Military Parade - A DD Bard Guide

Kinda curious why we're discussing this in the BRD dd thread instead than in the BRD thread? °-°

1 If you are using gearswap you dont really need DT in your precas assuming you have a midt cast set.

2 You seem to lack QuickCast which i think would be beneficial.

3: Are you dropping HP in your fastcast sets ? if so i would try to avoid it. thats why i love the etiolation earring. its might only be 1FC but it comes with 50 HP and MP

Only if you play vanilla, if vanilla it needs to be part of your idle or casting idle set(if those even exist anymore) midcast set, otherwise itll fire off before you can swap to the midcast set. Gearswap/Ashita bypasses this with the precast function

You can't use quickcast in vanilla, unless there's no potency set (arise, reraise, etc.)

If you put it in your precast, the midcast won't swap on.
If you put it in your midcast, it doesn't do anything.

If your idle is the precast set, you can

Your idle becomes precast and you can get into midcast.

Or god forbid 2 macros. Manually equip precast, then manually trigger the spell.

Ok, you idle in it.

Then you hit a macro which either:
Swaps into your FC set first (QC does nothing)
Or
Switches into midcast set (QC does nothing)

Do me a favor. Write the macro you're gonna hit for blade madrigal.

Miracle cheer 100% of the time madrigal is cast under nitro, don't use a precast set.

(Quickcast is completely ignorable really) The difference between 80% and instant is negligible.

((the difference between gjaller madrigal and mc madrigal is 6 acc, you'll be ok))

Um ok, so what? If we're ignoring QC because of nitro, it doesn't change anything about the fact that QC doesn't work on vanilla. Not everyone has MC, but even if they did, they still need to wear potency gear, so they need a midcast set.

Also, if you're using MC (sets songs to 15 minutes), why are you using troubador, exactly?

If macro 1 is

Weather. Ring +1
Lebeche Ring
Witful Belt
Perimede Cape Only if you realllllly want that extra 1%

And macro 2 is spell+midcast(gearset) you should get the full potency

Macro 2:
/ma "Blade Madrigal" <me> (congratulations, you just cast in your idle)
/equipset potencyset# (why are you bothering to change to potency? The spell is already cast)

Rings backs and belts have no song potency

Madrigal +1 is again, 6 acc worst case (9% QC without a cape)

(regardless of nightingale I honestly wouldn't give a ***about quickcast though, for bard 80% song cast speed is sufficient, you don't need 10% of the time faster casts)

This isn't the point of this line of thinking but hilarious. Madrigal+1 does exist specifically on back.

You still can't use QC for exactly the reasons I mentioned above.

So...your idle set is now your midcast set with a few pieces of QC? how about when casting songs while meleeing? You meleeing in QC gear now?

You don't have any concept of how to play vanilla. Just take the L

2 macros, 6 acc- (only if you REALLY want 1% QC)

both already said

Not meleeing in fast cast. Not idling in fast cast. pushing 2 buttons.

How often do you have to resing mid melee, I'm gonna say never. But i'm certain you do it specifically just to argue about it. (awe jee that dps hit though omg meleeing in a suboptimal set for a second oh christ the pain!)

and for the 4th time I wouldnt worry about quickcast on bard even with gearswap. only that it can be done.

It's not -6 acc unless your idle set (or whatever you happened to be wearing before hitting these macros) also includes a moonbow whistle and a miracle cheer. It's likely to be +0 madrigal.

You equip 4 FC pieces (and no potency) and then cast a song in whatever set you happened to have on before then.

It's absolutely, unequivocally, not something you can do on BRD.

Even worse, if you don't hit the QC proc then you just started casting a song with no FC, so it's gonna take *** ages to cast.

It's not a thing.

You confussed me a bit with the quoting there.
Everything i stated is assuming gearswap

If you are playing vanilla or without gearswap ther are tons of other things you need to take into account that minimize the positive impact from my advise.

so dont follow them if you are in vanilla

So I went out and tested it to see what the actual results are since I have been running under the assumption quickcast didnt let midcast take effect for quite some time.

Regular HP tick: 6
Army Paeon V: Expected tick at 0 potency 7, at 3 potency 10

No potency in fast cast set, Whistle in midcast for +3
Regular cast: 16/Tick
Quickcast proc: 16/Tick
Result: Midcast works for quick magic with gearswap.

Now what about vanilla? we'll use this macro:

Primary acc with normal cast: 1194
Could not quickcast proc.
With wait 1 on 2nd line: 1194

Conclusion: A single vanilla macro can't do it, multiple?

Macro 1: 1st 2 lines of previous
Macro 2: 3rd line of previous

After about 7 quickcast procs using a programmable gamepad with variable timing on pressing macros, I did manage to get one with Primary acc: 1200.

Conclusion: It is definitely possible to manually use two macros and very specific timing to mimic midcast in quickcast functionality. Functionally, though, it would be a massive pain in the *** as well as highly unreliable to attempt to do so if playing Vanilla. While it is in fact technically feasible it is also, without a shadow of a doubt, completely and totally impractical.

Indirectly related to BRD but not particularly:

Personally, I think Quick Magic was intended to be used for spells with longer casting durations/recasts, like Raises, Aquaveil*, Curagas*, Escape/Warps/Teleports, Impact etc, where potency is less important or not factored into the equation at all. It's a nice "Oh, cool, instant cast!" It caps at 10%, so it's an occasional bonus to a spell you cast, not something that occurs all the time. Even on RDM you generally use it for spells you want to instantly toss out and have available right away again, where the first one might force an Immunobreak (i.e. Gravity on Aita) and have a greater chance of landing on the second, or Impacts back to back vs Aminon in OA set. Or you use it on your WHM during/after a wipe so they can back-to-back Arise and get people up faster. Even still on RDM, it's 10 minute re-use, so nothing abusive. Most spells are so fast that any quick cast earned is close to nothing of an advantage, and you're still subject to the global cooldown anyways. QM is not like "Double Cast" in other games where you can cast two spells back-to-back at once, you still would have to wait a short delay.

RDM benefits the most from QM because it can hit FC without any issues sans several slots, and it spends a lot of time buffing/debuffing, so any time saved can help (especially with longer Recast spells/Under Composure's penalty etc). For Bard, every single song is fast, so QM is barely doing anything. I can't think of a single song that is slower and doesn't require potency where QM set might work, maybe Hymnus set during wipes or AMAN Trove fight? I even feel like songs under Nightingale aren't drastically faster than songs under full song casting reduction set (though they are practically instant with 5/5 + Troubadour active), because, at least for me, BRD has some weird delay schtick where you can't sing immediately after casting your last song; I always end up having to double check my log because sometimes the song doesn't go off even when I wait for GCD. QM doesn't really feel like something Bard needs at all in their song reduction sets. Can put them in your other sets though, like Curaga/Raise etc.

TLDR: Just my 2c, QM is not necessary to prioritize for Bard songs.

The question was around FC for brd but OP's sets make little sense unless they're non-gearswap sets that need a mixed DT/FC set.

In which case the sets promoted also make little sense since they're for gearswap not vanilla.

OP - decide what you're doing. Gearswap doesn't need DT in precast. Vanilla needs to take into account both idle, pre and midcast sets since pre and midcast need to be done on a vanilla macro.

TL;DR - it depends. Only person here that can give detailed sets advice for vanilla is probably Male.

Does having capped -DT hurt if my FC is also capped? Meaning...am i missing out on benefits elsewhere?

Depending what's in your midcast, the dt might not be doing much. If you swap the dt for other gear in midcast.. and/or drop a lot of hp swapping sets.

Hi, working on BRD gearing atm and just wondered how much REMA I actually need to be at a decent / mid working level. I'm not even sure what I mean by that but I guess at a state where people would go 'we need a bard, you seem decent enough for our VD or Ody C run'.

Main issue is I'm lacking gil, but I'm working on aeonic, and the Empy for which the NMs are almost done. I may skip Carn for later and live on shorter songs, Gjalla looks quite important with the potency increase but I also need money and I think some alternatives exist atm with lower potency.

I happen to have a Twash for DNC though not too relevant, and also working on finalising JP so it reaches ML.

Haven't used the AF+3 Kupon yet but considering BRD, getting the EMpy pieces at least to +2 won't take me long, and neither will relics. Otherwise got most Ody pieces at R20, though I don't think BRD makes much use of them besides for damage.

I don't know what server you're on, but at a baseline, Bard is expected to have 4 songs (Daurdabla), HQ whistle, Ghorn for max potency and Marsyas for Honor March. You can probably get by without these, but they're considered the standard. Depending on the group you're doing things with, some would ask for or expect Aria, though I think that's not a hard requirement unless you're in a top tier static or group, which you are not. I didn't make my Carnwenhan until long into my BRD career, and absolutely nobody noticed because I knew how to refresh songs properly in groups. I would still say it's an amazing piece to have, but I would put that lower on the To Do list because it is pricy.

BRD is expensive, so consider if that's something you really want to invest in to be useful. If making a lot of gil/month is tough for you, it will take a while to get it geared to other's liking IMO. Like I said, you can probably get by with Ambuscade or V10~15 Odyssey and some Limbus with mid tier/expectation PUGs, but a veteran player/group looking to fill the Bard vacancy in their party would instantly be able to tell you're lacking if you don't have those instruments.

Marsyas, Daurdabla, and Whistle+1 should be your focus. You can get by with a +3 song from skirmish flute until you can afford a Gjallarhorn, and Carn can be saved until much later or if you're absolutely sure you're gonna main BRD. A lot of ppl do their GHorn before Daurdabla, and that's completely fine, but imo 4 songs is better than the loss of stats between +3 and +4.

A lot of people end up doing GHorn first because it is very cheap to just buy the mats for it. I think last I checked, it's only 30-40M on Asura, compared to 120-150M for Daurdabla.

I agree with what has been said so far on Ghorn.
Even people who demand it for their parties, I can tell you 90% of them wouldn't even notice if you sing songs with one of the +3 songs options.

Daurdabla99 and Neck+1 are absolute priorities imho.
After that probably Carn and Ghorn last.

It's true that Ghorn is pretty easy/cheap to make, but when you have to make 2000 things you gotta prioritize something, no?

I don't disagree. Was just putting forth the likely reason people go for GHorn first a lot of the time. Depending on your luck, could end up spending millions getting that +3 Linos. I know I did.

Can you explain why Moonbow Whistle +1 is a priority over Gjallarhorn, if, as you say:


If the potency is indistinguishable to the eye for the majority of players, why couldn't he also just buy the NQ whistle and make Ghorn? It's just one potency under.

Because it's a single item, it doesn't conflict with other items in that slot (well, NQ I guess lol) and because it's just 19m with no quests, no trials, no chores, nothing to do about it.
You just buy it and it's ready, 30 seconds?

Of course you can just use the NQ and it wouldn't be such a big deal, but the difference in time/gil is so small it's not worth it, imho