Dear All Bards,

[kyuven]

A bard, actually using a song? Surely, you jest.

On a more serious note, bards that don't play foes even without a black mage are only making their own dps lower. Sure, it's not going to make or break an encounter, but several bard skills have an elemental aspect to them, so foes will up bard dps slightly, and it's based off mp, and bards always need mp, right? Bards that don't play foes even for themselves, or when there are several bards, really just kind of confuse me.

Bards do not use magic damage. Foe's enhances magic damage. The following classes deal magic damage:
Black Mage
Summoner
White Mage
Scholar
Ninja

The following classes do NOT use magic damage:
Bard
Monk
Dragoon
Warrior
Paladin

[AskaRay]

I think the most interesting multi-bard raid setup I've seen was my playing Foes.... then the other bard playing Ballad (while no one needed mp) all during/at the same time. It felt like my Foes was up for quite a while due to ballad's regen, but I'm not 100% sure if it actually effected while both played at the same time. I haven't mimic'd this, though, as I don't know if it's considered more effective or not for that setup - vs Playing Foes till mp end, and the other bard picking up where the other left off/about to stop.

Ballad definitely affects you while you're playing Foe's. I've seen it happen.
I mean, I'm not sure if it's WORTH IT.... maybe if everyone else is spewing magic left and right, but Foe's definitely lasts at least twice as long, if not longer, with another's Ballad running.

[Saseal]

Ballad definitely affects you while you're playing Foe's. I've seen it happen.
I mean, I'm not sure if it's WORTH IT.... maybe if everyone else is spewing magic left and right, but Foe's definitely lasts at least twice as long, if not longer, with another's Ballad running.

Okay, then I'm not crazy in thinking it seemed a hell of a lot longer xD;
I'm not sure either, considering Balled does take DPS down quite a notch.... but could also counter in that it keeps magey DPS higher for longer duration..... o_oa
I can't tell if it would be a somewhat even tradeoff (or more), or if just ending up with less overall party DPS output than if just trading on/off Foes...

[RathSkybreaker]

Foe's Requiem. Use it.
Battle Voice. Use it.

It makes me die a little bit on the inside whenever I go into WoD/ST/CT and not a single one of the eight bards in the alliance wants to play Foe's. Come on, guys.

Am bard, can confirm, give 0 care about WoD in particular, I'm there for my bard body, all I will do is spam straight shot and heavy shot until second boss and then leave when my body doesn't drop. Why? because the fight isn't difficult enough for me to care enough to use foes and or try in general. On the plus side, I won't die !

[Laughlyn]

That irks me so bad, you have no idea.

Dont worry, XD meant no offense or anything.

I do play most songs depending on the situation.
But a commendation now & then would be nice & much appreciated.

Besides, the black mages seems to love foe req, and i kinda enjoy the explosions that follows.

[Accolade]

This issue has annoyed me for so long.

I HATE bards that play it as a pure dps.
Dont get me wrong, brd can kick out some good dps and every little helps.
I often ask brds in wod why they have not spent an mp for the entire run, and they sometimes reply "Cus it effects my dps, dont be stupid".

If you want to top the dps charts and not sing please play mnk/drg/nin.
2-3 (decent)casters in your party, with foe will do much more dmg than a brd ever will, increasing overall dps and faster clears.
Focusing on your personal dps is very selfish, and you are slowing down the run - just please leave.

I have had a brd brag he did more dps than me (also on brd), yet I was keeping up foe/ballad/peon while he never sang anything... I think some brds just dont get it.
Brd is support role, please support your team mates, and not your ego.

I cannot wait for Machinist, I hope all the non-song brds will play that instead, assuming its a mobile range pure dps

[Snugglebutt]

Playing Foes in WoD...Really? WoD is an extremely easy place to clear, if have plenty of casters playing Foes might clear the place a few minutes quicker but that's about all really. It is not needed, it is not required and you will clear it with or without in my experience so quit whining about not clearing it a few minutes sooner or downing that boss a minute quicker.

If you need it then you can have it but if you do not then quit whining. It is not like high end coils where having such could make or break a training group attempt. Foes serves one purpose which is to help clear quicker, MP regen is more important often because it can save a raid if have bad healers or bad group getting themselves killed a lot, so I am more willing to play MP regen than Foes in WoD but even then it is VERY rare that even that is needed in WoD.

[Mugiawara]

Exactly. A large part of Bard is support. Why ignore it?

Because SE threw in a hybrid that people don't wanna deal with.
At first, I thought I'd HATE bard, but it's actually really fun to me. I can DPS a bit and Support,
I've been supporting in MMO's for years so I get a bit of both with less worries of a healer.
I get so sad when there's no reason to sing...I WANT A HEALER OR TANK TO DIE! +___+
-Watches WHM MP go down.; Yes...keep overhealing you fool!!! XDDD
It's hard for me to know when they're low on TP though, I don't have any other high level'd
DPS to get a feel if they could be low. :/

[Aerowaffle]

As a bard, I tend to use my songs as a "oh shit, someone is almost out of resources" button over using foe. If the healer is < 50% mp, time to help out the healer. If I'm almost out of TP, I make the assumption that some of the other TP using classes are probably at least getting low, so it's time to use peon.

Having the magic classes deal more damage is great and all, but if I don't have the mana available to keep up the other two songs when needed, it's a larger problem. Healer runs out of mana? People are going to start dying. Classes run out of TP? Their dps plummets.

[Waeksyn]

Doe Foe affect performance of other alliances in a 24 man raid? I know that it is a mob debuff - you can see the icon on the mob's status bar. However, I've NEVER seen that icon on a boss unless I've been the one singing Foe or I know another bard in my alliance has done it. The same thing would apply for DRG's Disembowel debuff.