Endgame Barding Guide by Ghlin

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Very Rough Draft. Editing Currently In Progress.

Content is where I like it right now, but no one edit this til it's done.

If you want, feel free to read and comment on the talk page. All of the content is here, it's just not nice and neat yet. I'm going to intermittently work on it til i get it where i want it.

Credit Where Credits Due
A lot of my information comes from personal experience playing the job. But, just as much comes from discussions with other bards, reading other documentation, message boards, or from the Wiki itself. I'm not going to mention any names specifically, but the people who have helped me know who they are. Thanks for all of your input for this guide and for barding in general.

Who Should Use This Guide
I am writing this for experienced players who are approaching endgame or are planning on endgame as bard. This guide isn't a support job overview, or a gear list. It won't tell you how to unlock the job. It won't tell you where to find all of the songs. It won't tell you how to make simple macros. It's a guide with important information regarding how to maximize the effectiveness of bard in endgame events. I also think an experienced mmorpg player (but not necessarily a FFXI player) could read this guide and determine if bard sounds like a job he'd be interested in playing if he's looking for a job to play on FFXI for EG.

A Bit about Myself
My character is Ghlin on the Diabolos server. I go by Matt though. I've been playing since a month or so after the NA release. It's been a very off-and-on experience for me, but I've consistently been playing since then. I didn't rush to 75. I usually spent my time camping NMs or farming, or chatting, or just doing random things with my LS. Then my ideas changed, and I wanted to start doing EG. When my friend from work and I started a static party, I finally took-up my Bard from 37 to 75. I always wanted to play Bard as my main job since before I started the game, but I never got around to it. It quickly became my favorite job. I've been playing Bard in EG for over a year now. I've done just about every EG event. Dynamis (a lot of), some HNM, Sky, Sea, Limbus, Einherjar, SCNM, and the list goes on.

Ok, let's begin.

Preview of Content
Basic Bard Requirements - I discuss what support jobs, gear, and merits I feel a bard needs to perform in the end-game environment effectively.

Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bard - I'll go over a lot of misconceptions, or complete unknowns, to the player-base about the job.

Choosing DPS Songs - There's more outside March/Minuet. I'll just show when to use different song choices.

Macro Tips and Suggestions - Maximizing space, and effectiveness.

Event Specific Tips - I'll briefly go-over some tips that will help you be more useful in specific EG events, such as Dynamis, Gods, etc.

Leveling Bard to 75 - I quickly discuss some ideas about how to inexpensively level bard to 75. I also discuss some basic EXP party concepts that I don't see implemented often.

Basic Bard Requirements
Bard is a very gear intensive job. I call it one of the few 'true stat' jobs. It requires a lot of planning and gearing beforehand, and implementation doesn't require an awful lot of skill. The skill is in the planning and use of proper stats. Implementation can be tricky if there was bad planning.

Implementation can also have hiccups from resists or unexpected pulls, etc, but again, I think a solid plan can keep implementation of strategy at a low skill level requirement. This contrasts with NIN for example which, in my opinion, requires a great level of skill to implement in EG. As such, I feel that it's important to understand what the basic gear/merit/sj requirements a BRD should have on hand in order to plan for different events.

Support Jobs
I said I wouldn't list support jobs, and I'm not. I do want to comment on the three you will need to have for EG though.

White Mage - WHM will be your support job for almost everything. By default, choose this. If your leader needs something else, he'll know to specify such.

Black Mage - This is used exclusively in EG for Elemental Seal + Troubodour + Carnage Elegy. 5/5 Troubodour is nice, but not needed. Carnage Elegy will last for about 8 minutes, and that is the length of most God fights if you have 18. Against other HNM, the fights last much longer than that, and you'll definitely want 5/5 Troubodour. Of note, Wyrms require Stoneskin and heals, so you'll not be able to use /BLM as a crutch for sticking Elegy.

Ninja - Almost exclusively used for merit party pull whoring. Pretty rarely will this be needed for any other EG activities. Some ZNM come to mind. Could be OK in Nyzul Isle as well depending on your playstyle. But, I still will say that /NIN is only for merit parties. It's still a must-have for EG because as a brd, you will almost always be wanted to bard for merit parties. Merit parties are a part of all EG. Be it getting buffer back or just helping LS mates cap their merits for new jobs or old jobs.

Gear
Note this isn't a list of 'the best,' it's a list for choosing what is basic for maximizing performance. Keep all of this gear on hand and change your builds for each event as needed.

HQ Staves - Absolutely must own Terra's and Apollo's Staff. I recommend Earth and Light grip as well. If you want a less macro swap set-up, Bugard Leather Strap +1 is ok, but not optimal. The rest of the Staves don't have to be HQ, but if you want to be able to stick Threnody reliably, you'll slowly acquire all of them. But honestly, the only 2 you need HQ are Apollo's and Terra's.

Vermillion Cloak and your Idle Build - Most bards do not do this, but every bard needs to make an Idle build. A lot of players don't have Windower, and as such, are limited to six macro slots. This is more than enough to build a great idle. Vermillion Cloak is basic and is a must-have. After that, idle in Terra's staff and some MP+ gear or HP+ gear. I also recommend status protection gear, such as Insomnia earring for resist sleep, or Garrulous Ring for resist silence. There's a lot of different directions you can take. Magic Defense Bonus and Phsyical Damage Reduction are good choices too. Cheviot Cape is a good idea. I personally use Hexerei cape as it is cheap and gives some MP as well. It also protects against both Magic and Physical attacks. Also, from Shantoto's Ascension, I'll mention later too, that you can build a very important movement+8% idle piece. One quick note about MDB versus Magic Damage Taken -%, is that Magic Damage Reduction works out to be slightly better if the value is tied. I.e, MDB 3 versus MDR 3, MDR 3 is slightly better.

Precast Macro - A lot of fast-cast/song casting time-% gear is full-timed by EG bards. This is almost always a bad idea in spite of the high price these items have. Especially pieces like Rostrum Pumps which have an item that gives an equivalent Recast on Lullaby (Sha'ir Crackows). Loq Earring is 750k (at average) and I would recommend investing that money in different items first. Having said that, all of these fast-cast items are the best for what I'll call a precast macro.

By equipping all of these items before casting your song, you get all of the fast-cast from the item, and you can swap-in CHR/Macc/Skill during casting to gain the benefit of both worlds. As such, a truly skilled bard will never full-time Sha'ir Manteel. (I would say it's ok to Full Time if trying to save space for something like Merit parties.) Of note, to benefit from the recast reduction on Fast Cast and Haste, the gear must be equipped while the song finishes casting. I think the precast macro is the best use for Minstrel's Ring. When you're low on health, you'll actually need the reduction which is what I feel the intended use of the item was in the first place. This makes it a very helpful piece when in trouble. I also recommend Yigit over Sha'ir for precast. Finally, if you want to go all-out you'll get Rostrums and Loq. Again, equip precast, cast, equip stat gear. Best of both worlds. Don't full-time Fast Cast et al unless you're looking to save space.

Instruments that You Haven't Considered - You haven't Considered Angel's Lyre for Finale yet have you? It has +2% haste which helps with Finale's long recast. It's also your best 'string ballad' instrument. Angel Lyre is also good for Pianissamo Ballad at any time for the haste (except assault/salvage with storm fife). It's also your best Adventurer's Dirge instrument. Get one.

Iron Ram Horn for Carnage Elegy and Lullaby is often not considered. +1 on Mary's Horn is literally +3 seconds on lullaby (assuming no resist or half resist.) +4 CHR could be better in a high resist situation or if your gear/merits are lacking. Horn+1's +2 to Elegy is just +2% slow. +4 CHR could help it stick against a really difficult foe at minimal loss. You may not know about Storm Fife. It exists and you should do Lamia No.13 with a couple friends til you get it. Finally, have you considered Nursemaid's Harp? If you don't know about how String songs have a much wider aoe, I'll talk about it later and explain why Nursemaid's Harp > Mary's Horn (and the new Cradle Horn) for Horde Lullaby.

The Stoneskin Build - Stoneskin is extremely important to BRD as it is to every mage. Capping stoneskin requires a dramatic amount of MND for BRD (About +60 I believe). Do not be disheartened if you can't get capped Stoneskin easily. I personally don't have a capped build as it absolutely requires Suzaku's Sune-ate, and I haven't done a lot of Sky myself. But, that doesn't mean I don't devote each slot to MND when I cast Stoneskin. I have about 302 on Stoneskin w/o Food. I say w/o Food because I will usually use Goblin Mushpot or Roast Mushrooms for my Bard. I know those seem like strange foods to use, but as BRD, the only CHR food available is Tacos, and they're very expensive for a small increase to CHR (+4). Additionally, my SS build is lacking so I can make-up for that using food. Roast Mushrooms are great for +3 MND and -1 Enmity. Mushpots are expensive, but they last long and give a whopping +10 MND. Again, if you plan to do EG bard, plan on having a build that's literally all slots mind. A walmart build for this isn't expensive, and it will be integral to playing BRD for many events.

Body Armor - I already mentioned Vermillion cloak, but what about Magical Accuracy. What about Sha'ir Manteel? The only bodies that are absolutely needed are Errant Hpl., and Vermillion Cloak. Minstrel's Coat, Sha'ir, Yigit, and Royal Redingote are all luxury items. Kirin's Osode is good too if you have one.

Helmets - A lot of bards will use a static headpiece, such as Bard's Roundlet, Goliard Chapeau, or even Demon's Helm +1. I personally recommend a heavy swap set. Walahra Turban should be swapped-in for Cures and Finale. Demon's+1 is good for capping Madrigal, and is a good substitute if you don't own Bard's Roundlet. If you're using Verm idle, you have to swap in a head-piece anyways, so plan on it.

Skill Gear - Wind Torque, String Torque, Choral Cuffs. Eventually Cuffs+1, Wind Earring (or Musical if you have CoP done), Singing Earring, and String Earring. Demon's Helm+1 is also good. Bard's Roundlet is one of your best. Finally, Piper's Torque if you have money to afford it is your best neckpiece for resists.

CHR Gear - Melody Earrings +1, Errant Hpl., Errant Slops, Sha'ir Crackows. Eventually Goliard Clogs. Marduk's Shalwar is your best Salvage gear by far. Strive for it if your LS does Salvage.

Haste/Song Time-%/Fast Cast/Song Recast- - Sha'ir Gages, Walahra Turban, and Angel's Lyre. Eventually Swift Belt and Yigit Gomlek. Loq Earring and Rostrums are not that big of a deal. Make sure you buy other more important gear first. Rostrums are cool to get if your LS does a run, but not something to lose sleep over.

Merits
Before I get too into the nitty gritty of the rest of the merits, I want to talk a bit about HP and MP merits, and why I think HP merits are often forgotten about bard. Bard is always up in the line of fire when buffing. It runs right into the middle of the battle and needs to do its thing. Because of this, it can take massive amounts of damage from physical damage aoe. If a bard has a lot of HP to MP gear on, or is trying to do Minstrel's Ring in his build, he could outright die from one nasty aoe. Because of this threat to the bard's life, and the ready availability of MP+ gear, I say HP merits are the best for bard in the EG environment. MP+50 is nice, but can be attained from ample gear. When you need HP+, you *really* need it. When you need MP+, it's more of a luxury. Something to think about. Though, personal preference and other job considerations will determine what you do with these. But don't discount HP merits for bard because you will be taking damage and your life will be in danger in EG.

Group 1

Bard merits provide very, very marginal benefits. As such, the usual route is 5/5 Lullaby 5/5 Minuet. The thought being that it's only worth doing if entirely focused on. I don't entirely agree with this notion, but it's not outright incorrect either.

Note that +1 on Minuet is only +1 attack if only casting Minuet IV. It's +2 if casting Minuet III and IV. It's +4 if using Soul Voice and Minuet III and IV. So while Minuet +1 doesn't seem like a lot, it really is a lot. This has to be considered when deciding how you want to do your merits.

Lullaby -1 second affects two songs. This is a pretty common choice, but if you don't do a lot of sleeping in EG, you can pull whore for merit parties just fine w/o any merits in this. So, this isn't needed, per se, but I will say that 1 or 2 merits in this, will most definitely be useful to you at some point in your barding career.

Finale -1 affects one song. Do you have a very haste-focused build for your Finale macro already? If not, consider doing that first, then think about getting Finale recast -1.

Most LSes will Require 5/5 Minuet. So, Plan on that. And, honestly, it's probably your best bet. I would say your best builds are 5/5 Minuet, some Madrigal, and some Lullaby. How you do the mix is up to you. But, again, you can't go wrong w/ 5/5 Lullaby. It will inevitably find use.

Group 2

Bard's meritable songs and JAs are not *that* big of a deal. But, at least 1/5 on both Troubodour and Nightingale is a must have. Don't consider yourself Lv75 on bard til you have at least 1 merit in both of them.

I would say your best route is 5/5 Troubodour, 4/5 Nightingale, and 1/5 Adventurer's Dirge. Dirge is useful for BLMs against some HNMs and Gods. Foe Sirvente is a joke unless your LS has a ton of spare bards for your tanks. But balladx2 or marchx2 (or both) will be better in almost all situations. Again, if your LS requests it, go for it. Also, ask your leader what he thinks. 4/5 Nightingale is simply not that important, so you won't be missing-out on anything if he wants you to drop a couple points in foe sirvente instead. Only 1 or 2 merits are recommended for Dirge.

Magic Skills

I first want to say that I have different ideas on what's needed for BRD than the consensus. I will explain why I differ so you can use my tips to help you decide for yourself. I do also want to say that I'm of the opinion that if you're not a diehard bard, that you don't need magic skill merits at all to be a decent bard for EG. Ok.

By default, 8/8 Singing is a must if you can spare the merits. Otherwise, I'd aim for at least 5/8. That's +10 skill, and puts you 2 away from capped minuet. Also, it puts you in range to easily get +29 on your Madrigal w/o too much effort. Finally, it puts you just under half way on capped etude. You won't need much special gear to cap all of your songs with only 5/8 singing merits. Before I had 8/8, I functioned very well on just 5, so I know it's a safe bet. And honestly, again, you can function very well on 0. But, I would plan on, if you have the spare merits, to do at least 5/8 Singing.

Next is Wind Skill. Consensus is 8/8 Singing and 8/8 Wind. The reason for this is Sticking Elegy on Wyrms and Kirin w/o needing Elemental Seal. While I feel this is ideal for that situation, that's a very isolated situation. Many bards will never have to deal with this on a regular basis.

Additionally, most LSes could probably have an extra BRD/BLM. And Even with those merits, you're not going to have a 95% stick rate against Kirin/HNM anyways. (Maybe I'm wrong, but I doubt it.) Wyrms 100% require Stoneskin, but how often do most players fight Wyrms? Not very often. So you need to understand *why* some EG bards have this set-up. Also, with just 8/8 Singing and very good gear, you can still stick Elegy on Wyrms w/o any Wind merits. It's just going to take a few casts til you get it to stick. In the EG environment expect resists, but just cast until it sticks. That's a very important part of your job. I say unless you're going to do a lot of HNM and Wyrms, you don't really need any Wind at all.

String Skill is a very useful and often forgotten stat. It's key in max range for String Ballads (casting ballad with string instruments so that you can avoid AOE attacks or simply to help make it easier to get it on every BLM.) It's also key for Nursemaid's Harp+Horde Lullaby which is a big part of bard EG in almost every EG battlefield, such as Dynamis, Einherjar, or Limbus.

The following chart will show how much skill is needed to attain caps on the main spells you'll use. The information was taken from Wiki. Personal tests will verify their validity.

Ok so what do we need to get the right amounts?

Advantage here is you can keep Vermillion Cloak on while casting.

Alternatively, remove minstrel's coat and demon helm+1, and add choral cannions +1, and you reduce total items needed by 1, and you can keep vermilion on at all times. Adding Wind Merits, too, reduces items needed obviously.

{| cellpadding="4"
 * + Attaining 25 singing/string for Tier 2 Etudes
 * All Gear || musical earring (+5), string earring (+3), minstrel's coat (+3), chanter's staff (+4), string torque (+7), bard's slippers (+3) = 25
 * Some Merits || 7 singing merits (+14), chanter's staff (+4), string torque (+7) = 25

Ideally, you use as much haste as possible so you can cast the spell on another party member if need be. Or simply so you can refresh herculean asap. So I left room for sha'ir gages, and walahra turban in both builds.

For myself, I personally like 3/8 String for the simple reason that you can do string ballads while mantaining a solid idle set that has your Vermillion Cloak on. But, if max range isn't important to you, you can still do a good String ballad that only has 14' range and maintains idle set. Again, you can also do Max Range from gear alone, but you don't maintain an idle set.

I'd say if you're with the BLMs a lot, you'll be doing a lot of string songs. String Ballad and String Horde. This makes String merits invaluable to you. Additionally, if you have ample string merits, you can stick String Threnody (Sorrowful Harp) which would give you more powerful Threnodies. The usefulness of that is up for grabs as Macc testing is very tricky, but we do know that it's better.

String and Wind merits depend on what you will be doing as bard. So maybe hold off on String and Wind merits til you find your place. Focus on finishing 8/8 Singing, and Group 1 and 2. After you're done with those, then decide how you want to do String and Wind if you decide to do them at all.

The 500/100 Build
I'm sure you've heard of the 320/120 build that BLMs aim for. BRDs use a similar thought process. However, bard skill is comprised of a combination of Singing+Instrument Skill and CHR. It's a bit different, but your numbers work-out a lot the same. Magic Accuracy testing has shown a lot over the years, and we now have a solid model to create ideal resist rates. Additionally, a lot of gear has been released that allows BRD to really mix and match to create a personal and ideal set.

The 500/100 model means 500 combined skill (and macc+ gear) and 100 total chr. To attain this, you'll need around +50 Skill. Also, you'll need about +30 CHR. Ideally, you'll hit 510/110 and eventually 520/120 if you're really aiming to do hard things. Of note, Magic Accuracy +1 is the same as Skill +1.

Why 100 CHR? The concept is that CHR is 1:1 for Magic Accuracy up to a certain inflection point. Most difficult monsters have around 100 of each stat, including CHR. So against most high level things, your breaking point will be around 100 CHR or less. Any extra CHR is at 2:1 for Magic Accuracy, so CHR is always useful, but not *as* useful as Skill/Macc after a certain point. Also, some very hard monsters may have more than 100 CHR. I will provide a walmart build that you can add to yourself later with EG gear as you acquire it.

Terra's Staff, Earth Grip, Iron Ram Horn Demon Helm +1, Wind Torque, Melody Earring +1, Melody Earring +1 Errant Hpl., Choral Cuffs, Nereid Ring, Nereid Ring Jester's Cape +1, Gleeman's Belt, Sha'ir Seraweels, Sha'ir Crackows

This build will cost around 2 Million gil total. Add Apollo's staff/Light Grip and V.Cloak and you're around 3 Million gil total. That's not bad, guys. SAM for example drops 3M on Hagun alone. You don't even want to know what their WS Macro costs. RDM and BLM have to own almost all HQ Staves. Not to mention they have to buy more torques than you and have multiple builds. So, you're actually getting off pretty cheap.

Ok how good is this build? CHR 70+50 Skill 450+24 and 8/8 singing puts you at +42 Skill/Macc so you're at 492/120. 20 Extra CHR is like Macc+10 as well. So you're at a pseudo 500/100 build. It's not perfect, but it will work against most resistant things to a point.

It's CHR heavy because Macc/Skill gear is more exotic. This walmart build, as you can see, is mostly CHR gear because that's all you can really get from the AH. But that's ok. This is a good start and you'll have very favorable resists for just about everything that you do. If you do Sky Gods, do /BLM and use Horn +1 and you'll be fine. You're probably not ready for the Wyrm scene yet, but again, this is a good start. Also note that the 500/100 build is before HQ staff. Again, HQ staves are a must for playing EG.

Expansion Pack, and Add-on Rewards
One last thing to close this discussion of gear are the Single Choice Items from Add-ons and Expansions. I'll just give my suggestions.

Dvine Might - Doesn't matter, but Suppanomimi could be good for your Joyeuse if you ever get one. You knew that already though.

Apoc Nigh - Magnetic is probably your best. Good for macro-ing in on spells for conserve mp. But honestly, doesn't matter. Get ethereal or hollow for another job if it's better for those.

CoP - Again, doesn't matter. Tamas might be nice for SS build. Don't choose Tamas over Rajas/Sattva for other jobs. Unless you're absolutely die-hard BRD. You knew this already too.

AUM - Balrahn's Ring is huge. Strive for this ring. Nyzul Isle and Salvage are a big part of EG. This ring is also +4 macc outside of those events. In those events, though, it's a bomb. Must have.

ACP - Redingote is very good for BRD. You can do Fast Cast and Macc+4 and it's literally the *best* body for bard bar none. Marduk's is arguably better b/c you can maintain refresh if you build around it, but Redingote is still .5 Macc more accurate. It also doesn't cost 10 Million gil. You can also do Macc+4 and any other stat on it, if you say have SCH to consider, or RDM to consider. The Fast Cast isn't a must-have. But the Macc+4 is. It's a shame they didn't have refresh as an option.

MKE - Nothing really exciting here. Best bet is probably MND+6, Cure potency, and fast cast. But again, that's not that exciting. You'd use it for SS macro, cure macro, and precast macro. If you have a DPS job, the WSing built Anwig or Gallea (STR+5 WSacc+15 acc+10 attk+5) is way more useful for those jobs.

ASA - Must-have. Absolute must-have. Movement+8% is the key stat. Doing Cure Potency could be good. Doing Physical Damage Reduction could be good. Song Recast could be good. A lot of options for you here. But make sure you get this for your Idle build.

Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bard
Charisma Does not Affect Buff Potency - This is a very common misconception. Buff potency is purely from Singing Skill + Instrument Skill. Most songs are capped at 75, but a few are not. They are Tier 2 Etudes, Madrigal, and Minuet. Some Songs we don't know about. Dragonfoe Mambo, Archer's Prelude, for example, are nearly impossible to test. To be safe, I stack all my Skill gear when I cast them.

Song Casting Time -% and Fast Cast are Not that Great - I mentioned this earlier, but both of these stats are actually not that big of a deal for BRD. They're best used in a precast macro where you equip all of them before casting, and then equip stat gear over them for resist rates or buff potency. Or in some cases, equip right back into idle. Do not worry about buying a Sha'ir Manteel.

String Magic Skill affects the AoE Range of Buffs - A lot of bards discount the fact that Ballad for a BLM party is best cast with a String Ballad set. A bard can get a 15' range on Ballad II which can help make sure each BLM gets Ballad efficiently. Key word is Efficiently. Yes, you can Cast Wind Ballad twice, I agree. However, time wasted doing that is time taken away from status curing, heals, or crowd control. Additionally, a solid string ballad set is useful for putting Ballad on multiple tanks while avoiding AoE. If AoE are extremely dangerous, or melees are in a situation where they're constantly spread-out, best to do a string set-up for all buffs. I admit this is rare, but Sarameya comes to mind, or any monster that casts -Aga 3. Or Sheep in Antlion's Clothing where people are constatly spreading out. There are situations for this, albeit, rare ones. But again, your main ones to consider are String Ballad and String Horde which you will definitely use.

Nursemaid's Harp is the best Instrument to cast Horde Lullaby - Try it with Capped String skill and a few String Skill items such as String Torque and String Earring. You'll see the difference. Both pieces are extremely cheap but very good for this build. The AoE Range is dramatically greater than Mary's Horn. Cradle's Horn is great, but its range is still going to be just as narrow. Have a macro for Nursemaid's Horde, Mary's Horde, and Mary's Foe. Use them in different situations.

Tier 2 Etudes Fade over Time - Etude 2s give +19 stat but they decay at 1 stat every 10 seconds. This requires them to be cast again and again if you wish to implement them to full effect.

Capping Madrigal Is Very Difficult - Most BRDs may think that their Madrigal is capped. The case is that it probably is not unless they have 8/8 singing and 8/8 wind. Even then, a bard still needs to have a lot of skill equipped to hit +30 Acc on Blade Madrigal. He needs a total of +58 Skill to cap Madrigal. Capped merits is only +32, so you're still a ways off. In the basic requirements section, I show a few ways to get to capped Madrigal.

+1/2 On an instrument does two Things: Increases Buff Potency and Buff Duration - +1 for potency on a buff is buff-to-buff in terms of how much it augments. But a constant is that +1 on an instrument is +10% Duration. Songs last 2 minutes, so +10% duration works out to be about 12 seconds.

A Song's Remaining Time Determines The Stacking Order for New Songs - In many cases First In, First Out applies when casting songs. That is, if a bard casts March1, March2, and then Minuet4,Minuet3 that the songs on the party will be Minuet4 and Minuet3. The First Ins were the First Out. Right? Yes, this is the case. However, the reason this is the case is that March and Minuet both have a +2 Instrument. This gives their duration identical times, but what is actually happening is that the first March has the least remaining time which makes it the song that gets replaced.

Ok let's try again. March2, March1, and then Ballad2, Ballad1. Songs on party should be Ballad2 and Ballad 1, right? No, this is absolutely not the case. The reason for this is that Ballad doesn't have a +2 instrument. This makes its duration significantly less (24 seconds less) than the Marches. When you cast Ballad2, it replaces the song with The Least Remaining Time on its Duration. This is March 2. After casting Ballad2, it comes into play with 2:00 on its timer and the March 1 still has 2:16 about on its timer. So when you cast Ballad1, it does the same thing, it will replace the song with the least remaining time on its duration. In this case, it's the Ballad 2. So in this situation you have Ballad 1 and March 1 on.

How to prevent this? There are two ways. Way 1 is the quick bandaide fix. It is Always Cast Ballad 1 before Ballad 2. I personally don't like this, but I could see it working for some people. Cast Ballad1, ballad2, ballad1, and you'll always get Double Ballad on your party if a mage snags a melee song by mistake. The better method imho, is to just wait. Wait 17 seconds after casting your melee songs, then start your ballads.

Look at the timers. March 2 and March 1 are just cast. March 2 has 2:16 and March 1 has 2:24. I wait 17 seconds. I cast Ballad 2 (takes 8 seconds), it replaces March 2. I have Ballad 2 with 2:00 on it and I have March 1 with 1:59 on it. See what happened? Now when I cast Ballad 1, it replaces March 1 which has the least remaining time on its duration. So if you just space-out your ballads properly, you'll never have a problem with this.

Another useful thing to do with this is to use Troubodour and witness Songs not even replacing songs at all. If you have a Song that has a greater duration than a new song, that is, a Duration of 2:25 or greater left on it (which is possible with Troubodour), the song will not replace it at all. As long as a Troubodour'd song has 2:25 remaining on it or more, it will not be replaced by new songs. This can be useful if you want to keep a certain buff on someone, but the long recast timer on Troubodour makes this a rarely (if ever) used Trick.

Soul Voice Must Be Used BEFORE Casting Songs - Soul Voice does not retroactively increase songs. That is, buffs that are already active will not become more powerful when you use Soul Voice.

Soul Voice'd Songs stay Powered Well After Soul Voice the ability wears off - Many bards know this, but this is here for completeness. Soul Voice lasts 3 minutes, but buffs last 2.5 minutes. It is possible to do 2 song cycles with Soul Voice for a total of 5 minutes of soul voice. Additionally, if you use Troubodour for the second cycle, you get a total of 7 minutes of soul voice. This is incredibly useful in Apollyon as you get your 2hr back on every floor. It's also a great place to practice it. I recommend doing your second cycle 2 minutes after using Soul Voice. Use a stop watch.

Troubodour Affects Lullaby - In a bind, Lullaby duration can be doubled with Troboudour. Do not hesitate to use this if you feel it necessary.

+1 on Mary's Horn only adds +3 seconds of lullaby - This is a very marginal, and often, unnecessary amount of sleep duration. Often in merit parties your monster will not wake up prior to being engaged. In high resist situations, pulling a resist is worse than losing 3 seconds on lullaby duration. I'm not saying that Mary's Horn shouldn't be used, but I am saying that it's not the end-all be-all. Of course, Cradle Horn is. This is especially true since it has CHR+1 on it.

Carnage Elegy is 50% Slow - Carnage Elegy is one of the most powerful debuffs in the game. It should be a priority in every event. Horn+1 only gives it 2% extra slow (52% total) and Longer duration, and that's not very much. I recommend trying Iron Ram Horn for high resist situations where you're not /blm.

Finale's Favorite Stat is Haste - I don't know if you're doing this on your bard yet, but stack haste and nothing but haste when you cast Finale. This is an absolute must as Finale has a very long recast. Also the military harp is garbage. Don't use it, use Angel's Lyre.

One Bard can Buff 2 or more Parties - This is an often forgotten ability of bard. Even some LSes don't implement soul voice on multiple parties when it's available. To party swap, it's very very simple. First there are some limitations. You can't really do more than 6 songs reliably. 8 would be outof the question unless all you wanted to do was go back and forth casting songs. You'd also distract people by needing to be invited constantly which is a small thing, but something worth noting. Think about it, 8 seconds to cast a song is 8*6 64 seconds which is a minute. Running back and forth is about a second per song, so that's 8 more seconds. Ballad only lasts 2 minutes. So you're at 70-80 seconds on an 8 buff cycle.

That will keep you extremely busy. If all you want to do is buff, though, it's doable. Ok so you're limited to around 6 songs in most situations, and honestly, if you set-it-up right, you won't need to do more than that anyways. you have a party that only needs ballad, you have a party that needs ballad and another 2 songs. that's the ideal set-up. for example, a melee party that has only a whm in it or a rdm. or a blm party and a tank party. keep those parties at 5 members and designate someone who isn't really busy as an inviter (or someone who is good at it).

Make this macro twice for each party leader invite me /pcmd leave /t NameOfLeader ((Please Invite Me))

a macro that just does /join could be useful as well.

Have the leaders each make this macro invite bard /pcmd add YourName

You can actually begin casting your song shortly after hitting the 'invite me' macro, and if you /join before the song is finished, the song will hit the new party.

This can be extremely useful to your LS if you can do this. This turns 1 bard into 2. This is best when you don't need to do any sleeps/status heals/cures etc so you're mostly just there to buff and elegy. Read: BRD/BLM.

One final tip is for if you're casting the same songs for both parties, to use haste gear on your song macros. This can be instrumental in pulling off the 6 or 8 song cycles as the recast will hold you back if you don't have haste.

Also, a bard could theoretically buff three parties. Balladx2 for each party and x2 buff for another. You'd need a good amount of haste for string ballads, but you could pull it off. (It wouldn't have to be ballad, but that's usually what will be needed/wanted.) You could easily buff two/three melee parties too. It's just you don't necessarily want to be in aoe range for very long (esp if you're /blm).

Pianissimo isn't the best way to put Ballad on a PLD - Anyone who believes this is sorely mistaken. The best way is to have the party set-up so that ballad can be cast aoe on both the mages and the pld at the same time.

If you need to show your party this diagram, type it out exactly like this:

mages brd  pld><monster<melees   ranger.

Keep the melees behind the monster at all times, and the mages on the same side as the pld. Stand in between the mages and the pld, and cast your ballads. The advantage here is that you don't just have ballad on the pld, but also the mages in an efficient manner. Additionally, pianissamo requires a good wait between casts. This delay is detrimental to playing bard.

BRD can produce a tremendous amount of total MP, but it's not worth it - With MP Merits, Zenith gear, and more MP gear, a BRD can crank-up over +800 MP. This build would be useful in many situations, but take heed that it's only good for very low resist situations or situations where you're not debuffing at all. This is because the moment you macro-in casting gear, you'll lose all of your MP. Also note that Vermillion Cloak is better than any amount of MP+ gear. Finally, understand that total MP isn't your bottleneck for being a main heal. It's the lack of Cure IV. Cure III can only go so far. Because of this, I recommend Haste for spamming Cure III.

So an absolute max MP+ gear set probably isn't the best for an MP+ set. I'd mix-in haste and vermillion cloak. Also, for most EG events, this amount of MP is excessive. But, play style and the event itself dictates what you want to come wearing. Planning is key.

BRD is more than a merit party pull whore - This seems to be forgotten by some. BRD is a mage for EG. It sits in the back line and casts spells and songs to control the fight. Its power is incredible if implemented properly. It controls the ebb and flow of the battlefield. It controls how fast monsters die. It controls how much mp mages have to use. It controls crowds. It is a powerful job and is recognized for that. Try not to see it as something less simply because it's so often trivialized as a pull whore.

Choosing DPS Songs
DPS is very important to bards because we decide the damage output with our songs. There are a lot of things to consider. I'm not a mind on DPS I will admit. But I will give a good idea of how to determine what songs to use. I won't explain the math behind it in depth, but if you want to look into the math more, I suggest using FFXI Calculator. I also suggest reading guides on specific jobs.

You really have a select few choices to make.

March/March - When monsters are erasing TP and DPS becomes more important than WS damage, double march will shine. Also, it's obviously used when you have 2 bards. Jobs that are almost pure DPS, and use high amounts of haste in their set-up, such as MNK, NIN, and THF benefit from this more than other jobs as well. In fact, THF in particular, double March is the best song combination for him even over Etudes for SATA. I also recommend double march when you have a corsair. Have the corsair do hunter's/chaos or fighter's/chaos. Whatever the situation calls for obviously. Final note is that March is both defensive and offensive. March affects Utsusemi recast timers, and can be key for survival.

Double March is also the best option when your team has very high accuracy and haste. Even jobs that achieve most of their damage from WSs benefit from this because of the fact that they will now WS more often. Minuet IV doesn't make WSs strong enough to outdo the overall increase in WS frequency and DPS from Advancing March. In a merit party, insist that the RDM use Dia 2/3, and use Double March if the melee players are able to support it.

SV+Double March is not capped magical haste, but it is almost capped haste. It is about 2% off. The spell Haste is still needed to cap magical haste.

March/Minuet - Typically used in most EG situations. The reason for Minuet being that 'cratio'* is hard to cap unless Dia 2 or 3 is cast on each monster which can be unreliable. This is especially true when mages are afraid to dot something that might need to be kept asleep. And the reason for March is that Haste feeds into haste. The more haste you have the better, but haste is an exotic stat. As such, players usually have very little of it. So, amplify the small amounts of haste that they have in gear by giving them magical haste.

it has also been said that march/minuet is better than double march when there is fear of 'feeding the monster' tp. the case in point is salvage where the boss monster's tp moves can be devastating.


 * 'cratio' is the player's attack divided by the monster's defense. if this division is 1.5 or more, a monster will check as having 'low defense.' if it's 2 or more, 'cratio' is capped. 'cratio' actually has 3 tiers. tier 1 is when it is equal to or less than 1.25. in tier 2, it is when it's at 1.26 to 1.5. tier 3 is where you want to be, and that's when it's higher than 1.5 all the way to 2. 2 is, again, capped. adding any attack is useless at that point. of note, though, if a player's 'cratio' for a given target is in tier 2, unless enough attack is added to hit tier 3, adding attack is useless. an example of this...

Player's Attack 400, Monster's Defense 300... cratio is 1.33... tier 2... add 66 attack. Player's Attack 500, Monster's Defense 300... cratio is 1.55... now tier 3.

Player's Attack 800, Monster's Defense 600... cratio is 1.33... tier 2... add 66 attack. Player's Attack 866, Monster's Defense 600... cratio is 1.44... tier 2 still.

In the first example, the player moves from a cratio of 1.33 to 1.55 which bumps him up a tier. Being in the next tier grants him a bonus to damage. But, in the second example, 66 attack is not enough to make cratio 1.5, which literally means he gains no damage on his attacks. This is significant because this makes minuet nigh useless unless it is enough to make cratio from tier 1 to 2, or tier 2 to 3. if it does not do either, it is a wasted song choice. however, notice how in the examples, i just doubled the attack and defense of the two targets. when dealing with lower defense, and lower attack values, minuet is much more likely to influence the player's cratio. this needs to be considered as well. of note, if a monster checks as having 'low defense,' it's probably wise to avoid using minuet because the player already has 1.5, and could very likely have 2 on his cratio for that target.

March/Madrigal - Madrigal should not be outright forgotten. Against monsters that nullify food, such as Hippogryphs, and Colibri, Madrigal can be very important for Multi-hit WS users. Not to mention, just high evasion monsters such as THF and NIN mobs, Madrigal is very important. Against some high level HNMs, it is said that Madrigalx2 still isn't enough to hit the monster consistently, but imho, that doesn't make madrigal bad. If anything, it makes it more important. LS to LS. Strategy to Strategy. Don't forget Madrigal though.

Madrigal/Minuet - Similar to the above situation, but against something with both high evasion and high defense. Also, prior to 75, this is very often a good song set to use in exp parties. While March is good at later levels, accuracy is very hard to cap at lower levels. Since sushi is percentile based, the returns on it are not great at low levels. Your Madrigal/Minuet + Sushi is going to be superior to 9% haste. Again, this is at lower levels.

Madrigal/Minuet is also very good for Multi-Hit ws users for maximizing damage. So this would be key in maybe some type of zerg. Maybe a MNK zerger, or a DRG zerger. Of course, if you have Feint on the monster, Madrigal will not be useful. But against some missions, or against some monsters where you're running on few members.

SAM doesn't benefit from Madrigal hardly at all. Sam is a weird job because of Zanshin, massive STP, and their Single Hit WSs. The SAM model doesn't really work for any other job. SAM can function on double march, double minuet, or I'll talk about another option later. A good sam doesn't even do /nin, and that makes march less valuable for him as well.

Madrigal is also useful when you have DPS using Piercing weapons that they aren't ranked high in. I.e, Polearm War and Sam. Dagger Nin. These builds also use multi hit WS, and they again benefit greatly from Madrigal. Some people with these builds, though, have very high accuracy builds already, but capped accuracy isn't certain. It depends on the player, so you'll have to look at their gear or ask them what's up. Even a Piano Madrigal macro wouldn't be a bad idea for something like this.

Madrigal has another situation that deems it quite useful. In situations where monsters (read: skeletons, demons) are spamming their Blinding move, having Madrigal constant can be very useful. If keeping Blindna on multiple Melees is proving nearly impossible, as it could, Madrigal will be your best song in conjunction with Minuet.

One final thing, Madrigal/Minuet is probably your best song combination if you ever find yourself camping the Mamool Ja at the top of the bird camp. Just a tip. Personal experience tells me this, and I'm passing it to you.

Minuet/Minuet - Most often used for a zerg. Also used when a Ranger or 2 is around. Often a good idea to give them double minuet over accuracy as they have ideal accuracy already.

STR Etudex2 - SAM is 80% WS damage. Knowing this, and knowing that SAM benefits from raw STR, I say Double Etude is very good for SAM. I don't recommend keeping it constant, but if you see a SAM getting ready to Sekka toss a Herculean on him. Or if you're going to SAM zerg something, double Etude. Remember Herculean Fades, so try to keep it as fresh as possible.

Macro Tips and Suggestions
I've already hit a lot on this, but I'll mention them again here. I also understand playstyle is a huge, huge factor in how someone sets up his macros. Does he use keyboard exclusively? Does he type-out status cures? Does he use a controller? There are a ton of different ways to do things. There are even macro helper programs out there to use. Are you on PC or Console? That dramatically changes things. I am, still, though, going to try to hit a few things that I think will help people a lot.

Spell then Gear - It's best to put the casting action first, then the casting gear on second. This helps make the macro execute fastest. If you have a precast build, do precast, cast, then gear swaps for all of your macros.

 and  - Most people are not aware of these. They are select alliance and select party. They do not put a cursor over the target, and they prevent blinking. Use them.

Waits of .5 - A lot of people aren't aware you can put /wait 1.5 for example. This can be useful at times.

Windower Macro'ing - It's simple. In the script folder create a .txt file with lines that say 'input /equip slot "item". Load the .txt file in a macro line with /console exec "file.txt" in it.

Idle Macro - 100% Must have. Equip Terra's Staff, Vermillion Cloak. Anything extra is only going to help, albeit only marginally.

Precast Macro - Hit before casting a spell, then hit spell macro. Spell puts all casting gear on. If you're on windower, put /console exec "bard/precast.txt" as the first line of all of your spells.

Lullaby Macro - Have three. Foe Lullaby w/ Mary's Horn. Horde Lullaby with Mary's Horn. Horde Lullaby with Nursemaid's Harp.

Finale Macro - Equip all Haste. Note that Angel's Lyre has +2% Haste. For some EG though, some monsters are resistant to finale, and you should use Iron Ram Horn instead. 99% of things you do, finale being resisted is not an issue though.

Erase/Status Cure Macro - Similar to Finale. Use all Haste gear, but also use Conserve MP gear. Some people like to type-out status cures. this is totally great if you like to do it that way. whatever you have to do to efficiently status cure, do it.

Cure Macro - Cure Potency, Haste, and Conserve MP. Enmity- Gear is ok too, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Stoneskin Macro on Console - It would be bad to have 3 macros dedicated to casting stoneskin. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. I won't hate someone for not doing this though.

Pianissamo - A lot of bards make a pianissamo macro and then have all of their songs as . I disagree with this. Make a few songs that you pianissamo and put them on a seperate page that's easy to get to. I have them below my main page. Examples would be Mambo, Ballad, Minuet3 (for a ranger), and possibly Minne and March. Carol isn't a bad idea either. This makes all of your spells faster to cast. Why spend all of this gil/effort on items to decrease casting time if your macros cost you an extra second to execute? Think.

It should look like this: /equip instrument /console exect 'precast.txt' /ja Pianissamo  /wait 1 /song song NameOfTarget/ /console exec 'castinggear.txt'

Type the name into the macro if you know it beforehand. Remember: Planning is a big part of implementation on bard.

Event Specific Tips
Dynamis - For cities, resist rates are very favorable. consider even walahra turban for foe. work builds around sha'ir gages. string horde should still have a very high resist build on because of the nature of string debuffing. MP builds are useful at times, but not necessary depending on numbers. keep SS and Blink constant. timing sleeps can be completely irrelevant as a lot of sleeps will be replaced with sleep 2 or sleepga 2. but you'll still be on the frontline sleeping things. for outlands and dreamworld, plan on high resists. carnage elegy will be resisted by bosses in xarcabard often. 2-3 casts usually will make it stick. Understand the 3 bard cycle may be used to zerg some things (see below)

Einherjar - just started einherjar. but bard is very important for sleeps. high resist build. try to get a corsair for warlock's roll. again ss and blink are constant. 3 bard buff cycle will likely be used to zerg the boss.

3 bard buff cycle is each bard does soul voice, 2 songs, swaps party, 2 same songs, swaps party, 2 same songs. Very simple.

Limbus - 1 BRD buffing 2 parties can be used to great effect here because you're usually trying to low man it. BRD sleeps are still important, so you'll have to keep it to a 4 song cycle if jumping, but usually that's all you're doing. Ballad for BLMs, March/Minuet for melee. RDM (or WHM/SCH healer) can stand alone w/o ballad. Make a Pinao Ballad2 macro anyways though. Remember the SV trick to extend duration as you get to use it on each floor of apollyon.

HNM/ZNM/etc - Nm to Nm, but I want to talk a minute about the power of Mambo. NIN and BRD can duo or trio with a rdm or whm a lot of NMs. I'm talking Charybdis, Kreutzet, and the list goes on. I've ran into a BRD that didn't have Dragonfoe Mambo b/c he didn't think it was worth it. Trust me, it's one of your most powerful spells, so make sure you have it. Double Mambo and Double March for a ninja can be extremely good against many NMs. Consensus is that fighting HNMs that Evasion is a waste, but I disagree. While I wouldn't say full mambo is always the best route, I could see 2 brds with Mambox2/Marchx2 being very good. A good example is Hydra (while not a big deal) is very easy to evade against (compared to other HNM). I've also read that Marchx2/Mambox2 is key if doing NIN tank against Byakko.

Against a lot of HNM you can do your BRD/BLM, but Wyrms, for example, absolutely musthave /WHM. Also note that the less members you have the more /WHM is needed. So, more often than not, you'll be BRD/WHM.

Sky - This is where your /BLM will be used. And I've already talked a lot about this, but elemental seal+troubodour+elegy is very useful. Some LSes use Fire Carol on suzako, so pack your crumhorn (buy one if needed) when you go to sky just in case your LS wants it. I've read that Marchx2/Mambox2 is key if doing NIN tank against Byakko. So pack your gemshorn as well.

Merit Parties - A lot of things change for merit parties. Resist rates are not extremely low at either collibri or mmj. But, they're low enough (esp after 8/8 singing) that you should full time walahra and even build around sha'ir. I even use Swift Belt. Haste is useful for pulling for shadows and lullaby recast. Before you get 8/8 singing though, make sure you keep a good resist build up.

Using Shadows is a very important concept. I'm NIN75, so I didn't have trouble doing brd/nin at all. But some bards may. This is especially true for bards who stopped nin dead at 37 and never really tanked on nin for real. The concept is fairly simple. Use Ichi as base, and Ni for emergencies. Going ichi to ichi is ideal, and ichi - ni - ichi - ni is used when you're against something highly accurate or fast attacking. In merit parties, though, you're never tanking, so ichi to ichi is almost never going to be a problem. So, when you need to put-up shadows for a pull, use Ichi unless time is an issue, and Ni is then good for that emergency.

Keeping up a 3 song cycle is about the most you should try to do. A 4th song might be piano minuet for a rng or prelude for a rng. I also recommend having piano ballad 1 on hand, but piano ballad 2 should be enough if you have a good mage and a good party. Here's how to do it.

Get it to where you have a monster1 at camp that's slept and monster2 that's being fought. Cast song 1, wait til monster1 is killed and they engage monster2, then pull monster3, sleep monster3, cast Ichi right away, cast song2, wait til monster2 is dead and they engage monster3, pull monster4, cast ichi right away, cast piano ballad, repeat.

So you pull, ichi, song1, pull, ichi, song2, pull, ichi, song3.

Why cast ichi right away? The reason for this is twofold. One, it makes sure you have a constant shadow wall. And 2, if you pull a resist, you may not see it in the log right away for a lot of reasons, and if you cast ichi right away, it will give keep you alive in the event of a resist. IF You Do Find Yourself in this situation, at MMJ you can cast Mary's Horn Horde and you're fine. But at Birds, you can't use Horde. So what you have to do is shadow tank for a second. If you cast Ichi right away, you'll have those extra shadows. Cast any spell on it, such as a threnody, and that will buy you a second if you need it. Count your shadows. As soon as the last shadow is taken away, cast Ni, and you should be fine. It will however mess with your cycle. So after they engage the new monster, cast your song, then cast ichi, then pull, and try to get yourself back to where you need to be. if a song wears, don't sweat it. surviving is more important than the song cycle. a strong merit party can keep the chain w/ only 1 (or sometimes none) of their songs.

One more big tip about merit party pulling is Lamiabane. I highly recommend you do Assault til you are rank high enough to get lamiabane. the advantage of having a thrown returns for pulling is huge. pulling is now at a max range of 24' over 21' on elegy. if you cast elegy at 21' and the monster moves to 22', the pull is canceled. if you start throwing at 24' and the monster moves to 25' the throw and pull will still go through. this is significant as it lets you pull at max range which saves time running which makes pulls more consistent and faster. the other advantage is at colibri, and it's obvious, but they won't reflect a thrown weapon. also, you won't have them reflecting elegy in the first place. casting elegy at birds as a defensive song is nice, but how often does a reflected elegy go for a long time not getting erased? does your party even need the defense of elegy? more often than not, they don't. pulling w/ a lamiabane at colibri is a much better way. of note, you can pull w/ lamia bane and elegy it at camp and it's still faster/better than just pulling w/ elegy.

Nyzul Isle - i mentioned earlier that brd/nin might be ok for nyzul isle. my reasoning is that playstyle is huge here. it greatly depends on how your party does nyzul isle. if you split-up, brd/nin is probably worse b/c you may need to do cures. if you stay as one, brd/nin would be good for fast pulling which would be needed. also, brd/nin has magic-aggro-less sneak/invis which might be nice. brd/nin may also be ok for meleeing, and if any EG environment would be ok for brd melee it would be nyzul isle. note that i don't condone this, but if your group does it that way, go for it. i'm not going to bash you for doing something new. but 9 times outof 10 you'll be brd/whm for nyzul isle. and it's a much different game for bard because it's a pretty different game for most jobs.

bard in nyzul isle can't really keep a song cycle per se. there's too much running around to do this. if you have a sam, keep both etudes on hand, and watch their TP. if you can, drop etude on them before they WS. keeping march/minuet up is almost impossibl esometimes, but do it whenever you can. this is where 5/5 nightingale and troub will be invaluable to you as you'll get to use them twice per run. if you plan to use brd in nyzul, get those two up soon as you'll benefit from them greatly. i don't have too many tips though because each floor is so different. some floors need a low resist, high haste build, and some need a high resist build. it's different floor to floor, so plan on mixing it up. i personally use my high resist build by default because high haste is only Nice (not integral) when it's best.

i talked about situations where people will be spread-out and string buffs are useful at this time. this is true of nyzul isle as well, and it may not be the worst idea to have a string march and string minuet macro available. remember weak buffs are better than no buffs at all.

a quick tip too, is how to cast reraise at the start. before being pulled in, type out /ma Reraise  and press enter. As you're zoning, spam spacebar, up arrow, enter. keep spamming it til you can see your character. it will have actually cast /ma reraise even though it says 'you can't cast spells right now' and you'll zone-in with your character finishing casting reraise. after you cast reraise, run away from the entry pole and box and cast your ballads back there.

speaking of ballad, Storm Fife works here and is huge here. Make sure to get one before starting up your nyzul static because both events suck-up assault tags.

Level Sync Parties - I'm actually going to talk more about this in the 'leveling bard to 75' section, but even in an EGLS you may find yourself playing bard in a level sync or level cap event. I mentioned already about how brd is weak pre55. at 55 however, it's a bomb for exp. bird camps come to mind, and that's probably what you'll be doing if you're brd for a level sync party. madrigal/minuet for melees is a good combination. also, i mentioned how to ballad a paladin. tell everyone this before you start: mages   pld><monster<melee. type it out just like that, and tell them to not hug the paladin. even EG players will mess-up this basic aspect of bard partying. if ANY of them say anything about piano+ballad, tell them that they are wrong, and that balladx2 is key for mages, yourself, and the tank. brd/nin pre 74: Don't do it. Blink is 2 shadows and takes about the same time to cast. You're not pulling as fast as you are pulling in a merit party. you can use cures and blink to easily mitigate damage and you still have cures and status cures for your party. it would be dumb to do brd/nin pre74 unless in a very specialized party.

Leveling Bard to 75
I just briefly want to give a few suggestions to a player who is planning on taking bard from 0 to 75 to be his main for EG. Maybe your LS needs a bard. Maybe you've always wanted to play it. Maybe you're completely new to the game. This section applies to all of those people.

First thing is first, I would level WHM to 50 if you haven't already. I say this for a few reasons. First, WHM will be your primary support job for almost everything. So you'll level it to 37 anyways. And, WHM to 50 gives you all of the Teleports which are always useful. And the other reason is that BRD isn't very strong in 50 cap and below. It's one of the weakest jobs til Lv55 when it attains Ballad 2. Before that, it's very sub-par. In fact, WHM/BRD is many times stronger in 50 cap. (I understand for specific events/fights bard is invaluable, BCNM40 worms comes to mind, but for general fighting, it is not.) Level 50 WHM/BRD has Ballad 1 and Erase which will make it many times more useful in 50 cap events. Sacrarium comes to mind, which is a very common EG activity. And, obviously, if you already have another 40/50 cap job that you play, you can ignore this suggestion.

After Leveling WHM to 37 or 50, I'd consider finishing the next two support jobs. You'll need NIN and BLM to 37 for EG as BRD. BLM37 isn't that important, but BLM15 is, and you may as well get it to 17 for Warp. I would even suggest taking BLM to 55 for retrace. NIN is pretty much exclusively used for merit party pull-whoring, but is needed nonetheless. I consider merit parties part of EG in this sense.

After you do all of that, then I'd take-up leveling bard. I recommend getting all of the key gear you need first. Don't worry about Monster Signa, but do get a Chanter's Staff. You'll use it for most of your bard career. You can even go w/o Apollo's til 75 and full time chanter's, imho. I didn't, but there wouldn't be really anything wrong with that. I suggest an MP and Enmity- build for exp parties while building up. Elegy isn't til 41, and that's when you really need to worry about CHR. Requiem sticks fairly well at low levels, but then is hard to stick at high levels. CHR is not an important stat to bard in the early levels. In dunes, even, I suggest a melee bard/whm even because you then become one more person to be buffed.

I don't know what FoV is like for brd, but i imagine it's tough for the job. brd is not a solo'ist. I recommend finding parties. but if you like FoV, more power to you. it's your game, play it how you like.

i've mentioned it quite a few times now, but don't do brd/nin til 74. don't do piano+ballad unless in a merit party or in a bind. doing aoe ballad is tricky, but it's a skill you'll have to develop. use distance mod. or get an eye for it, or use a trick that i used. when i was on PS2, i used the corner of my screen to guage distance. if you put the paladin just at the corner of your screen, that was about 10' away. again, it may take time, and you may mess it up here and there, but the reward for your work is that your party is more efficient. it's worth it. exp/hour is *all* about efficiency. and that's really what a bard does.

bard maximizes efficiency. it makes things die faster via melee buffs, and it provides more resources (mp) for the party. it also streamlines pulls. bard has downtime, and it uses its downtime to pull. dont' on-deck pull the same as a merit bard though. don't have two at camp for more than 10 seconds unless your party is really tearing things up. pull toward the end of the monster's life, and then sleep it, and focus on keeping it slept, then go back to your cycle. /nin isn't needed to on deck pull at all. watch hate too. don't buff while it's at camp. if you have enmity+ merits, and cast a cure and a buff or two in the 33 seconds the on deck monster is slept, voke may not rip hate if you have a war w/o enmity voking or a pld/nin relying on flash only. it's rare, but it can happen. so just focus on keeping it slept til it's voked off you. not to mention, when it wakes, if it hasn't been voked yet, it's definitely coming right for you, so keep yourself alive.

I do want to hit on one more thing for leveling bard. Obviously you eventually want to collect every instrument. But, while leveling, make sure to just have a few key ones. Traverseire+1, Kingdom Horn, Faerie Piccolo, Siren Flute, and Cornette+1. Cast elegy, threnodies, and lullabies with Kingdom Horn. Cast the rest with their respective instrument. This will greatly reduce the inventory you need to devote to bard while leveling-it-up. Mary's Horn isn't that important. Give rangers Minuet.

That's about it, I hope this guide was useful to you.