BRD Merits

[Haroun]

Personal testing of mine 2 years ago showed that it will increase based on the highest single skill used (wind or singing) with divisibility by 10 past 220 base skill. If you want to know the details of my testing ill pm but i am caped on minuet with just +4 merits.

I've tested it myself, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, you're wrong. Test it again.

[Sarial]

@FailureMidgard

Idk. . .I definitely don't have capped ACC on NIN spamming mithkabobs. Idk what it'd take to get 95% ACC on birds w/o sushi. Hope/HQ Snipers/HQ Haub/Bomblet/Cuchulain's/Life belt?

[Tsuko_Asura]

@FailureMidgard

Idk. . .I definitely don't have capped ACC on NIN spamming mithkabobs. Idk what it'd take to get 95% ACC on birds w/o sushi. Hope/HQ Snipers/HQ Haub/Bomblet/Cuchulain's/Life belt?

This is why you should be spamming Crab Sushi, not Meat Mithkabobs.

[FailureMidgard]

Do people not use Sniper's rings anymore? 5 merits is equal to 1 sniper's ring added on top of the accuracy you're already adding. Double madrigal or single soul voice, 2 sniper's ring. Soul voiced and double madrigal, that's 4 extra sniper's ring worth of accuracy.

Ask anyone "Hey, would you like to wear 4 more sniper's rings?" and tell me if anyone in their right mind would decline a buff like that.

I think that the potency from extra accuracy from madrigal is the best upgrade from tier1 bard merits. It's more impressive than +5/10/20 attack, imo. The only difference is, you will use minuet a lot more often than madrigal. But when you do use madrigal, the difference is definitely worth the merits, especially when the alternative is just lullaby recast, lol.

Is the buff needed? No. Nothing in this game is really needed when you phrase it like that.

Any 2hander with an A+ weapon should cap accuracy without a Madrigal on most merit-level mobs, and I personally don't think it's worth a bard changing songs just for Lurkers anyway.
Even on my Sam, with B- I will cap accuracy with a Madrigal without instrument on birds (that's with full haste, including a W.Turban, no Ace's). I'd suggest the bard use the instrument anyway, but I don't see a reason to bother with Madrigal merits. Also, seeing as I merit with Dragoons/etc, I'd much rather not have a song that does nothing for them, so I'll just spam sushi instead.

Basically, every DD's goal should be to cap accuracy on their own. Being under cap is bad enough, maybe relying on 1 normal Madrigal is ok, but if that doesn't cap you? Relying on a merited madrigal is just plain dumb.

@FailureMidgard

Idk. . .I definitely don't have capped ACC on NIN spamming mithkabobs. Idk what it'd take to get 95% ACC on birds w/o sushi. Hope/HQ Snipers/HQ Haub/Bomblet/Cuchulain's/Life belt?

Hope is less accuracy than a PCC. But use sushi, if that puts you past accuracy cap, then start dropping accuracy (and saving a ton of gil) and put on some random attack gear (Foragers, Bomb Core, Hope, etc). If it -doesn't- put you past accuracy cap, you need it anyway.

Oh also, you should -always- have 2 marches, before even considering madrigal, but assuming a 2bard party.
Crab Sushi is 45-50 accuracy, Madrigal is 34 before merits, 39 full merited.
Meat Mithkabob is 60 attack+5str, Minuet 4 is 61 attack before merits, 66 after.

So you're gaining a few attack switching to minuet+sushi, you're also gaining 10-15 accuracy, which you can then DROP accuracy off your gear and gain even more stats.

This is why you should be spamming Crab Sushi, not Meat Mithkabobs.

This ^

[Carraway]

You merit Lullaby not because you need it, but because it can save some of your healers' MP (whether spent on you or a DD that vokes a mob that just woke up) when things go wrong. This applies not just to merit parties but to any situation in which Lullaby is used.

[Shin Volcano]

You merit Lullaby not because you need it, but because it can save some of your healers' MP (whether spent on you or a DD that vokes a mob that just woke up) when things go wrong. This applies not just to merit parties but to any situation in which Lullaby is used.

If had no isses with lullaby timer due to various fast cast and haste where skill and chr isn't needed is enough for that timer to come down to a respectible level, no way in hell am i going to waste all those merits caping lullaby for a miniscul decrease in a timer,

True lullaby recast can be a problem at times, but so can elegy at the wrong times, Madrigal is needed at times and 5 more points in it far helps better then 5 seconds off a sleep spell you won't really need most of the time, unless you can show me a point where every single meele will have caped accuracy at all times and never need madrigal, hell even zerg fights for none 2 handers want madrigal, not lullaby. nor have i had any issues sleeping or even worried about recast timer in merit pts, or any other situation, if foe lullaby fails to land, i just....use horde...provided there aren't any other mobs near it

besides if mobs have time to wake up from the point you slept them, your DD are doing something wrong.

i know this is all personal opinion but i fail to see any point or reason to put merits into lullaby, at that point i'd would rather put them into minne because even that would be more useful.

[Julian]

Any 2hander with an A+ weapon should cap accuracy without a Madrigal on most merit-level mobs, and I personally don't think it's worth a bard changing songs just for Lurkers anyway.
Even on my Sam, with B- I will cap accuracy with a Madrigal without instrument on birds (that's with full haste, including a W.Turban, no Ace's). I'd suggest the bard use the instrument anyway, but I don't see a reason to bother with Madrigal merits. Also, seeing as I merit with Dragoons/etc, I'd much rather not have a song that does nothing for them, so I'll just spam sushi instead.

Basically, every DD's goal should be to cap accuracy on their own. Being under cap is bad enough, maybe relying on 1 normal Madrigal is ok, but if that doesn't cap you? Relying on a merited madrigal is just plain dumb.

Meriting isn't everything in the game.

(And about meriting, the madrigal does help on mamools, but like I said, there are so many more things out there than meriting)

[Gergall]

Minuet: Good for merits and most or all endgame events.

Madrigal: Good for zerg and bard rotation (Einherjar, KS99, maybe Dynamis-Tav?)

Lullaby: Good for Einherjar, Dynamis, standing at a lamp in Nyzul with 5 mobs swarming it, and solo.

For those talking about Gages + Haste to get lullaby recast down: It depends how far down you want that recast to go. Even with Sheikh Gages, you will need a lot of haste to get the lullaby recast down to the 12 second minimum.

[TybudX]

Meriting isn't everything in the game.

(And about meriting, the madrigal does help on mamools, but like I said, there are so many more things out there than meriting)

You can take that same Sushi/Pizza build that caps at Birds and start adding accuracy to it, and *poof*... you'll be capped at pretty much anything else. The only mobs in the game I can't cap accuracy against are stuff like Byakko, QQTHs, THF Mamool... probably JoL, but I never go melee to those.

It's not like the mechanics behind the game suddenly change when you're not in Bhaflau Thickets.

[FailureMidgard]

Meriting isn't everything in the game.

(And about meriting, the madrigal does help on mamools, but like I said, there are so many more things out there than meriting)

I said merit-level mobs, that covers meriting, limbus, einherjar, dynamis, and salvage.

Past that there's zergs and HNM-esque fights.
Madrigal merits do nothing for zergs - you have feint and SVed 2x Madrigal. You will be accuracy capped. And this is for the KC drk. Any 2h DD should cap with feint alone, so even in a non-2hr Baha2 zerg, your sams will be well past acc cap.
HNM-esque fights melee is enmity capped. On JoL, I'm really just as useful taking off 3 pieces of gear for the entire fight as I am trying to optimize.

Madrigal merits are a waste. I'm not even making an argument for Lullaby. My bard currently has 5minuet and hasn't done anything in G1 past that - I'll get to it eventually, but my other jobs seem more important to me (and I'm not some huge slacker, I'm past 500 merits).

[QQ_Amun]

Honestly it depends on what your planning on using your brd for. If your going to be a merit pt brd only and you hate pulling go ahead and do min/mad. If your pulling 5/5 lullaby is very useful. If your planning on pulling and doing no endgame id go with mad, 5 acc will out parse 5 att over a long merit pt. Its also useful in dynamis, limbus, einherjar, etc.. for crowd control.

If you do a lot of low manning or endgame cap finale. 5 seconds doesn't seem like a lot but it helps out a lot. As far as min/mad in endgame if your DDs are worth anything at all they should have capped acc anyways, and 5 att isn't going to help them as much as being able to dispel and sleep.

[TheMuffinman]

I has a question. Wiki says that the decrease in night/troub timers is 2:30 per upgrade, with a max decrease to 10 min recast. If you put 5 merits into night/troub, aren't you wasting a merit? 2:30 x 4 = 10 minutes. 2:30 x 5 = 12:30. Am I getting Wooshed?

[Funkworkz]

one upgrade to unlock with a recast of 20 minutes, x4 to take away 10 minutes total

i did x5 minute, x5 lullaby, x5 troubadour, x1 nightingale, x3 sirvente, x1 dirge. even with a gjallarhorn sirvente is pretty useless. dirge is the way to go but im too lazy to remerit them.

[TheMuffinman]

So I was in fact wooshed. Thanks for the info.

[Panthera]

5 Lullaby is awesome. In an HNM shell, it's good for some bards to have Minuet and others have Madrigal, so that when you do alliances with rotating bards, you can have the best of each....1 Nightingale is so you can squeeze in lots of songs during your Soul Voice Troubador buffs.

^This

Now, whether you choose to do Minuet or Madrigal is a tough call. You can poll your LS and see which is needed most. Or, you can disregard that, and just do Minuet, as some feel that they don't need Madrigal. There isn't a "wrong" way to go.

You want to have Lullaby on as low a timer as possible, for self preservation during merit parties.

Nightingale is really useful when you're using Troubadour. Songs take FOREVER to cast with just Troubadour. At least take the trouble to unlock it.

[Shamaya]

A madrigal bard is always nice but meriting this is always just a personal choice. Lullaby/Minuet for the max personal benefit, I'd say.

1 in each Troubadour and Nightingale obviously. I have the rest in foe sirvente(mostly) and adventurer's drige. Now that I'm in an hnm shell and actually get a use out of Brd/Blm, perhaps it'd be best if I maxed troub and nightingale instead. I have used dirge and sirvente (mostly sirvente) successfully in the past, but it was never gamebreaking. And on the flipside, I never had a need for more than 1 point in troub and nightingale until brd/blm. So if one doesn't use brd/blm, extra troub and nightingale are probably the lazy merits rather than the optimum ones.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Having tanked on multiple classes, I can assure you that I never, ever want enmity in lieu of a Ballad or a March. Conversely, DD are going to cap out regardless, so enmity reduction is pretty futile.

Lullaby/Minuet, Troub/Night

[rog]

Do people actually use lullaby in merits, outside of links?

While 5 acc means far more than 5 atk, it's pretty damn rare that madrigal should actually be used, outside of brd rotations, where an extra 10/20 acc isn't really important when you're already getting 53/106 from madrigals.

[Gergall]

1 in each Troubadour and Nightingale obviously. I have the rest in foe sirvente(mostly) and adventurer's drige. Now that I'm in an hnm shell and actually get a use out of Brd/Blm, perhaps it'd be best if I maxed troub and nightingale instead. I have used dirge and sirvente (mostly sirvente) successfully in the past, but it was never gamebreaking. And on the flipside, I never had a need for more than 1 point in troub and nightingale until brd/blm. So if one doesn't use brd/blm, extra troub and nightingale are probably the lazy merits rather than the optimum ones.

If you are starting to use BRD/BLM to stuff like Cerb and Khim, that's great. Go ahead and max out Troubador so that you can use it on Elegy every 10 minutes with ES. But if you didn't want more than 1 point in Nightingale before, this is no reason to max it out now.

[Kri]

enmity + song is nice for kited fights like kirin or omega if you are farming gun pods... err wait. no one kites either of these anymore