Need some BRD advice

After maining BLM for months, the BRD in my static had some RL issues come up and could no longer play. I offered to switch to BRD as we had another BLM ready. I am decent at it, but by no means an expert, and had a few questions:

1- what is the ideal opener? I've heard quite a few things about this, so I'd like some more answers.
2- is it best to clip dots when buffs are about to run out? or does it drain too much tp?
3- when is an ideal time to sing paeon in each turn?
4- I am currently i110, using diamond bow and auroral pants. I know both of these suck, but not having much luck with farming HA bow or pants- how much DPS is expected? I'm not planning to push 500+ like on BLM, but I don't know how much lower I should be.
5- should I wait for my MP to completely refill before singing? say I play paeon for half of my MP, should I wait till its full to put up foe or just go foe for the other half of my MP?

thank you in advance.

I did the BLM -> BRD transition some months ago. No regret at all: bard is a really fun job!

To answer your questions:

1- there are plenty of openings, try to find the best. Try them to see the one you are comfortable with (dont hesitate to parse). I will try to post mine later (at work atm...)
2- clip is evil. Except if 3 s or less, dont do that.
3- depends on your group. I usually do it when I am at around 400 TP and after motivation has been used (what I use at around 550 TP)
4- Stuff with SS usually sucks, yes. If you have motivation, do the relic (I started my brd relic when I was at the nexus state with my blm weapon. I now have the zodiac bard weapon, which is really good with crit/det stats). Otherwise, T9 weapon is good before the T11 one (which as SS, but no choice if you want a i120+ weapon without doing the Zodiac one). For the pant, try to get the i110 crafted one. Really good pentamelded. With zodiac weapon, i117, I hit 480 on dummy (5 min parse, drg in the group, no song)
5- you dont wait for mana. If sing is needed, sing.


Oh, please read Krietor's guide. Even if I dont like his opening, the guide is really nice, he did a very good job.

http://angered.guildwork.com/forum/threads/547331fa002aa80a955514ad-endgame-bard-guide-by-krietor

Thanks for the reply. I started working on my relic last night, finished my 1st atma book so it will be a while, lol. I just spent around 10m pentamelding casting pants, so and crafted gear is out for now. I've asked about everyone I know who's a BRD and they've all given me different openings, guess I have to experiment. Would be interested to see your as well.

You are welcome.
Good luck for the relic. It is painful, especially the light farming part (what I did in a weekend, I still remember how bad I was at the end, haha).
If you still have money, please considere also a pentamelded body, which is BiS with 1 det IV and 4 crit IV materias.
My opening is done in a way that I do not clip dots at all but my second set of dots have all the buffs except internal release.
Oh, I just saw Krietor changed his opening (different that last time I looked his guide). Maybe his new one is good, I will try it.