Bard

A bright tune to soothe a party's wounds... A brisk march to raise a party's spirits... A forbidden chant to weaken a party's foes... The bards of Vana'diel use music as their weapon. A bard uses songs as its main advantage to boost the partys stats. Bards have many magic spells but no Job Abilities.

Abilities
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Job Abilities
Level 1 Soul Voice
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Job Traits
Level 5 Resist Silence Level 25 Resist Silence II Level 45 Resist Silence III Level 65 Resist Silence IV
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Song List
-- Information Submitted by Jamini (57 Bard on Seraph), edited by Sheana (lvl 10 bard on Garuda), and the Song List was formatted by Paitre. A special thanks to the people at Allakazam for the information. ^^

Songs 101
As a Bard, your job is to sing. All of your songs have different benefical effects on party members within range. However, when you get to higher levels (25+), you'll need to start singing different songs on different members. You wouldn't want Mage's Ballad on a Warrior, would you? The question now is; how do I do that? Simple. You spread the party members out. For example, having the melee up front and attacking, but far enough away so that the mages won't be hit by Valor Minuet and Sword Madrigal, while the mages stand far behind the melee, so that only mages are hit with Mage's Ballad. Sounds complicated doesn't it? Not to worry, you'll catch on pretty quickly; this is easier to do than it sounds.

Instruments
As a Bard, you can choose between two different types of instruments; a flute or a harp. I suggest the flute for several reasons. First of all, flutes give bonuses to offensive songs, while harps give bounses to defensive spells. The flutes are more useful because in the early levels, you wont be using defensive spells much, or even at all. Therefore, they'll make Valkurm Dunes parties a bit easier. Second of all, a flute has shorter range. Why would you want shorter range? So that it's easier to get the right buffs on everyone. However, this is just my opinion, if you want to use a harp, go right ahead.

Of course, you don't want to stick to just ONE flute or harp! What if you need too sleep many different monsters at once, what about the Rose Harp? (Hint: It increases the ability boosts of the single-target etudes!) There are many different types of instuments you can use to produce different effects.

First let's look at a Cornette... We have here a level 4 ranged weapon useable only by the bard class. This is perhaps one of the most basic type of instument, a normal +1. The Cornette has the average range of a wind instument, and when the song Valor Minuet is played on it the duration and power of the song listed on the instument is increased. There are instuments for virtually every song in the game. So in order to keep your songs at their fullest potential it is best to carry as many instuments (and high quality instuments) as you can.

By now your probably wondering how to use so many instuments without being forced to consitantly refer to the Equipment menu. This can best be described in our next section...

Macros
No matter how hard you try to escape them, you know that it is impossible if you wish to deal with the sheer number of songs and subjob spells that are availible to the bard job. In short, macros are a set of twenty pre-defined commands availible for activation from your keyboard using CTRL+# or ALT+#

For more information on macros go HERE --> Macro Now, the most common macros a Bard will use is an equip and song macro. For example, my Minuet macro is


 * /equip range "Cornette +1"
 * /wait 1 (this is included for areas where lag can be a problem)
 * /ma "Valor Minuet III"  (/ma and /so have the same effect for Bard songs)
 * /p (Casting Spell) (Minuet)

These four lines allow me to both change to my instument (the +1 version of the Cornette, +2 minuet) then waits one second and begins casting Valor Minuet (  is designated as all Bard status buffs are targeted on the caster.) Now let's say we have a single target song like... Archer's Prelude

this time we have an Angel Flute instead of a Cornette, and the song is single target, meaning i will need to select WHO is hit with the Ranged Accuracy boost song. (Archer's Prelude)


 * /equip range "Angel Flute +1"
 * /wait 1
 * /ma "Archer's Prelude"
 * /p (Prelude) (Ranged Accuracy Bonus)

The in my third line will hold off the entire macro and displays a blue targeting arrow over player charachters in the vicinity. Allowing me to scroll using the arrow keys (or controller keys), Tab, or the F1-6 keys to choose a player charachter. Using this method you cannot pick an NPC or monster.

Now we will take a look at songs cast on monsters.

These songs are different in macro usage as they are not targeting party members, but rather monsters outside of the party.

Monster songs are split into two catagories, Battle target only (1) and sleep spells (2). This distinction is notable from the effects that occur from these spells. Battle target only (Elegy and Requiem), should be macroed so that they can be cast as fast as possible so you can move on with other business in your party, while sleep spells (both Lullaby songs) should be macroed so they can hit monsters that you are not currently hitting (in case of a link).

Battle songs. (Elegy, Requiem, Threnody)

These songs should be sung every fight, as soon as possible to increase the effects of duration should they last the entire fight. A slow early on can make much less hassle for a Ninja tank or the White Mage who is curing your Paladin. Slow on the monster means your tank get's hit less, less mp is used to cure your tank, and you can chain longer and higher. Threnody means an extra 30 damage on certain ordinary spells, and Requiem can add up over long fights to a acceptable amount of damage delt.

Battle songs are generally best to be used in the  or  format,  is preferred.

A song in  will be cast on whatever monster has the most hate from the party, in essence, the monster the tank is provoking. Macroes in  will look somthing like this.


 * /equip range "Horn +1"
 * /wait 1
 * /ma "Wind Threnody" 

 will never miss a monster that is currently being attacked, but please be careful when casting requiem when there is a monster being slept nearby, occationlly that monster will become the battle target, making it impossible to sleep untill the DoT effect wears off.

Sleep songs are saved for emergency situations when you have multiple opponents attacking your party (or just you). In general, it is wisest to have all sleep songs equiped to a macro, allowing you to scroll though monsters much like a macro does with single player buffs.

An example of a sleep macro
 * /equip range "Mary's Horn"
 * /wait 1
 * /ma "Foe Lullaby"

On the topic of macros, that is all that I can say at the moment. Happy parting with your new shiny macro set and equipment, and good luck with Bard!

~Jami (edited by User:Choboru)