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Thread: A few BRD inquiries...     submit to reddit submit to twitter

  1. #1
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    A few BRD inquiries...

    Okay so... I'm pretty newb when it comes to bard, I suppose. I don't really know the in and outs yet (which I should) so I'm going to post just a couple of questions I have here.

    First off, what is the purpose of singing magic? Is that for when you don't have an instrument? (And I'm not sure why you'd do that, either) And is it better to have singing skill vs. wind/string skill? The question I'm really after here is, is it better to have a String and Wind Earring and swap, or should I just get a Singing Earring?

    Second, skill is pretty much always > charisma. In a BRD sense, what's the real point of CHR? Is it only used to help in landing certain songs? Since pretty much every bard song is a fixed amount (Foe Requiem is always the same DoT unless you have an instrument giving it a bonus, and Elegy is always a fixed % slow), should I really care about upping my CHR a whole lot?

    Third, how is it some times when we have two bards in one party, I have 5+ songs on?

    And lastly, (for now) what kind of food do you use? Tacos are pretty good for DEF up, when you're pulling, as well as a CHR increase, and Pamamas if you use an Opo-opo Crown.

  2. #2
    >The Implying
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    Re: A few BRD inquiries...

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    First off, what is the purpose of singing magic? Is that for when you don't have an instrument? (And I'm not sure why you'd do that, either) And is it better to have singing skill vs. wind/string skill? The question I'm really after here is, is it better to have a String and Wind Earring and swap, or should I just get a Singing Earring?
    From what I understand, Singing is a factor in increasing how strong BRD buffs get, whereas Wind and String effect debuffs more. The difference between Wind and String when it comes to buffs are AoE range.

    Most Bards will agree though that String is mostly useless. Some don't even level it. Wind Earring would probably be your best bet.

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Second, skill is pretty much always > charisma. In a BRD sense, what's the real point of CHR? Is it only used to help in landing certain songs? Since pretty much every bard song is a fixed amount (Foe Requiem is always the same DoT unless you have an instrument giving it a bonus, and Elegy is always a fixed % slow), should I really care about upping my CHR a whole lot?
    I've heard that its backwards, that CHR is much more depended upon than skill when it comes to debuff accuracy, which is opposite of the way most magic skills work. Clarification on this would be nice.

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Third, how is it some times when we have two bards in one party, I have 5+ songs on?
    Glitch, which is why there was maintenance on it today.

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    And lastly, (for now) what kind of food do you use? Tacos are pretty good for DEF up, when you're pulling, as well as a CHR increase, and Pamamas if you use an Opo-opo Crown.
    Pamamas + Opo, Flint Caviar, Rolanberry Pie are what I see Bards pop a lot of the time.

  3. #3
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    After 51, haven't seen too many BRD pulling around this level though, you will probably be pulling with Elegy which should be equipping an earth/terra's staff which should be all you need while pulling.

  4. #4
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    Yeah I'm 71, but wanting to know what kind of End Game build I should work towards. And I do swap staves every time I use a song. (At least, for pulling and sleeping anyway.)

  5. #5
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    Biggest difference I saw when playing BRD was made by using Terra's staff for elegy and apollo's for lullaby, pumping CHR didn't seem to do too much. Despite not playing my BRD for at least 5 months, I focused on wind skill+ equip like AF2+1 hands, AF1+1 legs. I would have a musical earring if I actually gave a shit about BRD lol.. anyway to sum it up, I believe BRD equip doesn't really matter all that much besides some basic wind skill+ stuff, at least in my experience. My character was 2boxed for a tiamat once and the guy just used w/e equip, he didn't use skill+ or chr+ gears I had yet he still could land Elegy so..

    Just an opinion.

  6. #6
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    Re: A few BRD inquiries...

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Okay so... I'm pretty newb when it comes to bard, I suppose. I don't really know the in and outs yet (which I should) so I'm going to post just a couple of questions I have here.

    First off, what is the purpose of singing magic? Is that for when you don't have an instrument? (And I'm not sure why you'd do that, either) And is it better to have singing skill vs. wind/string skill? The question I'm really after here is, is it better to have a String and Wind Earring and swap, or should I just get a Singing Earring?

    Second, skill is pretty much always > charisma. In a BRD sense, what's the real point of CHR? Is it only used to help in landing certain songs? Since pretty much every bard song is a fixed amount (Foe Requiem is always the same DoT unless you have an instrument giving it a bonus, and Elegy is always a fixed % slow), should I really care about upping my CHR a whole lot?

    Third, how is it some times when we have two bards in one party, I have 5+ songs on?

    And lastly, (for now) what kind of food do you use? Tacos are pretty good for DEF up, when you're pulling, as well as a CHR increase, and Pamamas if you use an Opo-opo Crown.
    1. Singing magic is like the "base" magic, this combined with the instrument skill determines the calculated power of the song. So raising singing skill more or less increases both wind and string skill respectively. As for the potency value of singing and string/wind, some say they are equal, some say instrument skill are better. One thing for sure though, String instrument effect are weaker in accuracy than its Wind counterpart.

    2. I'm thinking there should be some sort of threshold where you CHR hits diminishing return. It affects the accuracy of debuff...but that's about the only thing I could think of, since potency of debuff like requiem or elegy are set in stone with only instruments affecting them.

    3. Some glitch...I think the last emergency maintenance finally fixed that.

    4. I use taco since I'm wearing turban now, but pamama is a cheap choice if you're using opo-opo, granted by the time you hit 70+, other headgears become a comparable option to opo-opo crown (Demon Helm, AF2, Walahra Turban, etc) and they don't activate pamama latent, so you'd have to use other food, and tavnazian tacos just happen to be a multi purpose DEF/VIT /mp/CHR food.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Yeah I'm 71, but wanting to know what kind of End Game build I should work towards. And I do swap staves every time I use a song. (At least, for pulling and sleeping anyway.)
    Oh, I read through that first post too fast, I thought you were a lower level.

  8. #8
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    Re: A few BRD inquiries...

    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Second, skill is pretty much always > charisma. In a BRD sense, what's the real point of CHR? Is it only used to help in landing certain songs? Since pretty much every bard song is a fixed amount (Foe Requiem is always the same DoT unless you have an instrument giving it a bonus, and Elegy is always a fixed % slow), should I really care about upping my CHR a whole lot?
    Supposedly... you should match half your base CHR in equip and fill other slots with skill+, mp, or whatever. As for endgame it depends which way you wanna go out of a possible 4 ways... healer (fake whm), fast cast (meripo), /nin (meripo/tanking), and debuff (maximized skill/chr). IMO, a combo of fastcast and /nin with tacos and VIT/-dmg% is the most fun.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Luke
    Biggest difference I saw when playing BRD was made by using Terra's staff for elegy and apollo's for lullaby, pumping CHR didn't seem to do too much. Despite not playing my BRD for at least 5 months, I focused on wind skill+ equip like AF2+1 hands, AF1+1 legs. I would have a musical earring if I actually gave a shit about BRD lol.. anyway to sum it up, I believe BRD equip doesn't really matter all that much besides some basic wind skill+ stuff, at least in my experience. My character was 2boxed for a tiamat once and the guy just used w/e equip, he didn't use skill+ or chr+ gears I had yet he still could land Elegy so..

    Just an opinion.
    What does terra staff do to elegy? I am leveling BRD and would like all the help I can get. I am mage challenged /cry

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Marsala
    What does terra staff do to elegy? I am leveling BRD and would like all the help I can get. I am mage challenged /cry
    +15% accuracy to it, I think

  11. #11
    I have no idea tbh
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    What does terra staff do to elegy? I am leveling BRD and would like all the help I can get. I am mage challenged /cry
    See your song/spell list? For every one (debuffs anyways) there is a color. Match that color with the staff of the same element. Bingo. Mage 101. Same for spells and songs.

    Elegy is earth based (brown song symbol). Use terra's.

    Lullaby is Light based (white). Use apollo's.

    Opposite element staff for threnodies (earth thren uses wind for example).

  12. #12

    Skill is generally better than charisma for landing debuffs, but dont give up masses of charisma for very little skill. For example, debuffing in Minstrel's Coat when you could be wearing errant, 10 chr for 3 skill - just mix and match until you find a mix that you like. Up until recently there havent been that many skill options so.. yeah.

    Generally for debuffing HNMs (wind) I wear:
    AF2 Hat
    Wind Torque
    Musical Earring
    Loquacious Earring (Wear a skill earring is better, I dont have the money to drop on +3 skill)
    Errant Hpl.
    AF1+1 Hands
    Charisma Rings
    Jesters cape +1, although I would be doing serious testing if I got an Astute cape
    Gleeman's Belt
    Mahatma Slops (AF1+1 when I get it)
    +chr shoes

    For buffing, there are only two options. For HNMs, sometimes it isnt worth going full skill for the sake of a tiny benefit, so you wear full -emnity instead. For me this ends up being full raven, penitents, novio, fenrir torque, troopers+tamas, something around -55 emnity. On fights where emnity isnt important, for example meriting, just go full skill on buffs. Nothing else is relevent.

    As for food, Ive only ever eaten tacos since getting AF2 hat - it renders Opo crown irrelevent (im not even sure where mine is.. i might have chucked it )

  13. #13
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    Debuffing is based on some sort of combination of skill and CHR (plus staffs if you got them). Singing and instrument skills also help with buffing, but the effect is really so small that it's not worth swapping out gear for them.

    For debuffing, I usually pile on as much Wind and Singing skill as I can (string is pointless...even with a +3 string instrument and similar string skill+ gear, a +2 wind instrument and wind skill+ will land more often). It's debatable if singing or wind skill is better, but go with what you got. Once I have as much skill+ as possible, I try to put on around +35 CHR. Maybe a few more CHR if I'm having trboule. With Apollos/Terras staff, I'm rarely resisted on most HNMs. The rest I put on MP and enmity-.

    And even with the huge amount of hate BRD songs and curing generates, I've never had the need for -55 enmity. I'm usually in the tank party and with a good tank you can get away with -10ish enmity.

  14. #14
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    Swift Belt vs. Gleeman's Belt (Usually use Swift for XP parties)?

    EDIT: Oh, and I know (at least I think) that the Etudes are either level or skill dependent. As I grew in level, so did the Etude buffs. Are other buff songs like this?

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aerides
    What does terra staff do to elegy? I am leveling BRD and would like all the help I can get. I am mage challenged /cry
    See your song/spell list? For every one (debuffs anyways) there is a color. Match that color with the staff of the same element. Bingo. Mage 101. Same for spells and songs.

    Elegy is earth based (brown song symbol). Use terra's.

    Lullaby is Light based (white). Use apollo's.

    Opposite element staff for threnodies (earth thren uses wind for example).
    Thx I was totally unaware of that.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carbon
    Swift Belt vs. Gleeman's Belt (Usually use Swift for XP parties)?

    EDIT: Oh, and I know (at least I think) that the Etudes are either level or skill dependent. As I grew in level, so did the Etude buffs. Are other buff songs like this?
    They're skill dependant. If you really pile on the string skill and use the string etude instrument you may get an extra 1 or 2 points added on.

    And I'd go with Gleemans since haste doesn't affect song cast time, just recast which isn't huge in exp parties.

  17. #17
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    Meriting you'd want /NIN usually and haste gear + dmg down stuff. w/ 2 BRD pt usually one is puller /NIN and backup healer /WHM.

  18. #18

    Everything that has said here is pretty much right on the money, Only thing that no one has said is an HP build. As a taru I got fed up with getting my ass kicked if I got hate / couldn't keep stoneskin up from aoes. What I normally do for my ls is have equip for normal skill / debuff gear and a HP set. Just simple stuff like gigant steppe sash BQ etc. I just toss all that stuff on and have the pld cure4 me for extra hate. I just like the fact that if needed my 1300+hp will be able to either take hits from the NM or I will be able to use my MP for clutch cures instead of a stoneskin.

    Not that big of a deal but I hate having anything under 1250hp on bard :/

  19. #19
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    Just don't use Zenith and you won't have that problem.

  20. #20

    Quote Originally Posted by Mufferino
    Everything that has said here is pretty much right on the money, Only thing that no one has said is an HP build. As a taru I got fed up with getting my ass kicked if I got hate / couldn't keep stoneskin up from aoes. What I normally do for my ls is have equip for normal skill / debuff gear and a HP set. Just simple stuff like gigant steppe sash BQ etc. I just toss all that stuff on and have the pld cure4 me for extra hate. I just like the fact that if needed my 1300+hp will be able to either take hits from the NM or I will be able to use my MP for clutch cures instead of a stoneskin.

    Not that big of a deal but I hate having anything under 1250hp on bard :/
    I dont think I have ever had over 1k HP on my bard, ever (except when tanking), and I dont have any issues with dieing. Perhaps look into a -emnity build before a +hp build... but that said, even when you get hate, you dont need 1250 HP to live - capped stoneskin is more important. I can get to 330HP on stoneskin now, with the new bard gear Im gonna be able to cap it.

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