Bard Relic Bow

Hello! I am Mikheli Silvermoon, Spoony Bard of Durandal. I was alerted by my linkshell that the new relic items were found in the dat files and posted on the site: Mozk-tabetai.com. Which I went promtly to! I had to find the Bard Relic! I looked at each weapon before the Bard's just to build my excitement! As my mouse hovered over the Bard Icon I clicked!

Artemis Bow
Requires BRD
Damage 116
Delay 4.1
DPS 41.95
Acc +40, Att. Power +15, Enmity -30 Increases Song duration

The image of the bow is amazing, the damage spectacular! The dps is glorious, acc is amazing and att power! It can't get better then enmity -30! Then I see it the one line that makes me want to not get this relic:

Increases Song duration....

While I admit that this was a issue in Final Fantasy XI where I was casting 4-6 songs on the party. At the most now I cast 2 songs that take less then 2-3 seconds to cast! I have plenty of time to DD and in most cases end up out DD the party! Why couldn't it have been: Increases Song effect or something of that measure? That extra time isn't gonna help my Damage end score much!

(And yes I know even that it's in the .dat files it could change!)

I'm just hoping that it gets more beneficial effect that makes the relic really something to go for!

Thank you for reading!

TL;DR Song duration on relic should be song effect or something different!

To be honest I think the enhance makes the bow worthwhile at all. It's one of the only really great enhances across all of the relics (lol increase Shoulder Tackle/Jump dmg.). The -enmity and ACC is trash as far as I'm concerned; when you compare it to the stats on the BLM, WHM, or DRG relics it's hardly worth it. I would much rather have less base dmg. but a shorter than 3 second delay so that you could better weave WS's and Light Shots together and do more damage overall.

But, as a BRD, you and first and foremost a support class, so although I greatly appreciate the base dmg. increase (hey I like BRD DPS too but after that hotfix it just feels silly), the song increase is what really makes this weapon great. Being able to keep up a BV Ballad or Paeon for a minute longer (or whatever amount, really) is pretty spectacular.

I see what you mean us being a support class and I won't deny that at all we are first and foremost a support class. But if our support power of our songs was increased say instead ballad doing it's +26 MP/tick with Choral Shirt on. Doing say +30 or more with it would make our support potential increase dramatically!

Ah I see, I agree that would be pretty amazing as well, and actually, preferable to the duration increase. But that is a pretty huge buff for BRD, and might make it unfair when compared to the buffs that, for example, BLM gets with the Flare DoT. Perhaps when we upgrade our Relics in a year or more the enhance will be something along those lines ;3

And by you saying that Battle voice lasting extra time. Well if it's giving more faster it's more of a life saver during battle voice then if it was giving the same amount only slower. Also if I'm getting more out of it with this bow on and w/out battle voice up I can just recast it and i'm giving alot better than average bards w/out the relic if it had increase song effect.

Example: You look at the other relics they have abilities that set them apart from nonrelic users of that job. Pld's increased Spirit's Within, War's reduced vengance timer, MNK's shoulder tackle damage (that looks like I'd be fun to mess with xD), Jump damage, Holy damage, and Flare DoT damage.

We could have increase Ballad or Minuet or Paeon or even just Increase song effect!

I like the increased song duration, it is less time casting and more time DD'ing, less MP going toward maintaining songs and more toward support healing, and allows more time to have Paeon on yourself instead of Ballad. Also as was mentioned, Battle Voiced songs lasting longer is a pretty big deal. Having the weapon increase song potency rides the line of it becoming somewhat essential or overpowered especially if it stacked with AF.

I really like the bard but my personal worth on this weapon really depends on HOW long the songs last for. =/ Sure -30 is a pretty neat bonus but after lightshot cooldown, i dont think id take that much aggro especially with the other melee around.

It seems pretty naff seeing as you can sing so fast.

I really wish they'd add a larger variety of songs too.

A friend and I were discussing this... Unfortunately BRD has really seemed to get the shaft with the Relic enhancement. The bow is great otherwise, just Increased Song Duration is kind of lame...and it will encourage the player base to further put BRD down into a slot where we only play support.

BRD, before the most recent hotfix, could do pretty great dps with the flow of damage constantly up. Now it seems a little silly. I was thinking instead of having Increased Song Duration we also had Enhanced Barrage or Enhanced Quick Nock, even an Enhanced Rain of Death. I feel like Increased Song Duration could go on another piece of equipment or even become a spell like Sacred Prism. The enhancement on our weapon isn't nearly as strong as the others, so it's a bit disappointing.

Just to point out, you do realize that increased song duration will actually allow you to slot in a bigger amount of time to DPSing?

I forgot how long exactly the song duration is, but- Say the songs last 3 minutes. So given you're playing it safe and keeping two groups of buffs up, you have a window of about 2 minutes to DPS between running and buffing.
Then consider the relic increased the song duration go 6 minutes, you'd still spend the same 1 minute doing the buffing cycle, but now you go from having 2 minutes avaiable for DPS to 5 minutes. A lot more damage-focused.

As you can see, it's an indirect boost to your DPS capacity.

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Originally Posted by Lefeauge

A friend and I were discussing this... Unfortunately BRD has really seemed to get the shaft with the Relic enhancement. The bow is great otherwise, just Increased Song Duration is kind of lame...and it will encourage the player base to further put BRD down into a slot where we only play support.

BRD, before the most recent hotfix, could do pretty great dps with the flow of damage constantly up. Now it seems a little silly. I was thinking instead of having Increased Song Duration we also had Enhanced Barrage or Enhanced Quick Nock, even an Enhanced Rain of Death. I feel like Increased Song Duration could go on another piece of equipment or even become a spell like Sacred Prism. The enhancement on our weapon isn't nearly as strong as the others, so it's a bit disappointing.

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I see this as the opposite. For one the DD stats are quite powerful and the extended song duration removes them further from a support role, cuz it just means they will be singing less and shooting more.

I don't think anyone's mentioned that the increased song duration utilized with Battle voice and AF enhancements makes for a powerful buff.
higher DPS than Garuda's spine is a plus, but unlike Garuda's spine it retains it DMG which benefits your light shot which is the majority of a bards damage overall.

Only downside to this bow is that the Accuracy is not really needed, the attack boost is lacklustre and you cannot light shot in-between weapon skills.

And let's be honest, bard will never pull hate lol

I think that the bow is actually the best relic, not only can you make a BV song last for a full extra minute with the enhance (4 mins total), but it saves you time on recasting songs so you can keep a smoother rotation. Sure, I would have liked some more attack bonuses or something, but looking at all the other weapons and how lackluster they are, I can't complain at all with bow.

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Originally Posted by Leoheart

you cannot light shot in-between weapon skills.

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This is not true.

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Originally Posted by Leoheart

And let's be honest, bard will never pull hate

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On many boss fights, with the exception with Chimera and others that are resistant to piercing damage, on my Bard I com close to pulling hate each battle. I'm very glad the relic will give me more minus enmity.

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Originally Posted by AmandaHuggenkiss

This is not true.

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Care to elaborate on this? If you're waiting to Light shot in-between combo's on a bow of 4.1s Delay then it perpetuates a loss of overall damage due to waiting on your cool downs.

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Originally Posted by Leoheart

Care to elaborate on this? If you're waiting to Light shot in-between combo's on a bow of 4.1s Delay then it perpetuates a loss of overall damage due to waiting on your cool downs.

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If you use Garuda's Spine the delay is short enough to weave LS/WS together without time loss.

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Originally Posted by TheFatHousecat

If you use Garuda's Spine the delay is short enough to weave LS/WS together without time loss.

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~~~this~~~

Although with the boost to base dmg., even though relic's delay is longer it should be better overall.

I'm talking about Artemis bow, not Garuda's spine. lol :x

edit: Missed your last comment there, I'm sure someone will tell us as/when they get their bow :(

I'm with Leohart on this one. The delay on Garuda's Spine is fine for WS>LS>WS>LS>WS>LS, but on the Artemis Bow I can't help but think you'd actually decrease your overall DPS by waiting for LS after each WS.

Even with Garuda's spine you waste about a second each time you wait for light shot between WS's but I'm pretty sure your DPS comes out better overall compared to straight combos followed by a few light shots to build tp again.

Curious if anyone has parsed the difference between a WS>LS>WS cycle versus full combo > TP build > full combo cycle on bows with higher delays.

I have.
WS>LS>WS cycle even with Ifrit's bow gives higher damage outputs.

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Originally Posted by AmandaHuggenkiss

I have.
WS>LS>WS cycle even with Ifrit's bow gives higher damage outputs.

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Interesting, I'll have to try this out myself, thanks :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AmandaHuggenkiss

I have.
WS>LS>WS cycle even with Ifrit's bow gives higher damage outputs.

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Hmm that is rather interesting. The delay on the bow is what made me decide to get Sphairai before the bow, even though I play BRD more often. It really doesn't seem like a huge upgrade from Garuda's Spine, though this may change my opinion of it.