Question to FFers about Bards

[Nyan-mi]

what does everyone think of bards? I dont know about you guys but i am completely owning everything and everyone in DPS

[Arcaloid]

I think in coil bard usually too busy to look at healer's mana.
E.g. in turn 2 they need to interrupt, dps, dodge AOE, pass allagan rot etc.
So for someone never so needed to use songs before, it's very easy to forget do so.

[Alish]

I usually always check the MP bars of my healers constantly, especially during prolonged fights. Ballad should be pretty easy but I would figure when it comes to group play most Bards are not used to actually using it or paying attention to someone elses MP bar at first.

Foe req on the other hand, is one of those things that gets played out more as the player learns the fights in the game more, like Foe req during heart phase on Titan and such, you just need to be patient with them initially I guess. Personally I don't like having to be asked to play songs because I feel like it should be my job to never neglect my party to the point where things really do get that desperate. As soon as I see a healers MP bar hit 35% - 40% MP I will almost always ballad when safely possible.

[Teleniel]

after having done something a few times I have a good handle on when a healer *SHOULD* need mana, if they need it early for some reason they probably have to mention it, otherwise you get it when I was planning to use.
Titan HM : 2 healer phase 5 double-ballad ... 3 healer phase 4 double requiem
Turn 1 : post-split Cad I double-ballad and just leave it on
Turn 2 : between mini-nodes

you can't see TP bars, so you don't know when ppl need TP, although if you use it when you might want TP that just helps everyone else
I wouldn't use requiem on non-boss fights just because of the HUGE agro-range on it. But unless you know you need something else you might as well put it on just after the tank pulls before you enguage... besides that gives them like 2 seconds to get hate once they've set their feet where they're fighting.

[Tyl]

i usually run dungeons with my healer mate (me as blm).
And yeah our experience is that she even thinks of making a macro with soundeffect now, because out of 100 bards, only one bothers to use BARD skills instead of snuper/ranger skills ~
We're glad to have our FC bard on level 50 now too~

ps:
pls noone tell me "he is to busy". I don't know about coild, but everything before that. it's the same everywhere. And im busy too, I'm actually the one marking allt he stuff (because of lazy tanks) healing as a mage, to help out the mana of healers, while dodging aoe and stil trying to DD and even spam macros in "not so good pug's" to tell them the phases, while watching HP and hate-bar of others and myself oh and Mana ofc,

[Knosis]

Let us see the TP bar. This game seems to be designed with minimal player interaction as a means for casuals and loners to progress. Half these kids don't know what VoIP is or play on a PS3. Unless you expect players to use macros for this type of player interaction, you should just allow us to see the groups TP bars.

[Wobi]

Before you ask someone a bard to play songs you better make sure you know what you are asking. I had someone ask me to put up Ballad right as heart phase started, because they blew too much MP. But doing so would have caused us not to break the heart as I was by far the most geared for the task (same thing on Demon Wall). As for the TP song, I've never encountered a situation where I was low on TP except on Bard myself and that was from a quick burst of AoE's. If SE wants to retool the job to not severely cut our damage output and be able to help with songs that would be great but when your bard happens to be doing the bulk of the damage cutting out their damage in a crucial phase is like cutting out one of the other DPS.

Also songs cannot nor should they ever be full-timed, learn to manage your MP because it depletes ours quite rapidly so I only cast songs when I know they are needed. Another point to close this out, while they haphazardly tacked a few weak support buffs onto the class our jobs our primary focus is to DPS. So if there are two bards, the lesser of the two bards should cast the song no questions asked. A 20% damage cut of the superior geared bard will equal more total damage lost over the course of the battle than the lesser bard and on battles like Garuda or Titan (or most of Coil) the longer it drags on the harder things get.

[Appleh4x]

ps:
pls noone tell me "he is to busy". I don't know about coild, but everything before that. it's the same everywhere. And im busy too, I'm actually the one marking allt he stuff (because of lazy tanks) healing as a mage, to help out the mana of healers, while dodging aoe and stil trying to DD and even spam macros in "not so good pug's" to tell them the phases, while watching HP and hate-bar of others and myself oh and Mana ofc,

You know if your tank can easily hold hate on everything, there is no reason to mark. Also, marking past the first target is silly and superfluous. As a BLM you SHOULD be marking things that you sleep with the "do not attack" signs.

[Taika]

BRDs have to both consider if using songs is worth it in the fight (it does lower their own damage and doing that doesn't make sense if the extra MP / TP isn't needed in the fight) and to plan when to use which song in certain fight. I don't play BRD a lot (only done content up to Titan and Coil turns 1-2) but I always consider my party setup, player gear and the fight I'm doing before making plans for songs. Sometimes it really is better for the overall damage to just focus on DPS instead of songs.

[Shannelle]

To thread starter, I must add, in addition to having to be told about needing MP support, I noticed there seems to be new to bard jobs who I can't figure out if they are in it for the damage or for the support mode or just for the "ease of use". During a DF party for AK/WP, I encountered a bard who do not seem to know how to maximize usage of their songs. I was observing the other bard in the party and had to activate mage's ballad with battle voice when the healer in my party found it necessary to ask for mp support. A few seconds later, the other bard also activated his ballad and did not bother to disable it despite me having it enabled. I ended up waiting for the effectivity of my extra buff to end before I decided to turn of mage's ballad. It was a waste of damage during that several seconds I must say

(to be continued to next post)