bards and their ...

[Menriq]

Take me and my that bard friend for example - I'm wielding an i100 weapon and him an i95 weapon, but he have 15-20 DEX ahead of me before team buff, and the result is that our parse numbers are tightly in the same range. I may have a higher WD weapon but I do not have enough DEX to complement it (it could very well be that he's much skilled than me, no surprises).

I thought I remember reading somewhere, although I could be wrong, that it was 1 WD = 9 DEX. That would seem about right since you have 2 more WD than your friend.

[AkashiXI]

Personally,I find the weathered left hand side trash other than the body and belt with is BiS. Pants is debatable, because the High Allagan is from T8 and what it differs is between critical hit and det. Something you can buy if you have absolutely nothing else to buy and the HA pants hasn't dropped yet (or you aren't anywhere near clearing T8 yet).

Do you really think +2Determination and +5DEX outweighs +34Crit on the pants (vs. our Myth)? I know 5DEX is a lot, but that'd jump my overcall Crit down to 500 flat without food.

[Viridiana]

Do you really think +2Determination and +5DEX outweighs +34Crit on the pants (vs. our Myth)? I know 5DEX is a lot, but that'd jump my overcall Crit down to 500 flat without food.

Well, if we go off of the below stat weights. . .

Updated stat weights for the i110-i115 level (note: old weights are still fine for the i90-95 level):

WD 9.153
DEX 1.000
DET 0.318
CRT 0.315
SS 0.146

Bard Tights: 29 (DEX) + 10.71 (Crit) + 5.406 (DET) = 45.116
Weathered Pants: 34 (DEX) + 6.042 (DET) + 5.548 (Speed) = 45.59

So, according to the weights, it does barely win. On the other hand, it's high on skill speed, which everyone hates. . .

[Jaded_sky]

I love being a bard.. I try to put up mages ballad when I notice mp being used and I always use foes with casters but I never know how my raids tp is doing.. So I don't use my army's song unless people I'm raiding with say something... If I play a song it lowers my dps and I feel I'm not as much help..

[Menriq]

I love being a bard.. I try to put up mages ballad when I notice mp being used and I always use foes with casters but I never know how my raids tp is doing.. So I don't use my army's song unless people I'm raiding with say something... If I play a song it lowers my dps and I feel I'm not as much help..

Foe Req doesn't lower your DPS.

[Ooshima]

Do you really think +2Determination and +5DEX outweighs +34Crit on the pants (vs. our Myth)? I know 5DEX is a lot, but that'd jump my overcall Crit down to 500 flat without food.

Well, if we go off of the below stat weights. . .

Bard Tights: 29 (DEX) + 10.71 (Crit) + 5.406 (DET) = 45.116
Weathered Pants: 34 (DEX) + 6.042 (DET) + 5.548 (Speed) = 45.59

So, according to the weights, it does barely win. On the other hand, it's high on skill speed, which everyone hates. . .

Well, bro Viridiana summed up the first part of what I would reply to your question - it is marginally better in terms of stat weightage. Also, it gives you extra VIT which is only obtainable via the body pieces. More HP ensures you can take hits more comfortably from T7 onwards, but it comes with some drawbacks which you need to consider before making that purchase.

Other than the skill speed which generally bards would shun upon, accuracy is another thing. For those who are wearing Bard's Tights instead of Allagan Trousers/Crafted with accuracy melds, they would generally find accuracy issues when they upgrade to the Auroral Tabard. It is still not that bad yet if you are using an accuracy bow such as Artemis(Animus)/Wave(Tidal)/Allagan, but when you are using the Rosenbogen it is another huge drop to your accuracy.

You will need to balance that accuracy issue first which everyone should know, but how to can be quite delicate because you don't really want to drop below the 500 critical threshold. I'm not sure what's your existing gears (your lodestone is on a WAR) - but I believe when you upgraded your accessories you should have enough accuracy to use Rosenbogen + Auroral Tabard + HA/Soldier pants while maintaining 500 crit.

[Butcherboy]

Ty Veridania. That's what I'm looking for.

[Alcyon1]

I love being a bard.. I try to put up mages ballad when I notice mp being used and I always use foes with casters but I never know how my raids tp is doing.. So I don't use my army's song unless people I'm raiding with say something... If I play a song it lowers my dps and I feel I'm not as much help..

Every fight is different, but knowing the fight helps a lot about Foe. Unless the healers are needing mana, I'll pop Foe everytime we need a burst and if we need more DPS in general. Outside of these 2 situations, I won't.

I don't understand why people are whining about "singing lowers my DPS !". The point isn't to pop big numbers, the point is to kill the bosses. Yesterday, mates from my FC needed to kill Twintania a few times and they wanted a BLM. Even if my BLM is i90, I almost never played it.
My goal was to kill Twin without problem. In P4, I was usualy waiting for the Knights to be sure to cast Blizzard I (we had no SMN). What's the point to be 1st if the group wipes ? On the other hand, I don't understand why some mages are whining to get Foe when the group doesn't really need more DPS. Just to show how big their e-peen is ?