Bard is a support job that branches off the damage dealing class Archer. The idea behind the job is that it sacrifices some damage in order to buff party members via songs. This guide will talk about how to play the job at level 50 and it should be noted that it may not be the only way to play it. Others may disagree, but see it as a starting point and build on it from there.
Attributes
Bard GuideAs a Bard you have two main attributes to consider. Dexterity (DEX) for your ranged damage and Piety (PIE) for your MP. The more MP you have, the longer you can keep a song up but as you only get around 5 MP per PIE point this translates to about 1/6 of a second of song duration. Since classes and jobs share the same attribute points I recommend putting them all into DEX because PIE is not recommended for Archer at all.
With equipment you could focus on more stats than just DEX, maybe add some PIE if you want to. But also consider stats such as Attack Power, Determination, Critical Hit Rate and Skill Speed. These are the main stats that your BRD will make use of. Determination will boost the amount of damage dealt by all attacks and the amount of HP recovered when healed, and the rest of the stats are self explanatory. It is not yet known whether Determination is better than attack power for increasing your damage.
Skill Rotation
For a full explanation of skills see our Bard and Archer pages.
As a BRD you are in a support role and will be required to sacrifice damage to give buffs to party members in the form of songs as and when required. Due to the nature of these songs they do not fit into your rotation at a specific step and should be slotted in when needed. Songs are covered later in the guide and this rotation will focus on your standard DPS skills.
My ideal rotation at level 50 is the following:
Bloodletter Venomous Bite Windbite Straight Shot Heavy Shot Heavy Shot Heavy Shot Repeat … Monster < 20% - Misery's End
FFXIV: BRD Hot bars An example hotbar layout for BRD abilities.
The reason I begin with Bloodletter and then follow with my damage over time skills is the fact that Venomous Bite and Windbite both have a 20% of resetting the Bloodletter recast time. If you haven't used Bloodletter yet then there is nothing to reset. As Bloodletter is one of, if not your best damaging attack you want to be getting it in as frequently as possible.
After my DoTs are set I use Straight Shot. This increases my critical hit rate for 20 seconds. I then switch to Heavy Shot because it has 10 more potency than Straight Shot and has a 20% chance that my next Straight Shot will deal critical damage. Each time this effect is triggered I use Straight Shot.
After a few Heavy Shots it is going to be time to go back to the beginning and use your Bloodletter if it is available and re-apply your DoT abilities.
When the monster is below 20% HP I will use Misery's End as it becomes your best attack during this phase. If the fight is a boss and it will stay under 20% HP for more than a few seconds (such as a boss) then I instead fit it into my rotation and use it every time it becomes available. This isn't an ability you can spam due to the 12 second recast.
This is the basic rotation of the Bard.
Most of your other skills are situational. For example Raging Strikes is awesome but it is on too long of a recast to fit into a rotation, so you must use it whenever you feel is best. I like to ensure I have it available for a boss fight and if I know the dungeon I will use it between bosses if I think it will be available again in time. The same is true for Barrage and Hawk's Eye. I want to use them as much as possible to maximise DPS but I want them to be available for the toughest fights to use at the start and again mid way through.
You also have your area of effect abilities. Rain of Death is very nice with the added effect of lowering the target's damage dealt by 10%. This is probably too low to matter on trash mobs but should still be your weapon skill of choice if taking down a group. There is also a 15% chance your next Quick Nock will cost 0 TP which you should use whenever it triggers. The additional effect is most beneficial on bosses where that 10% will be much more significant.
Song Usage
Bard comes with three songs which are Mage's Ballad (MP regen), Foe Requiem (elemental resistance reduction) and Army's Paeon (TP regen). However most of the time you will only be using Mage's Ballad and Foe Requiem because it is unlikely that the benefits of Foe Requiem will outweigh the benefits of these two songs on a regular basis. It should be noted that you can only have one song active at a time.
Using these two songs comes at a price - you must sacrifice 20% of your damage while they are active. But don't see this as a bad thing, the effects of your songs will end up increasing damage output by the rest of the party and this will amount to more than your sacrifice. Which one you use is situational; does your party require more MP or more TP?
When you use a song it will consume your MP at a rate of roughly 40 every second. When you run out of MP your song ends. You can throw Ethers and PIE on to increase your durations and it may be worth it on the hardest battles. Regening your MP from 0 to full is a slow process and this means the optimal time to start singing may not be the start of the fight. You don't want to find yourself out of MP during that crucial final third of the fight where the boss is at its strongest. Effective planning should be put into place before the fight.
Cross Class Abilities
BRD can take cross class skills from the PGL and LNC classes and at level 50 you can equip up to 5.
From PGL you should take Second Wind for self healing purposes and Internal Release to increase your critical hit rate. From LNC you should take Invigorate (more TP), Blood for Blood (damage boost) and Feint (instant cast damage). These will help boost your damage potential.
Light Bringer Admin replied
555 weeks ago