Bard Questions

Ok, I'm being told Chr for offensive songs like Elegy/Requiem and wind skill for march/minuet/madrigal and
"String skill is crap", thoughts? Not really sure where singing skill comes to play, best I know is it co-exists with wind skill for buffs.

Cause I'm starting to build a Chr build for offensive and Wind build for buffs :3 Do I need a string build too or would I be wasting my time?

Edit: Btw, I need another nereid ring if anyone on Unicorn is selling :3

The higher your String Skill, the wider the AoE radius of your songs are. Where as with Wind Skill, increases the effect of the buff you're casting.

For most songs, 225 - 248 String Skill with have a max radius of 20 yalms.

The lowest being March, Minuet, Paeon, and Minne. At a 225 Skill, will only achieve 11 yalms. But, why you're buffing March, Minuet, and Minne on String would be beyond me. ^^

Hope this answers your question.

String could be helpful if you're in a BLM PT or anything similiar to that. It increases the range of your songs more than Wind does. I don't have String capped yet, but that's out of laziness. x.x

CHR is good for offensive songs and Wind/Singing Skill for Minuet/Madrigal/March like you said.

I don't see String being useful for much except increasing the range on Ballad in Dynamis or somewhere similiar, it's always annoying seeing the BLM's run away right as you start casting..

Most BRDs will not touch String. Its not that its a bad skill and instrument set, its just that Wind gives you an absolute controlled distance of 10'. Because of this, Wind skill dictates potency of buffs, not distance as String skill will. So, for more potent buffs, Wind all the way.

As for CHR for offensive, Wind for buffs... that is the optimal approach as debuffs (aka offensive as you put it) need song acc. CHR will affect their potency SLIGHTLY, but is used because its the mod for song acc. Song acc. is also affected by macc. gear because songs are a type of magic.

These are just some words for thought.

just about everything you need to know is on ffxiclopedia.
search charisma, and the highest tier songs.

I have an offensive string build for Harp!Horde Lullaby, but you probably won't need to worry about that unless you enjoy sleeping mass quantities of scaries in Dynamis/Einherjar/Limbus etc. It's nice to have a large range if you have the accuracy to go along with it, though.

This^

I always use Nursemaid's Harp for lullaby on puk ISNM. Mostly because sometimes BLM or healer get hate right before he spawns his babies and you'll have babies all over the place. My string is capped from ballad whoring BLM pt in dynamis though.

The only time you'll really be using string is like what the above said, Horde lullaby and playing Balladwhore. You don't really need a string build, just get a Nursemaid's Harp if you don't already, and string torques are pretty cheap. As you level, you'll notice that your string skill is probably way below cap but capping it is pretty easy if you just spam songs on the Hpemde in sea. That's probably been mentioned to you before though :)

A friend of mine suggested putting a harp in your pulling macro. Easy way to skill up harp as you xp!

casting horde lullaby w/ a string makes the aoe range 8 yalms from the target. w/ a wind, it's only 4. it could be like 7.9 and 3.9 as well. i was using distance mod to measure, so there's some margin of error there. but either way, it's double the range. adding string skill doesn't seem to affect this range either. i tested in level sync, and by using various amounts of skill gear, and i couldn't get the distance to change.

also note that debuffing w/ string reduces magical accuracy. this is easy to see in the following example. cast finale on a psycheflayer w/ a string instrument (i use angel's lyre for the extra haste on finale) and watch it resist almost every time. then cast it w/ any wind instrument, and watch it stick every time.

moving on, i actually have five lullaby macros, nursemaid's horde, mary's horde, and mary's foe. i have two more that i rarely use, iron ram horde, and nursemaid's foe.

anyways, my main 3 have as much haste in them as possible. i recommend for any bard to use at least sha'ir gages and walahra turban in their lullaby build. these together reduce recast by 3 seconds.

the other two macros use as much macc/skill/chr as possible. i use these if i absolutely do not want a resist of any kind. i have these on a separate page, and again, rarely need them. but they're there if i do.

final note, capping string skill is easy in besieged as well. just spam threnodies.

You don't want only CHR for offensive songs. It's just pointless for buffs is all.

Use Singing + corresponding skill + CHR according to what you can get the most of n' all for offensive songs. IE, if you can get 3 Skill or 10 CHR, go with the CHR. If you can get 10 skill, then that's probably the better option. As mentioned, Magic Accuracy is also an option. You don't have variable potency outside of instrument effects.

String is useful for when you want to extend AoE range. Primarily, as mentioned, this comes in when you're singing a song you want the whole party to get, or trying to hit more mobs with Horde Lullaby. Nine times out of ten though, Wind is what the focus is on.

I wouldn't worry much about String during the XP process. Perhaps do a little to try and get incidental skillups as you go (Harp in Finale macro, it's very accurate either way, maybe toss out Threnodies with one, etc)...otherwise it's probably not something you'll use until endgame activities.

The other thing to look at with buffing, long term, would be song casting time reduction (predominately) or Fast Cast. Song effects are tiered with skill, and most eventually cap...so stacking tons of skill on every song won't necessarily do anything for you. Getting the song off faster, however, is often helpful.

Hmmm, this is the only thing wrong in this thread. CHR doesnt affect potency of any brds songs in any way at all. Your carnage elegy will always be 50% slow, your battlefield elegy will always be 27% with instrument, your lolrequiemvi that doesnt stick in anything will always do 11hp/tick with instrument. But yeah you use CHR for macc if there is nothing better (skill/raw macc) in a slot.

I've always been under the assumption to go for

Macc>Skill>Chr

for offensive songs.

As for buffing songs for anything other than March I always thought it's best to stack spellcasting down gear, and then with Victory March to stack as much wind and singing skill as possible.

Am I right to think skill barely effects buffs other than Victory march?

Early levels that would be fine, but once you start pulling with elegy your going to want it to hit as to save time, so it's far more efficient (and safe) to pull in an Earth/Terra staff and a horn +1.

If you want to skill, go to sea, spam stuff on goldfish. As long as you don't damage them, they won't attack you.

Can just rotate threnodies.

If you don't have sea. Get sea.

Singing and wind are so easy to cap even without sea, I level sync around 55+ all the time, and I'm having no problem keeping it capped to 67 by just singing whilst waiting for an invite.

String a bit more annoying due to it being pretty gimp anyways (I started ballading with a string instrument to keep it somewhat capped, but the range did my head in)

Yea, but the "If you don't have sea, get sea" refers to everyone who doesn't have sea, not just brds trying to skill up :)

Need sea so much...

3 days straight of calling for 2 of the paths (even saying idm backtracking) has made me want to /wrist

or just spam Threnody at Worms at Aydeewa Subterrane near Blue Mage Pool Quest. dont forget to give 'em lullaby too in between.

Good idea, lol.

Try Zvahl Fortilaces in Baileys(S). I hear they are one-stop skillup shops. They do not retaliate, and are generally a safe target. I know you can cap Melee skills on them at least. And offensive magic lands well enough to kill them for the "Baileys Borer" Campaign ops. So might be worth a check.

I'll test that later on today =D

There are many true sight monsters on the way though. Something to be aware of. From what I've seen, the Fortilaces are generally clear of any aggro, but getting there almost makes up for that.

I've got some friends who owe me favours, they can be aggro shields :D

Skill affects all buffs, the thing is it's very easy to hit the cap for all of the non-March buffs. I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but I'm pretty sure it's on the wiki.

Ahh, I see

Blade Madrigal seems to cap @ 508+ so any more than that would be a wasted slot

Minuet IV caps @ 462+ so any more than that would be wasted too.

come to phoenix! i need tenzen and louverance Q_Q

hmmm, macc +6 > chr +12 for like lullaby/elegy?

macc +3 > chr +10 for lullaby/elegy?

Popular opinion would say the first two are equal and CHR is better for the second.

M.acc 1 = M.acc 1
CHR 1 = M.acc .5

Example would mean each have M.acc+6, for the second it would be +3 < +5