Bard Guide by Tattersail

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Welcome to Tattersail's guide to being a Bard!

There are several Bard guides around, but I found that most topics are scattered. This is the reason why I wanted to make one complete Guide. Information that I have used is gathered from sites such as this wonderful FFXIclopedia, Allakhazam Job forums, personal experience and from players in game.

I would like to stress that the Jobs and Song combinations used in this guide are merely examples to illustrate party situations. There is no right or wrong choice; it's mostly personal preference. I do not claim to know everything, so I wanted to share here where others can correct me whenever!

Please take in consideration that this is still a Work In Progress!

= Unlocking Bard = First things first! To be a Bard you have to be level 30 in order to unlock the job by doing a quest. "Uh Oh!" I can hear you think, no worries this one is a piece of cake!

To flag The Old Monument quest you have to speak with Mertaire who hangs around in The Merry Minstrel Tavern in Lower Jeuno. This poor fellow is heart broken! Luckily Bki Tbujhja knows something that might help! With this done, get yourself a Parchment, hop on a Chocobo and head to Khoonta Dunes in Buburimu Peninsula. There is a hidden path there that will take you to the Song Runes. Click the Song Runes to receive a cutscene.

After speaking to Lewenhart you will be on the A Minstrel in Despair quest. Now you can trade the parchment to the runes. Give your now 'Poetic Parchment' to Mertaire in The Merry Minstrel Tavern to receive another cutscene with Lewenhart.

Speak to Bki Tbujhja again to activate the last quest The path of the Bard. Now she will mention another set of Song Runes in Valkurm Dunes. Head over there and go to Secret Beach. Click the Song Runes to receive another cutscene with Lewenhart.

Congratulations! You have now unlocked Bard.

Being a Bard
Being a Bard can make leveling life very easy for you. Parties simply love Bards. However, do not let this fact turn you into a slacker! Bards have a good name and reputation to uphold. Not to mention having a bad reputation as a Bard will effect every job you have. Reputation is everything in FFXI.

If you wish to practice your newly-chosen profession adequately and competently you will have to learn a lot about other jobs. This is because Bard is a support job and a very powerful one at that. You can actually make a big difference in how fast your party kills mobs, or be the one that can save your entire party.

The most important thing to know is what song has what stats in order to boost your party members appropriately. Learning the duration of your songs is also handy. If you know what the duration is, you can sing them again before they wear off.

You also have to know the range of your songs, as most of them are area of effect. You wouldn't want your mages to have an melee attack bonus now, would you?

If you know all of the things I have mentioned above it will also help you to convince your party members to listen to you. You will be the one who has to position them properly so you can land all the correct songs on each party member.

However don't think only you know what is best. Yes by the time you reach mid levels (37) you will know a lot. But some jobs may have reasons for wanting something else than what you think would be good. Unless you have a Monk asking you for Ballad, then use your own judgement

= Stats of a Bard = Your main stat is Charisma. It will greatly influence if you can land a debuff song on a mob. It has nothing to do with buffing songs for your party members. You can add a lot by equipment and food, which we will get into later. Be prepared to pay handsomely for your gear though!


 * Singing Skill determines the effectiveness of your songs
 * Wind Instrument skill together with Singing skill determines the effectiveness of your songs when using a Wind instrument (e.g. Cornette)
 * String Instruments skill together with Singing skill determines the effectiveness of your songs when using a String instrument (Harp)
 * MP is also important when subbing Red Mage or White Mage.

The songs of a Bard
As a Bard you will almost have a new song at every level you gain. "Holy Circle Bat Man!" I hear you think. I am not Batman (O.o) But yep my friend, 75 songs you will learn and that is a lot. When you merit, you can even learn two extra songs! However only two songs will be active on a player if there is 1 Bard in the party.

The Sub Jobs of a Bard
The most commonly used sub is WHM. A backup healer is always nice to have. Divine Seal and Curaga when a party had a tough fight is very nice and your WHM will be grateful for it.

You can also choose to sub RDM, perhaps at later levels when a backup healer is not always needed. Fast Cast helps reduce the singing time and recast time of your songs. This will allow you to sing even more songs without letting anything wear off.

= What song to sing?! = Yep, confusing isn't it when having so many options? I will not explain what to sing up to level 10 before you can party. Simply get there by slicing and dicing all the while using a dagger type weapon. Dagger is a Bard's highest skill, B- so it will be the most effective.

However do make sure that your Bard Magic Skills (Wind, String, Singing) are capped. You do not need MP to sing so you can do this anywhere you wish without having to rest once! Neat huh?

Once you have reached level 10 you will be able to sing the following songs;

What we need to know about Defense: "The stat that reduces the damage from a melee attack. Damage taken is related to the attackers attack value vs. the defenders Defense value. A character's defense is a sum of various factors, including their main job level, their current VIT score (at a ratio of two points of VIT to one point of defense), all currently equipped gear, food, the trait Defense Bonus, and spell effects such as Protect or Knight's Minne."
 * Knight's Minne "Increases defense for party members within area of effect"

What we need to know about Attack: Stat that is compared to an enemy's defense that determines the minimum and maximum amount of damage a character will deal.
 * Valor Minuet "Increases attack for party members within area of effect"


 * Army's Paeon "Gradually restores hitpoints for party members within area of effect"

This is simply Damage over Time (DoT). So remember when a mob is slept, it will wake it up!
 * Foe Requiem "Deals sonic damage to enemies"

These work like the bar-spells but since you can only have 2 songs active you won't be using these for quite a while. In fact, don't think I've seen higher level Bards reporting usage for these. What we need to know about Resistance. Well read it at the link I provided because it's a lot.
 * Herb Pastoral "Increases resistance to poison for party members within area of effect"

Using Light based spells will have more effect.
 * Light Threnody "Weakens the target enemy to Light-based attacks and effects"

Ok now we know what the songs do. Since you have a small amount of songs it's fairly easy at early levels. Simply play Minne and Minuet to boost melee and help them kill off the mob faster. At this level it doesn't matter if your Mages get these songs as well. But I'd advice to try to landing your song on melee only. This in order to practice the AOE (Area Of Effect).

After singing for your party members it's time to sing for the mob. Play Reqiuem and Light Threnody to weaken it. These are single target songs. No worries about angering other mobs! If Dia is casted after your Threnody, it will have even more effect.

When you see the mob's life is very low you can sing Paeon to regen HP and make life for your WHM just a tad easier. Then when the puller returns to camp (by using map you can time this) you can sing your Minne and Minuet again. Rinse and repeat as needed!

Seems easy huh? Well at this level it is. As soon as you get to level 15 you will have learned Sheepfoe Mambo and Sword Madrigal. The first will give an Evasion bonus and the second will give an Accuracy bonus.

Yes my friend, the plot thickens!

Now you have four very potent and helpful songs to sing to your melee. This is where you have to learn what is useful for which job. In other words, time to research a bit! Luckily you're reading this guide so I'm going to help you out a little, oh and see those links? Click them!

Evasion bonus is great for Ninja. It will save them a lot of gil in casting Utsusemi. It will also make it easier to cast it because they have less chance of being interrupted by the mob. Accuracy is great to ensure that melee will land more hits on the mob.

So what to choose now? There are several options;

None of these are right or wrong so picking any of these options is perfectly acceptable.
 * Trial and error
 * Ask your party members what they want
 * Use your own judgement

Using Mambo when having a NIN tank will make life easier for the NIN and for the WHM. Both will have to cast less because of that. You can also land Mambo on your mages so that if they draw hate. They won't get hit that often. Having Madrigal up together with Minuet will kill the mob faster. Just adjust to what would be best for every particular situation.

Advanced partying!
Ok lets move on a few levels right up to 40. Yep this means you will have at least 40 songs!

Now this is where the -real- hard work and running around begins. Let me explain. You will have Ballad which regens MP, several Etudes which are single target spells and raise some basic stats, Prelude for ranged accuracy, Advancing March for attack speed and a few tier II from your prior starting songs.

Your Mages are going to want Ballad and the appropriate Etude. Melee will want 2 melee songs (mostly 1 of them will Madrigal). Your Ranger will want Prelude and so on.

Let's build a party; WHM, BLM, BRD (you), NIN (tank), DRK, RNG

Now I'm going to make this party a bit demanding, but keep in mind this is just an example. By no means are the songs requested here the perfect songs for this set up!


 * NIN wants Mambo and Madrigal,
 * Mages want Ballad and Etude
 * DRK wants Ballad and Madrigal
 * RNG wants Mambo (this actually won't happen a lot but used this to make it more complex) and Prelude.

How are you going to do this!?!

You want to position the players accordingly. Remember, the mob has to face away from the mages. So if the DRK is backup voke he shouldn't stand in front of the mages yet -- we want him relatively close for his Ballad. ''Note: The 'drawing' is just an approximate. You will have to experiment with the AOE of the songs.''

--BRD2--- BRD3DRK---BRD1 mages -mob-NIN--- -RNG-

Well, first off you will sing on the spot marked as BRD1. First sing Prelude for the RNG then sing Mambo. Go to BRD2, sing Madrigal without landing it on RNG


 * RNG will now have Prelude and Mambo
 * NIN will now have Mambo and Madrigal

Go to BRD3, sing Ballad and Etude both of the mages (there's 1 for INT and 1 for MND)


 * DRK will now have Madrigal and Ballad
 * Mages will have Ballad and Etude

There you go! Mission accomplished!

Stacking songs
First song played will be your first music note icon, second song played will the second one. If you play a third song the left icon will disappear. This is how songs stack.

Let's try a different party with the above comment in mind.

WHM, RDM, PLD, MNK, RNG, BRD (you) This is just an example and by no means should you think that the songs requested are the best songs in this setup!


 * Mages want Ballad and Etude
 * PLD wants Ballad and Minuet
 * MNK wants Minuet and Madrigal
 * RNG wants Minuet and Prelude

--BRD2-- ---PLD--BRD1 mages -mob-MNK-- -RNG


 * BRD1, sing Madrigal and Minuet
 * BRD1, sing Prelude for the RNG
 * BRD2 sing Ballad and then Etudes

Madrigal, Minuet and then Ballad. Minuet was sung as second and Ballad as third, so these will be active. Madrigal, Minuet, Prelude. Again Minuet was second and Prelude last, so these will be active
 * PLD will have received songs in this order;
 * RNG will have received songs;
 * MNK will only have gotten Madrigal and Minuet
 * Mages will have gotten their Ballad and Etudes

After the fight or when the mob is at low health, you could decide to play a double Paeon. That's right, a tier II and tier III version played together will stack.

Result: Everyone happy!

''Note: You can also use Divine Seal and Curaga when subbing WHM. At times this will be more effective than Paeon.''

= Monsters like music too! = Well they don't really. But who cares!

Monsters are big fans of the following songs;
 * Threnody single target song which will weaken a monster to an element
 * Requiem single target song which will do Damage over Time (DoT)
 * Elegy single target song which will slow a monster
 * Lullaby which will put a monster to sleep. This has a single target and an area of effect version.

Note Using the corresponding elemental stave will help you greatly in sticking the debuff songs and enhancing effect. From experience, I've invested in Apollo's Staff and was able to land Lullaby with great succes on IT++ monsters. If you are able, I suggest acquiring this item as soon as you can.

Using Threnodies
The Threnodies you can use for two different situations;
 * To assist your Mages and weaken the monster to certain elements
 * To assist in a Skillchain

The first is pretty obvious, just check what the monster is weak to or whatever it is your Mages will be casting and apply the appropriate Threnody. The second you will have to know what element the Skillchain (SC) is and what element Magic Burst your Mages will be using. When the SC opener readies his weaponskill, you should sing the corresponding Threnody.

Using Lullaby
We Bards are known for crowd control and pulling. We have two very effective sleep songs and they tend to stick very well. But there is another use for Lullaby! If there is nobody in your party who can Stun, Lullaby will do the trick for you!

= You and your instruments =

As you may have noticed, next to singing skill you also have 2 instrument skills. This being Wind and String.

There are 2 instruments that are for debuff songs. These are Nursemaid's Harp and Sorrowful Harp. They will increase the effect of the song but String has a lower Magic Accuracy so you will have a bigger chance of being resisted.
 * String instruments will have a wider area of effect on your buff songs. This will increase more when your string skill becomes higher.


 * Wind instruments have a smaller area of effect than String. Their strength is the extra Magic Accuracy they have.

E.g. Nursemaid's Harp has Lullaby +2, this means the mob will be asleep longer. Mary's Horn has Lullaby +1. The mob will sleep longer than normal but not as long when using the Harp. But because Wind has more Magic Accuracy your chance of being resisted with the Horn is slimmer than with the Harp.

If you have to make sure your mob is asleep for a while you can choose to go with the Harp version. Just make sure you got all the extra Charisma you can get since this adds to your Magic Accuracy as well. A simple rule of the thumb to get debuffs to stick; Your +CHR has to be half of your base CHR and after reaching level 60 approximately 30 CHR would be good. This is just to go by, not a law.

+1, +2 or no + at all?
This is where an important question arises; Do I have to get the +1 or +2 instruments? If you are able to, please get the +1 instruments. They will add to the effect of your songs. Luckily most +1 instruments are nowhere near as expensive as a +1 weapon or body armour. Usually the +2 will give the same + to a song but will have extra CHR, HP, MP or whatever other stat. So if the +2 has extra effects for your song, by all means get it if you can. If it does not, it's not a necessity

= I'm hungry! What to eat? =

At the lower levels I would suggest eating cookies to help you regen MP while resting. This is good because you will back up heal a lot.

Then comes a point in a Bard's life that one will acquire a more select taste for food. Unlike Mages, a Bard will want to watch his diet! I have listed all the foods that adds CHR to your stats. Please click to check the info. You will have to use your own judgement which food would be best for you. Take gil, effects and what type of situation in consideration!

= So many songs to sing but nothing to wear! =

This is the part where we will have to fork up lots of cash. No don't turn away, don't be discouraged. Just go to Jeuno and sing for gil.

Ok seriously though, in theory a Bard could get to 75 wearing RSE1 gear and a nice instrument of their own choosing. However having good gear that will benefit your stats is icing on the cake, and we all want cake with some nice icing on it don't we?

Now that I have been able to experiment a little more, I want to bring under the attention the great advantage of using -song casting gear. Some are extremely costly but at higher levels, well worth it! As long as your charisma is at least +30 you will be fine and it leaves you the option to use slots for -song casting gear. This specific type of gear will shave off seconds of casting a song or the recast on a song. So this will allow you to buff your fellow party members more or debuff a monster. Maybe even go to town and melee on a mob!

The real +charisma gear will be available at level 10. From what I have seen a lot of Bards combine +Charisma gear with White Mage gear. So I will list Charisma gear as well as singing, wind, instrument skill gear and gear that cuts on song casting time. Just click on the link for more information. For additional gear I would advice to use +MP gear as much as you can.