brd song bug?

[Damane]

yesterday I noticed soemthing very strange while pting on my lvl 60 brd.

I casted minuet and victory march on melees and ballad I + II on mages. My Ballads did never overwrite victory march, which I found very odd. As a note I casted march song with the +2 march instrument. Maybe I am a noob and never noticed that, but is that some kind of bug? because normaly songs should overwrite the other songs. The only thing that did overwrite victory march was when I casted minuet again on the melees. rinse repat. I basicly had march song all the time on me. Ballad I + II was not able to overwrite it. Bug?

[evilpaul]

+1/2 adds duration to songs and you don't have any Ballad +1/2 instruments, so the other songs don't get overwritten because they have more duration left. Or something, it's not a bug.

[Damane]

+1/2 adds duration to songs and you don't have any Ballad +1/2 instruments, so the other songs don't get overwritten because they have more duration left. Or something, it's not a bug.

wow never knew that

[Keria]

This can be fixed by waiting a few seconds after casting March, before starting to sing Ballad. Songs will only overwrite songs with less duration, as the above poster said.

[Wizerd]

This can be fixed by waiting a few seconds after casting March, before starting to sing Ballad. Songs will only overwrite songs with less duration, as the above poster said.

To add to this, songs will always replace the one with the least duration left. So if you cast Minuet with a +2, then Ballad with no instrument, and then you cast March with a +2 instrument, you'll end up with Minuet and March on you, provided you cast them all right after each other.

[Atlasion]

Heh. I was at least lvl 60 before I worked that out too. Spent like an hour of that party trying to work out why some songs would overwrite others (kept thinking it had something to do with higher tier songs) then eventually asked in LS and got right answer straight away..

[Thistle]

I can't explain it any better than anyone else has already, even though it was explained to me when I thought it was a bug. Something about HQ instruments and how long the songs last.

Whatever the reason, it's not a bug. Just give it a couple seconds between songs.

[Damane]

thank you all for clearing this up to me. Even after 3 years of FFXI one still learns things he never knew before. I feel like a nub atm

[Kimitsu]

just dont use any instruments for anything besides debuffing and the problem is solved if you like to do 2 sets of songs asap (merit party for example where the redmage doesent get out of melee range).

[Wizerd]

just dont use any instruments for anything besides debuffing and the problem is solved if you like to do 2 sets of songs asap (merit party for example where the redmage doesent get out of melee range).

Erm, instruments don't only add length to the song, they also add effectiveness, so this isn't a very good idea.

Edit: and what merit party does the RDM not get out of range? o.O

[Theraven]

just dont use any instruments for anything besides debuffing and the problem is solved if you like to do 2 sets of songs asap (merit party for example where the redmage doesent get out of melee range).

Erm, instruments don't only add length to the song, they also add effectiveness, so this isn't a very good idea.

Edit: and what merit party does the RDM not get out of range? o.O

Those superawesome merit parties with the melee RDMs of course!

[Bakthi]

just dont use any instruments for anything besides debuffing and the problem is solved if you like to do 2 sets of songs asap (merit party for example where the redmage doesent get out of melee range).

Erm, instruments don't only add length to the song, they also add effectiveness, so this isn't a very good idea.

They're also what lets you put 2 songs on each person rather than just one. No instrument = one buff per person (hi Salvage). So not only is this a terrible idea, it wouldn't even work as described. You could, I suppose, use a "neutral" instrument like Royal Spearman's Horn or Lamia Harp to play all buffs, but that's what 9/10 dentists call "a shitty BRD".

Edit: That, and in merits it's generally buff > pull > buff > pull etc., and sometimes not even enough time between pulls for a buff, depending on how much is slept at camp. So it's not usually a problem. It's no huge rush getting all the songs up for the first mob or two, because kill speed isn't nearly as critical.

It's interesting to note that the +1 on Storm Fife is generally enough to make timing a non-issue. If there were some way of "upgrading" this so that it would work in more areas, I'd go for it, as relic will almost certainly never happen for me.

[Kimitsu]

just use relic horn? no +stats and its wind!!!

edit: lulz

[Spekkio]

one more piece of advice, when you're not a blm party brd (read merit, xp, etc situation) cast ballad 1 first then ballad 2. if you're on top of things, there should be no downtime on songs for the mages, so they shouldn't care which one comes up first, and if you don't have time to wait or fail to wait long enough, you get tagged with ballad 2 instead of ballad 1, a major boost.

[Fng]

Edit: and what merit party does the RDM not get out of range? o.O

I think you mean what self respecting BRD deals with a melee RDM?!