Dear Bards Who Don't Sing :)

[Eidolon]

A good bard will play their first mage's ballad at the 50%-75% MP mark to get the healer back to being topped off, depending on the content and if there are DPS checks.

In this way, you top the healer off, then while the healers are topped off, they are regaining mana.

Of course, this isn't to say that if you know your healers will be fine, you can't just play Foe Requiem or a TP song, depending on what you're doing. Bard is a situational class.

but most are too full of their own DPS to do anything.

[Inquisitor]

To quote Chuck Berry:

Those of you who will not sing
You must be playin' with your own ding-a-ling

[Reishi]

I use foe only in a party with two casters during dps races like P3 in T4 or Titan's heart phase, usually until I'm down to 800 MP myself, then I stop it to save mana for healers if they are in need.
It's the easiest and probably the only really responsible task for a bard to pay attention to the party's MP. Is the healer still above 2k? Is the tank struggling to keep enmity with low MP? I usually battle voice my first ballad, then stop it after those 30 secs to focus on damage dealing again.
And I disagree with bards being the ones always standing in AoE. That's simply not true. We are the only ranged job who can deal damage while moving, not like casters or dpsing healers. I fail to understand any bard who can't get out of AoE (latency being another thing here).

[KyrieBonvalet]

I have an annoying macro that I use if I don't see any bards giving me MP. I don't like to spam it, but if I am desperate I will. >_>


As far as when I play as a bard, I normally sing when I see them kinda close to the 50% mark and stop when they are close to 90%.

[alhandra]

a bard who doesnt sing is just a sub par dps, bards not singing is the equivalent of a healer not healing. you have one job, do it

[Roll]

As a Bard (and White Mage) myself, I love supporting the party with songs. Why ignore these awesome skills when it can be put to good use for the whole party?
Is it the fear of the 20% damage reduction when we play Army's Paeon/Mage's Ballad? Is it because some Bard's don't know that Foe Requiem does not reduce their damage by 20%?

Oh there's a Black Mage/Summoner DPS in our party and our White Mage is using Holy on big trash mob pulls? I'll use Foe Requiem since it doesn't reduce my damage by 20% and it's win-win!

Oh the healer is low on mp after a big pull? I'll use Mage's Ballad instead of just standing there since we're not in battle and I don't have to worry about my -20% dmg reduction!

I know some songs are situational but some Bard's need to realize they have so much potential!

[RyuDragnier]

I don't really play my BRD much anymore, having moved to SCH for all my needs (it's too much fun) along with MNK (dem hands). But when I am on my BRD, unless there is no magic DPS in the party or it's a fight where I need to ration the songs for a Ballad later, I'm going to have Foe's Requiem on and voiced. For all dungeons from Praetorium on down, don't expect me to sing you a ballad, I shouldn't have to. For primals however, I'm going to expect to have to, and you won't see any songs from me until it's time.

[Rjain]

I am rarely asked to sing. I try to put in the effort whenever possible to keep songs up at key points and I actively try to watch my healers' and tanks' MP. Foe requiem is very helpful, even if you don't really need it, it speeds things up.

[UBERHAXED]

All of you "Bards" do realize that Foe's requiem only decrease the elemental resistance (i.e. that chart with 6 attributes) of enemies and no moves, other than those on a Thaumaturge (or BLM) will increase in damage. Try it out yourself on dummies. Doesn't increase holy ( not an element), ruin, windbite, flaming arrow, bio, etc. Using it during anytime beside there being a BLM in the party is a complete waste of MP. I see a lot of responses of people playing Foe's when they have a "caster" in the party...

[Roll]

All of you "Bards" do realize that Foe's requiem only decrease the elemental resistance (i.e. that chart with 6 attributes) of enemies and no moves, other than those on a Thaumaturge (or BLM) will increase in damage. Try it out yourself on dummies. Doesn't increase holy ( not an element), ruin, windbite, flaming arrow, bio, etc. Using it during anytime beside there being a BLM in the party is a complete waste of MP. I see a lot of responses of people playing Foe's when they have a "caster" in the party...

That's not correct.
They even updated the tooltip from:

"Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%. ..."
To:
"Reduces all enemy magic resistance by 10%. ..."