Military Parade - A DD Bard Guide

Well all the augments on Barfwac are for main hand only. Ternion gives 67 acc, 4 TA, 9 subtle blow, 10-15 agi and 5% wsd in the off hand. Barfwac is a nice main hand if you dont have a carnwenhan, but for the cost of a Barfwac, might as well invest in a carn.

What exactely looks good to you in Barfawc?

Now if any of the augs worked OH it would be an excellent option, possibly the best atm
But since this is not the case it's quite a weak OH I'm afraid.
Even Ternion +1 unaugmented is better, so is Perf Taming Sari and other options as well.

It is a decent defensive option if the need ever arises.

Some folks are purely DPS focused and that's fine. I like R15 Carn + unaugmented Barfawc because I play defensively and like to mitigate risk:

1.) HP+150, Magic Accuracy/Accuracy+50
2.) DT-3 per song is great
3.) I can always sell it to get my inventory and some gil back, if something else comes along that meets 1&2. (I can only get the inventory back if I drop or D-box my Tern+1

Some folks won't agree with my priorities, but I play defensively.

I don't wish to force my opinion unto anybody else, and Felgarr's point of being able to resell it whenever as long as you don't augment it, stands strong.

With this said though you're looking at maximum theoretical possible DT of -36% with 12 songs, but let's be honest that's not realistic.
10 songs isn't particularly common on BRD either.
So I would say the most realistic situation is either 4 or 5 songs up. Let's say 5 to give Barfawc a small edge.
that's 15% DT from Barfawc for a pretty considerable DPS cost.

I mean, to obtain a similar result you could swap your two rings for Defending Ring + Moonlight Ring.
Same 15% DT but ~2,4% DPS loss.
With Barfawc but keeping your rings it's a ~5,2% DPS loss (and a lots of gil that you have to spend!)


You have a point with Barfawc providing 10 more macc over Ternion+1, but it provides less Acc... and other differences that I won't list, but still I dunno, if you ask me going Barfawc for a "defensive playstyle" is more often than not a waste of dps and of gil, but again I don't wanna sound too arrogant, not my intention to change anybody's opinion.


P.S.
Barfawc can be an excellent MH. It's not the best in terms of pure damage, but it's pretty nice and has its own share of pros over RMEA options.
You can check the full depth of what I mean by testing on the spreadsheet.

I personally use Barfawc path B mainhand for aeolian edge, it's very nice in dyna

You also can't ignore the HP argument. and 12%-15% DT on an offhand is pretty sizable especially when you compare your TPing options, assuming you don't go path A Nyame.

It definitely isn't worth 70m if you have other priorities to get, but its certainly something that would have a use if you look for it.

That was my thought as well (regarding the DPS making up for the 1% DW). I've been staring at sets all night trying to determine where to go with these pieces.

At this point, I'm leaning toward Nyame Head(A)/Ashera (can't let my bae go)/Bunzi Gloves/Nyame Legs(A)/Nyame Feet(A). DW on cape. Sailfi belt. Sub out Eabani. Rock the Volte until the items are RPed enough to make a large difference.

The benefits on Nyame Hands compared to Bunzi just really don't outweigh the benefit Nyame(B) will give to other jobs I have, and the added survivability on these sets is huge. It also has the benefit of a ton of Attack, a lot of DT with the eva/meva, and 37 sTP.

What are people's thoughts? Really looking for input/suggestions on a tp (Head/Body/Hands/Legs/Feet) set using ~3/5 Nyame because Path A is just so good for BRD.

You know you could just make a 9 DW cape right?

Yes, I'm aware that playing with the DW% on the back is an option and then supplementing accessories from there. My question is primarily around fitting in the Head/Body/Hands/Legs/Feet and then going from there.

Sorry I thought you needed 9 in this situation, I didn't read everything and feel dumb.

I wasn't disregarding it, but it's 150HP from Barfawc vs 110HP from Moonlight ring (in the example I provided, but I'm sure there might be even better examples that provide ~12-15 DT in slots that are not MH or OH)

Ok, I did some limited tests in the spreadsheet about Nyame.

Nyame B (Mordant Rime)
Nyame B Head, Hands, Legs and Feet win over Bihu+3. Is the difference big? Is it small? I'd say it's big.
From ~24k dmg to ~26k dmg at capped attack.
Nyame, despite not having super high acc, is still better than Bihu+3 (which doesn't have stellar acc either).
I tested this with all combinations of: AM3 on, AM3 off, capped attack, uncapped attack.
Amount of difference changes but Nyame still wins.
Bihu+3 body instead, as expected, always wins over Nyame B.


Nyame B (Rudra's Storm)
Nyame B Head and Hands win over Lustratio+1.
Legs and Feet don't. Feet are very close, with Legs there's a pretty big difference.
Nyame are still, probably, the best option that's not Lustratio+1 though.
Body, as expected, loses to Bihu+3


Nyame B (Savage Blade)
As far as I could tell, Nyame wins 4/5 here, all but body.


Nyame A for TP
First we have the two scenarios described by me and Simonses.
What is better? DW10 on cape + Sailfi R15 and dps earring?
Or Haste+10 on cape and Reiki/Eabani?
The answer is: the first.
Also Nyame A seems to be performing very well even with AM3 down, surprisingly.
Of course Nyame A beats all other combinations for TP, by far, but that was expected.


Nyame A vs Nyame B
I did a small test. I took the same sets (pretty much BiS) for both TP and WS and put them on the spreadsheet in as set#1 and set#2.
Then I swapped set#1 TP set to 5/5 Nyame and swapped set#2 WSset to 4/5 Nyame.
Result?
DPS raised in both sets, compared to before Nyame, but these are the results
set#1 overall DPS: 4432,8
set#2 overall DPS: 4587,8

So from this set, Nyame B provides a higher DPS increase than Nyame A, for a BRD who has BiS/perfect sets.
In my test I tried to give an edge to Nyame A and used overcapped attack to make use of PDL+12% on Nyame A.
In the majority of situations you really won't be able to be overcapped in TP on BRD.
What does this mean? That the real difference between those two number will probably be a bit bigger, in favour of set#2


Now let's get to the real question:
Does this mean that Nyame B is better for BRD than Nyame A?
Well... maybe? It sort of depends. I tested them in a generic, common scenario, but this doesn't represent ALL POSSIBLE scenarios. Plus I only mentioned potential dps without taking into consideration the additional pros granted by TPing in such an useful defensive set (Meva, MDB, Eva, DT etc)
Also I suppose it depends on your starting gear before-nyame. If you lack some very important TP pieces, Nyame A might represent a bigger upgrade for you than using Nyame B, of course.

What's the difference between path A and our current better TP options?

It's the malignance situation where you benefit from the defensive aspects of the armor far more than you don't and it becomes well worth the DPS loss over max alternative.

Can we get close to the same Meva with a mix of ashera/volte/t3 armor pieces without much of a dps drop over path A?

I'm confused to what you are trying to say here.
Malignance on jobs that can use Malignance is usually a small or medium dps drop, but gives massive survivability in exchange. Nyame for BRD is nothing like this because it's both best for dps and survivability, so idk what you mean when you referencing Malignance.


Have you been testing each piece separately? I spent around 40h in sheets since update and I can tell you from experience that diminishing returns kick in fast. Sometimes wsd option is better when it's only wsd option but after adding 2 more wsd pieces that first is no longer bis. It should happen less often on brd because it lacks that many WS options, but it's worth to double check.

Also Ashera harness shouldn't be worse for dps, unless at attack cap. I need to check if my dm augments aged well or not XD

Exactely what Simon said!
Nyame A for BRD is not a "modest DPS loss to gain more survivability".
Nyame A is a high survivability option AND the best TP option for BRD lol.
I don't remember the increase compared to the BiS set, I think it was around ~300 dps, but this number alone means very little, would have to check other aspects as well.
Nyame A also offers more Acc, more Att, and blah blah, let's stop here, it's simply the best TP option by far for now, period.



For the WS set I've tested each piece separately, then all together, then without Body.
All these tests have been performed with Att capped AM3 on, Att capped AM3 off, att uncapped AM3 on, att uncapped AM3 off.
I know I should've done more combinations but I said in the primise I only did some limited tests!

I was expecting Nyame B to win for Rudra despite the low Dex, but I wasn't too confident on 4/5 Nyame B winning for Mordant Rime honestly.


They're pretty much the same.
Nyame has slightly more acc/str, but less attack.
Nyame has PDL (which only activates when overcapped, just like you said) and more defensive stats, Ashera has a separate check against Paralyze... eeeh, I dunno, they're pretty much the same.
Spreadsheet is showing Nyame B slightly ahead with capped att (2 digits difference lol) and slightly behind with uncapped att (1 digit difference xD)
So if you ask me I'd say it's pretty irrelevant and between the two I'd probably use Nyame for the overall better defensive values.

You need to consider how beastly is path B for Aeolian Edge tho. Also skillchain bonus (Mordant>Mordant is distortion). So if you can "free" Path A for body, because its Ashera is almost as good, its probably better to go path B for Aeolian and skillchaining.

Also I would like to point out how good Nyame is for Evasion&DT WSing and Singing. With 2x SV Mambo, rigth set and food you could probably easily pull and sleep whole groups of monsters in Odyssey (even C) for example. You could also easily AoE mobs in Omen with 2x mambo etc.

It's quite beastly for all WSs BRD can use, honestly.
Partially because Nyame B is good, period, partially because of lack of other better options.

Altough you're right that Nyame B body, while probably an overall inferior option to Bihu+3 for physical WS, is undoubtely a real beast for magical ones, indeed.

For average BRDs who already have 5/5 Relic+3 and use Carn MH I guess it wouldn't be a completely bad idea to go 4/5 Nyame B and 1/5 Nyame A (body), if they still lack an Ashera Harness, I suppose xD



As I said with my previous tests, if we're looking exclusively at the dps getting 5/5 Nyame B will boost your dps so much (by boosting WS damage) that the overall DPS will be greater than the boost you'd get from going 5/5 Nyame A and improving your TP set.
But:
1) This only goes if you already have a BiS or close-to-BiS TP set, if you don't numbers might be different
2) This doesn't take into consideration the huge survivability bonuses granted by Nyame over the typical TP set.


So in the end there is no solution to the "Should I get Nyame A or Nyame B for BRD?" question.
I just thought it was surprising that, for a BiS BRD, 5/5 B represents a slightly bigger DPS increase than 5/5 Nyame A, and wanted to share it.

quick question is there a suggested tp set for brd with just af relic emp and ambuscade +2 gear ?

https://www.ffxiah.com/node/355
Ayamno is Decent from Ambu

5/5 Ayanmo +2 is an excellent starting point. Body especially is a competitive option even later on.
5/5 Relic+3 is fantastic for Mordant Rime (if you go with Carn MH) and can be a decent option even for other WS like Rudra, if you're particularly att starved.
AF+3 can theoretically be a nice option for Mordant Rime but it's not realistically useable.

For TP you don't really have many options, as I said 5/5 Ayanmo+2 is a competitive setup.
Other options:

1) 5/5 Nyame Path A (lol)
2) Ashera Harness, Ayanmo+2 head and Bastok Volte in Hands, Legs and Feet slots. The most important piece among the volte ones are the Legs.

Can mix and match but if you do so check your haste, if you're at 26% you might need to compensate otherwise, like for instance with R15 Sailfi+1 and DW+10 on the cape (to compensate for the loss of Reiki Yotai and Eabani Earring)

Agony Jerkin Should be good too with AM3

Agony Jerkin R15 is basically a mini-ashera Harness with less Meva, less acc, no DT and more att.
So yeah!

Was playing around with your sheet, not really changing anything buff wise, just changed race to my brds race, buffs/weapons the same. changed bunzi r30 stats to r20 stats

Set1: Nyame A TP, Standard WS set - the set you had in it
Set2: Bunzi20 helm, Ashera harness, bunzi0 hands, Nyame B legs/B feet for TP, same set2 WS set you had (nyame B 4/5, bihu+3)

Both sets had to change to DW cape/cessence earring and sailfi belt for haste needs of course.

SET1:4,463DPS
SET2:4,455DPS - Ashera body (Ashera > bunzi20 > nyameB > bunzi0)

I multi box most things, and these days the only char that is really hindred by enfeebles, stuns ect is my brd. Currenlty use ashera/volte set. So the idea of a Meva oriented TP set is very attractive to me which is why I was looking at path A, But as you can see you can get pretty close to path A DPS using alternative hybrid pieces now and still keeping path B for other job benefits/having access to max dps sets on brd.

May change with diff weapon setups, haven't really checked everything out but this is making me look at path B a bit more willingly.


on a second look, I should also note turning sam roll on both sets has set2 winning with Bunzi0, bunzi20 and nyameB bodies over set1.

SET1: 4,783
SET2: 4,803 - bunzi0 body (goes bunzi20 > nyameB > ashera > bunzi0 with sam roll toggled on)

With the added benefits such as hybrid WS uses, other job WS uses, path B is looking much more attractive.

Edit: should add that this relies heavily on r20 bunzi helm, if you switch to r0 helm the dps plummets. of course you can reach the same dps using ayamno+2 helm or volte tiara but you lose a massive amount of meva

Quick Question on DD brd.

Wife plays only brd for group event (6 or higher ppl) so since her
main job is going to be song and then fallbavk to dd would an reasoanbel solutiosn be to use mythic dagger for main hand for DD as well to avoid TP loss ?

or wold getting naeglingt / tauret make huge improvements compared to mythic dagger ?

Adding onto that...
Sword or dagger for dd bard?
Would savage blade produce better results than rudras/mordant?
Then in regards to Skillchaining, solo ws or solo chaining?

Naegling + centovente (tp dagger) will be your highest source of damage in most cases. Naegling is just too strong. If you are in a position where you can actually skillchain then use Carnwenhan.