bards and their ...

[Viridiana]

Foe - we'll if there is a blm then sure makes sense but often than not running without a BLM anyway.

Yeah, man, SMN don't need no Foe Requiem! >_>

[PenutButter]

Even though its the easiest job in the game, I'm still surprised by how horrible some bards can be; they either play songs when they don't need to or, most often, they don't play at all. Most bards still think people want them for speed runs cuz of their "awesome" aoe dps. Here's a fact, bard has THE worst aoe dps in the game, I don't care what you think. However, its is not by that much so Requiem or Peon pushes them ahead. Their aoe rotation is also much simpler than the other jobs; I still face palm every time I see a DRG who spam Ring of Thorn.

[ruskie]

Yeah, man, SMN don't need no Foe Requiem! >_>

"Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%." - Elemental is the key word here - Ice, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning, Fire - so looking at this WHM would be better served if they go DPS with it than a SMN.

I've had SMNs tell me to not run it because it doesn't affect them. So as I don't have SMN yet care to enlighten me what elemental damage you do?
Reading the descriptions they are as follows: Deals unaspected damage ...

So Foe Requiem wouldn't make any sense at all for them. Unless there's a sentence missing in that.

[Aeora]

I don't have SMN yet care to enlighten me what elemental damage you do?
Reading the descriptions they are as follows: Deals unaspected damage ...

Unaspected... like you wrote, it's elemental-less, Elementally challenged if you will

[Madoka]

Foes simply lowers enemy's Mdef for all magic, SMN Benefits just as much as BLM.

[Viridiana]

"Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%." - Elemental is the key word here - Ice, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning, Fire - so looking at this WHM would be better served if they go DPS with it than a SMN.

Maybe you should read the current tooltip?

Reduces all enemy magic resistance by 10%. MP is drained while singing. Effect is lost if targets move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs.

Even in 2.0, where it had the tooltip you quote above, the tooltip was wrong. It's always been a reduction of all magic defense. You'll also note that none of your own "elemental" damage is affected, such as Flame Arrow.

[ruskie]

OK. Thanks for that correction.

[calm-melody]

Even though its the easiest job in the game, I'm still surprised by how horrible some bards can be; they either play songs when they don't need to or, most often, they don't play at all. Most bards still think people want them for speed runs cuz of their "awesome" aoe dps. Here's a fact, bard has THE worst aoe dps in the game, I don't care what you think. However, its is not by that much so Requiem or Peon pushes them ahead. Their aoe rotation is also much simpler than the other jobs; I still face palm every time I see a DRG who spam Ring of Thorn.

I admit to only being a fledgling, but I don't know how anyone would think of bard as an aoe class. It makes absolutely no sense at all.

[LunarEmerald]

Foe helps a bit with summoner but it helps most with black mage. The bigger the damage, the more the 10/20% adds.

[Qsilver]

I see a lot of discussion on songs and their usefulness and when to use them, but I don't even think its songs that are most useful to the raid. Its our MOBILITY. Being able to move and maintain 100% of our dps is a BRDS ace in the hole.

Fights that require a lot of dodging are our playground. Our damage might not be the highest compared to the other DPS classes, but our constant dps presence combined with a boatload of Cooldowns for burn phases means we bring the heat when it counts the most.

That being said, songs are just icing on the cake. If you trust your healers enough, run foes req as often as possible, even if you only have a little bit of mana left just a few ticks of mages ballad is often enough to get a healer to their next mana boost.