BLM or BRD (less monotonous)

[OmegaNovaios]

Sounds like you're bad on SMN if you only did 10% more damage than your brutally undergeared BRD. Your BLM was also not living up to his potential.

Didn't say I parsed 10% less dmg than my SMN, I said I chose BRD over SMN for utility (songs and RoD (pre-nerf)) and parsed 10% less than the rest of my group and we got a fairly fast kill considering both BRD only had i80 wpns.

If the BLM isn't living up to his potential yet managing to do well enough in Coil Turn 5 to sustain at minimum 20% contribution to a fast clear, which is far better than avg BLM running EG content then how much better should he be doing? Considering BLM is already the #1 or #2 hardest DPS job to maximze DPS on while also leaving room to setup for burst mechanics multiple times in the fight.

[OmegaNovaios]

Sounds like you're bad on SMN if you only did 10% more damage than your brutally undergeared BRD. Your BLM was also not living up to his potential.

"Testing on both SMN and BRD since then going from i70 to i90 in gear minus the WPN is around a +10% dmg increase." By this I meant testing only gear on SMN going full i70 to full i90, NOT inculding wpn, boosted my dmg by 10% on SMN. Going from full i70 to full i90, NOT including wpn, boosted my dmg by 10% on BRD. Going from nude to full i90 , NOT including wpn, is a 60% dmg increase. Very easy to take off your gear and test it yourself.

[Kal-El]

Decided to level BRD myself (main PLD).

Couple reasons I decided on BRD -

Had already levelled SCH/SMN to 50 so wanted to try a DoW DPS.
The utility really appeals to me.
The uptime (in my opinion) makes up for any lack of DPS. When melée are dodging AOE, running to or switching mobs I'm already firing off skills. BLMS can't cast when moving (swift cast etc an exception)
BRDs can kite a lot better than any other DPS.
There will always be a need for ranged DPS and within our static we'll take a BLM, SMN or BRD with no preference. Although I'd rather see a BRD so I don't have to worry about silence rotations in coil haha!

The best advice you can get is to try them both out and see what you like.

[Slark]

First time I beat Turn 5 with my static I chose to use i71 BRD including i80 wpn (because my party needed songs and RoD more than pure DPS) in comparison to my SMN which was over i85 at the time.

My Ilvl80 BRD has ~3850HP unbuffed. Back when we were trying to down twin, our BLM was hitting around 3850 HP when buffed, and was getting one shotted by fireballs in twin. I'm kind of curious on what you did to not get one shotted? I'm pretty sure if the brd wasn't specced for 30VIT and eating VIT food, an ilvl70 BRD would be getting one shotted by twin fireballs...

[OmegaNovaios]

My Ilvl80 BRD has ~3850HP unbuffed. Back when we were trying to down twin, our BLM was hitting around 3850 HP when buffed, and was getting one shotted by fireballs in twin. I'm kind of curious on what you did to not get one shotted? I'm pretty sure if the brd wasn't specced for 30VIT and eating VIT food, an ilvl70 BRD would be getting one shotted by twin fireballs...

IIRC 3800 is the base HP you need when stacking 4 ppl, but regardless BRD gets more HP than BLM/SMN/WHM/SCH on its armor pieces. You said the BLM was getting 1 shot, but you didn't say you were getting 1 shot. I had 2 jewelry pieces with +10 VIT (still counts as i70), rest full DL and Artemis Bow (non Zenith/+1), +30 DEX Attribute Allocation, and Buttons in a Blanket HQ for food. I think I was at 4000 HP after all that. The only time I ever died to a Fireball is if B4B was up, which I corrected very quickly. The only safe time to use B4B during phase 2 is immediately after your group gets hit by Fireball or the opposite group procs Fireball.

[LunarEmerald]

i90 Bard has around 4600 HP in a party.
i90 Black Mage has around 4200 HP in a party.

[Maku]

For less monotonous, I would personally go with BRD. Rotation to me pretty much is synonymous with monotonous. BRD doesn't have a rotation really. Furthermore, even if some parties don't needs songs you still have them and they do make things easier/faster. Quick 20ish second ballad while Garuda does her Aerial Burst for instance might not be a game changer but it lets myself and the other healer DPS a bit more without worrying about MP (not that as a SCH main I really have to worry about MP).


BLM is great for big number, that is the job pretty much in most any FF you play (actually all of them). BLM = Big Numbers However, pure DPS that have very little interaction with the rest of the party is extremely boring to me. (BLM,DRG,MNK) By little interation I mean that these three jobs (assuming the tank is doing his job properly and holding hate) never actually have to look at the party list to see HP/MP levels or to see who is dead for a potential raise like a SMN can/should do to save the healers MP in an MP intensive fight. BRD at least has the ability to directly interact with the rest of the party through songs. Also, with no rotation (that is determined by the game at least as I am sure there is a perfect roation for max DPS some where on these forums) and the ability move and free arrows makes BRD a LOT more fun for me at least. Gota make sure you keep track of the healers MP, can sing Foe's to give you BLM friend even bigger numbers.

Less monotonous would most definitely be BRD.

[Slark]

I wasn't getting one shot because I was on WHM, not BRD with around 4150HP buffed when we began attempting twin. I coil on WHM, not BRD. I'm also aware that BRD has a higher HP than BLM, but Ilvl70 would probably barely be scraping by/getting one shot from what I imagine. I see you opted for VIT gear. Just curious on what you did.

[Orophin]

Bard feels a lot more busier to me between maintaining uptime with DoTs, watching for Bloodletter procs, using songs in the right situations and managing cooldowns. They don't have the big burst damage that BLMs do, but they're really desirable in highly mobile combat (love BRD over BLM on Ultima) and are necessary for Coil T1 & 2.