[Balmarog]

So, I had wanted to take up bard, but now I'm worried that I won't be able to put in enough party hours to make it worthwhile... Can an experienced bard tell me what I can expect as far as leveling with or without a party?

[pathwriter]

Leveling Bard without a party is not a particularly wise idea. Although Bard has surprising solo capability given its utterly pathetic skills, it doesn't kill fast by any extension of the definition. If you're willing to level sync, however, you can pretty much guarantee getting invited to party any time you log in and flag up.

[Balmarog]

pathwriter, on 16 December 2009 - 09:38 AM, said:

Leveling Bard without a party is not a particularly wise idea. Although Bard has surprising solo capability given its utterly pathetic skills, it doesn't kill fast by any extension of the definition. If you're willing to level sync, however, you can pretty much guarantee getting invited to party any time you log in and flag up.

So they are still highly sought after... Now, if I can only commit say, 2-3 hours for partying, are most people going to be ok with that? I have no problem with level sync.

[pathwriter]

Honestly, I've had more trouble finding parties that last MORE than an hour than parties that will persist past the 3 hour mark. Politeness dictates that you mention at least half an hour in advance that you've got to go, but I doubt you'll have any problems in the long run. Unless there are literally no parties (which can happen), Bard does not have any trouble leveling on limited playtime.

[Balmarog]

pathwriter, on 16 December 2009 - 01:41 PM, said:

Honestly, I've had more trouble finding parties that last MORE than an hour than parties that will persist past the 3 hour mark. Politeness dictates that you mention at least half an hour in advance that you've got to go, but I doubt you'll have any problems in the long run. Unless there are literally no parties (which can happen), Bard does not have any trouble leveling on limited playtime.

Awesome. Thanks for the info

[Hyriu]

When you get to Lv37, do East Ronfaure (S ) SAM x3 with polearms, BRD COR healer go.

[pathwriter]

Polearms really aren't necessary. Double Thrust is nothing to write home about and, yes, I have used a polearm in Ronfaure parties on my Samurai.

[Rikkitikkitavi]

pathwriter, on 17 December 2009 - 09:33 PM, said:

Polearms really aren't necessary. Double Thrust is nothing to write home about and, yes, I have used a polearm in Ronfaure parties on my Samurai.

Yea GKT does just fine there with a brd. All you need is 5 DD, a BRD and a 75 rdm PL and life is good.

[Balmarog]

I was told to stick with whid instruments... should I bother keeping my string skill leveled? D:
Will I ever use it for anything?

[Xenophire]

Balmarog, on 11 February 2010 - 12:05 PM, said:

I was told to stick with whid instruments... should I bother keeping my string skill leveled? D:
Will I ever use it for anything?

Wind Instrument lands enfeebs more accurately whereas String has a double (I think) radius on buffs. It's always important to keep Wind, Singing, and String up to date or else you can't land your enfeebs.

To answer your question though, do you care enough about what other's think with a non-capped skill?

[pathwriter]

The radius of your buffs when cast with Strings is a function of how far above the level of the song you are. As I recall, and it has been a while, there's a notable difference in radius between Mage's Ballad I and II even though both are well below level 75.

Is it important to keep it leveled? Not terribly. The most use I've gotten out of String Skill is with Paeon and eking out the extra HP per tick. Paeon is an underutilized song, however, so I wouldn't lose sleep about it. It isn't too terrible to level up, though I cannot for the life of me remember how I did it since I exclusively used Wind instruments when partied.

[GTalbot]

Did you lullaby mobs and spam threnodies on them with a stringed instrument? That's how I did it. That and threnodying mobs in besieged.

[Balmarog]

What makes BRD more desirable over a COR in a party?

[pathwriter]

March is Haste, a buff that Corsair cannot provide (Samurai Roll acts as pseudo-Haste).

Bard buffs are consistent, there's no luck-based element to them.

Carnage Elegy is the most devastating debuff in the game available to players.

[MattelotLeviathan]

If you can only donate 2-3 hours for a party, that's perfectly fine. Bard parties tend to go faster than ones without, so you'll still be able to accomplish leveling in the game.

[rambus]

Hyriu, on 17 December 2009 - 09:10 PM, said:

When you get to Lv37, do East Ronfaure (S ) SAM x3 with polearms, BRD COR healer go.

funny i got chain 8 at 35 with war GA weapons.

like others said there is no point to saying this, as long as you don't get drks that use scythe you are fine.

If they do use scythe they better not use souleater, with GA it is tolerable when they use it at the right time.
there is also an axe ws you can use in duel wield that ant to shabby ether just make sure you stay away from scythes at this level

Rikkitikkitavi, on 18 December 2009 - 11:13 AM, said:

Yea GKT does just fine there with a brd. All you need is 4 DD, a BRD, COR and a 75 SCH PL and life is good.

fify
I do perffer wars for this, horror vouge ( i think the name is ) and the only one that gets double attack at this point is too good. War/nin looses practically nothing to damage output at this point vs the other jobs.

you can get wonderful exp here without a PL as well, PL makes it idiot proof though. sometimes even pl cant save stupid drk though ><

This post has been edited by rambus: 25 March 2010 - 09:26 AM

[Deo2]

Put a harp into mazurka macro and go about your business (in addition to the ideas stated above).

Harp is mostly for Black Mage parties, and Horde Lullaby.

[pathwriter]

Any time I've needed to cast Horde Lullaby, rounding up the stragglers was much more important to me than getting it off as soon as possible and hoping that increased resist rates would disappear temporarily. Only time I can recall using a Harp for that spell was when I duo'd San d'Oria 7-2 and I needed to be sure as many things were Slept from minute one.

[xurion]

pathwriter, on 25 March 2010 - 08:18 AM, said:

Carnage Elegy is the most devastating debuff in the game available to players.

Exactly why I'm praying to god we get Massacre Elegy somewhere between 75 --> 99.

This post has been edited by xurion: 26 March 2010 - 02:20 AM

[MattelotLeviathan]

xurion, on 26 March 2010 - 02:19 AM, said:

Exactly why I'm praying to god we get Massacre Elegy somewhere between 75 --> 99.

With Massacre Elegy being 100% slow, that would be devastating combined with Slow II. Imagine 139% slow... oh well, who knows