A Bards point of view.

[Warlyx]

The tooltip of Foe Requiem states the following:

“Reduces all enemy elemental 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.”

huh? no , read your tooltip , Reduces all magic resistance by 10%, it has been fixed loooong time ago

[Aldora]

Yeah, like i said in my edited reply. I didn’t know they changed it. It’s not like i re-read my tooltips unless i know they changed it, but i guess i missed that memo. So, my bad. I stand corrected.

I’m sorry my fellow Summoners! /grovel m(_ _ m)

[LillithCale]

Personally, I hate the singing aspect of Bard. I wish we had a Ranger class instead, but I grit my teeth and bare it because I adore playing ranged DPS. Yes, I know I could go BLM to play ranged DPS, but I prefer playing a physical character as opposed to a magical one *mumbles about not being a finger waggler. It's just a play preference.

I usually don't play songs unless I am in situations that absolutely need it, like in an EX primal fight or T5+. They are generally not needed in a dungeon, especially with how fast I tend to DPS down a target.

It's just a matter of play style in my opinion, though I really do hope they break the Bard off into a different class. I'd love to see it go Archer -> Ranger and Dancer -> Bard. Seriously, why does an Archer even want to be a Bard? D:

*mumble grumble*

[KingOfAbyss]

1. I rarely see people say to never use a song, that's actually the first time I've heard that may even be a thing. (Probably a stigma from other generic MMOs.)

I went into a DF Roulette as Bard. WHM, Melee DPS, Tank.

WHM goes low into MP - Mage's Ballad - He laughed and told me it's useless.

If a WHM manages well his CD and MP - NP.

If he start doing Holy (cause like me, he doens't want to be the healer but he has to cause every other FC mates are not healers) so he start doing Holy-Holy-Holy.

As long as he makes sure no one dies, I'm ok with it.

But: When you begin a dungeon, just tell us how you will proceed. Makes things smoother. Communication is sooo lacking in here, even my mates bought a cheap 10$ keyboard so they can type with their consoles.

Anyway, no matter what you do, keep on doing it until something tells you otherwise, and then judge if what he's asking make sense, or not, then adapt.

Same with the speed boost (it's meant to be used in between fights, so when it shows as available, it's only one click and has nothing to do with speed runs, so I use it.)

At least I play songs ^^

[Dwill]

Yeah, like i said in my edited reply. I didn’t know they changed it. It’s not like i re-read my tooltips unless i know they changed it, but i guess i missed that memo. So, my bad. I stand corrected.

I’m sorry my fellow Summoners! /grovel m(_ _ m)

At least it's a refreshing change to see someone admit they wrong. It'll mean you'll just be a better player all around. I've had (and I'm sure other summoners as well) people tell me I was terrible/dumb/stupid and never wanted to play Requiem ever if there was only a summoner present.

[Aura_Shurifon]

As a WHM, I can confirm that MP management is OUR problem.
I only request "MP song please" (because I always forget the name) when things don't go "according to plan" like someone dies (actually 2 or more) or I die (yeah, sh*t happen sometimes) but, usually, i take the 0.5s to request it directly if I need it. And I usually ask to stop it when I think I've recover enough MP (when shroud is nearly up and/or i know I won't need more for a moment)
I just hope the bard has some MP left for it >__<; but if he don't because he used them "wisely" for requiem or peon, then I don't think he was in the wrong, I'll use a potion to keep up a bit and hope that everything goes well.

[Rubeus_Carcer]

FF11 actually got this one right (yeah, yeah, I know... "FF11 ablahblahblah." Same company, same franchise -- just deal with comparisons). For the better half of the early years of that game, although BRD was by far the most worthless healer/DD in a group, you had 'princess bards.' Like so:
"you mages are gonna stand over here or you're NOT getting ballad."
"I'm going to double march and I really don't care if you don't like it, clearly you don't understand how Haste works. Don't like it? Find another BRD. Have fun, there's 7 of us on the server."

I take that philosophy a little bit to this game: I'm the BRD, I decide what I sing. Now, if the party has some pre-battle strategy where it's asked that I don't sing or sing something specific, that's one thing. But on-the-fly? Do whatever you think will help you win.

[LunarEmerald]

Foe Requiem increases the damage of summoner and scholar dots, white mage's holy and all of black mage's spells. Since it's applied to the enemy itself, anybody attacking benefits from it as long as they fit into those criteria. The more mages there are, the more foe requiem helps. You can burn the hell out of ST bosses with it. Foe should pretty much always be used at the start of a boss pull.

Mages' Ballad should only be used when a healer has about 25% MP but this should never happen if they aren't constantly raising people or overhealing. But you should always play ballad right after a healer is raised.

Army's Paeon is almost useless. Turn 8 is the only fight in the game where it's mandatory. Otherwise only useful if you screwed up your invigorate uses and became TP starved.

[LineageRazor]

BUT NOPE. The healer yelled at me for not casting Foe Requiem so she could Holy better. Yeah umm... just thought you'd like to heal the tank?

Well... In all honesty, it's better to do the wise thing and risk getting yelled at by an idiot, then to knowingly do the unwise thing and risk getting yelled at for BEING an idiot. The WHM was the idiot here, and you did the right thing, but saying "you might be yelled at" isn't really an excuse someone can use to avoid taking responsibility for doing the incorrect thing.

There are plenty of idiots out there, and their opinions aren't worth much. At the end of the day, though, you're your most important critic. Does your performance measure up to your expectations? Do you think you made the right calls? Did the guy yelling have a point, or was he really just an idiot?

[NyneAlexander]

Well... In all honesty, it's better to do the wise thing and risk getting yelled at by an idiot, then to knowingly do the unwise thing and risk getting yelled at for BEING an idiot. The WHM was the idiot here, and you did the right thing, but saying "you might be yelled at" isn't really an excuse someone can use to avoid taking responsibility for doing the incorrect thing.

There are plenty of idiots out there, and their opinions aren't worth much. At the end of the day, though, you're your most important critic. Does your performance measure up to your expectations? Do you think you made the right calls? Did the guy yelling have a point, or was he really just an idiot?

People always forget that Holy comes with a stun effect. And when enemies are chain stunned, they can't fight back. In this instance, the healer may have been right.