Bard Merit Category 1: What To Pick?

I just got Bard to 75 last night and now it's time to decide my merits. Group 2 seems pretty straightforward, but I'm a bit undecisive when it comes to group 1.

For the record, these are things I can choose:

- Lullaby Recast
- Finale Recast
- Minne Effect
- Minuet Effect
- Madrigal Effect

I'm thinking about doing 5/5 Minuet and 5/5 Madrigal but I want to know the opinions of a few Bards out there before I pick them.

And if you have some advice for group 2 as well, feel free to add that. I'm all ears :)

(Group 2 is the JA Nightingale, the JA Troubadour and two songs that effect Emnity)

I think the standard now is:

5 Minuet
5 Madrigal

And you 100% want:

5 Nightingale
5 Troubadour

Get Bihu feet and body to 109 at least so you can get the N/T duration, and Bihu legs extends SV as well.

Definitely Minuet and Madrigal, Lullaby and Finale recast will probably never come into play and Minne is so rarely used it's not worth it.

So.... those 2 emnity spells are rubbish?

Do the merits decrease the recast past the cap? I ask because even after stacking haste and -song delay gear, I eventually hit a wall where no more song delay gear works, and I think Finale won't go lower than like 6 seconds. If that's the case, then you should be able to cap the recast on Lullaby/Finale with just Haste gear, Self Haste, and a few pieces of song recast delay- gear like Harmony Cape and AF3 legs.

For years I've had Finale/Minuet 5/5, but I can see how Madrigal can replace Finale recast. I personally like to spam Finale when available so I guess it depends in your content.

As mentioned, Group 2 is kind of a given. (Nightingale/Troubadour)

I ddint even need to read this to know what to put in bard.

Well aren't you the special one.

madrigal and minuet, if you need the finale recast you probably know beforehand and can easily march march haste yourself

Maybe, maybe not. I guess i could blame it on the fact that I can read, and just maybe... I gots a lil' common sense, LOL.

Iirc gameesh is a solo to 99 guy naturally he will have more questions than someone who did party play till 99 ffs no need to ***on someone for asking a question to better himself

Minuet and Lullaby 5/5! For when you're pulling for those awesome merit PT's at the mamool camps and colibri camps!!

Always stick with 5/5, minuet madrigal especially for ilvl content. Lullaby shouldnt need any as you have 4 songs to use. Finale can be reduced to a 3 second recast using shedir turban from limbus 2, paean hands from legion, empy pants +2, and jandza crackows from gessho 2.

I'm reminiscing, shut your *** mouth! =P

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys!

And yes, Anjisnu, I am indeed someone who still exp's his way to 99 using solo, duo and / or stranger parties (as I find them in the dungeons I exp in). No worm camps, burns or anything to make stuff incredibly fast. Besides, I hate skilling back so many levels of skills.
It's much more fun taking it slow and learning your job. And the little rewards each level make it a lot of fun. A spell here, a piece of gear there etc.

Just got back from 75 > 79 in Onzozo. BRD/DNC with a dagger and Swan Bilbo is a decent DD. Oh, and I unlocked Mordant Rime just now too! Good ws :)

my bard has 5/5 finale recast. it's great for when Ircinraq does Photosynthesis back to back.

Bit late but I'd recommend
5/5 Madrigal
5/5 Minuet
5/5 Nightingale
5/5 Troubadour

An extra 5 accuracy to blade madrigal and an extra 5 accuracy to sword madrigal. Doubled when you Soul Voice.

Similarly with Minuet and extra 5 Attack per song. Potentially +25 attack if you cast 5 Minuets or 50 extra attack if you cast 5 Minuets with SV.

Nightingale goes hand in hand with troubadour. Gives 1min of instant cast songs if you 5/5 it. 1min20 with Bard's slippers+2, Bihu's Slippers or Bihu's Slippers +1 if 5/5. Completely negates the negative effects of Troubadour.

I can't stress how good troubadour is. Doubles song duration for your buff songs as standard. When you 5/5 it it basically guarantees your debuff songs will land if they can land and doubles the duration. Can't stick Elegy or Lullaby Troubadour it. Troubadour+Lullaby II+A full song duration set will sleep almost anything in the game that can be slept for over 5minutes and then you Sleep 2 or Repose over it. This gives you enough time to recover from a wipe, rebuff and continue. Lasts 1min. 1min20 with Bard's Justaucorps+2, Bihu's justaucorps or Bihu's justaucorps +1 if 5/5. Resist traits can still stop stuff from landing (resist-slow on elegy, resist-sleep on lullaby and you generally can't sleep delve bosses unless the aura is down). You'll be riding your nightingale and troubadour timers so the armor that augments it is well worth getting. 1min20secs to buff your parties and debuff your mobs). This lasts the whole 1min or 1min20seconds. It's not just a 1 cast thing like Elemental Seal. Combines great with marcato and spectacularly with SV for buffs.

Why not recast merits? Basically because you can cap recast through haste/march/equipment. Debuffs are generally 24 second recast the maximum you can lower the recast time to is around 5 seconds (4.8 seconds maybe?) Recast merits don't bypass this cap. there is an abundance of -song recast time equipment. Depending on your play style and what you do as events you might choose these but you're giving up something that can't be obtained in other ways for something that can. Minne generally isn't used much. Stacking defense and -attack does work but for the most part you only need enough to prevent being 1 shotted with a good healer and Scherzo covers single hit attacks.

As for Dirge and Sirvente while it would be nice to have a full spell list Nightingale and Troubadour 5/5 are just too good to give up and used every 10mins. Dirge and Sirvente would be situational at best and you would most of the times never give up a song slot for them.

Should probably follow this incredibly accurate and full proof thing right here....


Stickied at top of BRD forum.

No. There is no recast cap.


Edit: well.... ok there is, it's the limitation in how fast the first song gets off, you have to wait for that.

Are you sure? Last time I checked you couldnt go lower than around 5 second recast?

The maximum you can lower recast is 80%

I'll be grinding some merit points / CP this weekend. You guys convinced me to forget about the 2 emnity spells, so thanks for that. And I'll stick with 5/5 madrigal and 5/5 minuet as well =)
I was under the impression that Troubadour and Nightingale cancel each other out, but after reading the comments here it looks like they don't. That makes them a lot more useful ^^

yes I am sure.

edit: strange, i went and tested and only got it down to 5 seconds like you say. But then I think of people who get their Stuns down to 7 seconds which is 85% reduction in recast.

edit v2: ah, i see why i only got it down that far. magic haste caps at 43.75%. gear haste caps at 25%. I needed to put on more fast cast/song recast gear which I wasn't using and I got it down to 4 seconds. with more optimization I'm sure I can get it down even further.

No, you are thinking of casting time.

You can only get stun down to 9 seconds which is an 80% reduction of 45 seconds, the only way to surpass that cap is with Alacrity.

I just got magic finale down to 4 seconds. this is 83% reduction. Even wiki says there is no reduction cap.

Yeah, I read that so I was looking around for my own info but I'll have to take your word on it, it's odd because for example I found people talking about stun recast and not being able to get it lower than 9 seconds which is 80%.

i think i figured it out. i went and tested stun on my RDM and only got it down to 9 seconds like you said, even though i have 43.75% magic haste, 25% gear haste, and 80% fast cast. that should have gotten me well below 9 second recast, but didn't. So for magic finale it is the song recast delay gear that got me below 80% reduction.