You don't pop Equanimity against a Bard until you force him to silence you using Surecast. After he does that you are free to do whatever, PLD isn't even a problem being that he is melee, you just Aetherial Manipulate Blizzard 1 him. As said you only need to use Equanimity for straight fights blowing up people. Other than that Surecast will always do the job.