How-To Guide: Bard

Bard of Stratford-On-Avon
Bard is the original support-role job in the game. It’s a really unique job in that it’s great, but only through other party members. Bard is basically like a battery that supports every other member to make them super-charged and amazingly effective. No other job is as amazing of a puller or all-round support as Bard is. Bard can do almost anything through its party. Give the whole party a Refresh or Regen effect, give the whole party Attack, Accuracy, Haste, Defense, Evasion, resistances, or buff up individual stats. On the monster, you can take off damage over time, sleep it, or lower its resistance to a particular element. On top of which, if things go bad, Bard can even Charm monsters, or give the party an area effect Reraise effect. It can even give an area effect Flee (though to a much lesser extent than the ability itself). Bard literally requires instruments in order to do its job effectively. Otherwise, Bard can’t have more than one song on a target at once. This is the very reason Bard as a support job isn’t nearly as effective as Bard as a main job. Higher-quality instruments aren’t usually expensive, and can boost songs’ effects. Another interesting quality about Bard is that its songs can’t be interrupted by simply being hit by a monster. The downside to Bard is it can’t solo very well. On the other hand, you won’t spend more than 15 minutes seeking for a party at any given time. '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Job-Race Combinations
Please note that race is the absolute last thing you should worry about when picking a job. Anything said here is seriously exaggerated. A single piece of gear can often make up for a race's negligible lack in a stat. Every race also gets "Race Specific Equipment", or "RSE", that will boost a race's stats to equal, or possibly even surpass other races.

Hume

 * Believe it or not, Bard actually takes a lot of stats. With that said, Hume does not fail to be a great one. With survivability through endurance (vitality and HP) as well as evasion (agility), as well as a high count for charisma (stat used in song accuracy) and MP (for White Mage support job), Hume does not disappoint the world of Bards.

Elvaan

 * Elvaan plays Bard great too. With lower evasion, but higher endurance than Hume, it has no problem with survivability. Elvaan shares a high pool of charisma. The only true downside to Elvaan is lower MP means less curing power with a White Mage support job. RSE makes up for this detriment a lot.

Tarutaru

 * Combining high charisma with high evasion and MP, Tarutaru Bards are amazing too. Shy only in the field of HP and vitality in terms of Bard-related stats, Tarutaru can easily make this up with gear.

Mithra

 * Mithra players can enjoy a balance of stats much like Hume. Moderate MP and HP, higher evasion traded in for vitality, allows for a versatile Bard. Choosing any regular support job will work. Low charisma can be made up by race-specific gear, and a lot of other equipment out there.

Galka

 * Galkas make superb Bards. Though their base MP is quite low for a White Mage support job, having full race-specific equipment can alone bring them well past even that of a Tarutaru. Low charisma is also easily made up by this same thing. On top of having the best RSE in the game for this job, Galka also own the highest HP and vitality in the game, so survivability is no problem. They even have half-decent agility.

Weapon

 * Bard has a number of useful choices in terms of weapons. Swords are useful for damage-dealing and soloing, certain daggers can be too, and Staves are used for pretty much everything else. For those who don’t want to engage battle, which is basically any Bard after Lv.20, you’ll be using Staves. A very prominent Staff is the “Monster Signa” at level 17, which gives you CHR+8 at an expense of VIT-5. Since Bards are generally weak on their own (as I said, they work through parties), you’ll be using that staff primarily throughout your game. Any weapon that increases your charisma is nice, but don’t forget the use of MP and HP. These can be easily gained at Lv.30 through grips, allowing you to use a Monster Signa while also having +10 HP and +10 MP. Later on, there are a few Elemental Staves that have some use. The Earth/Terra Staff reduces all physical damage taken by a whopping 20%. Light and Dark Staves are useful for when you want to sub White Mage and cure, since they increase “Cure” potency by +10, and will give +10 HMP respectively. The Chanter’s Staff at Lv.40 gives +6 CHR and +4 Singing Skill. This can be debatably better than the Signa, since 2 CHR really isn’t that prominent.
 * Also on the topic of weapons are your instruments. It is never necessary to actually use instruments to play music, but if you don’t have any, you won’t be able to have more than one on a target at any given time. Instruments in general aren’t very expensive, but some of them are, such as Mary’s Horn. If you see one that has the name of a song, with an added number beside it, such as “Lullaby+1”, the effect of that song will be slightly enhanced. Effects that enhance things such as “Attack” or “Accuracy” will be directly enhanced in terms of how much attack or accuracy they boost. Higher-quality instruments will actually make songs higher-quality too. With that said, normally you can only have two songs on with instruments, and casting a third one would remove the earliest one cast. But if you had one enhanced song active, then a non-enhanced song, then a third song, the non-enhanced song would be removed. Keep that in mind when choosing instruments. Also, having higher skill allows for higher accuracy on negative monster effects, and higher effect on party-buffs. Singing Skill works for all songs, even if you have instruments on, so having that capped is a must. Since Bards don’t need to rest, it’s not very hard to keep your skills capped. Wind is a lot more relevant, but don’t let your String skill fall too far behind.

Armor

 * Bard actually has access to a lot of different kinds of equipment, ranging from mage Robes and Cloaks to melee Harnesses and Leather equipment. Bard can’t wear any kind of scale or plate armor, though, so its defense is quite low. However, that doesn’t matter all that much, since Bards won’t end-up taking too many hits, and certainly won’t end-up tanking monsters. Since Bard has a number of stats that it can have to boost its overall effectiveness in a party, your best bet is to pick gear with those kind of stats anyway. However, that isn’t to say you won’t ever get hit. Overall songs and pulling will give you a fair bit of hate from time to time. With that said, evasion and defensive gear can be a good idea to pick up too. Bard gets a wide variety of equipment, so it’s all a manner of choice. At Lv.65 there is a headpiece called the “Opo-Opo Crown”. It’s a lot more useful than it appears on the outside. Eating the food “Pamamas” will actually give you an enormous boost to HP and MP (both +50), and a wicked +14 to Charisma (to reverse the -7 to +7 in total). The food is super-cheap and lasts a nice half-hour, so you don’t have to worry about any other food as long as you live.

Advanced Job Quest

 * This quest is super-easy, but it involves a little bit of travelling. Also, it won’t appear in your ‘quests’ menu until you’ve completed it. After you have a job Lv.30 or higher, talk to Mertaire at I-8 in the “Merry Minstrel” bar in Lower Jeuno. Then, talk to the Mithra behind the counter named Bki Tbujhja. Go to the auction house and purchase a Parchment (under Leathercraft materials). Now, go to Buburimu Peninsula (either by Teleport-Mea or by taking a Chocobo from Port Jeuno), and head to the beach in the south end of the map. Go through a hidden cave near the water to the beach to the west, and go to the Song Runes. Click on them, watch a cutscene, and then trade the Parchment to the Runes. You should receive the item, Poetic Parchment. Good! You’re done part one. Go back to Jeuno and trade the Poetic Parchment to Mertaire. Awesome! You’re done part two. Talk to Bki Tbujhja again, then go to Valkurm Dunes. If you’ve partied there, you’ve probably been to Secret Beach at least once before. It’s at C-6 after heading far north-west in the area. You’ll see Song Runes in there. Click on them and see another cutscene. Congratulations! You can now become a Bard.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * Soloing is far from Bard’s forte, even in these levels. You’ll definitely want to pick up a sword (preferably a Wax Sword +1 if you can afford it). Head out into your lower level areas after you get Signet, then beat on things. Remember to cast songs before you fight instead of during fights. If it wears off in the middle of a fight, don’t worry about it (this doesn’t apply to levels after 10, just to let you know), and just cast it afterwards. Either as a full-time spell or just for downtime, use Paeon once you get it at Lv.5. If you have a Fellowship NPC, call him or her to make the latter five levels easier. Make it a tank or damage-dealer, and make sure you’re subbing White Mage with MP-boosting equipment. Your songs won’t work on your Fellow. Another alternative is to form a low-level party. One last note is that you shouldn’t worry all that much about any stats at this level. Defense is probably a better course of action, though some MP or other things couldn’t hurt either. Don’t worry, these are your only hard levels. It gets easier at Lv.10.

Valkurm 10-20

 * Still not the cream of the crop levels for you, but certainly getting nicer. Now you can start having large-scale parties and really show-off your support-role skills. By now you have Minne, Minuet, Paeon, Requiem, your first Pastoral, and Light Threnoody. Until 11, you’ll probably use Minne and Minuet all the time, and afterwards, Minuet and Madrigal, to boost everyone’s attack and accuracy. Use Requiem and Threnody at the start of fights, and cure when needed (remember to sub White Mage). Paeon is great for downtime, especially after a long fight and/or if someone has to go away from their keyboard. In your stay this time in Valkurm, you don’t get a number of tiers of spells. Instead, you get a lot of new spells and you get to learn how they all work. At Lv.16, you get Foe Lullaby. This is a super-useful spell that sleeps one target. It’s light-elemental, so it actually can work well against most monsters, including undead and bats. It also consumes no MP and has a ridiculously short casting time of two seconds, so should be used often, even if things aren’t going wrong. Think of it is a quick “stun” effect to stop a monster from casting a spell or using an ability. It won’t always work, but like I said, it doesn’t cost anything, so why not use it? However, if something is going wrong, save it, as it has a 24-second re-cast timer.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * Until Lv.25, your party-helping skills are still minimal. However, once you hit that level, you get Ballad. Ballad is an area-effect “Refresh” effect that gives 1 MP every 3 seconds to every person in range of the spell, meaning less downtime, more cure power, and all sorts of stuff like that. Don’t become lazy and think that’s the only song you have to sing, though. Remember to continue all of your other tasks. It may not be easy, but it’s really worth it in the end. At Lv.27, you get Horde Lullaby that has the same casting and recasting timer as Foe Lullaby, but is area-effect. Again, if you can, use it whenever, but save it for problematic scenarios. For the most part, during the rest of the game, you’ll be basically just getting new tiers of already-learned spells, with a couple here and there. You also get Etudes in these levels. Spells that enhance a certain stat on a party member. Until you get Ballad II in later levels, it’s best to use Ballad I and an Etude on a mage.

Your AF Weapon

 * Though +2 charisma and agility is nice, you’d be a lot better off with Chanter’s Staff or Monster’s Signa. Even if you engage battle, it’s a fairly weak weapon overall. On the other hand, you have to get this to get all your other AF, so you might as well get it. It’s not even a very difficult quest, so finish it early and get your artifact armor later.
 * Talk to Mertaire in Lower Jeuno’s “Merry Minstrel” again. Now, either switch to a higher-level job or bring a higher-level friend along (Lv.55 or higher will do). Go to Ranguemont Pass near San d’Oria. Travel to E-5 in the north-western corner of the map and click on the “Waters of Oblivion” you see. A large Sea Monk named Tros will spawn. Defeat him, then click on the Waters again. After a brief cutscene, you’ll have your Paper Knife. Congratulations! Now dispose of that in the blue bin, if you please.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * More with the fresh tiers of spells, making parties even better (if you can believe it). Though there’s not a whole lot more I can say here. You get your artifact armor starting at Lv.50, as do you get your limit breaking quests. At Lv.55 you get Mage’s Ballad II, giving everyone it hits an extra 2 MP per tic. It’s really nice in that now you finally give as much as the other support-role jobs like Corsair and Red Mage. Now you might even find yourself quite capable of pulling. In fact, Bards can pull easily at almost any level. Pull with an Elegy, then sleep the target before the party’s even done the previous one. If all goes well, the party should kill the first monster, then can move immediately to the second one. Once you have Ballad II and with a proper tank, you probably won’t even have any downtime. The only problem with this strategy is that you might even run out of monsters to fight.

Your Artifact Armor

 * A solid set of armor. It gives you just what you need. Though, you might want to pick out some better things, you still can’t go wrong with some of it. First off at Lv.52 are your boots. They give you a nice boost to evasion, agility (for more evasion), HP, and resist-vs.-wind. The Res-vs.-Wind is only really noticeable in the “resist silence” part it will give. Next up is your AF hat at Lv.54. Mind, more HP, and enmity-down make it a fairly decent piece of armor. It even gives you some parrying skill to avoid further attacks. Lv.56 is your leg pieces. Showing-off another drop to enmity, another boost to HP, and a beautiful +5 to Wind Instrument skill. You’ll be wearing these for a looong time. Not sure what the strength +5 is for, though. Your AF body piece comes as second-last Lv.58. It’s not bad, but you could probably do better through other gear. It only gives a Sting Instrument skill boost, some vitality, HP, and another drop to enmity. If possible, try getting your Lv.50 JSE instead. It looks better, too. Finally, your Lv.60 AF gloves. Singing skill and charisma alone make these gloves great, and the enmity-down and further HP boost just make them icing on the cake.

High Levels 60-75

 * Your final levels. That didn’t take very long, did it? Fast party invites, making bad parties good, and good parties extraordinary. Now you just have to finish up, then you’ll be cruisin’ for those merit parties and end-game scenarios. You still play the same way. You might even continue pulling (see “Mid-High Levels 40-60”) the way you were earlier. With just a few more levels to go, you finally get a couple new spells just to top off your aweseomeness. A spell at Lv.71 in case things go wrong, an area-effect Reraise I. It’s especially useful if you have no main White Mage in the party to cast Raises II or III. It’s a great last-ditch effort if things go wrong. It has the full eight-second recast, so use it before people start dying. Another way to save your party comes at Lv.75 with Maiden’s Virelai. It charms the target so it won’t keep beating on you. When you hit Lv.75, congratulations!

End-Game

 * (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

White Mage

 * One of two main support jobs you’ll be using all throughout your game. It opens you up with extra support potential, giving you access to cures, ailment-removal spells, Raise, and a large number of others. If that’s not enough, White Mage also rewards you with a little extra charisma for your song accuracy. Sneak and Invisible both come free with this sub as another added bonus.

Ninja

 * Another useful support job choice for Bard. Though you won’t be using it quite as often. Its only major benefit is the use of one single spell: Utsusemi. It’s primary purpose is to allow you to pull easier without taking as many hits, which is really relevant when the monster can run faster than you. With the lack of cures, and since Dual Wield really doesn’t play a part in this job, I would avoid it unless the party specifically asked for it.

Beastmaster

 * Believe me, it has purposes. First of all, but certainly not the biggest reason of subbing it, is for the extra charisma. It lets you land your songs on enemies a little easier. Second, it gives access to charm. Since Bard isn’t really required to do any major healing or damage-dealing or the like, your support job is really open to anything. And with Beastmaster subbed, you get Charm from the low level of 1. It’s really only useful when chaining monsters and you accidentally take a link. It’s not as useful of a sub as something like White Mage, but it does have purposes.

Red Mage

 * It’s quite a bit like White Mage, but traded in some of your useful magical spells for slightly more effective songs. How? Red Mage’s exclusive job trait “Fast Cast” can lower your overall casting and recasting time on your spells by roughly two seconds. It also gets Dispel, which gives you two versions of the ability when you can use it at Lv.64. However, with the lower MP and loss of area-effect Cures and ailment-removals, the only other real benefit is some minor curing power.

Corsair

 * A support-role job subbing a support-role job. It’s not exactly the most ideal support job, but a good Bard can make it work. With Phantom Roll’s recast lowered to only one minute, you can buff your Mages and your front-line fighters with one of each roll. Keep in mind, you won’t get nearly the same effect as when playing Corsair as a main job, nor do you get the effect of other abilities. It’s sole purpose is giving you one more buff. You can enhance your party’s attack, accuracy, MP recovered while healing (great for mages), evasion, or anything like that. With recent updates, Corsair’s effects are actually quite potent even when subbed, so it’s a decent alternative if it’s already leveled. Best of all, Phantom Roll is considered a job ability, so even if you are silenced, you can still help somewhat.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * Soul Voice is a really interesting ability. Like a lot of two-hours, it becomes more useful over time. It literally doubles the effectiveness of all songs cast while the effect is active for three minutes. Meaning, of course, songs that are already on there won’t get the effect and you’ll have to re-cast them all. With double the effect, expect some great results from double Minuet or double Madrigal for their attack and accuracy boosts. Having both Ballads active gives everyone 6 MP per tic, allowing everyone to survive longer with almost 1 cure’s worth of MP every 3 seconds. Double ‘March’ for about +40% Haste, allowing everyone to attack tons faster. This is really relevant with a Ninja tank, using Utsusemi a lot more often. Like I said, it gets better as you level up, because you get better spells. Combined with the job meritable Lv.75 job ability Troubadour, you can get all that for double duration as well, which also means you can separate your songs on individual party members. Again, even more relevant with the Lv.75 meritable ability Nightingale.

Job Abilities

 * Nightingale is one of only two job abilities Bard can get aside from its two-hour ability, and can only be used once merited at Lv.75. What it does is halves both the casting and recasting time of all songs for its entire one-minute duration. Though pretty irrelevant by itself, with its partner song Troubadour, it’s amazing. It resides on a twenty-minute re-cast that can be brought down to fifteen with full merits.
 * Troubadour increases song casting time by an extra 50%, but literally doubles their duration. If combined with Nightingale, it will have only ¾ of the normal casting time, and still ½ of the normal re-casting time. But now with Troubadour, you don’t have to cast it nearly as often. The effect lasts one minute, same as Nightingale, and can also stack with your two-hour ability to give you one of the most ultimate powers ever. Also like Nightingale, it has a twenty minute recast that can be brought down to fifteen with merits.

Job Traits

 * Resist Silence is the only trait Bard gets. It gets four tiers starting at Lv.5 and acquiring the last one at Lv.65. Since Bard is solely a support-role job that works completely through singing songs (which are classified under ‘spells’), losing out on the ability to do so would make you completely useless. Each tier will increase the chance to resist the effects of Silence just a little bit more, and if it doesn’t, it will still greatly reduce its duration.

Bard Songs (Spells)

 * Minne has four tiers that all increase the defense of anyone in its effect. It’s not as useful as other spells, but is nice to use until you get Madrigal in parties. Any instruments that boost Minne will increase the defense given.
 * Minuet also has four tiers, all of which increasing the attack power of anyone in its effect range. Bards use this song extensively, and for good reason. Minuet IV has a hard cap of +66 attack power. Not a negligible amount. Any instruments that boost Minuet will increase the attack given.
 * Paeon has five tiers throughout the game. Each one gives a “Regen” effect equal to its tier number (I gives 1, V gives 5, etc). This is just the soft, base number, though, and can be changed with instruments. With the Ebony Harp, it will increase HP per tic by 1, and Ebony Harp plus 1 will increase it by 2. Having two Paeons on at once can alleviate a lot of mage’s healing during downtime.
 * Requiem is a monster-targeted spell that deals damage over time. It’s single-target and has fairly long range, so it can be used for pulling as a last resort. Requiem has six tiers, each dealing more damage over time than the last. It’s not a noticeable amount, but it can still help. Remember, you can only have two songs on your enemies at a time.
 * Ailment-Resisting Songs are pretty useless. They’re not completely useless, but since you can only have two songs active at once, there’s almost no way you’re going to use one of them. On the other hand, they do have cool effects. These songs include Herb Pastoral (poison), Scop’s Operetta (silence), Fowl Aubade (sleep), Goblin Gavotte (bind), Gold Capriccio (petrification), Puppet’s Operetta (also silence), and Warding Round (curse).
 * Threnody songs lower the target’s resistance to certain elements. For example, using Blizzard with Ice Threnody would increase its damage and lower the chance of it being resisted. Similarly, using Paralyze with the same Threnody will increase the chance of it sticking, as opposed to being resisted. All-in-all, a useful line of spells. Like on your allies, remember that you can only have two songs on your enemies, and Threnodies also do not stack with each other.
 * Madrigal is your accuracy-boosting line of songs. As you level up, you get only two tiers of this spell, but they’re both very widely-used. Any instruments that boost Madrigal will increase the accuracy obtained.
 * Mambo, like Madrigal, only has two tiers, each named something different. They enhance the evasion of everyone in the area effect. With that said, it’s only really useful when your main tank is a Ninja. Any instruments that increase the effect of Mambo will increase the evasion they give.
 * Lullaby puts enemies to sleep, a lot like a realistic lullaby. There’s only two Lullabies in the game, but they’re both a pair of the most useful ones ever. Foe Lullaby is single-target, and Horde Lullaby is area-effect. They both have a wicked two-second recast timer and are both light-elemental, so they’re more effective than any other form of sleep in the game. Mary’s Horn (or anything else that increases the effect of Lullaby) will simply increase the sleep duration.
 * Etudes are single-target, single-stat buffs for any one member (at a time) in the party. If your party has a Thief, increase his dexterity. If your party has a Black Mage, increase his intelligence. If your party has a Paladin, increase his vitality. There are two tiers of these spells, each with individual stat-boosts.
 * Carols increase the resistance to specific elements. Unlike the ailment-resisting songs, these actually have a purpose. When fighting the avatars, or other serious single-element-geared targets, you can use these songs to greatly reduce the damage or effect of any spell of that element, including other songs.
 * Ballad is every party’s best friend. Though for the most part hindered until its second tier at Lv.55, it’s still quite useful giving 1 MP per tic. The second tier gives 2 MP per tic. Unfortunately, once you get Ballad II, your Etudes will be pretty much useless. This is one of your best spells, but don’t neglect your others.
 * Magic Finale is a Dispel, which removes a beneficial effect from an enemy. If it uses a Haste ability, dispel it. On the same page you found this guide (i.e., the Bard page), there’s a great guide to tell you how to dispel effects effectively and what monster abilities to look out for. For example, a Crawler uses “Cocoon”. That boosts its defense by 50%. You’re going to want to dispel that right away.
 * Mazurka has two tiers- Raptor and Chocobo. They both enhance your movement speed; though not up to that of a Raptor or Chocobo respectively. They’re a nice way of getting around, but isn’t a great spell for fleeing, since getting attacked will turn the effect off.
 * Elegy slows the target. There’s two tiers, Battlefield and Carnage. Carnage has higher accuracy and overall slow effect. It also doesn’t take HP per tic, so it’s a good idea to use when pulling.
 * Goddess‘s Hymnus is the Reraise spell I talked about earlier. It’s an area-effect Reraise that takes the normal eight seconds to cast. It can certainly save your party, especially if your party has no other way of Raising, or those with Raise don’t have Raise II or III (namely everyone who isn’t a White Mage main).
 * Maiden‘s Virelai charms the monster. It won’t give the control a Beastmaster’s Charm gives, but it can still save the party if you link or aggro (as long as they’re below “Very Tough”). Any monster under Bard’s Charm will attack whatever is attacking the Bard.
 * Adventurer‘s Dirge is one of two meritable spells. It reduces the target party member’s enmity by -3 per upgrade, up to -9. It’s not ultimately useful, but it’s great for anyone who wants to deal that extra damage without holding back. Unlike the slightly more useful job abilities you can merit into, this spell doesn’t have a ludicrous cool down timer, so it’s up to you whether or not you want them over this.
 * Foe Sirvente is one of two meritable songs. It will reduce the target party member’s enmity loss by 5% (up to 15% fully-upgraded). Over time, anyone with hate will slowly lose hate, and anyone who gets damage taken will lose hate even faster. This is especially noticeable with high-spike enmity like Provoke or Flash, and makes a great spell if your end-game merit parties mostly involve Ninja tanks, who generally have much lower enmity than Paladin or other tanks. Like Dirge, it doesn’t have a ludicrous cool-down, so it’s up to you whether or not these songs are worth meriting over Nightingale and Troubadour. Those two work better when they’re both fully merited together, so it’s really a matter of choice of these two or those two.