Bard and Archer Cross-Class Skills

Hi, I have been looking on the forum threads, but I haven't found any about this.

What are the best cross-class skills for bards?

And, until you become a bard, for archer?

Also I would like to know what cross-class skills are considered "necessary" before even reaching level 50. My main is PLD, but I am also WHM and BLM. Now I am leveling ARC for Quelling Strikes. This means level 34 so probably I'll eventually level Bard to 50. Since I don't have Pugilist nor Lancer I have none of their cross-class skills yet and I wonder if it is needed or very recommended to obtain some ASAP or I can wait until later.

ARC has a lot of possible cross-class skills.

Thank you in advance!

Most of archer / bards best and most essential cross class abilities come from both monk and lancer..

Monk --> Mantra, Second Wind , Internal Release

Lancer --> Invigorate , Blood for Blood

these are the 5 I use for my bard, pretty sure that's standard.

Invigorate is required, Internal Release and Blood for Blood are very important.
Second Wind is usualy a good idea and is mostly accepted.

But the 5th spell isn't standard, even Mantra.

My ideal 5 skills are Invigorate, Blood for Blood, Internal Release, Second Wind, and Mantra. Off-class leveling priority should be PUG to 15 for BRD unlock, then LNC to 34, then PUG to 42.

Pick up Featherfoot instead of Mantra until PUG is 42.

I use the above as well, and do note that Quelling Strikes and Raging Strikes can also be used for Black Mage and Raging Strikes for Summoner which btw Quelling is a must especially for blm, i can easily tear agro off of tanks otherwise
even with Quelling sometimes.
Second Wind while does not cure much it is for the oh crap moments when your the last one in the party alive and have the boss down to like 5%, or when you have healers that cannot heal you, lol
Invigorate is a definate must as it allows you to get some tp back.

I've been using Haymaker (SP?) as my 5th lately. It's a powerfull attack when it triggers, even if it goes on the GCD. It has higher potency than HS and I've seen it crit for almost 800 dmg (usually my crits land at low 600s - mid 700s depending on buffs etc).
Not very usefull since I shouldn't really get hit enough for it to trigger much, I concur, but until I find the time to level my PUG, it's a decent filler.
And Second Wind has saved my ass so many times I can't even imagine going w/o it. It's also a nice way to help healer conserve a lil MP.

Just look here: Bard Job specs.

As filler (until I unlocked better cross class skills for Bard) I used Feint from Lancer for the slow effect... not as much to Slow every enemy I came across so much as to get rid of Haste on the enemies that cast it on themselves (since it replaces it with slow). For end game Invigorate is a must-have, such as for the AOE-fest dungeons. Also a couple times I was inside a major AOE I needed to use Sprint to out of and then used Invigorate to get enough TP back to finish the battle but that's more of a 'break glass in case of emergency' situation vs. being a strategy that makes using sprint frequently viable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maero

do note that Quelling Strikes and Raging Strikes can also be used for Black Mage

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Yes, I know, that's why I am leveling the Bard, to obtain Quelling Strikes for the BLM. So it doesn't seem there are required cross-class skills for a low level ARC or Bard not yet level 50. I might as well level to 34 with the cross-class skills I have from Gladiator, Marauder, Conjurer, etc. Later I would have to level the Pugilist and Lancer to get the good cross-class skills.

Thanks for the answers: