[BRD] Few questions about song usage

1. Is there an easy way to text macro toggle on songs to let your teammates know when they're on/off?

2. (More general) Does macroing text to a skill also kick that skill out of the AQ, or only chain skills?

3. Ballad is obvious. Am I expected to know when to use Army's Paean for the team, or are people supposed to tell me when they need it?

4. Foe Requiem is obvious for burn phases with BLM or SMN in the party. What about outside of burn phases? Is there a good strategy for knowing when to use it and for how long to keep it on, since it drains MP quickly (e.g. use until 50% MP, turn off, repeat)?

Paean is basically request-only. There are some guidelines to guessing when to use it if you want to be pro-active, but they aren't very reliable.

For Foe, you can basically use it any time that a BLM/SMN/WHM/SCH will get use out of it. The only thing to watch out for is if the healers wind up needing MP. That said, I'll usually either use it early so that my MP is back before the healers need any, or, if I don't trust the group to not strain the healers, I'll just hold off on it entirely.

There's no way to toggle anything in macros. I really don't think you need to tell party members when songs are on or off in most cases though since the ranges on them are pretty wide and typically since you are a BRD and can stand wherever you want, you should be the one moving if needed.

Paeon is mostly useful in sections of fights where you have to AOE and have several physical DPS, like the first and 4th waves in Turn 4 or if a physical DPS has been raised as that sets their TP at 0. You typically don't have to leave it on long at all, a few tics is usually enough to get peoples' TP back to manageable levels. As Viridiana said, this is mostly done by request or after practicing something with a group you can figure out when you will need to use it to recover TP.

For Requiem, I just keep it up full time if it's a short fight or it isn't very MP intensive. If Ballad will need to be used at any point during a fight or you are running with randoms, it's probably safer just to keep Requiem off until it's needed.

As per the answers above, communication in text/voice chat is the best way to judge when to play Army's Paeon.

I find it frustrating that TP bars for party members are not included, considering it is an exhaustible resource and Bards have the ability to aid in its recovery, much like MP.

Having said that, take guesswork out of the equation if you party with a regular group or play as a melee/healer yourself, and use a macro that announces TP/MP amounts and asks for a song, where necessary.

I personally use something like the following when I'm running low on TP as a melee class (not at my computer at the moment so cannot confirm the exact syntax).

/p TP: <tp>. Paeon Please! <se.7>

I also use a similar one for mana as a WHM.

/p MP: <mpp>. Ballad Please! <se.7>

When I'm playing my bard, I find macros like these are useful during periods of tunnel vision where I'm not tracking the party window.

On a related note, <mp> displays raw mana value, where as <mpp> displays the percentage value.

This applies to <hp>/<hpp> as well.

You can only show raw values for tp, I think.

1) You would have to create two macros, one used to turn the song on, and one to turn it off.
/ac "Mage's Ballad" <me>
/wait 3
/p <se.3> --- Ballad ON

/ac "Mage's Ballad" <me>
/wait 1
/p <se.3> --- Ballad OFF

However, if you hit the wrong one, it would still toggle the song and display the wrong text.


2) Yes, macroing text disables the command queue. Even if you made a macro that only used 1 skill and did nothing else, it still disables the command queue because it is a macro.


3) Realistically, there are very few situations in which you will want to sing Paeon. Since you can't see party member's TP, it's up to them to tell you when they need it. Really the only situations you should be using it are: a) if a tank runs out of TP and is about to lose aggro b) if you have several melee in the group and they have to spam AoE such as in Turn4.


4) Well you don't want to spend TOO much time singing/canceling/singing/canceling because every time you have to put it up and take it down you lose about 4 seconds of your own DPS. So I guess it just depends on how well you know your healers. If you can be relatively certain they won't need Ballad, I would run Foe until I was completely out of mana so that I spent less time casting/canceling songs. Of course the half/half method is safer since you would always be able to ballad if things went sideways.

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Originally Posted by Lyrinn

3. Ballad is obvious. Am I expected to know when to use Army's Paean for the team, or are people supposed to tell me when they need it?

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As a warrior, I really love it when the bard uses Paeon when tanking packs of trash, cause I can spam overpower.

Paeon isn't a spell you can use on demand to restore TP sometimes. It's more like a strategy to define beforehand so people know when they can spam TP consuming moves.

Let's say turn 4, if you say "you'll get paeon on trash" then I know can spam. If you don't say anything, I won't spam, because I'm not taking the chance to run out of TP.

Let's take Haukke Brutal farming, if you say we'll get paeon, I'll make bigger packs of mobs.

I think it's your job, as a bard, to bring the question to the table: "do you want paeon ?", because it will depend on teams and situations.

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Originally Posted by Nalou

I think it's your job, as a bard

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Certainly not. I have other useful things on where I can spend my MP (Foe Requiem and Mage's Ballad) unless someone really asks for it. So it's not the bard's job to ask the question but instead it's the bard's job to respond to it.

You don't get the point: communication with your teammates.

The songs you sing depends on party setup and battle strategy.
If you know what you should do, then let your party know what you will do and when. This way, they will know you're not another lolbard and will adjust their own playstyle to your songs.
If you don't know what you should do, then ask your party which songs seems better, or if they need specific songs at specific times.

It's your jobs as a bard :p

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Originally Posted by Nalou

You don't get the point: communication with your teammates.

The songs you sing depends on party setup and battle strategy.
If you know what you should do, then let your party know what you will do and when. This way, they will know you're not another lolbard and will adjust their own playstyle to your songs.
If you don't know what you should do, then ask your party which songs seems better, or if they need specific songs at specific times.

It's your jobs as a bard :p

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How come you won't know what you'll do given you can pretty much see the party setup? The only thing you can't see is the TP bar of your partymates, in which case I have said that if they don't ask for it, why would you use it? You can spend your MP singing other songs like Foe Requiem and Mage's Ballad than Paeon.

The only time I'll let my partymates know what I will use is the time I'll use Battle Voice, other than that, regardless of you tell them that you'll sing X song or not, it won't matter.

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

you can pretty much see the party setup?

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I think you can definitely see the party setup.


Let's say you can anticipate or react.

Example of reaction:
- my tank is dead, I cast raise
- my healer have 0 mp, I cast ballad

Example of anticipation:
- my tank is gonna get hit by death sentance soon, I'm gonna fill his HP before
- my mages will have to spam medica soon, I'll start regen MP
- my melees are going to use a lot of TP soon, I'm gonna fill their TP and regen it a bit with paeon

Example of super-pro-player-anticipation:
- "guys, I'm gonna sing paeon during the packs on T4 so you can go crazy with AoE killing stuff faster" ^.~)b

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Originally Posted by Nalou

- "guys, I'm gonna sing paeon during the packs on T4 so you can go crazy with AoE killing stuff faster" ^.~)b

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Nope, that's not the initial reaction/anticipation or w/e you want to call it, you should base it depends on whether 2 other DPS will benefit from your Song, or only 1 DPS will benefit from it.

Basic PUG party setup consists of 2 casters, 1 Melee and 1 Bard, in that case, I'd rather use Foe Requiem on it. The melee have another source of TP which is Invigorate, Bards also have access to it so they won't dry that much if they know when to use it.

And you didn't answer my question,

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

The only thing you can't see is the TP bar of your partymates, in which case I have said that if they don't ask for it, why would you use it?

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

Nope, that's not the initial reaction/anticipation or w/e you want to call it, you should base it depends on whether 2 other DPS will benefit from your Song, or only 1 DPS will benefit from it.
Basic PUG party setup consists of 2 casters, 1 Melee and 1 Bard, in that case, I'd rather use Foe Requiem on it. The melee have another source of TP which is Invigorate, Bards also have access to it so they won't dry that much if they know when to use it.

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You have tanks too. If you have warrior tanks, you'll get a nice damage boost by letting them spam overpower thanks to paeon.
If I know me and the melee dps will get tp regen at some point, I can prepare for it to unleash fury.
Get a party with 2 wars, whm&sch, mnk + drg + brd + blm and hit the jackpot button :D

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

And you didn't answer my question,

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TP doesn't work like MP.

When I play whm and get crappy groups, a lot of people take damage they shouldn't, so I have to use more medica and cure II.
I also get good parties and I sit on a nice mp pool and ballad is mostly useless.
Thing is, it's not a strategy defined beforehand, people suck or they don't... if they suck I have to heal and you have to ballad me.


Tp however doesn't work like MP. Tp is something players decide to use.
Tp classes pretty much have almost infinite TP when doing their basic rotations.
They also have TP shortage when using some abilities (mostly AoE).

That's why, as a group, people decide if they all go AoE crazy at some point, which will require Paeon if they are melees.
I think your job isn't to compensate people fucking up with their TP pool ("oshit I'm out of tp I'm stupid"), but to give extra TP regeneration when people plan to go heavy on TP use, making the group more powerfull and efficient at killing monsters.
That's why you sing Paeon accordingly to how it was planned, and not by watching a bar.


But logically, if a mostly melee group spams AoE attacks, it means they will run out of TP, so even without seeing the bars, you know they need more TP.

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Originally Posted by Nalou

That's why you sing Paeon accordingly to how it was planned, and not by watching a bar.

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Really? Please tell me a realistic scenario where you can plan things like that. Not even in T4 you can plan things ahead. Yes, I know it's obvious that during pack of mobs, DPS are expected to use AoE skills, but still you'll never know when they're about to dry until the DPS calls it out. Hence, you respond by providing what the DPS needs.

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Originally Posted by Nalou

Get a party with 2 wars, whm&sch, mnk + drg + brd + blm and hit the jackpot button

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Your example was too biased, obviously with that kind of lineup, it's a no-brainer that the Bard should use TP song, if you actually look at my previous post, using TP song depends on the party lineup.

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

you should base it depends on whether 2 other DPS will benefit from your Song, or only 1 DPS will benefit from it.

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Or the melee can simply tell the bard, hey we'll be going AOE heavy on the trash, sing Paeon will ya, simple. In Turn 4, where I currently go as a monk, I just tell our Bard, sing Paeon for the AOE phase, usually around half way through, coz that's when my TP will be low. If the Bard is aoe-ing as well he will know that otherwise I have no problem letting him know. I don't need the Bard to tell me when they will sing Paeon, if I know there are going to be some heavy AOE phase then I'll tell them they should sing Paeon.

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Originally Posted by valho

Or the melee can simply tell the bard, hey we'll be going AOE heavy on the trash, sing Paeon will ya, simple. In Turn 4, where I currently go as a monk, I just tell our Bard, sing Paeon for the AOE phase, usually around half way through, coz that's when my TP will be low. If the Bard is aoe-ing as well he will know that otherwise I have no problem letting him know. I don't need the Bard to tell me when they will sing Paeon, if I know there are going to be some heavy AOE phase then I'll tell them they should sing Paeon.

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Exactly my point. The DPS who needs TP are the one responsible for calling out the TP song, not the other way around. BUT, it still depends on other factors such as party lineup, if there are 2 casters + a SCH who knows when to provide DPS, I'd use Foe Requiem as it'll provide a better result rather than gimping myself (-20% dmg) by using TP song just to provide TP for a single DPS.

Lastly,
If a melee doesn't use Invigorate to feed up their TP needs, please, by all means, don't call yourself a DPS.