Bard DD Set

Probably a better TP version



Awww yeah dat STR



Also, Awww yeah new page on a Brd melee topic!

Heca Body is probably always going to be worse than BRD AF2+2 (25 attack and 10 STR/DEX) for TP or WS.

Yeah, unless perhaps you got very lucky and scored a STR augment from the random pool on Heca (who would TP in Heca).

Also if /dnc or /nin and dualwielding, Osode with DW augments would be better probably?

In that case you could opt for a Royal Redingote with DW and Acc augments. I'd imagine anyone going this serious on Brd melee to at least consider that as an option.

Well yeah or that I suppose :P

Using mandau 95+ on brd between casting on party members was a lot of fun. Since mercy stroke can seriously suck without being able to SA/TA, in some situations, due to the high dmg and low delay, along with the upped triple dmg proc rate, it does a very very nice amount of damage if you just tp until 300% to keep aftermath up for the full next minute.

I used battle brd on ofin v2 and had embrava, so i was casting minuets and did pretty nice dmg just running in between needing to recast ballads on the whm.

Frenzy Fife over Angel Lyre in the STR build. :P
Also Ire Torque +1 gives 1 more STR than Tjukurrpa Medal!

Actually I just made a 100mp 16 macc Thokcha so I could use oneiros ring!

Anyone tried an Aeolian Edge cleaving set on brd? I'm thinking it would be pretty sweet since you can just horde lullaby everything after you ws anyways. Even if you have a single target, you can use a centovente+martial or TP bonus kila so they end up being a 300tp damage ws at 100tp.

Since this has been already necrobumped, I might as well take the chance.
Anybody mind giving some WS gear option alternatives for:
Exenterator
Mordant Rime

Can't think of many AGI pieces BRD can equip, while for Mordant Rime uh... Byakko can be a good DEX one, and we have countless CHR options but I'm afraid pieces with CHR alone won't be enough to produce decent damage.

There's that ring from Abyssea... Airy Ring I think it is? Has 5 dex/char on it. Only thing that came to mind off the top of my head.

Seems to be best for Exenterator. I know most of the options for head are so close together it's like splitting hairs. Bendis's Hairpin > Sthira Helm > Maat's Cap > Lenore's Hairpin > Urja Helm from what I remember when I was figuring out a set.

I really haven't the slightest clue for a Mordant Rime set, but I would assume something along the lines of this:



Obviously use Gjallarhorn over Iron Ram Horn if you have it. Probably not Delta Earring, other viable options could be Ghillie Earring +1 or a CHR+4 Earring maybe(Aoidos' or Enchanter's.)

Think HQ Ghillie is gonna win.
As for legs what about Tumbler Trunks? Seems decent enough to me
(I don't have heca from other jobs, not too leaning to get it just for BRD...)
And Sceamol Band for head? Never used it since when I got it, found it today on my mule and noticed it's "all jobs", can't be that bad.
Should be better than AF3+2 at least.
Oh and Anguinus in the belt.
Using ele gorget in neck atm, wonder if Agasaya would be better? No Love Torque sadly. And Rajas > Dawnsoul, I think.

As for exenterator Sached might not be a good idea, you'd reset TP next time you equip an instrument.
Vimukti over atheling? Not sure about that.
And Damn! Forgot about Seiryu, need to get them out from the Clip.
As for Stihra I noticed that set already. NQ would be ok already for me, altough I kinda need to make a decision wether or not I want to "waste" 3 more inventory slots for a WS set on BRD or not.
If I decide I do I'll be happy enough with NQ ;)

'-'

Wouldn't an OA2-4 Dagger be better than Kraken Club in the long run? BRD has roughly 100 less accuracy than an A+ job on Clubs. Even with level correction factored in, I'm not sure you'd hit a decent enough accuracy with the offhand on DC mobs.
And the damage too.

On Dagger you'd have roughly 60ish more accuracy, 60ish more attack, more base damage and "only" 2-4 OA, which is still a lot when you factor in march.
Imho KClub would just produce a surplus of TP which do not affect WS damage of Mordant/Exe/Mercy, more TP to enemies and probably less overall damage from melee hits, despite the higher number.

So yeah, if you really want to go with an OAX weapon, I'm confident the dagger could be a better solution than Kclub.

Beautiful guys, just beautiful. Thank you!

PS: What about MANDAU/EXCALIBUR ??

brd can't use excal =p

I'm confident best BRD weapon would be Carnwenhan. Good buffs to songs (less time spent casting songs, more time spent doing damage) and the mythic aftermath, as we all know, is simply fantastic.
Also, imho Mordant Rime is a very underestimated WS, especially with the 30% buff you get at lv99, it should prove to be a really nice damage tool.

Of course weapons like Twashtar and Mandau are much easier to obtain and they're still pretty nice.
Actually can a BRD use Twashtar? I think so.
Dunno which one would be better between the two, but considering BRD can use Heca+1 maybe it's easier to build up a decent STR build for Mercy than a DEX for Rudra?

Naw, you don't lose TP when switching between Sachet and Instrument actually.
The reason I chose Vimukti over Atheling is because I'm already using Prosilio Belt anyways and have no other DA in the set, not gonna do me much good if I bump it up from DA-5% to DA-2% lol.

Came up with some sets:
Mercy Stroke

Rudra's Storm

Attack/TP Bonus on the Moonshade.(and assume max augments on Heca)

I do know that Mercy Stroke can actually beat Exenterator by a small margin. Rudra's, I'm not so sure..moreso just worth it for the Aftermath, obviously.

Also while I'm at it, a TP and Evis set I threw together, feel free to critique!

Swap to Dusk Gloves+1 inside Abyssea. Ghadhab Nails on high tier NMs.
DW+3/Crit. rate+2%/Attack+7 augments on the Osode.
I just use Oneiros Ring cuz I have MP Merits anyways, prolly just use Tyrant's Ring if you don't.

Also, I'll get back to you on those Mordant Rime questions. :)

Did a few tests with the spreadsheet, this is the best setup I could come up with for Mordant Rime against EP and DC mobs (dyna).
My doubts mostly were with CHR vs STR/attack. The WS has a secondary 50% CHR mod, but I was afraid stacking too much CHR would have hurt my attack, since BRD notoriously has low attack.
Comes out that on DC mobs CHR wins in most slots.

Head: Sceamol Band (yes, it wins over AF3+2)
Body: AF2+2
Hands: AF3+2
Legs: Tumbler Trunks
Feet: AF3+2 (really really close with Ghadgnab)
Neck: Elemental gorget (really close to Agasaya's collar)
Waist: Anguinus (beats Aristo, altough the difference is much closer than I expected it to be)
Ear: Brutal + Ghillie/Ghillie+1/Aesir (they all win over Delta and AF3 earring)
Ring: Rajas+Airy (Airy beats Excelsis/Tyrant)
Back: Atheling
Range: Gjallarhorn (Iron Ram Horn is another good option)

Using Aluh Jambiya MH and Lux Pugio OH, without dagger merits, with Yellow Curry Bun and no other attack buff, not factoring Box Steps, it should average:
~1218 => on DC nightmare mobs
~1486 => on EP nightmare mobs

Not too bad. Exenterator is still better, altough if your gear sucks the difference is going to be pretty small, potentially worse than Rime.
The ugly setup I used for Exenterator is the following:

Head: Sceamol
Body: AF2+2
Hands: Seiryu
Legs: Tumbler Trunks
Feet: Ghadnab
Neck: Hoyui
Ears: Brutal+Aesir
Rings: Solemn+Stormsoul
Waist: Anguinus
Back: Atheling

Despite the fact that this setup sucks (and can get much better with Urja or if you're lucky Stihra gear for Head, Legs and Feet slots, not to mention better earring/ring) the average numbers I got are:
~1369 ==> on Nightmare DC mobs
~1640 ==> on Nightmare EP mobs

Same buffs setup as the previous test. No Box Step, no minuet/otherattackbuffs, Yellow Curry Bun, no dagger merits etc.
So yeah, from the looks of things Exenterator is better no matter what, even with very lame setups like the one I posted, and difference of course becomes bigger the better your gear is.

a slight hijack im looking at a cheap and easy to make DD set for my brd/whm mule that i use for farming dyna and salvage

so not expensive and not to much work.(no fire daggers or emp dagger)
but im thinking on the dex/acc daggers or some of the multihits daggers.
or maybe the one with debuffs the mob so my main will do more dmg (def down perhaps?)
im not sure what woul be the best option in for farming events like salvage and dynamisd


gearwise im looking mostly for stuff that i would be able to use on whm DD ger set too
so thinks like brutal earring/ghillie earring
the kush/lva rings seems to do the job to

Main things that are whm and brd for dd set are ra/ex VW stuff but thats up to you if its easy to get or not.


This is the TP set what i use on my mule obviously /dnc, dagger is augmented with dmg+8, gorget has crit rate+2 and byakkos pants with stp+3 and crit damage+3%.

meh vw ger is probalby ot much of a timesink

but what dagger would be beast. dex with acc and dex for evis or multihit daggers ?
remember this is for a low geared brd not a god geared (dd set wise) brd mule

<main>Aluh Jambiya</main>
_{Oynos Knife}
<range>Angel Lyre</range>
<head>Zelus Tiara</head>
<neck>Love Torque</neck>
<lear>Brutal Earring</lear>
<rear>Suppanomimi Earring</rear>
<body>Sha'ir Manteel</body>
<hands>Brego Gloves</hands>
<lring>Tyrant's Ring</lring>
<rring>Rajas Ring</rring>
<back>Atheling Mantle</back>
<waist>Goading Belt</waist>
<legs>Byakko's Haidate</legs>
<feet>Sheikh Crackows</feet>

copy pastega from my xml is easier. This is what I use atm, some was picked to save space, other's I just don't have yet. But it might give you some ideas. Highly recommend oynos knife off-hand if end up going /dnc at some point. I find brd/dnc to be an excellent addition to proc speed and a decent bonus to dd and sc damage.

I'm getting bored when I'm on brd and would like to also DD some just for shits and giggles. I remember at 75 cap that Mordant Rime was real good in campaign. The only time I'm really on brd is for important NMs and not on trash mobs that much (DC or weaker). On harder mobs, wouldn't Mordant Rime beat Excenterator? Sorry if I missed it in earlier posts if someone had talked about it. I have a 99 Twashtar also...so that is another reason I'm leaning towards Mordant Rime.

Also I have access to the +1 heca gear and think it may be easier to gear for Mordant Rime, but I do want to do the WS that would do the most damage.

Thanks for any comments ^^

This is my short on inventory space tp+ws set:


If you need the brd to have a mage sub, maining twilight knife and having them exenterator for the acc down debuff on the mob while double marching is way more useful than having them stand around like a worthless manequinn in af3 with a staff equipped. If you have another job that is hitting the mob that does exenterator, then just fulltime mordant rime.

For lolabyssea stuff I usually spam mordant rime instead of exenterator because it definitely does better numbers at 100tp on 'boss' type NMs and there isnt a huge difference between lazy gearing for that ws and going all out.
If you ever take the bard to abyssea, DD bard does contribute well even with a mage sub. For dragons I stand on the paw with the tank, get haste+double march and unload about 10-15ws on it per kill for about 1k each with no food/dd atmas on /sch.

I can get closer to the numbers Sechs posted in dynamis if i eat food and wear tumbler trunks+osode,etc. My advice is to first just get a build that has capped haste and get a 'decent' dagger (aluh/oynos/twilight) and see if you like it before you go all out trying to pimp it in hecatomb +1,etc.

All that being said I would still take the time to get your bard 5/5 Exenterator, dagger skill merits and 12str 12agi merited if you want it to be as useful as possible in a melee capacity.

The only thing i hate about DD bard is having to stop meleeing to refresh my double march haha.

I've been toying with the idea of BRD DD mostly for Dynamis Farming, maybe some old content. I was wondering thoughts on which set is better for TP.

Option 1:


Option 2:

1st set is 1% Haste short of cap but grants more Acc, Atk, Military Parade bonus. I would go for the 1st set and possibly get a Zelus tiara.

Set 1 is definitely better than Set 2. Zelus Tiara would be best in a more advanced TP set, but the way the set is, keeping Brego Helm in and swapping the Goading Belt for a Bullwhip or NQ Phos would be more beneficial.

Thanks for the feedback :)
I had a feeling set one would be better.
I don't have zelus yet, and I knew one day giving bullwhip to my mule would come back to haunt me lol. So more on my list of stuff to do heh.