BRD 75 Gear For Endgame.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=66627

The Link above is what I'm planning on using @ 75brd, for endgame and merit.

Is there anything I need to improve on?

Which should i focus on more, skill or Chr?

And aspect of /whm for endgame, MND or MP?

Just few questions I hope you guys that have brd75 or know a thing or two can help me with.

Thank you.

Note, the head, and hands piece I'm looking at getting AFv2 from Dynamis.

(Never did AF, to lazy)

You should keep your CHR and Skill pretty balanced, but for the most part, Skill for Party, CHR for the mob.

The gear looks ok, when Im at Endgame I prefer the AF hands to the Sha'ir though. The Song delay down isnt so important when you're just spamming party songs.

When I /whm, I don't really 'focus' on Mp but I do have an ok mp pool with what I have so it's never been that much of a problem. But I also have awesome healers who generally don't 'need' a lot of help from me.

Editing to respond to your second post:

In my personal opinion, I think the relic hands are worthless. The AF is so much better and there's no points or waiting list needed. If you havent done the quest for those, definitely get that done. The AF +1 hands are the best in the game for Bard.

I'd recommend Terra's Staff and Apollo's Staff, easily 2 of the best investments I've made on BRD!

I followed a lot of advice from the people on here about my BRD, though it was under a couple of different BRD areas.

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/?topic_id=1105

http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/?topic_id=1748

Yup and Sha'ir would be better than AF2 as well to keep your CHR up.

Might want to consider Sha'ir boots/Goliard/Oracle's Pigaches instead of Rostum because CHR on the Iron Ram Horn/Light staff wont be there for casting Elegy or Lullaby.. though it probably wont matter too much.

AF2 pants are probably a better choice too for /WHM, or Zenith.
Sha'ir slightly better for merits though because no -stats.

thx

I cant list all my horns... that was an EXp...

No, what S/he (Im sorry, I couldnt tell ;;) means is that when you're casting Elegy, you wont have the +Chr horn on, obviously, you'd have the Elegy +1 horn on. So that's 4 chr you'd be missing out on. So you're looking at about +30 Chr. Not terrible, but it could be a little higher. The Rostrums are nice in merit when the mobs arent very high leveled, but in endgame, the +4 Chr (from Sha'ir feet) will be sorely missed. I believe Humes and Tarus are equal in CHR at 75, if not, then at least very close, so I can assume that if I have trouble landing stuff @30 Chr, then you may, as well

Get rid of R pumps and Loq Earring.
Loq Earring is ok dont get me wrong, but a brd with a ton of mp is fail.
It depends on your singing skill, but i use Singing Earring/Musical Earring full time

Wind torque is nice too but, Piper's Torque is best for debuffs, and the difference is 2 wind, so i just full time Piper's Torque.

As for Hands... Im working on getting AF+1 from limbus, but still use nq for buffs. I macro in Sheikh Gages for all my debuff timers.

My head i use AFv2 for singing skill on all songs but lullaby, which i macro in turban. Im not really infactic about haste/haste/haste for brd, nice if you merit all the time, but end game etc you dont really need it.

Try and get some Magic Acc+ gear, i.e. Omega Ring/Ixion Cloak/Goil Clogs etc

There's nothing wrong with some of the gear choosen, if some people don't have the gil. Not everyone has the gil to up and buy a Ixion/singing ear (700k on my server, dunno about yours). Pipers is only > than wind on debuffs, so if you can get the gear in other slots where you have no trouble debuffing mob, then the 600k for pipers isn't a purchase that needs to be done immediately.

I use a Loq and Wind torque on my bard and have a great debuffing rate, even on endgame mobs.

Should also be noted that skill only has effect in TIERS. Which means if you have 499 skill, don't even BOTHER spending the money on the Wind earring, because it'll bring you to 402, which is in the same tier. Dont spend mass amounts of gil on Singing or Wind skill until you know it'll tier you up. Now, if you were at 503 Skill, then that Singing Earring would vault you to the next tier, and become a worthwhile purchase.

Edit: Dont get me wrong, the gear suggested is awesome gear; just, pricey. Put those at the bottom of your Bard Wish List and start small. :)

Oh yea.. I forgot about earrings. For me, I use Loq/Magnetic (dunno the last time I was /NIN..). The price of the Singing and Musical is not worth it for me- I don't have trouble landing things at the events I do, but yes, def very good choice.. I want to get Musical eventually though.

Piper's Torque is very good as well.

But yea, those are good upgrades to work toward being the best ya can on bard.

Singing Ear jumped up from 300k to 700-800k. ._. I was going to buy one, walked up to the AH and OMGWTFISTHAT. ;;

Lil off topic but good to know info.. anyone have a page for the tiers? Page I had is 404 now :(

Good point about the tiers now.. I'm only 486 skill so buying Musical earring would get my 491.. same tier.. part of the reason I haven't got it yet. Though I could use my Minstrel's Coat because I always play /WHM and don't really need the spell casting time for pulling/sleeping much.

I get my info from BG Wiki. BG Wiki

Edit:

This blog also had a great post in there, too.

Fenrir's Bardlet

Was too lazy to make clicky links, fixed.

yea dont get me wrong, there once was a time when i used Loq. earring and R pumps along with other various noob items. Brd end game gear is expensive for sure, if you arent full timeing brd then dont bother with a ton a great gear, you can totally get by without it.

I personally don't use the walmart turban, I generally full time demon's helm atm, I should upgrade too +1 but w/e, for Head piece I'd say walmart < demon < demon +1 < marduks < af2+1, however the marduks or demon+1 may or may not put you in another tier over walmart or demon NQ or relic+1 head pieces, also ia slightly cheap alt for feet are dance shoe nq/hq, Nq has one less chr HQ has same

I wouldn't consider myself a 'noob' Bard. ;; I've got a decent bard; I just have better things to spend my money on. Im halfway to a Marduk's Jubbah, need another 5m. I'd rather spend the 5m on a Marduks Jubbah (I already use the Crown) than on the Ixion Cloak and Singing Earring. Earring is far down on my list of stuff to worry about, and Ixion isn't even on it. Marduks Body + Crown >>>> Ixion Cloak by far.

I do agree about the R Pumps, though. Sha'ir Feet are only 100k on my server, and a much better investment than the R. Pumps. Loq, however, isn't 'nooby' by any means if you've got other things to spend 700k on. ;; /comfort self.

Edit: I prefer the Marduks Tiara to the Relic head, personally, only because it's so easy to hit the Chr soft cap, where Skill is a little harder to stack on some slots.

lol of course Marduk all the way ^^
and yea i dont use ixion, very very rarly do i, maybe on a hnm for threnody on tiamat etc but losing your head piece to use it sucks.

And it really depends on earring as it was said on your post earlier, its all tiers, so if you can make that next tier by adding 3 more skill then gopherit.

Yeah I just need my Singing earring to get my final piece of Skill gear and hit the last tier that I can (Without merits or Relic); Just, ugh. 700k. Thats almost an imperial ingot. I cant wait until I finish this thing and be done with it.

yea, it was a "wait for it" piece for me too :p
only 500k on gilgamesh :p

get af, relic hands are ***

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=34643 - my debuff set

should also have a stoneskin build which serves you very well

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=66735

If you're BRD/WHM in a merit party with a BRD/NIN, put on as much MP gear as possible. Everyone will love you for it. Since you'll only be casting Ballad on the mage and two songs on the melees, there's no reason or need to have the CHR or Skill equipped. Much better and efficient for the party if you use MP gear and cure whenever somebody loses help. Gives the Red Mage more time to focus on hasting as well.

earth grip and light grip come in handy imo

There is no one "ideal" set for BRD. You can't just equip and forget everything but your instrument swaps.

You should have a fast cast set that's only equiped for a second before swapping to skill/debuff gear to improve the cast time of your songs. Focus on as much +skill as possible for buffs where skill matters (don't need it for paeon/ballad/etc.). Stack +skill/chr/macc for debuffs, take as much CHR/Macc as you need for accuracy and the rest is +skill for duration/effect (as far as accuracy goes 1 CHR = 1 skill = 1 Macc, or pretty darn close). Haste is only going to help your recast time, so I only use it for Utsusemi casting (or lolmelee).

I believe that testing found that after the Soft Cap, 1 Chr = .5 Magic Acc. So 2 Chr = 1 Magic Acc, while 1 Skill = .9 Magic Acc. I don't remember where, exactly, I saw this, so I could be wrong, and I cant provide links. :3

Just something I seem to remember.

link prs

>.>

I never said it was the gospel truth, just opening it up for discussion.

So, discuss.

Edit: I did find the post relating to 2 CHR = 1 Macc. (Post #8)

The .9% vs 1% is what's debated. Some say 1 Skill = 1 Macc and some say 1 Skill = .9 Macc (after the 200 soft cap).

To the OP, get a set you feel comfortable in and you should be fine. Go for an all purpose set that balances MP, CHR and skill.

You'll eventually find that certain pieces will have no effect to the way you play and you can change them around for other pieces that you use more. For example you might find that you don't really need Sha'ir gloves so you could replace it with something that gives more MP, or even AF. The biggest recommendation I could give though if you don't do anything else is to invest in an Apollo's and if possible Terra's Staff.

Second to that if you want to take your BRD a bit further, try get some RA/EX pieces like Oracles pigaches, Choral cannions +1, Choral cuffs +1, Choral justacorps +1 and if you're able to do Dynamis, Bard's roundlet and Bard's cannions.

Bard can actually be very cheap to gear up well at 75 if you're smart about it. Doing things like Limbus, Dynamis, Einherjar, Sky, BCNM's and ENM's to collect gear will make life a lot easier, even if its one at a time. One of the things about Bards is that no matter how well geared a Bard is, they will always be useful, as long as you want to play the job, there will always be a spot there for you.

This has taken me a while to get but this is my every day set:
http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=66815
From that I can swap body hands and legs to AF+1 and waist to Gleeman's Belt if I need to but for the most part I have next to no problems with resists.

Only piece I'd really want from here is Astute Cape and Omega Ring, or of course Gjallarhorn.

You didn't say where the soft cap is, and personally I believe the only true modifiers on brd songs are chr greater than target, hq staves, and macc. oh and your target not being a sky god, although i did land elegy 3x in a row on byakko once, which was epic.

Karusan do you do melee buffs in all that mp gear too?