Itazura's Bard Puller Guide

This guide is aimed at Lv.27 and higher Bard players who with to go beyond enhancing the exp party by songs alone, but also contribute as a Puller. Not all parties benefits from using its Bard as a puller; in some, a BRD/WHM as a co-healer is more far helpful than leaving the back line manned by a lone mage. However, in many parties, the best thing a Bard can do for the groups' performance is to pull--in a controlled, steady manner, when not applying song effects.

Worship the Exp/Hour!
There is only one true measurement of an exp party's performance: Experience Points per Hour. That's not "300 Exp on that last mob!", nor "Did you see my bad ass xxxx damage on WS?" It's experience points, per hour--everything else is just a distraction.

Every Bard's role is to enhance the exp/hour. No exception.

To perform that duty, though, a Bard player must understand what are the major obstacles to getting decent exp/hour, and how to help a party overcome them.

Obstacles to Exp/Hour

 * Over-hunting: This is when party hunts monsters which take too long to kill or are too dangerous to the members. Keeping up the buff songs on melees and Ballad on BLM is about the only thing a Bard can do to compensate for this, and the songs can only help to a small extend.  Stomping feet and demand a new camp with more appropriate targets is likely a better solution.  Sometimes, not Level Sync to the lowest member, and go for a level or two above can solve this, but that's not something to count on.


 * Under-hunting: This is when party hunts monsters which do not give enough exp per kill. Pulling faster is how a Bard can help, but that's not a cure all.  Level Sync to a lower level may help, but again, not something that's always possible.


 * Death: Nothing kills exp/hour faster than a party member getting K.O.'ed, especially if it's a tank or healer. A Bard with mage support job needs to keep an eye on HP of party members, and prioritize emergency cures over buffs and pulls--otherwise, exp will drop to 0 for 5 minutes.  Once again, emergency cures first--worry about songs and pulls after.  Same goes for dangerous pulls; dead puller means lousy exp--do not link fast moving monsters, and do not bring critters 18 levels above the party's tank.


 * Bad Tanking: Notice it's bad tanking, not bad tank.  Even though the tank shoulders a lion's share of the burden, it's everyone's responsibility to ensure the party is function smoothly, with the monster mostly attacking the tank and not melees or mages.  Bad tanking is most noticeable when mages or Dancer is using excessive amount of MP or TP to cure, especially curing the non-tanks.


 * Unfortunately, this is yet another something Bard cannot do a lot about. Help keep the tank high in HP can encourage some players to use Provoke more often for the Bards with mage support job; switching to March song(s) can help Utsusemi based tanks with recast timers; angling for Ballad on the Paladin can help him last longer and cast more spells.  Those little things can help, but nothing a Bard does can force a reticent tank to perform or truly hold back a showoff DD sponging off the curing resources.


 * Replacements: Someone leaving the party interrupts the fights. A player is distracted and inattentive to the fights while  looking for replacement.  May cause confusion as new arrival may not know how the party has been operating.  Often need additional time to renegotiate who performs which roles.  Worse still, a replacement is like a yawn; once one person bails a party early, another would follow, then yet another--and the last replacement to arrive gets to camp about 35 seconds before the leader quits the party and disband it.


 * Simply, a Bard should help by not contributing to the problem. Refuse replacement invites.  Ask to make sure everyone joining the party at the beginning has reasonable amount of time, and do not include those "I'm 2373 TNL and I'm leaving as soon as I get my level!" people.  Do not put up seek flag unless intend to stay in party.  Do not look for a replacement--a Bard puller should be too busy to even contemplate such a thing anyway.


 * Replacement, is a stupid way to party--and usually produces a low exp/hour result.


 * Bad Pulling: Now this, a Bard is well suited to address. A "bad puller" means almost the same thing as a "slow puller" in many people's minds, though pullers who get themselves killed or keep bringing back unintended links also fit the bill.  Links often means the party has to use up resources faster to handle (or die/wipe).  A death on pull brings nothing but a five minute long, 0 exp headache to the party.  Slow pulling is... a waste of everyone's time.


 * Buff songs take a while to apply, but do not wear off all that fast. That means a Bard has time on his hands.  In the early years of FFXI, that meant helping out with bar- spells in parties without White Mage or someone with native enhancing magic and /WHM, and back-up cure.  In a modern party with sufficient curing powers and enough mages, though, those activity are still helpful, but not essential.  Instead, the best use of the free time is to pull.


 * While the buffs/Ballad songs are up, a Bard away takes nothing from the party's firepower, unlike using a DD (such as a THF or RNG) to pull. This means a Bard can have the next target ready at camp just as the previous one dies, speeding up pulling without taking a DD or mage away from the fight prematurely.


 * Further more, a Bard has two Lullaby songs to keep critters asleep. That means a Bard can pull early, and just leave the critter sleeping at camp, while the party is working on a current target--and resume reapplying buffs.  This ensures the party can quickly go from one critter to the next despite uneven damage output (BLM uses a big spell, some melee WS'ed twice or landed far bigger hits than normal, etc.), with no break in between.  This is called staged pulling, and is the goal of every Bard puller.


 * (Those same Lullabies are also good for getting out of jams from pulling links or dangerous prey, by the way.)

Staged Pulling
Staged pulling is readying the next target for battle while working on the current one; it is about reducing the down time to 0, so every second of the hour the party is working on getting exp. This helps to keep the exp chains going, too, which further ups the exp/hour. Which is good, because a good party want high exp/hour--EXP/HOUR is the performance of the party.

Now, staged pulling isn't something exclusive to Bards. Red Mage, Corsair, and White Mages have all been doing it in merit parties and earlier, if not as often as Bards. Heck, theoretically a BLM/NIN with Herald's Gaiters can beat out a Bard in both speed and safety, with two single target sleeps, two AoE sleeps, and a stun spell to boot.

The reason why Bard is the king of staged pulling isn't that it's the only job capable of staged pulling. Rather, it's because a Bard is the only job which can reasonbly perform its core duty while being away on pulls, by using the time between buff songs.

Generally, the process of staged pulling is:
 * Play X number of buff songs.
 * Run off to find preys in range.
 * Select target, and trigger the pull (with Elegy or another spell/song).
 * Run back to camp.
 * Lullaby the pulled target; this stages the next fight.
 * Repeat. (Sometimes, may have to reapply Lullaby between buff songs if the party is taking a while with current battle.)

The goal of staged pulling is to ensure the party does not have to spend time waiting between targets to fight. To achieve safe and effective staged pulling, some conditions must be met:


 * Damage Mitigation vs. Healing Power Balance: The DDs must not take more damage than the mages and/or Dancer can sustain curing resources (MP for mages, TP and Waltz timer for Dancer), and sustain with a reasonable buffer for emergencies.
 * A Bard assists with this by keeping Ballad on mages (and Paladin), and Madrigal and/or March on Dancer. Bard with White Mage, Red Mage, or Scholar support job also can directly lighten healers' load with cures.
 * DDs should use /NIN if the party doesn't have abundant healing power; /SAM is nice, but Utsusemi is stronger damage mitigation than Seigan/Third Eye.
 * A good tank save healing resource, and allows DDs to do more damage. Keep a critical eye on the tanking performance, and be prepared to switch songs if the tank needs an edge.  (Generally, this means using a March over a Minuet or Madrigal.  Minne is generally too great of a sacrifice even for a Paladin tank; consider position the party member in such a way so that PLD can receive a Ballad song instead without hitting DDs.)
 * Proper Pull Timing: Pull too late, and the party will have to wait for something to kill. Pull too early, and the critter may wake up after initial Lullaby, and damage the Bard or someone who used Provoke, needlessly wasting healing resources, as well as wasting Bard's time to reapply Lullaby.
 * A condition often overlooked is overcrowding; even the greatest puller will bring in substandard exp/hour if there are too many competitors. A more out of the way place, no exp bonus, slightly harder to kill monsters---but free from competition local--will usually bring in better exp/hour than a crowded camp with favorite targets.
 * Tailored Buff Cycle: It's great to never let buffs drop, but spending too much time buffing and the staged pulling will become spotty, and not so well staged. On the other hand, letting buffs drop for more than a few seconds means a Bard is neglecting his core duty.  A party without BRD buffs can still stage pull, but will kill slower, and result in lower exp/hour--the same result as slow pulling due to over buffing.
 * With a party which has uneven kill speed, a Bard must be vigilant of the monster's HP bar, and be flexible about the number of buff songs to play before running off to pull. The easiest way to remain flexible is to keep to a buff song order. Sounds counterintuitive, but keeping a strict order means one always know which song to play next by checking the song icons on the screen to see which song was last played.  (Well, mostly; single target buffs like Prelude isn't listed.)

To recap, staged pulling is all about bringing in the monster at the right time, so the party always have something to kill. To do this, the party must have right balance of damage mitigation vs. curing power, be at a good, clear camp that fits the party, and a Bard who's always keeping an eye on the monster and the party so he knows when to run off and get another monster.

Chain 5
This is an older style, and a precursor to Staged Pulling. The craft of Chain 5 is largely a lost art now, but it shouldn't be. Chain 5 pulling is still relevant, and even useful.

There are plenty of popular, actively in use camps which cannot sustain infinite staged pulling for parties killing at a decent pace, but can give consistent Chain 5's. The Lv.37-40 Nest Beetle camp in Crawler's Nest; Lv.40-43 Soldier Crawler (secret room) camp in the same Crawler's Nest; and,  Lv.52-55 Robber Crab camp in Kuftal Tunnel near the Cape Teriggan zone line, just to name a few.

In those camps, the exp/hour for a strong party is limited by the repop rate; there are only so many monsters per hour that can pop within reach. Chain 5 pulling is one technique to squeeze as much exp off of these limited number of monsters as possible. FFXI players know the higher the chain number, the better the chain exp bonus is, up to chain 5--and, it just so happens most of the mid level and higher camps can provide chain 5 if a decent party behaves correctly.

Experience chain 5 is reached when a party defeats six Even Match or higher monsters within a certain amount of time.

To do this, the puller lets the party rest after the first one or two kills. Given that there's a 200 second grace period for reaching chain 1 and 160 second for chain 2 at Lv.31-40, and even longer at higher levels, it's quite easy to rest to full MP after the first or even the second kill. Then, the puller increasingly step up the pull speed, and Lullaby the target at camp for chain 4's and 5's target. For long pulls, it's not unheard of for a Bard to run back with chain 4 target, buff one song (or even no song), then immediately leave camp again for the chain 5's target.

The whole idea is really about making sure the party has enough resources to kill the last three monsters in a row going into the tail end of the chain, and to make sure the targets arrive at the camp in time. Notice that the way Bard pulls for Chain 4 and 5 is staged pulling. The difference between two styles is that a staged pulling party keeps staging monsters, even after chain 5.

Roaming Party
Roaming party is a variation of staged pulling--with an even heavier responsibility on the puller.

The idea is to leave a breadcrumb trail for the party to follow a la Hansel and Gretel. As in regular staged pulling, a Bard will pull a target while the party is still fighting, and use Lullaby to incapacitate the pulled target. However, instead of bringing the monster back to camp, it is slept a little away from the front line, just out of reach.

Upon finishing one battle, the rest of the party will move (a small way) to the staged target, following the 'baits' the Bard puller has left. Over time, the party will move in what is known as the roaming path, which is a path that brings the party closer to the next pulling target with every fight.

The classic examples include the skeletons in King Ranperre's Tomb using all Monk front line, and the Decorative Weapon in Shrine of Ru'Avitau for more balanced parties. ToAU roaming parties operate on the Heraldic Imp in Caedarva Mire (when not overcrowded), Mamool Ja/Puk/Wyvern at Bhaflau Thickets near Jade Sepulcher, and in Mamool, and (uncommonly) Hilltrolls in Mount Zhayolm. WotG brings at least one new roaming party possibility, with Yagudos in Castle Oztroja (S).

A roaming party needs a puller with a plan, and that plan is the roaming path. This requires a good knowledge of the range--there is no stationary 'camp'--and requires the foresight to plot a good path through the thicket of enemies while decimating them one by one.

Level
Level 27 is when a Bard can start pulling, because that's when a Bard gets Horde Lullaby. While one Lullaby can be resisted fairly often at lower levels, two should provide sufficient safety most of the time.

Trigger
Lower level Bards are usually on /WHM support job. Pull with Paralyze; it's fast casting, available from /WHM (and /RDM), fairly low MP--and seems not to lock people post spell animation as much as the Threnody songs.

Recommend against using /NIN before Lv.30 due to the lack of a decent pulling song. Post 30, /NIN15+ provides the elemental ninjutsu spells (the -ton series), which are reasonable for pulling, if a bit long in cast time. Note that to use those, must have appropriate ninja tools in inventory.

Do not pull with Dia or Requiem; slip damage spell on the monster means Lullaby will wear off the instant it lands. Same goes for Poison or Bio for those with /RDM. Staged pulling isn't possible for a Bard pulling with a slip damage (DoT) spell.

Magic Finale may be workable at Level 33 if saving MP is desired. At level 39, definitely switch to Battlefield Elegy. Switch again to Carnage Elegy at Lv.59.

Gears
Mary's Horn. This is a must. Every Bard level 14 and higher should have it, and doubly so for any puller Bard. Next up is reasonable defense (no level 1 RSE, please), especially in Body and Legs slots. CHR and skill gears to help land Lullaby are good, too.

Other than that, there's no real difference from non-puller Bard's setup for the majority of levels, with a huge exception of Minstrel's Ring for players who are willing to make the sacrifices needed. That ring and the setup needed to activate its latent is covered in its own section later. That means Light Staff, Earth Staff, and all those Charisma and Singing/Wind skill gears are still must-have's.

Aside from Minstrel's Ring(Lv.50), Bards have access to Song Spellcasting Time reduction gear Sha'ir Manteel and Yigit Gomlek. While those are good for any Bard, they are especially helpful to a puller Bard. Every Bard puller should aim to obtain at least the Yigit Gomlek at some point.

Food
Reasonably priced Defense food will do the job nicely if able to land Lullaby (and Elegy) reliably. If not, Charisma food is the ticket. Hybrid food grants Defense and Charisma at the same time.


 * Defense: Boiled Crab, Steamed Crab, Fish Mithkabob, Shallops Tropicale.
 * Charisma: Chamomile Tea, Flint Caviar, Tuna Sushi, Pamamas (for Opo-opo Crown).
 * Hybrid Def/CHR: Tavnazian Salad, Tavnazian Taco.

Shallops Tropicale is fairly inexpensive, and convenient for lasting three hours. If both Defense and Charisma are indispensable, Tavnazian Taco is likely more cost effective than Tavnazian Salad.

For Charisma alone, it's hard to beat price and convenience of Chamomile Tea. The Opo-opo Crown users should stick to Pamamas, given it's even cheaper and grants more Charisma. For the crown-less insisting on 30 minute CHR food, it's a toss up between Tuna Sushi and Flint Caviar. For the price of Tuna Sushi, though, a puller Bard should seriously consider Tavnazian Taco instead.

Macros
There's no single right way to macro for a Bard puller. Some people prefer to put a chat line in the song or spell macro (usually Elegy or Paralyze) used as the pulling trigger, others do not want to spam the party when they reapply Elegy mid battle so have a separate "Pulling" macro which they can use with any spell or song. The following is the less-spam style example:

Song/spell macro usable as pulling trigger:
 *  "Battlefield Elegy"
 *  "Battlefield Elegy" 

Pull announcement macro:


 * Press the above macro after triggering the pull with any macro that uses . It's a fine idea to add to that macro commands to switch to defensive gears, but remember switch back to CHR/skill gears later with some other macro(s) if doing so.

Lullaby macros:
 *  "Foe Lullaby" 
 *  "Foe Lullaby" 


 *  "Horde Lullaby" 
 *  "Horde Lullaby" 

Aside: Keep in mind that AoE buff songs already spam the party a lot, and the party does not need more party lines from the Bard to fill up the chat log. No buff song macro should have any chat line.

Support Jobs
For exp party, a puller Bard can use a number of support jobs effectively: /WHM, /SCH, /RDM, /BLU, and /NIN. For the majority of targets and camps, a Bard puller can do a fine job on any of those listed; it all comes down to how much damage mitigation is needed to pull at a good pace, and which SJ brings which additional benefits the party can use.


 * /WHM: The best support job to support the party with, with bar- spells, Cure, Curaga, Regen, and spells to fix status ailments. Makes available Blink and Stoneskin to a puller BRD, but not compatible with Minstrel's Ring due to Auto Regen.
 * /NIN: Post Lv.30, probably the best for pulling in general thanks to Utsusemi, but brings no support capability to the party at all.
 * /BLU: Cocoon is an impressive defensive spell available at Lv.16, but for helping with cures, a BRD/BLU won't get Healing Breeze until Lv.32 or Wild Carrot until Lv.60.
 * /RDM: Fast Cast, Blink, and Phalanx/Stoneskin if time permits, plus Cure and Regen spells.  Compared to /WHM and /SCH, though, lacking spells to fix status ailments.
 * /SCH: The alternative to /WHM when using Minstrel's Ring while retaining Cure, Regen, and spells to fix status ailments. This SJ has no defensive capability at all, however, making it dangerous to use at certain camps.

Generally speaking, having /WHM and /NIN ready would be sufficient, though there's a middle stretch where a non-/WHM mage support job would be handy for Minstrel's Ring users. For the majority of the Bard players, /WHM until Lv.70's, then switch to /NIN is a good rule of thumb to follow.

Beetle
Some Beetles are not aggressive (e.g. Nest Beetle in Crawler's Nest), while some are aggressive (e.g. Borer Beetle in Garlaige Citadel). Always take care to find out which type is at the camp. Probably all Beetles in partying levels link (by sight), though, so be sure to have a clear path back to the camp. It may be possible to pull one Beetle without linking the one next to it depending on the angle of pull and directions they are looking.

Colibri, Non-Parroting
The lower leveled Lesser Colibri and Colibri from East Ronfaure (S) do not parrot spells. This makes them easier for the party--can enfeeb and nuke without hesitation--but dangerous for a Bard puller.

All Colibris have higher movement speed than players, so these two variety will likely catch up to the Bard puller the vast majority of time. Bring damage mitigation measures to lessen the danger, either from support job or in the form of defense food. Long pull on these is a very bad idea.

Colibri, Parroting
The higher leveled Greater Colibri and Colibri from Bhaflau Thickets and Mamool are far safer for a Bard puller. Since they parrot spells and songs, a Bard puller can get a sizable running start before these birds begin their pursuit.

The Greater Colibri is unique in that it links (by sight) with other Greater Colibris, so take care to have a clear path when pulling. Be careful of the terrain when pulling from lower section of the Nyzul Isle exit Bhaflau Thickets camp, as it can deflect the Greater Colibri's flight path unexpectedly and cause bad links, which is made worse by their fast movement speed.

Using /NIN as support job for these, since Utusemi can absorb the trigger song the Colibri parrots 100% of the time. Do not ever use Horde Lullaby, as it can sleep the entire party and possibly cause a wipe. Use Utsusemi to blink tank if Lullaby fails while waiting for recast, and use skill/Charisma gear, Light Staff, plus Mary's Horn to make sure Lullaby doesn't fail often.

Crawlers
All Crawlers link by sound, and the Defoliator, Eruca, as well as some of the yellow-black varies are aggressive. Interesting to note that they track by scent, so if a Bard runs over a puddle of water (e.g. Defoliator in Aydeewa Subterrane) can lose the Crawler before reaching camp, which is usually an undesirable outcome.

In some parties, exp/hour may be better if a Bard stays to Finale Cocoon (Defense+50% buff) instead of running off to pull mid battle. The decision on whether the Bard should be used to stage pull hinges on whether the party has another person on full-time Dispel/Finale or not, and whether it has substantial non-melee damage (i.e. Black Mage) or not. (Keep in mind a Scholar cannot both main heal and stay on Dispel.)

The Eruca varieties have Incinerate, a Cone AoE fire breath attack that's very strong when a Eruca is at high HP. Take care not to stand where it faces or may turn to, as this can potentially one-shot a Bard. Try to keep Barfire effect on, and may want to hold off on activating Minstrel's Ring unless the party is really competent about keep the battle target facing a predictable direction.

Goblin
Goblins are aggressive and link by sight. Spell casters like DRK (e.g. Goblin Reaper) are easier to pull than fast hitting non-speller casters like THF (e.g. Goblin Robber), but take care to make sure spell casters do not link others after the delay from casting spells.

Imp
Imp has fast movement speed, but not difficult to pull because it responses to pull trigger by casting a spell of its own, giving a Bard puller a hefty head start. (Make sure to run, though, because it can very well be lobbing a tier II -ga spell as its first act.) Imp aggros, detects by true sight, and does not link. Lullaby lands easily, as a bonus.

Be careful of its Deafening Tantara, which is an AoE Silence TP attack. Carry at least two full stacks of Echo Drops if planning to exp off of Imps.

Pugil
Pugil can be aggressive or passive, linking or non-linking, so make sure to research the particular variety's behavior before starting to pull. The aggressive varieties detect by sound, and linking varieties link by sound.

This is another staple target which benefit from attentive Dispel/Finale, so a Bard may not want to pull if there's no one else to remove Water Wall and Water Shield.

Raptor
Raptor is aggressive, detects by sound, and does not link except as pet Raptor, which links its master. It has fast movement speed, making pulling dangerous, which is one reason why it is no longer popular as a primary target for exp parties. (It also seems to prefer out of the way places like Uleguerand Range, Cape Teriggan, etc.) These days, a typical Bard puller likely only encounter one as a pet of Beastmaster type Mamool Ja. When pulling a Raptor or a Mamool Ja with a Raptor, try to pull from as far away as possible; both Raptor and pet Raptor hit hard. A popular workaround is to Lullaby the pet Raptor before pulling the Mamool Ja Beastmaster.

Spider
Spider is non-aggressive, but links (by hearing). It is generally disliked as an exp target, as its Sickle Slash can potentially one-shot a tank, plus it often links badly. Still, the Spider is relatively squishy and easy to kill.

Its Spider Web attack is annoying for a Bard, but causes real trouble for tanks, especially for an Utsusemi tank. The cone AoE Acid Spray attack imposes a hefty 16HP/tick slip damage, so stay out of the way of that whenever possible. A healer with Erase is indispensable for a party wishing to exp off Spider--but, do not pester the healer for it, since the tank needs that Erase far more than a Bard. Dancer for faster curing, White Mages for Flash, and Dark Knight/Black Mage for Stun should be considered when building party as mitigation against Sickle Slash's danger.

A Word for Old Timers
Why have so many seemingly skillful Bard players at nearly all levels taken up the job of puller and abandoned the role of co/backup healer that seemed so natural and helpful before? The answer is that FFXI has changed, and partying skills have improved, so the better Bard now plays puller.

The biggest change is the improvement in MP recovery. It's not a single alteration, but a multitude of improvements.
 * Paladin: Auto Refresh added.
 * Summoner: Elemental Siphon added.
 * ToAU: Sanction's Latent Refresh.
 * Corsair: Introduced with ToAU; Evoker's Roll, stackable with Refresh and Ballad.
 * Blue Mage: Introduced with ToAU; another curing capable job with Auto Refresh.
 * Colibri: Introduced with ToAU; staple exp target that has MP for Aspir.
 * WotG: Sigil's Latent Refresh.
 * Dancer: Introduced with WotG; Gain Aspir Samba.
 * Scholar: Introduced with WotG; Sublimation added shortly after introduction, which is usable from /SCH.

The second is improved curing, which is partially a natural result from the improvement in MP recovery, as well as other additions and changes:
 * Dancer: Introduced with WotG; able to cure and remove status ailments with TP, and help melees regain HP with Drain Samba.
 * Blue Mage: Introduced with ToAU; Blue Magic has the most MP efficient cure spells in game.
 * Scholar: Introduced with WotG; Light Arts improves cure speed and lowers MP cost (also usable from /SCH), and Accession makes it possible to make Cure, Regen, and status ailment removal AoE for party members.

The third factor is the improvement in damage mitigation, which is a combination of player style shift and game mechanism changes:
 * Widespread adaptation of /NIN and Utsusemi for the front line jobs.
 * Paladin: Multiple improvements to shield blocking, as well as the addition of Shield Mastery and Reprisal. Shield Bash's rate of stun was also increased.
 * Thief: Gained Accomplice and Collaborator to take the heat off of party members who the monsters are not supposed to be pounding on.
 * Blue Mage: Introduced with ToAU; another job with AoE Stoneskin effect via Diamondhide, and Head Butt for short recast stuns.
 * Dark Knight: Gained Absorb-TP to reduce frequency of enemy TP moves, and improved stun rate for Weapon Bash.
 * Scholar: Introduced with WotG; the latest and strongest source of AoE Stoneskin with Accession when on /WHM or /RDM.

Combining better MP flow, better curing, and better damage mitigation, in most parties there is less need for today's Bards to cure than back in the RoZ era. While it doesn't mean a curing Bard isn't helpful--or even essential in some situations--it does mean Bards have more time on their hands than ever, and should make better use of it.

Thus, pulling becomes more important to Bards than ever before, and represents an evolutionary improvement as a response to changes in the game and in the play style--and it helps Bard players to help their party gain even better exp/hour.

Acknowledgments
This guide is a spiritual descendant of Fhrast's Motto. Competent staged pulling and roaming party was first demonstrated on screen for the author by Yevna of Ifrit. Special thanks to Lancaster, also of Ifrit, for the preceptive insight that time as what is most precious to a Bard.

A grudging acknowledgment for all the nasty monsters who took impossible paths to link half of the zone, for pops who suddenly made clear road to camp a hellish obstacle course, and for all the crazy adds who managed to meander into the range of Horde Lullaby and Sleepga (and nuke-ga) just in time to wipe the party. Same goes for the sadistic programmers behind their AI's.

Lastly, but not least, sincere thanks to all the pullers--Bard, other jobs, good, bad, so-so, or otherwise--for the motivations. Especially, to the bad pullers. And, to that singular Lv.75 Bard would-be staged puller, who made the author of the guide laugh in despair by failing to land virtually every single Lullaby for an hour and half at the Greater Colibri camp, including that Horde Lullaby.