casting ... but it's generally not worth delaying actually getting your songs out, just so you can see the animation.

(Also, if you switch from one instrument to another instrument with an identical graphic, you will not blink and thus you will see the casting animation. The Horn +1 for Elegy and the Mary's Horn for Lullaby use the same graphic, for example.)

7.) Kinda related to the last question, what if I have "So and so" instrument equipped already when I hit a song macro that inlcudes an /equip command for the exact same instrument? Will it unequip the instrument or will I simply sing the song as normal with the boosted instrument?

Thanks! ^.^

My understanding is that a long time ago, it did in fact unequip instruments, and thus bards had to throw in an /unequip line or something to their macros, so as to unequip, then equip when it definitely wasn't there, so it would definitely be there afterward.

That was fixed before I started playing though ... if you /equip the same thing you already have equipped, it remains equipped. No worries there.

[Beaginator]

Re: Questions from a beginning Bard

I'll try to answer as well as I can.

1. Nah, don't worry about the CHR difference too much. It's pretty insignificant when you get to higher levels and can access all the cheap items with large +CHR like jester's cape +1, corsette +1, etc

2. Well, usually I'll start with ballads on the mages between battles, then madrigal as the puller is coming in, trying to time it so it finishes when the puller arrives. After that I'll do elegy and threnody, then Minuet, then run back to do ballads. Rinse, repeat.

3. Before 25 it's not a big deal to keep melee and mages seperate, since you don't really have any mage songs. Just put up the melee songs and you can start hitting the mob and using your WHM spells.

4. +wind and +singing skill and +MP are the most important stats for BRD along with CHR, IMO. You probably won't be able to get any +skill equip till AF levels, so don't worry about that too much. Just load up on CHR and MP.

5. I usually cram all my macros I use in an exp party into one macro pallete, with my lesser used songs on the second. It's kinda like this for me:

1st pallete, CTRL bar: Cure, cure 2, cure 3, curaga, curaga II, 2 different threnodies, melee equipment swap, the rest usually miscellaneous -na spells relevant to what we're fighting.

1st pallete, ALT bar: Minuet, madrigal, ballad 1, ballad 2, requiem, elegy, finale, foe lullaby, horde lullaby, prelude.

2nd pallete, CTRL bar: Etudes

2nd pallete, ALT bar: Minne, paeon, mambo, march, etc.

I find that's about all I need for bard.

6. I don't use any /waits in my macros at all between the instrument switch and song name, but you can have one up to around 10 seconds if you want. You just need the instrument equipped at the time the song finishes.

7. If you try to /equip something in a macro, when it's already equipped, nothing will happen.

[Neverynt]

And most importantly, just have fun with bard. Cause that's about as much as you can do.