Bard DD Set

When I use BRD trusts they pretty much always do March/Mads, Minuets extremely rarely, so I just stick to singing Minuets.

Would /WAR single wield trump /NIN or /DNC, assuming getting Haste and Marches from trusts? BRD main gives Fencer for at least 300TP Bonus, combined with Moonshade for 520 TP Bonus. With 3min Berserk as well, you'd only lose an offhand hit from Rudra(which typically only does like 300-400 damage, gleaned from missing mainhand hit when /NIN). 300 TP bonus from single wield on Rudra is pretty huge and DA/Berserk is massive too. Hmm...

Bruno mind sharing your current Mordant and Rudra sets?

this seems to be optimal for what I've got for the above:

For Rudra's Storm...

ItemSet 331769

ItemSet 331770

-Augments
--Buremte Hat: DEX +8 | Alternative: Highwing Helm
--Buremte Gloves: DEX +8 | Alternative: Aetosaur Gloves +1
--Linos: Weapon skill damage +~3%, Attack +~15 | Alternative: Ginsen, or Jukukik Feather when attack is capped, other Linoses...
--Moonshade Earring: TP Bonus +250, Attack+4 | Alternative: Tati Earring +1, or Jupiter's Pearl when capped

left set is standard for most things worth noting, even in low acc situations, Rudra's doesn't suffer a lot, it's best to stick with said set.

right set is for squishy fodder when attack is capped, most pieces in the set in general are just better choices as target's level goes down.

It is also worth noting that...
-Rudra's seems to be superior to Evisceration in all instances (besides maybe Abyssea...).
-It is actually better for your DPS overall to WS with Rudra's at around 1500~ TP each time. If you want me to get a little more specific, its peak in your DPS (with these sets) seems to be at around 1540 TP, and begins to drop at and after around 1550 TP.

I'm sure the first was old news, not sure if anyone knew about the latter though.

Also it should go without saying, but NQ versions of otherwise scarce pieces here (Tati Earrings, Ramuh Rings, Carbuncle Rings as you'll see below) are typically also best optimal alternatives.




For Mordant Rime...

ItemSet 242687

ItemSet 331772

ItemSet 323279

-Augments
--Buremte Gloves: DEX +8
--Linos: WS DMG +~3%, Attack +~15(Accuracy+15 would be nice for the middle set) | Alternative: Gjallarhorn, Ginsen, other Linoses

Left set is standard for most things, middle set is for low accuracy situations(and provides options for everything in between), right set is for flimsier mobs when capped on Attack.

Even with Carnwenhan, for raw WS dmg, Rudra's is still superior to Rime.

Something I also noticed that I'm surprised I didn't know existed was kuwunga earring, not just for Mordant Rime but for Rudra's. Depends on what you're doing, but it's an obvious better option than Tati NQ/+1 for uncapped acc situations when you're using Madrigal if you're able to spare the loss of 5~6 Acc.





I have multiple TP sets made but haven't converted them all into item set form yet, sorry for the delays! gonna work on TP sets and the guide structure some more in a few :)

Nice one Bruno, thanks for sharing.
Why don't you use Moonshade in the first Rudra set too? Unless you're at 2750+ (or 2500+ with the Shiva buff) Moonshade should produce better numbers than anything else.
Also Kuwunga Earring should produce better results than Brutal, provided you have Madrigal up (which will be quite often I assume?).
Even without Madrigal it's still a decent option, altough there are better ones.
Vespid mantle is a nice option too that I might have oversought. Had it in my WS accuracy set but recently removed it.
For the second Rudra set, wouldn't lithelimb be a better head option?
Good to know Linos can get WS damage +, which stones did you use for the att+ and which for the WSdamage +?
Last: have you tested elemental gorget vs Moepapa in the second set?

Personally I currently do not have an attack capped set. I found out that if I'm using BRD in party/alliance content I'm hardly going to be ever attack capped, and if I'm soloing and I'm attack capped (hardly, unless I'm doing REALLY low level ***or using very strong food) I just swap minuet songs for something else (STR? DEX?)
Atm I only have a default set and an accuracy-focused set for my WSs.
Nice tip for the Tati earrings, I forgot they existed. Wonder if they're gonna prove better than my current options. Not for Rudra maybe but for Mordant they probably are.

According to Byrth's math the best DPS option is to use Rudra at 2000 TP, which becomes 1750 if you use Moonshade, or even less if you have Shiva TP bonus buff or are singlehanding (Fencer TP bonus)
Rudra is in theory our best WS option always, and with a change of Atmas I think it might be the best option even in Abyssea, but either way who cares for Abyssea lol?

For Mordant:
There's a new neck with CHR+12 (Canto Necklace +1).
Elemental Gorget used to produce decent results too before the latest adjustment, unsure with the new TP values.
I also think Atheling was producing better results than Vespid in my tests (when you don't need acc or are getting acc from other sources)
As for earrings I'm playing it cheap and using Bladeborn/Steelflash atm but Double Tati+1 or Tati+1/Brutal might be better.
Unlike Rudra's Storm, DA/TA/QA produce very very very good results for Mrodant Rime, at least on the spreadsheet.
But I feel that gets devaluated a bit when you have AM3 up, should probably create a different set to use when AM3 is up =/
Prosilio+1, which I currently do not own, would be insanely better than any other option with AM3 up. When it's down Windbuffet+1 is pretty close.
Also do not forget Airy Ring, when I tested it, it was pretty close/on par with Carbuncle +1, probably better than NQ Carbuncle.
Oh and Anguinus too is an excellent option at least for ACC builds.


As for Rudra vs Mordant (Mythic).
On paper Rudra should always be better, but the other day against Titan VD, where I didnt' have many Attack buffs (only SoulVoice Minuet5, rest was Acc build) Mordant was constantly pulling ahead of even Rudra 2000 TP, which is strange...
Might be worth more testing, think I heard Rudra suffers a bit from lack of attack agaisnt high level content when you don't force crit it? For DNC and THF it's no issue but BRD cannot force crit, so it might be worth to consider that in such situations maybe it might be better to use Mordant? At least for mythic BRDs.
Should test this more imho.

lol...that wasn't intentional...fixed.



Being that the only stats contributing damage to that set are DEX and DA/TA/QA, basically it's just as simple as the highest DEX headpiece for that slot. Lithelimb is contributing 20 DEX. Best option is DEX augmented Buremte Hat, for a total of DEX+28. However the best alternative if your augment to that is (likely) tied with something else for another job, is Highwing Helm, DEX+22 DA+3%(fixed my post above as I had Aetosaur+1 listed, just double checked it)


haha. I wish these were my personal sets. these are just optimal goal sets from my own spreadsheeting and mathing that I'm planning on using for the guide. Trying to collaborate info between the jp wiki and BGWiki, I've only gathered that it's from either Leaftip or Leafslit, I'm leaning towards the latter. I tried Gorget vs Moepapa, I seemed to remember Gorget at least being useful for higher level targets when throwing it in the neck slot in the past, however I didn't seem to notice it surpassing any other options for any situation since adjusting its values and adding new gear.


Same, was just covering all bases if anyone was curious, it's a low priority of mine, lol, the situations exist, I just don't care to prepare for them as much being that they don't prove to be challenging content.


overlooked that, changed it, thanks!


I was a bit surprised when the multihit-less setup (Prosilio+1/non-Brutal/Tlamiztli) was giving me best results. I had this setup doing good in one situation with Rudra's as well, but the sets I posted were best for most situations so I didn't fret about it any further. I seem to recall Airy Ring being on par with Carb. Ring NQ sometimes, but Carb. Ring +1s seemed untouchable.

and you're right, AM3 sets will be explored further


lol I've had similar experiences, felt like Rime was the way to go on high level NMs, it's definitely worth testing a bit more.



I agree :(

As for Mordant Vs Rudra on high level target, I think I read something about it on BG as I mentioned before.
It MIGHT make sense, maybe it's not just a bias/coincidence.
I think it's been said multiple times that Rudra suffers a lot from lack of attack when you don't force-crit it.
Being that BRD cannot do that, it would make sense that lack of attack on high level target (becuase of accuracy buff stacking) would make Rudra suffer compared to Mordant which should produce more solid results in such situation.

Dunno, need further testings for sure but it kinda makes sense.



As for the rest, some short comments:

• Do not forget Kuwunga, we're gonna have Madrigal in many situations when in party. It's also a cheap (inferior) alternative to Pixie Earring or DEX+4 earrings.

• Prosilio+1 is *** badass, really need to get me one =/
  Clear winner during AM3, with AM3 down I'm unsure, but it's an excellent option for many other jobs either way

• Don't really want to spend 9+ mils for a Tati+1 earring, plus good luck finding one. But at least NQ ones look affordable, should get at least one I suppose

• Don't forget Zennaroi earring too, for Acc builds.

• Need to get me a Tlamitzli neck too >.>

• Ghorn secondary option for Mordant Rime?

• I really feel like att capped builds make little sense for BRD. You're never realistically going to be attack capped on stuff that matters, and on fodder (like Dynamis mobs or even weaker) stuff is gonna be overkilled or die from the first hit of multihit WSs, so it doesn't really matter.

Bruno I tested something else

1) Confirmed Canto+1 > Tzlamitli > Gorget for Mordant
2) Confirmed even Highwing > Brioso+1 for Mordant. I did trust you, but this still surprises me.
3) Did some quick tests around AM3 up/down sets for WS and TP and honestly the differences are so small (in terms of differen equipment AND different damage) I'm not really sure it's worth to bother, at least with the current gearing options. Would love seeing more tests about this but so far I was a bit disappointed, was expecting bigger changes.
4) Kuwunga Earring, when the latent is active, if put in the right spot can be a really awesome WS option, big difference and I deemed it worth, I created a simple rule to handle it. This is especially true if you only have NQ Tati in place of HQ


Which sets do you use for TP btw?
I have 4 basic sets:
1) DW no acc
2) nodw no acc
3) DW acc
4) noDW acc

noDW is used when I'm singlewielding of course, or when I'm at capped delay, which happens at different values according to subjob (/DNC vs /NIN), sj haste samba (5%) and full haste samba (10%).
Testing things again I got some strange results:

1) Windbuffet+1 was beating Shetal o.O
2) Brutal+Suppa was beating Dudgeon+Heartseeker

When I tested some months ago, it was the other way around, but back then I only had NQ Windbuffet and I probably had some other different gear too.
What are your TP sets?

Since a few people sent me some tells over the last days, here's my current ddBRD sets for TP.
Keep in mind my sets are just my current options, I judge them good but of course they're not the hypothetical best.

Atm I only have 2 ddBRD sets, each with a "standard" version and an "accuracy" version (yes, just two accuracy versions, nothing in between atm).

ItemSet 332030	ItemSet 332029
ItemSet 332031	ItemSet 332032

Some notes now:

• Buremte is augmented with +8DEX and +2%Haste

• Ranged is Ginsen, currently broken on FFXIAH so it doesn't display

• I *** hate Aetosaur legs >< Another viable option I've used for a while is Bihu Cannions +1. Clearly not an option meant for DD, but it has high STR and PDT plus haste (1 less than aetosaur, keep this in mind if you want to DD with Highwing Helm instead of Lithelimb)

• Bleating Mantle is clearly better but I don't have it yet

• lolbeeline and lolk'ayres, but my galka penis gets hard when I see those big HP numbers!

• Acc sets are nothing special, it brings me to like what, 915 acc unbuffed or something like that? Not enough if you want to do 133+ Incursion probably, but for everything else with the right food it's more than enough. I try to keep my WSacc and TPacc numbers close to each other.

• NoDW set is for when I'm singlehanding or attack delay capped

• Dudgeon/Heart vs Brutal/Suppa gives strange results. I'm currently using Dudgeon/Heart for the sake of simplicity but there's several situation where Brutal/Suppa provides better numbers, at least on the spreadsheet

Hope this helps the guys who sent me tells over the last days, as we wait for Bruno's awesome guide :)

Any good ACC legs for BRD ?

Bokwus slops path c

Anybody mathtested Zoar Subligar +1 for BRD? Worth it over Aetosaur +1 or not?

I messed around with it a bit in spreadsheets, and it didn't seem Zoar+1 was worth it.

I still didn't have time to test it on the spreadsheet (well I did, but pretty unconclusive tests) some considerations about it:

1) -10 STP difference from the other current option (Aetosaur+1). This might seem laughable, but in a scenario where the majority of our overall damage is split greatly in favour of WS damage (compared to DPS damage), and furthermore with a WS that scales incredlby well with every single point of TP, reducing STP by 10 creates a bigger difference than probably is expected

2) Despite what I said above, I still think that Zoar Subligar +1 is probably our overall best option. Not sure how it fares in WS sets compared to other items, but at least for TPing I feel it's always going to be our best option, except maybe when we have AM3 up


I'd love to see further tests. I'll do them myself once and if I finally manage to find a bit of free time -_-'''
I have to say that, aside from the obvious datswapping, I'm really not particularly happy to be fulltiming a Subligar during our TP phase. I really can't stand the model. Might look cool on a female hume or mithra, but it's really terrybad on a Galka :'(

New skirmish mage pants with DA+3.
Augmentable with whatever you want, luck-permitting.
You can get Acc, Att, both, etc.
Despite the fact that DA gets diminished returns when you have AM3 up, it's still a good stat to have.
I think these might finally replace Aetosaur+1 legs, and will likely be better than Zoar Subligar +1 too, which personally I can't stand lookswise.

Only bad think I can think of is the haste value, it's just 5% like for most typical mage legs, compared to the 6% on Aetosaur.
This will not be a problem if you use Lithelimb cap, but if you use Highwing Helm and have no Grounded Mantle and cannot benefit from Ionis, this will leave you haste-uncapped. Could get haste capped using a haste belt or the haste instrument instead of ginsen, but both options require sacrificing betther options for that slot.
UNLESS you can get an haste augment on these legs, but I doubt it.


Not sure about WS tbh. Byakko probably still the best for Rudra? (I dunno, I don't use it because I have it inside a porter slip).
And for Mordant we probably have better options because of the higher CHR on other pieces like Bihu legs +1? Dunno.
I think it will depend on the sort of augments we can get on these legs.


Will be useful for other melee mage jobs as well.
dd WHM, dd GEO, even dd SMNs who want to keep AM3 up for their Nirvanas.

Looking again at Telchine, legs are an obvious awesome new piece for TP and potentially WS.

Other Telchine pieces are nice for mage DD in general, not so sure for BRD though, given we have better options for head, body and hands.
With telchine we could potentially get better stuff with more acc, more att, more stats, more multiattack or maybe DualWield (if it's not exclusive to Taeon set).
But using Telchine would leave us short on Haste, forcing us to either use Angel Lyre and/or Grounding Mantle for TP, or maybe a simple Haste belt in place of the standard options (Windbuffet+1 and Shetal stone).
And I wonder: would using those haste items to recover the lost haste on Telchine be worth it in the end?

Other mage jobs do not have the luxury of this question given their shortage of TP items, but BRDs have access to stuff like Umbani Glvoes, Highwing Helm/Lithelimb Cap, Bihu Justeaucorps +1 etc.
So... yes, I'm not sure if it would be worth it for BRD, would have to math it out accurately on the spreadsheet and I cba to do it atm.
Plus *** getting small upgrades/sidegrades. I have such a huge list of frustrating augments I'll have to get for my other jobs, can't give priority to small ugprades/sidegrades for my ddBRD set atm.

I think a lot of it is gonna be best in slot with enough stones thrown at it but maybe only the legs a huge upgrade.

What I've seen so far on telchine using mostly dim on feet and slit/tip on legs

Leafdim
Cure potency
song spellcasting time-
conserve mp
cure cure time-
Fast Cast
Spell interruption rate-

Leafslit
Weapon skill Acc
Store TP
Cure Potency received
Enemy Crit hit Rate-
Double Attack

Leaftip
Enemy Crit hate rate-
Haste
Subtle Blow

Duskslit
Weapon Skill damage
VIT
HP

Duskdim
MND CHR
Enhancing Magic Duration
INT
INT MND
MND

If Duskdim can truely also get song spellcasting time we should be able to make large amounts of SST on each piece but we can already reach the cap fairly easily.

Ipetam deserves a look as well.
As offhand for sure, but... it hurts me to say so, but even as mainhand.
Now that Mordant Rime produces not compareable damage to Rudra in the majority of situations (sigh...) it's even harder to keep up AM3 without producing a DPS loss.
Given that an Ipetam with perfect augments, probably even less than perfect, will probably produce better damage output than Carnwenhan.

I didn't math it out on the spreadsheet, just going by a hunch. I could be wrong but somehow I doubt it.


On a side note, thanks to dusk stones Linos became an even better WS option.
Snow slots => Acc/Att
Leaf slots => WSacc or DA
Dusk slots => DEX+ or WSdmg. Not sure which would be better here, depends on the cap of DEX I guess.


I haven't bothered to try to augment my Linos for DD yet because I have other priorities and a limited amount of gil/stones, but I can see that providing a good boost to BRD's damage potential.

Now that we know the caps and stats for all stones and all items (check HERE) we can get a rough idea of what could be useful for BRD.
It's hard to gear up for stuff NOW though, since we don't know yet how much we're gonna shift our WS focus from Rudra to Mordant Rime/Evisceration, after next patch and the Rudra nerf.


Linos

Armour

Think you might want to stack Save TP.
WS Damage is quite good atm because of Rudra, but if Rudra ends up being worse than Mordant/Evis at 1000 TP, then you would probably want to focus on other stats.

Personally I'd stock up on Stones and wait 1 week until the patch hits before throwing more billions of gil at Telchine/Ipetam/Linos and then get utterly disappointed by the Rudra nerf and/or new gear.

Not sure how 100% accurate that list is, as Linos can definitely go higher than 15 acc.



Telchine armor can also go to 20acc/20att. (the legs at least)

I have recently started JPing up BRD again, and thus am back to working on a melee build. Currently I go /NIN and use these sets:


I figure that with capped Magic Haste and 10% DW, I'm just about exactly at the delay cap. Windbuffet Belt +1 is substantially better than the best alternative augment on Chironic Hat (DA+4%), so that's where I get my extra DW at the moment. Haverton Ring would probably be the most efficient place to get it, but I'm not going to do that.


As far as DDing, my Bard doesn't have issues with Accuracy vs. Reisenjima monsters or, really, Attack. My biggest problem is that Mordant Rime isn't as impressive as it once was. Have you guys switched over to using Evisceration? Lustratio and the relative lack of Mordant Rime buffs make it look more appealing than ever before.

20acc OR 20att? Or 20acc AND 20att?

Not sure it's worth to bother with Telchine anymore btw, except the head.
All other slots are beaten by Onca Suit.

Different story for Chironic.
I didn't math out anything but I'm confident a combination of Chironic and other recent gear can potentially beat Onca Suit + Telchine Head.



@Byrth
Mordant Rime with Carnwenhan COULD be impressive with the 30% WS dmg boost.
Problem is that Carnwenhan base damage sucks, so unless you can reliably put AM3 up, other weapons (perf Taming Sari) are gonna be better.
But if you use other weapons Mordant Rime isn't nice anymore, so we're back to spamming Evisceration at 1000TP and Rudra's Storm past a certain threshold.
This threshold being different according to your buffs, your target and your TPbonus gear, but it's usually somewhere around 2000 TP.
Pretty confident once Carnwenhan gets updated in the next patch Mordant Rime will be the best once again (at least at 1000 TP).

Atm I'm dealing more damage with my ddGEO and average augmented Nehushtan. Pretty sad.


About your set Byrth, you're not using a cape? (Back)
My ddSets on BRD are pre-ruaun and pre-reisenjima, but I found out (too late, sadly) that using Onca suit was giving me better results than the rest of the gear I had. Which is expected on a mage job like GEO but unexpected on a job like BRD who normally gets access to a wider range of DD gear compared to other mage jobs.
I'm not sure if some of the Ru'aun/SR options (Leyline Gloves, Jokushu Haidate and mostly Chironic Gear) changed anything in this scenario. Pretty confident Chironic beats Onca.
These are my basic set atm, just posting the default ones and not the Acc-focused versions.

TP sets
WS sets
Clearly there are better options (Rancor ring from T1 Tonberry in Reisenjima, and much more) and I need to update a few things (Linos in place of Gjallarhorn for Mordant)

My Telchine has Haste+3%, Acc+19, STR/DEX+7 (or DEX+10? I forgot)

I'm locking a CP mantle, so no back.

Chironic gear is good for Acc/Atk, but 4% DA is not a super impressive augment and its base STR/DEX is very low on most pieces. I like having the hat augmented for 5% DW, but when I looked at the other pieces I had a hard time justifying them over my current gear.

I might try Onca Suit, and that's definitely going to be my go-to for a high Acc build, but I suspect it will not pan out for a WS set.

The Rancor Ring from the T1 Tonberry is good in my particular situation (no back armor), but overall I find it's not much of an improvement over Rancorous.

Edit: Also, meleeing on GEO is a waste of your time. Build a nuking set and blow stuff up. I've hit 5mil CP/hr on GEO solo+trusts during this campaign without a band (Thank you, -ra spells!)

Off-topic, but is this campaign different from ("better than") the one last month? Or is it just that you're a beast, because 5M CP/h is 166 JP/h.

The last time I went out for JPs was on day one of the 2100 JPs update, so that's been a while. And I was far from 166 JP/h, hence the question.

I dunno, haven't delved deep into the possible augments you can get on Chironic, but if it's anything like Herculean I'm afraid at least 3 pieces (head, hands, feet) are gonna be pretty damned good.
An alternative for accuracy in the body slot (if you decide to skip Onca suit, which used to be top but with the current options I'm afraid it's just an inventory saver compromise) there's also the Reiko Osode.


Meh, I don't do it on stuff that matters, but then again I think I could say mostly the same about my ddBRD.
It's mostly for fun, or for situations where I cannot get enough mp to spam spells, or I'm getting melee-buffs only instead of mage buffs, or enemy is particularly resistant to magic and weak to physical, etc etc etc.
But it's mostly just for fun, and I found it ironic how my ddGEO on which I hardly spent a lot of time to get ddGear, performs better than my BRD for which, trust me, I spent waaaaay more time in the gear gathering process.
If I'm doing LS events with the rest of the crew I'm normally buffing and magic bursting on GEO lol



@Skudo
Dunno what's different but this campaign is much better than the previous one.
I suspect it's not much about the chains (like the previous one) but has a straight CP bonus, a multiplicative one, not addittive one.

I think I'm capping out at about the same CP/kill as the last campaign, so I suspect they are the same (but last time I might have had a COR?). It's purely being in the right camp (near Warp 2 in Reisenjima) at the right time (night) and maintaining chain 100 the entire time while slaughtering mobs that give 10k CP/kill. My strategy was just to run from monster to monster as quickly as possible and use -ra III spells if they'd hit more than 1 target. Respawn rates are so high that if you use this strategy you run much less and maintain chain even if some of your kills aren't AoE.

5mil is also probably an overestimation of my average. That was the highest I saw pointwatch bounce (after an AoE kill). It was probably more like 4.5-4.7mil CP/hr average.