Bard Relic Bow

[Mikheli]

Hello! I am Mikheli Silvermoon, Spoony Bard of Durandal. I was alerted by my linkshell that the new relic items were found in the dat files and posted on the site: Mozk-tabetai.com. Which I went promtly to! I had to find the Bard Relic! I looked at each weapon before the Bard's just to build my excitement! As my mouse hovered over the Bard Icon I clicked!

Artemis Bow
Requires BRD
Damage 116
Delay 4.1
DPS 41.95
Acc +40, Att. Power +15, Enmity -30 Increases Song duration

The image of the bow is amazing, the damage spectacular! The dps is glorious, acc is amazing and att power! It can't get better then enmity -30! Then I see it the one line that makes me want to not get this relic:

Increases Song duration....

While I admit that this was a issue in Final Fantasy XI where I was casting 4-6 songs on the party. At the most now I cast 2 songs that take less then 2-3 seconds to cast! I have plenty of time to DD and in most cases end up out DD the party! Why couldn't it have been: Increases Song effect or something of that measure? That extra time isn't gonna help my Damage end score much!

(And yes I know even that it's in the .dat files it could change!)

I'm just hoping that it gets more beneficial effect that makes the relic really something to go for!

Thank you for reading!

TL;DR Song duration on relic should be song effect or something different!

[TheFatHousecat]

To be honest I think the enhance makes the bow worthwhile at all. It's one of the only really great enhances across all of the relics (lol increase Shoulder Tackle/Jump dmg.). The -enmity and ACC is trash as far as I'm concerned; when you compare it to the stats on the BLM, WHM, or DRG relics it's hardly worth it. I would much rather have less base dmg. but a shorter than 3 second delay so that you could better weave WS's and Light Shots together and do more damage overall.

But, as a BRD, you and first and foremost a support class, so although I greatly appreciate the base dmg. increase (hey I like BRD DPS too but after that hotfix it just feels silly), the song increase is what really makes this weapon great. Being able to keep up a BV Ballad or Paeon for a minute longer (or whatever amount, really) is pretty spectacular.

[Mikheli]

I see what you mean us being a support class and I won't deny that at all we are first and foremost a support class. But if our support power of our songs was increased say instead ballad doing it's +26 MP/tick with Choral Shirt on. Doing say +30 or more with it would make our support potential increase dramatically!

[TheFatHousecat]

Ah I see, I agree that would be pretty amazing as well, and actually, preferable to the duration increase. But that is a pretty huge buff for BRD, and might make it unfair when compared to the buffs that, for example, BLM gets with the Flare DoT. Perhaps when we upgrade our Relics in a year or more the enhance will be something along those lines ;3

[Mikheli]

And by you saying that Battle voice lasting extra time. Well if it's giving more faster it's more of a life saver during battle voice then if it was giving the same amount only slower. Also if I'm getting more out of it with this bow on and w/out battle voice up I can just recast it and i'm giving alot better than average bards w/out the relic if it had increase song effect.

Example: You look at the other relics they have abilities that set them apart from nonrelic users of that job. Pld's increased Spirit's Within, War's reduced vengance timer, MNK's shoulder tackle damage (that looks like I'd be fun to mess with xD), Jump damage, Holy damage, and Flare DoT damage.

We could have increase Ballad or Minuet or Paeon or even just Increase song effect!

[Estellios]

I like the increased song duration, it is less time casting and more time DD'ing, less MP going toward maintaining songs and more toward support healing, and allows more time to have Paeon on yourself instead of Ballad. Also as was mentioned, Battle Voiced songs lasting longer is a pretty big deal. Having the weapon increase song potency rides the line of it becoming somewhat essential or overpowered especially if it stacked with AF.

[Deceptistar]

I really like the bard but my personal worth on this weapon really depends on HOW long the songs last for. =/ Sure -30 is a pretty neat bonus but after lightshot cooldown, i dont think id take that much aggro especially with the other melee around.

[Ingolf]

It seems pretty naff seeing as you can sing so fast.

I really wish they'd add a larger variety of songs too.

[Lefeauge]

A friend and I were discussing this... Unfortunately BRD has really seemed to get the shaft with the Relic enhancement. The bow is great otherwise, just Increased Song Duration is kind of lame...and it will encourage the player base to further put BRD down into a slot where we only play support.

BRD, before the most recent hotfix, could do pretty great dps with the flow of damage constantly up. Now it seems a little silly. I was thinking instead of having Increased Song Duration we also had Enhanced Barrage or Enhanced Quick Nock, even an Enhanced Rain of Death. I feel like Increased Song Duration could go on another piece of equipment or even become a spell like Sacred Prism. The enhancement on our weapon isn't nearly as strong as the others, so it's a bit disappointing.

[Skies]

Just to point out, you do realize that increased song duration will actually allow you to slot in a bigger amount of time to DPSing?

I forgot how long exactly the song duration is, but- Say the songs last 3 minutes. So given you're playing it safe and keeping two groups of buffs up, you have a window of about 2 minutes to DPS between running and buffing.
Then consider the relic increased the song duration go 6 minutes, you'd still spend the same 1 minute doing the buffing cycle, but now you go from having 2 minutes avaiable for DPS to 5 minutes. A lot more damage-focused.

As you can see, it's an indirect boost to your DPS capacity.