BRD merits?

[The Blackrose]

Who can say but this time next year SE will come up with something that makes Dirge/Sirvente the only way to go sometimes?

It would be just the right kind of sadism, I'm thinking.

Probably would require nerfing /NIN into the ground, me thinks.

[Neosutra]

Had another brd question I figured Id pass on to all of you brd Gurus.

Is there a way for me to get the use of yigit's 10% song casting AND marduk's fast cast?

i.e. if I equip yigit at start, then swap in marduk at a certain %, will I get both effects?

Or is fast cast calculated at the start?

[Ultimagi]

Equip Song Casting Time reduction when you start singing, then switch to Fast Cast or Haste before it finishes to get the recast reduced. You can't get the song casting time any faster than when you started singing though.

[Fredjan]

Equip Song Casting Time reduction when you start singing, then switch to Fast Cast or Haste before it finishes to get the recast reduced. You can't get the song casting time any faster than when you started singing though.

Exactly what I was going to say. Casting time will only be affected by what you have on at the start.

While I don't have Marduk at all, I abuse the heck out of my Sha'ir Manteel for just about every spell except /mage spells or Ichi/Ni (in those cases I use my Goliard Saio). I even do this with Minstrel's Ring, Loq. earring, and rostrum pumps; and then switch in proper gear for the songs' effect or accuracy immediately after I start casting (Omega Ring, Singing Earring, Goliard Clogs, the usual).

Case in point:
Use yigit to start casting songs and switch in Marduk's, as yigit's going to help your cast time more efficiently. Marduk should help your recast at the same time though. I'm not sure how it'd compare to full Marduk, but I know alone the body won't make for faster casts except for /mage spells and Ichi/Ni during precast.

[Bakthi]

What's my point? Everything is about small increases here and there, and they add up. Anyway, I agree with you that "bard merits alone don't do much". My point, that you completely ignored, is that "having a HQ amemet doesn't do much". And "having capped combat merits doesn't do that much". And "using food here doesn't do that much". And "buying HQ WS gear doesn't do that much". Really, bard merits do as much as anything else I just said, when you start shortcutting in 1 place, why stop there? Before you know it, you'll notice the difference, and it won't be 2 seconds on DL...it'll be a wipe on DL.

Every time you kill the boss in Einherjar with just enough time left to find the chest, or kill that Salvage boss with just enough time to lot the drops, or kill DL when everyone is seriously mangled and he just split into 9001 copies...every person should consider every bit of merits, food, gear, and knowledge that helped even slightly to have been worth it.

If BRD had been my 9th 75 instead of the only one I had for years, I'm sure I wouldn't have nearly as many merits in it, and I probably wouldn't be at 4 singing/4 wind/2 enf/5 elemental. But it's not as if all my other jobs are complete enough to start tearing down existing merits yet. Maybe before I get there, SE will increase the cap anyway.

As for Yigit and Marduk, assuming the numbers on the wiki are correct, Yigit Gomlek + Rostrum Pumps should give you a faster cast time than full Marduk (I have all of this, and I start in Gomlek+Pumps+Loq). However, you can certainly equip full Marduk once you start casting to get half of the Fast Cast benefit (recast). However2, while equipping full Marduk mid-cast is fine for most buffs, for Victory March and Blade Madrigal you will probably want to end your cast in different gear.

[Rida]

3 Min 2 Mad (I was usually Madrigal BRD in TP Burn) 5 Lullaby
Max Night and Troub (well would have been if I dint get LMd)

I Strongly suggest Lullaby 5/5 first its hella useful meriting to cap the rest ^^ FU BIRD AND YOU NOT ALLOWING HORDE ;;!

[FailureMidgard]

Every time you kill the boss in Einherjar with just enough time left to find the chest, or kill that Salvage boss with just enough time to lot the drops, or kill DL when everyone is seriously mangled and he just split into 9001 copies...every person should consider every bit of merits, food, gear, and knowledge that helped even slightly to have been worth it.

Yes....that was kinda my point...but ok...

[Bregor]

Capped merits in Wind - 8 of them.

Had singing merits, but noticed they didn't give as much effect as I wanted, so i've replaced them with elemental merits for my BLM (Being elvaan is a disadvantage when it comes to blm).

Is there a big difference in choosing 8 singing vs. 8 wind vs. 4 singing/4 wind? Only thing I really don't use a horn for is Horde (Nursemaid's) and I really only want to spend 8 magic skill total on BRD as I have RDM and will probably level BLM soon.

[Kainos]

Is there a big difference in choosing 8 singing vs. 8 wind vs. 4 singing/4 wind? Only thing I really don't use a horn for is Horde (Nursemaid's) and I really only want to spend 8 magic skill total on BRD as I have RDM and will probably level BLM soon.

Not really, the only difference is hitting a higher % tier on victory march. You will obvious have an easier time landing songs on mobs but any bard with 0 sing/wind merits and good/great gear can land it too. It's not like a BLM where you do more damage with less resists. With Bard you either land it or you don't.

iirc there's a test somewhere that singing has more effect than wind, but tbh If I had to do it again I would not merit wind/sing 8/8 because once you get the gear you could land the debuff songs anyway. Wind/Sing merits will just give you more leiniancy on what gear to debuff in and a higher march/madrigal %. Prolly better off with enfeeble and elemental merits if you will have RDM and BLM jobs.

[Arthars]

Do you even have a 75 Bard? lol
Iirc after -35 enmity is diminishing returns. So lets say you 5/5 Dirge, that's a song with -22 enmity. That's great, and I'm not debating that. But if you have good healers or good tanks I should say, It's not going to mean anything because they wouldnt be getting hate anyway. Most mages/healers get giddy when they have a high mp refresh tick. In my expirience dirge is only good when a overzealous black mage nukes too much/hard and I throw it on him to save his ass. It is a very situational song where a mage, or rang w/e gains a lot of hate.

yes i do. my wife's bard is 75 and im the one that played/leveled her bard

and yes all her 75 jobs merit are 10/10 grp 1 and 2 and all other stuffs that can be added, were added

right now shes sitting at merit points that cannot be used at all(no where to)

so yea, i can spend 22p for dirge np if i want to

but i dont like staggered recast so 3 3 4 is good for me

[Krono]

Am I the only one who uses Madrigal merits? Finale and Lullaby merits seem pretty useless if you have jse hands, or even HQ.

Madrigal merits come in handy to me during the following events:

1.) Fafnir/Nidhogg: Helps with TP gain when I give Madrigal and March. You really notice the gain in speed of TP. Makes for faster SCs and quicker Fafhoggs.

2.) DRK zergs or zergs in general: Again helps w/ ACC where it is needed.

3.) Merits (Such as Birds when melee use meat and you have 2 brds, or mamools): Need I explain?

I'm sure these more uses I can't think on top of my head, but imho it far outweighs finale and/or lullaby merits.

And as for C2 merits, I am very lazy and haven't finished them, but I plan on doing 5/5 troub and 1 Nightingale and 4/5 Foe Sirvente

[Rilu]

Not really, the only difference is hitting a higher % tier on victory march. You will obvious have an easier time landing songs on mobs but any bard with 0 sing/wind merits and good/great gear can land it too. It's not like a BLM where you do more damage with less resists. With Bard you either land it or you don't.

iirc there's a test somewhere that singing has more effect than wind, but tbh If I had to do it again I would not merit wind/sing 8/8 because once you get the gear you could land the debuff songs anyway. Wind/Sing merits will just give you more leiniancy on what gear to debuff in and a higher march/madrigal %. Prolly better off with enfeeble and elemental merits if you will have RDM and BLM jobs.

Correct, with my character I noticed that I wasn't getting anything special out of having singing merits along with wind (there might be a small small % difference in landing rate) but with my gear on top of those, I really don't have any issues to speak of, so there is no use getting rid of 8 wind merits just to re-merit singing. Also, having BLM at 75, even with pretty good gear (Genie, Omni ring, Mahatma slops, elemental torque, etc) I find that the elemental merits i'm throwing in there (6/8 right now) are showing MUCH more benefit than the merits I put into wind skill did with bard.

With bard its either you land the song, or you don't. I would definitely get the right instrument for the song you're using, and for elegy I think Terra Staff (over earth) is essential (same with Apollo's over Light for Lullaby), but other than that bard is pretty easy to gear to the point where it is very effective. Just get some AF2 from dynamis, upgrade those sexy AF1+1 pants, and you're good to go. I think with me though, there comes a time in the game where you really need to stop worrying about the little things, like, when you have 3x aegis pld's with killer gear and merits, with Def rings, Shadow rings, take very little dmg on things and hold hate like superglue. All the -emn gear I got and such really isn't needed anymore, but a few years go before we got to where we are now, those things really did come in handy.

I don't mean to "minimize" the necessity of bard to take their job seriously, because in truth, there is nothing that irks me more than a crappy bard (and there are TONS of them) but all you need to do is really pay attention and have decent gear, and you will make a big difference in fights. But if you were to rank jobs as far as easiest to level to 75, along with how expensive they are to gear to the point of being "good", then bard would definitely be towards the bottom of the list (hardest at the top, easiest at the bottom).

Edit: Oh, and in regards to Finale and Lullaby. Lullaby I can understand wanting to merit to lower your re-cast time etc, but I think finale is a waste of merits, and yes, thats just my opinion. Only place I can see it being worthwhile would be maybe Lambton worm, but hopefully you have some rdm's and blm/rdm's that are paying attention and help with that. As far as finale on stuff like salvage etc, I've never had problems having finale ready for mobs, even after a recast (using - song recast gear).

And in regard to madrigal, with the inclusion of sushi ages ago, no, I don't see a need for madrigal anymore. Have your melee pop sushi, and you give them attack songs. Thats always been my take on things.

[Bakthi]

Yes....that was kinda my point...but ok...

Quoting someone and composing a reply does not imply disagreement.