How Did You Merit Bard?

So I'm just about finished meriting BRD and this is how I've done my merits.


8/8 Singing
8/8 Wind

(When I level WHM I'll be removing 8 out of wind and putting it into healing, I might even move 8 singing out as skill is less necessary these days)

5/5 Nightingale
5/5 Troubadour

(Having 5/5 Night and Troub is handy as hell with Tenuto + Ballad combos. Adventurer's Dirge and Foe Sirvente were incredibly limited @ 75 and even more now)

5/5 Lullaby Recast
5/5 Finale Recast

(Lullaby is less useful now that we essentially have 3 really potent sleeps, but it might come in useful. Finale is useful and fast, I haven't used Madrigal, Minuet or Minne for a long *** time, they are pointless and when you do use them the small increase you achieve from meriting them isn't important at all. Please let us merit March SE, even though that wouldn't be that great anymore)

So is that about right? I'm pretty sure it's good enough.

5/5 Nightingale
5/5 Troubadour

5/5 Lullaby Recast
5/5 Finale Recast

you are fine

personally i'd do minuet and finale. minuets are still useful for rangers, and also used in zergs. i also wouldn't really bother with meriting healing skill.

5/5 Troub/Night
5/5 Minuet
5/5 Finale

Originally had Lullaby in place of Minuet, but changed what with third sleep spell now.

Ah ok cheers, I'll look into Minuet.

5/5 Lullaby
5/5 Minuet

5/5 Troub and Night.

Probably could do without the Lullaby, those were added when I was a merit party brd. :x

Not as though merits are hard to get or anything, but why not just wait 2 weeks for the version update when we get 24 magic skill merits? Though healing skill sucks anyways, enfeebling at least has some usage.

I don't know if there's some huge amount of mobs that are resistant to dark magic dispel in abyssea. If there are and you're likely to be the only brd then maybe I'd go finale.

If not, there's no reason to finale. Rdm and sch can do it just fine. Id say just do 5 min 5 mad, because I'm sure there's still some instances where you'll need brd rotation at some point, if only outside abyssea. Having a buffed mad is actually pretty sick.

i'm not sure why you'd need more than one bard in abyssea for any single thing in abyssea to begin with, so being the only brd is a pretty common scenario. a few mobs like flayers, lord varney, and possibly cerbs seem to resist dark-based dispel (although cerbs might also resist finale).

also since you mentioned abyssea, rdm and sch aren't used that often, at least in lowman groups. whm (or blm) can dispel /sch or /rdm if they don't need to be constantly spamming cures, but it can be annoying if you have to stay in addendum: black. also, while mad is used in some brd rotations, i'm not sure you'd really benefit much from the extra acc from merits.

Yeah, you're probably right that the additional merited acc isn't as big a deal now. I guess things have changed much

I used to have 5/5 in madrigal 5/5 minuet, but madrigal is just really not needed anymore. I changed out madrigal for finale because while RDM, SCH and /rdm get dispel some monsters in the new areas put on tons of buffs and every little bit helps. Then there are the black pixies which resist dispel (if I'm remembering correctly) so finale is very helpful there.

5/5 in Troubadour and Nightingale I like a lot. This lets me through on some songs and then pull a lot of monsters or focus more on healing during a NM fight rather than re-applying songs every 2 minutes.

My pound for pound, healing skill is one of the least efficient merits you can make. You'd be MUCH better off meriting enhancing.

If we get another March with a higher skill requirement to cap haste, those will be nice to keep, especially for career Bards. Also bear in mind that we're getting 8 more merits in this category with the changes coming down the line.