Bard - When should i use songs?

[Raiker]

Oh, awesome! Thank you for this thread! I'm a newly 50 bard and was really curious on suggestions as far as songs go. I normally only used foe requiem during boss battles or FATE's when there was a BLM or SMN around.

And excellent suggestions on Mage's Ballad!

[Tenkiei]

Actually there's been a fair bit of misinformation here in regards to Foe Requiem, it doesn't buff your dps unless there is a summoner or Blm in the group. It's true that Brd has ele dps in the forms of Wind Bite, and Burning Arrow, but try this sometime, go attack a mob, record your burning arrow ticks, also record your Wind Bite hits/ticks...now repeat with Foe Requiem numbers stay the same, currently FR only actually effects elemental spells such as fire, thunder, blizzard.

the best times to use songs:
FR - as much as possible providing you have a blm or smn, it costs you 2.5s to put it up and will be a significant dps gain for them in the long run.

TP - almost never really, outside AoE situations very few classes actually run themselves dry on TP, and invigorate covers a lot of regen gaps as well, monks and warrior tanks are the only ones who might but seeing as it doesn't regen a whole lot without battle voice odds are good your monk/warr should just learn to manage their tp a bit better, because by running Army's Paeon you are lowering your damage AND your caster's damage (think no foe requiem).

MB - When whms oom....haven't ever had to run this for a sch thusfar, but keep in mind Whms do have shroud of saints as well so it's rare for them to oom with proper mana management.

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Before titan HM the situations where you run Mage's Ballad or Army's Paeon are few to none, if you wish to run them between packs to boost regen this can help speed things along from time to time when chainpulling. In titan and coil it's all based on player skill, gear, etc so you'll have to get a feel for things on your own.

PS: Don't run mage's ballad just because people cry for it, look at their mana and at the situation, you lowering your damage so the whm can be lazy and spam cure III to heal 200 points of damage slows the group down, only run ballads that lower your dps when players are doing their job, not as a crutch to allow them to play poorly. (yes I know rezzing is kinda people playing poorly, but we'll call that an exception).

[Darwyn_Ulondarr]

I've read that about Foe Requiem as well. Some folks in the link below did some thorough testing even.

Foe Requiem - Says it reduces enemy's elemental resistance by 10%. What it really does is increase caster damage done by ~15%. No bard abilities are affected whatsoever by foe req, even the ones that deal elemental damage. Also, we tested, foe requiem affects all of Garuda Egi's damage, but does not affect Ifrit damage.

http://ns.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comment...d_foe_requiem/

Regarding Mage's Ballad, I'm curious, to what extent should we watch non-White Mage mana pools? Scholar, Summoner, and maybe even Paladin while we're at it. From what I've read elsewhere Black Mages have their own methods of dealing with mana. I know Scholars and Summoners have Aetherflow, but I thought I'd put the question out there nevertheless. So far I've read some conflicting recommendations from this thread and a somewhat similar one over at the GameFAQs forums.

[svann]

nm. that was wrong

[svann]

Actually there's been a fair bit of misinformation here in regards to Foe Requiem, it doesn't buff your dps unless there is a summoner or Blm in the group. It's true that Brd has ele dps in the forms of Wind Bite, and Burning Arrow, but try this sometime, go attack a mob, record your burning arrow ticks, also record your Wind Bite hits/ticks...now repeat with Foe Requiem numbers stay the same, currently FR only actually effects elemental spells such as fire, thunder, blizzard.

I believe you, but I need to know how you see your tic damage. Its not showing for me afaict.

[Kevee]

I think Foe Requiem is not useful in light parties. It mostly helps BLM and its only +10% to them and -20% to you. The numbers dont add.

Requiem doesn't lower your damage.

[Rasix]

TL;DR - I almost never play a song without Battle Voice along with it. The numbers just don't make sense no matter how you twist the math.

The biggest thing with songs is that you need to make a lot of judgement calls.

4 man -

I don't play any song but FR. If I need to play Mana, something is very wrong. I will do it on request by the healer if the request seems legitimate.

8 man -

Mages Ballad -
I pop this + Battle voice if I see a healer get battle rezzed or low. Once battle voice is gone, I drop mages ballad. I use 1500 mana as my "gauge" for playing mana.

Armys Paeon -
I tend to throw this up rarely, but always with Battle Voice. I use it on request from the tank, or transition phases of fights where I know I won't be attacking due to whatever reason.

I tend to play FR in bursts, again, with Battle Voice. I drop it when BV is gone, I may need that mana for Ballad later.

Obviously things like Titan's heart phase, etc, you should throw FR+BV up.

[Viridiana]

I believe you, but I need to know how you see your tic damage. Its not showing for me afaict.

It doesn't show in the log, no. In order to get an accurate idea like Tenkiei is suggesting, apply one dot to a mob and then stop attacking. The damage that you see popping up on the mob as floating text is your dot tick.

[Darwyn_Ulondarr]

Is there generally much fear of a Scholar running out of mana? I've been keeping an eye on them, but the ones I've been running with almost never seem to approach the 25-30% mark or stay there for long. Even on bosses.

[BrandoH]

While you're playing the song, you receive a HUGE damage debuff. So playing the song all the time will make you much less efficient. Only play the song when your casters/healers are below, say, 15%. Then cancel the song when they have sufficient MP to finish the fight. This becomes much easier at 50 when you get your song buff.

TL;DR - Only when your mages really need you to, then turn it off.

Is there generally much fear of a Scholar running out of mana? I've been keeping an eye on them, but the ones I've been running with almost never seem to approach the 25-30% mark or stay there for long. Even on bosses.

Scholars have a mana regen ability.