[BARD] Cross-Class Skill Discussion

I currently have the following Cross-Class Skills active on my Bard:

Second Wind
Invigorate
Blood for Blood
Internal Release
Featherfoot

Further I have the following additional cross class skills available to me:

Haymaker
Feint
Keen Flurry

I was wondering if it is really necessary for me to go and level Pugilist up to 42 in order to get Mantra, or if I can make do with what I currently have access to. And if it is not necessary for me to level Pugilist up, is the set up of cross-class skills I currently am using optimal?

Eh, the mantra you get will just be 5% healing buff. But hey 5% is better than none o3o Use your best judgement. I personally use Keen Fury instead of Featherfoot just cause Keen Fury is 40% Parry rate and parry some damage if I take aggro/Solo. Everything else i have the same as you.

Depends on the situation really now that I think about it.

It's an upgrade (though a very small one) to replace featherfoot with mantra.
Is it necessary for clearing bosses? no. Is it helpful? yes.

Maximizing is better than being minimalist.

You're using the setup I have for cross-class on my BRD, so I say you're good.

Keen Flurry sounds good until you realize that BRDs shouldn't be getting hit by anything outside of attacks that hit the entire field, so it won't help much (especially since those parry and dodge rates don't seem to kick in for those attacks).
Feint's slow effect can help, but due to diminishing returns it runs out of usefulness fast.
Haymaker requires you to dodge an attack before you can use it, and you shouldn't be getting hit in the first place so that too doesn't help much.
Mantra can be useful, but it requires you to be close to the people who need to be healed, which is not suggested for a BRD outside of stacking for certain attacks.