to you Bards.

[Brises]

dead bards dont do damage, they maybe have to cast ballad once a fight. when noobs are the majority of the party.

It's well known in all of gaming that the best damage mitigator is ending the fight quickly. Early on in the game I found myself running oom frequently and the bard I usually run with was using ballad. But since it reduces her dps, the fights would drag on longer. I eventually realized that a lot of the problem was my own MP miss-management. Basically I learned how to play my roll better so the bard can simply dps, except in more demanding situations where ballad is more useful. But talking about regular df dungeons...? Nah, I don't need it.

EDIT: I have also ran with df bards who used ballad needlessly, like I still have more than 50% mp and shroud of saints will bring it back up. The bard uses ballad anyway and the mp is maxed in seconds. So it goes both ways.