Newbie Bard Trying to Understand Song Opinions

[Zhao]

Briefly reading through forums, Foe's Requiem appears to be the most desirable song due to the no damage reduction. Mage's Ballad is desired for when something happens, and healers could use a touch of aid. Army's Paeon is for letting monk/rogues/etc go berserk, and for tanks to aggro better?
-I'm mostly curious about how the mana based tanks feel about Mage's Ballad. Do you even need it, would you tank better with it?
-Just to confirm, does The Wanderer's Minuet render you immobile? The wiki didn't include it in the description.
-How do the TP based classes feel about Army's Paeon in general? Do you feel insulted like some healers or does it free you of constraints?
-Foe's Requiem is great, but I'm worried about the aggro it draws. (Feel free to comment)

I don't really play/understand other classes, so any input is appreciated. Though everyone is civil, lets try not to accidentally miscommunicate. We all know that text represents itself differently across many perspectives.

[Teashiori]

Foes Requiem: Boosts all the magic damage on boss. Good for BLM, SMN, SCH/WHM (If they're doing damage). Also if you're taking aggro because of it, your tank is just really shitty.
Mages Ballad: For MP regen. If your healers or tank have especially low MP start singing. If you can cast it before they ask they will especially love you. I usually wait till they're below 40%. If tanks are low on MP you can cast it as well. They'll probably appreciate it.
Army's Paeon: For TP regen. Also I dont think it lets tanks get better aggro. TP Jobs LOVE it when paeon is being played but only play when u think they need it, otherwise dont cuz damage reduction.
Wanderer's Minuet: Increases your damage by 30% but turns you into a BLM otherwise where you have to stay still while casting. You can move but not really do damage except for Bloodletter and a few others.

Hope I was able to shed some light on these songs ^^ GL with it!!

[Aeliott]

I'm no bard but is it really wise to use Ballad for tanks? Warriors will only use MP for Flash when they have plenty of other non-mp options, Dark Knights it won't help at all because Darkside blocks all MP regen from other sources, and Paladins...maybe? If they badly need Flash, but even then they have Riot Blade right?

[AriaEnia]

Mage's ballad is very useful to healers or mages after being ressurected.

[RiceisNice]

I'm no bard but is it really wise to use Ballad for tanks? Warriors will only use MP for Flash when they have plenty of other non-mp options, Dark Knights it won't help at all because Darkside blocks all MP regen from other sources, and Paladins...maybe? If they badly need Flash, but even then they have Riot Blade right?

No. I personally would not ever sing Ballad or Paeon for tanks in a dungeon run of all classes. All three tanks can easily maintain AoE aggro without exhausting their resources (and if they do exhaust it, then well they definitely won't be losing aggro off that pack). You get a damage loss when singing, and tanks are the last classes that ever need a song in a dungeon (unless something has severely gone wrong, such as a tank death and they got ressed). Most DPS typically do not need mana songs either. The sole exception being a summoner who dies and they have aetherflow on cooldown (which is literally the worse). It should really be used when healer MP is at less than optimal levels (which is more present in raids than dungeons) or downtime.

TP is a bit tricky to explain. Typically on most dungeon fights, you shouldn't ever find yourself needing to sing a TP song unless it's a prolonged AoE pull. The idea is taht you really shouldn't ever be singing tp song for yourself (if you have a caster for AoE, foe req is better. If you have a physical dps, the tp will benefit them as well as it benefits you). Outside of that, dps should not be running out of TP on a typical dungeon boss fight unless they (or you) are slacking and the fight is prolonged because of that.


Foe Req does have the aggro aura, but you should really get into the habit of turning it off when a trash pack is about to die, and singing it for a new pull (of course this is only really applicable if you have a caster dps or a healer that is dpsing).

Wanderer's Minuet, for the lack of a better word, simply adds cast times to your attacks. You won't be able to attack while moving due to the cast times and you can't auto attack during. The idea is that you have higher damage potential due to your attacks doing more damage, and having access to WM-exclusive abilities such as empyreal arrow. And that's all I'll say about it, I'd rather not (or anyone else) to open that can of worms about WM.

[ExiaQuanta]

If you have a caster in your group you should play Foe's Req. However, If your healer is over healing a lot (cases may vary from bad tank to big pulls), it might be wise to not play Foe's Req the whole MP duration to save some MP for Ballad. Foe's Req burns MP faster than any of the three songs I believe. Unless an AoE pull takes a bit longer to wipe out, I usually play Peon in between transition from pull to pull. Its enough to get you maybe atleast 300-400 TP. 30% MP is a safe mark to start playing Ballad for your healers IMO.

[Snowaeth]

In dungeons.
Sing foe's if you have a mage in party or the healer is dpsing.
Sing it for every boss fight in this case and every big-ish mob pull.
It does not produce non stop aggro, only an initial tick of very low threat so the tank will instantly have aggro on anything he touches anyway.

Mages Ballad is never used in dungeons, but if you see your healer somehow drop to below 10% mp and see that the fight will still drag on for a while you might consider it. (This pretty much never happens)
Army Paeon is something you'd want to sing in dungeons when you have a 2 physical dps and the tank is doing big pulls, by the end of a big pull when most are running dry on tp it's good to sing this.

Tanks that use mp, don't need mage's ballad. The DRK doesn't gain anything out of it as their mp is not recoverable from outside sources when they'r in their stance.

In raids
Foe's is still the best option pretty much always.
Most raids have moments of boss invulnerability or the boss just being gone for a while that help with tp recovery.
Army's paeon is only used in raids when there is a prolonged dps phase in which the melee's can go ham, but if you'r raiding you ll eventually know these phases.
Mage's Ballad in raids is usually used to help healers last through the whole fight, but this song is usually only used during boss invulnerability and other down times in the fight. Almost never during actual dps phases, unless healers had to do a lot of rezzing.
Healers can do every fight in the game without mage's ballad, it's more of a crutch than a requirement, so only sing this when convenient or when bad stuff happened to their mp (death/lots of rez).

[Zhao]

Ok, cool. Thank you everyone for replying!
One last question, is the cast timer added onto attacks from The Wanderer's Minuet more comparable to calling a chocobo or casting a song like Mage's Ballad?

EDIT:
I just remembered another question. Bloodletter vs. Rain of Death? Do other classes have a hard time with accuracy?

[RiceisNice]

Ok, cool. Thank you everyone for replying!
One last question, is the cast timer added onto attacks from The Wanderer's Minuet more comparable to calling a chocobo or casting a song like Mage's Ballad?

Similair to mounting a chocobo. The cast time is 1.5 Seconds. It's shorter than a caster dps (3 seconds) and allows you to weave 1 oGCD in .

[Snowaeth]

Ok, cool. Thank you everyone for replying!
One last question, is the cast timer added onto attacks from The Wanderer's Minuet more comparable to calling a chocobo or casting a song like Mage's Ballad?

EDIT:
I just remembered another question. Bloodletter vs. Rain of Death? Do other classes have a hard time with accuracy?

Accuracy only really comes into play for end game raiding, pretty much everything else has a too low accuracy requirement for you to worry about (some primals might if you'r still in low ilvl gear, but shouldn't be an issue).

Rain of Death is more of an aoe tool than a debuff tool, basically if there are 2 targets or more Rain of Death becomes the better option over Bloodletter.
Later on in raids you might have your groups potentially ask you to keep RoD debuff up on the boss so that healers won't miss their dmg, but that's something you ll have to discuss with those groups, this is not needed anywhere else than end game raiding.

I forgot about your WM question, but yea WM does not actually root you in spot, it gives you time to move between casts and the casts are 1,5sec which allows for 1cast + 1 off global cooldown skill before next cast without cutting into your global cooldowns.