Bard Detail

[Karizo]

http://xivdb.com/?wardrobe/5188/brd-max-critdet

cross-post from reddit, thought I'd post here too since this forum is also very popular.

Was wondering if I can get some feedback on this gear set. I came up with this set by selecting pieces that have either crit/acc or crit/det from the allagan/myth pool (the left side all have at least one piece with such criteria), while using crafted HQ penta-melded for the accessory slots which do not have pieces with such requirement.

For the choker, the melds are crit6/crit6/vit4/vit4/vit2 (det is already capped).

For the wristbands, the melds are vit8/crit6/crit6/det2/vit2 (det is 2 under cap with HQ).

For the ring, the melds are vit8/crit6/crit6/det4/det4 (to cap crit and det).

Basically, I am maximizing crit and determination while rationalizing the loss of primary stats on i70vsi90 neck/wrist/ring slot with additional vit and capped crit/det on each slot.

Yes, I am assuming skill speed is shitty lol. (there was a recent post about its effectiveness, but I am not sold XD)

Also, if someone knows an ongoing thread about BRD efficiency in general (rotation, gear, strategy on a boss to boss basis), please let me know. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: the acc on the page says 129, but with HQ it should be end up being 133, which is over one of the theorized acc cap of +131 on a BRD.

[Deadgye]

Determination alone isn't going to overpower the +4 dex on the allagan choker of aiming. By using melded there you're trading damage for survivability.

As for ring/wrists, they've been discussed quite intensively over the last few pages so you can read about them there. tl;dr is that the melded gryphonskin is a good choice, but so is the allagan. They've both close to each other.

Also the 'theorized acc cap' should be 473, not 472. As in 472 is the acc number you need to get over.

[fren.]

Is having ballad up during the entirety of big pulls in WP SR a thing now? The amount of butthurt paladin's who require it is kinda offputting. This guy had this whole thing macro'd as I got the entire message a second after I accepted.



I usually start off the first pull with a BV + requiem, blow through my cooldowns and AoE's (RoD when DoD is up) and put up ballad when mobs have a sliver of health left. Works well always.

[Appie]

I had runs where some PLDs would ask for Ballad (but never fulltime) and others not at all, the latter being the majority of my runs. Later I learned from some BLM in the party (that I guess also has PLD leveled) it is because some PLDs use Riot Blade and will emo less about Ballad, while some won't use it in their combo's and bitch at BRDs. Seems to me you are exposed mostly to the latter?

[fren.]

I had one tard yesterday refuse to pull anything because I wouldn't have ballad up the entire way. I'm not really sure what his issue was, but he commented on not being able to hold hate on three mobs that got away from him. I basically start every run now by stating I'll throw up balad at the end of each pull.

[Khalil]

I had one tard yesterday refuse to pull anything because I wouldn't have ballad up the entire way. I'm not really sure what his issue was, but he commented on not being able to hold hate on three mobs that got away from him. I basically start every run now by stating I'll throw up balad at the end of each pull.

Can't reason with idiots, so don't bother. Just leave the group.

[Azurewrath]

plds are bad
WP speed runs are only a few pulls, they shouldnt be having mp issues.

These are flashflashflashflashflashflashflash plds

[chichicha]

To be honest, different ppl has different way to play this.
No offense to any Tanks or our fellowship Bards.

As long as the WP SR works as what they requested and finished in shorter time, I'll just do what they asked.

From what you post on the PLD macro chat guide, I don't see much of issue and he seems to know his way to shorten the time spend in WP.

Off topic, lately leveled SMN50, joined some 4 SMN WP Speed Run, works wonderful! And Fun!

[Deadgye]

From what you post on the PLD macro chat guide, I don't see much of issue and he seems to know his way to shorten the time spend in WP.

Nerfing the bards damage by 20% and depriving the blm/whm from a 15-30% damage increase is just plain silly. With requiem up everything is dead before the mages run out of mp, so there's literally no reason I can see for me to use it instead. I'd laugh at him after reading that.

[Kalendor]

I have a question for Turn5 bards out there :

What is your burst rotation on the 15s conflagrations ? (please include the buffs before it starts)

[Therin]

I had runs where some PLDs would ask for Ballad (but never fulltime) and others not at all, the latter being the majority of my runs. Later I learned from some BLM in the party (that I guess also has PLD leveled) it is because some PLDs use Riot Blade and will emo less about Ballad, while some won't use it in their combo's and bitch at BRDs. Seems to me you are exposed mostly to the latter?

On BRD I use Ballad after every pull if the PLD's MP total is <50%, but shut it off as soon as the PLD gets close to full or the next pull begins.

I use Requiem for the first pull, the bosses, the ghosts/skeletons pull and the final pull.

On PLD my rotation is using Flashes down to about half MP, then rotating Riot Blade > Flash > Riot Blade > Flash > etc.

I have a question for Turn5 bards out there :

What is your burst rotation on the 15s conflagrations ? (please include the buffs before it starts)

You should have DOTs on Twintania so I don't usually apply them on the Conflag. Pop a couple of cooldowns before the Conflag starts and just burst as much damage as you can with Heavy Shot, Bloodletter, Straighter Shot and a Misery's End when it ends. Should be no problem taking it down in around 10-12 seconds. Just make sure you cancel Ballad/Paeon before the Conflag starts if your group uses those songs. (Also: Requiem is good if you can have it up before the Conflag and have magic DPS, but obviously make sure you're not trying to cast it while the Conflag is up).

[Spider-Dan]

Based on the following two comments:

Why the changes to bard?

Yoshida: We wanted to reduce the role of bard a bit because too many functions have been added. In patch 2.1 we plan to transfer one of these to other jobs.

Will removing this ability make it any weaker?

Yoshida: We're only removing one of the availabile abilities. Any change to damage dealt should be recovered by the additional actions that can be performed.

You also must know that the more information you provide, the more anxious we get as gamers. For example, you've provided a lot of information about warrior, but paladins might be a little upset. Also, bards are probably going to get a heart attack from the suspense of finding out which ability was removed (laughs).

Yoshida: There was a lot of discussion about it and I thought for this first update it was necessary to talk about some of the balance adjustments in advance. Bard, for example, is able to put out a lot of high instantaneous DPS. We thought that the risk/reward of the job would be balancing enhancing through songs with all-out DPS for boss content; however, when we looked at the time it took to clear content with bards, we found that the DPS was higher than we expected. Additionally, a number of very important roles to parties were concentrated to bard, so we're planning on fine tuning this. I will go into more detail with the next LIVE letter, but for all you bards out there, please don't worry about this as it won't be an extreme change.

GOODBYE BLUNT ARROW, I HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR NEW LIFE ON DRG

[solracht]

Live Letter confirmed close to a month ago that Silence would not be removed from BRD. Damage -10% seems more likely to me.

edit: I'll look for the source when I'm done WPing

[Exoduso]

As long as it's nothing like the RNG nerf in FFXI, I think I'll manage.

[Niiro]

The easiest way to balance BRD would just be to remove their Maim and Mend II trait while also removing the damage penalty from Paeon and Ballad.

They made BRD weapons have lower DMG values than melees because of the clear advantages BRD had in terms of mobility and utility, but then they gave them traits that boosted their damage anyway, so wtf was the point?

It's as if they anticipated BRDs to be singing all the time but in reality their songs are pretty situational and arguably their strongest song (Requiem) didn't inhibit their damage anyway.

Also I remember them saying that the ability to be "removed" from BRD was a cross-class skill, most people anticipated them removing LNC as one of BRD's subs (Blood for Blood).

[Spider-Dan]

Live Letter confirmed close to a month ago that Silence would not be removed from BRD. Damage -10% seems more likely to me.

Even if true, that was a month ago and these interviews are from a week ago.

To address your specific point, "damage -10%" is not an ability being removed (even if you removed one of the traits, it makes very little sense to transfer it to another job, which is the stated plan) and removing irrelevant Shadowbind would have zero impact. Furthermore, "too much damage" is not "a very important role that is concentrated to bard," nor can it be "recovered by the additional actions that can be performed."

Blunt Arrow is the only candidate that meets all the criteria:

- 1 ability that can be transferred
- very important role
- minimal impact on DPS that can be compensated by doing something else instead (e.g. damage is added to Shadowbind, or BRD is given something like off-GCD Feint)

[solracht]

Live Letter confirmed close to a month ago that Silence would not be removed from BRD. Damage -10% seems more likely to me.

edit: I'll look for the source when I'm done WPing

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...812-02-2013%29

During the previous LIVE letter I made a comment about adjustments to bard, which I think many of you are worried about. The reasoning for adjustments, as mentioned previously, is that bards tend to take away from other jobs that could be used in certain instances. This is due to their ability to deal steady damage in addition to supporting using job abilities. As such, we will be making adjustments to their cross-class abilities. There will be no changes made to archer or bard themselves. Please also rest assured that we will not be removing their ability to silence enemies.

[Niiro]

In the bit that you quoted Yoshi says verbatim that BRD was doing more damage than they expected, I really don't see what removing Blunt Arrow has to do with that.

Other than ADS when is Blunt Arrow so goddamn important anyway?

[Spider-Dan]

Once more:

Why the changes to bard?

Yoshida: We wanted to reduce the role of bard a bit because too many functions have been added. In patch 2.1 we plan to transfer one of these to other jobs.

Will removing this ability make it any weaker?

Yoshida: We're only removing one of the availabile abilities. Any change to damage dealt should be recovered by the additional actions that can be performed.

You also must know that the more information you provide, the more anxious we get as gamers. For example, you've provided a lot of information about warrior, but paladins might be a little upset. Also, bards are probably going to get a heart attack from the suspense of finding out which ability was removed (laughs).

Yoshida: There was a lot of discussion about it and I thought for this first update it was necessary to talk about some of the balance adjustments in advance. Bard, for example, is able to put out a lot of high instantaneous DPS. We thought that the risk/reward of the job would be balancing enhancing through songs with all-out DPS for boss content; however, when we looked at the time it took to clear content with bards, we found that the DPS was higher than we expected. Additionally, a number of very important roles to parties were concentrated to bard, so we're planning on fine tuning this. I will go into more detail with the next LIVE letter, but for all you bards out there, please don't worry about this as it won't be an extreme change.

Based on the most recent statements, "BRD deals too much damage" has gone out the window (just like "WAR is fine, you're doing it wrong" did) and has been replaced with "BRD has too many key responsibilities." Yoshida explicitly says that any reduction in BRD's damage dealt should be recovered, so reducing overall damage output is not on the table.

If you have an suggestion for another ability that can be "transferred to another job" to fulfill a "very important role," I'm all ears. Transferring Ballad, Paeon, or (if you want to reach) Rain of Death's -damage debuff would result in a significant DPS INCREASE for BRD, so that doesn't make sense. Are they going to give Requiem to DRG?

[Katlan]

I'm gonna laugh if they take away something like paeon or requiem and give it to another class. Nothing like bard being the only class to get shit for doing a job class