Monster Signa

[Kelyon]

Love that fucking shit

 

[crookedmidget]

I'd say get the Signa if you can afford it, but that goes without saying. As for Mary's Horn, I'd highly recommend it. When "you-know-what" hits the fan, it's time for bard to shine. Foe Lullaby is level 16, which puts the typical leveler in the Dunes. When dealing with linktastic mobs like Gobbies and flies you can easily save the day by sticking a long lasting sleep. It may give you the ability to zone the add if need be, so length of sleep will give you some direct benefit. By the time you hit 27 and get Horde Lullaby, you should really have the horn IMHO. Sleep is the bread and butter of bards (pre-ballad II @ 55), doing it well should be a high priority.

If you're looking at BCNMs for Bard, there are lots that are nice. Steamed Sprouts in a popular one, but as you get into the higher levels, you'll be sought out for many many more.

Best of luck with BRD, I enjoyed it and it's opened so many doors for me that I would have never walked through if I was Beastmaster only.

 

[Vilurum]

Requiem, Virelai: who cares.

Threnody: good for efficiency, only rarely crucial (i.e. Dynamis Lord + Lightning Threnody).

Elegy: important to land generally accurately (since it's so powerful), but a resist isn't a life or death matter.

Finale: almost never resists. When it does, it's either a fluke or it's because it's a resistant bastard of an enemy anyway (sometimes just really resistant, sometimes flat-out immune).

Lullaby: important to land accurately as much as possible. If you're using Lullaby in the first place, it's because you really want something to be asleep and not continue on whatever obnoxious thing it's doing.

In other words, if you get Monster Signa, you're getting it for Lullaby, and you need to re-evaluate your priorities if you're worried about it for anything else. (Well, maybe Elegy, but Battlefield Elegy is 39 and Chanter's Staff is 40, so not really much pro-Signa argument there.)

And on top of that, Mary's Horn will help land Lullaby more than Monster Signa will. CHR's help for debuff resists has certain limitations (even at 75 it doesn't do much past +30 to +40, and at lower levels you don't even need that much), but +song instruments for debuffs always register a visible improvement in resists. (Also, wind instruments beat string instruments for debuff resists with equal wind and string skill, which means Mary's Horn and its Lullaby +1 gets fewer resists than Nursemaid's Harp and its Lullaby +2. Bizarre but true.)

So, your priorities: First, get a Mary's Horn. If you intend to take BRD to 75 or even just to do level-capped stuff on it that involves sleeping stuff, you want the horn. Period. You'll be keeping it forever.

Second, get cost-effective CHR gear (+8 in one slot at that level is very nice, I admit, but the CHR to gil ratio is not so attractive). Hope Rings, Noble's Ribbon, Bird Whistle come to mind.

Third, see what sort of Lullaby resists you're running into in the first place, once you get the above stuff. If it's still an unacceptably high resist rate by your own personal standards, then yes, get yourself a signa. If not, then don't.

Either way, at 51 (or maybe 40 for a Chanter's Staff, which would itself be ditched at 51) you'll be ditching the thing.

 

[Zethren]

Third, see what sort of Lullaby resists you're running into in the first place, once you get the above stuff. If it's still an unacceptably high resist rate by your own personal standards, then yes, get yourself a signa. If not, then don't.

I think as well that this is pretty much the bottom line. CHR isn't like STR. Just judge for yourself if you really need it based on the things you are doing.

All the best

 

[Necrosis]

its only 200k, and you get to sell it back later. I doubt the price could drop enough to not warrant it.

And any change of increasing lullaby sucess rate is worth it. Because remember, a half resist can still happen, and that means a short ass lullaby.

95% certain lullaby is static, it doesn't work like sleep.

 

[Marajade]

95% certain lullaby is static, it doesn't work like sleep.

I've had lullaby wear off before it was ready to cast again, wheras the normal duration should let lullaby last longer than the recast. Hasn't happened often, but its happened.

 

[Necrosis]

I've had lullaby wear off before it was ready to cast again, wheras the normal duration should let lullaby last longer than the recast. Hasn't happened often, but its happened.

I don't believe you; I've never seen that happen D:

 

[Khajit]

Lets not forget the ever present urge of everybody to wake up anything you sleep. I've died or gotten near death far more from people in my own party using dia on links or attacking far too soon so they can bitch about not being ready for a completely asleep mob than the 1 time I got resisted twice in a row and had to zone. (in the 1 time i got resisted twice I forgot to swap back on hope ring after using empy band and was in an mp+ setup so at least 5+ more chr was possible)
Mary's horn and +1 instruments will always be more help than the signa.

 

[Vilurum]

Lullaby normally lasts 30 sec (33 if +1, 36 if +2), with a recast of 24 sec. Partial resists will usually (if not always; my memory isn't providing me with any counterexamples) cut duration in half to 15/16.5/18 sec. (Or maybe the instrument bonus is applied after the duration is cut and it's 15/18/21 - I should go find ... hmm ... probably an aern would be best for getting partial resists, and test it some time.)

Anyway, a partial resist will thus have it awake before the same Lullaby is ready to recast, unless you're reducing recast time somehow (fast cast job traits/gear, haste buffs/gear, -song recast gear, -Lullaby recast merits, Nightingale). Though of course, in most situations you simply go and use the other Lullaby if something wakes up early. This obviously isn't an option before you *get* Horde Lullaby of course.

But yes, you can get partial resists for reduced duration. They're not as bad as full resists, but landing Lullaby unresisted for full duration is still far preferable.

 

[Mirewen]

I'm a 31 BRD, I have one, yes it is worth it.

 

[Redx]

In case it hasn’t been said before:

CHR effects spell duration

Skill help spell accuracy

I’ve had +78 CHR on my BRD before (using food and CHR potion) still had lullaby resists, so I started building +skill equipment and have never had a problem since, still have +37 CHR with a skill build.

 

[Mishaela]

95% certain lullaby is static, it doesn't work like sleep.

I agree, could've sworn Lullaby was a static 30s timer.

 

[Drystyn]

CHR effects spell duration

CHR has absolutely nothing to do with song duration. It only affects resist rates for debuffs. Aside from Troubador, the only thing that changes song duration is the +song on an instrument.

I am still surprised that people think CHR somehow makes songs stronger or longer.

 

[Khajit]

CHR effects spell duration

Absolutely wrong unless possibly you're referring to elegy which I cant say anyting about.

 

[Andreva]

CHR only affects resist rate, not duration. And Lullaby can be partially or wholly resisted, lasting half it's duration or shorter.

 

[Redx]

CHR only affects resist rate, not duration. And Lullaby can be partially or wholly resisted, lasting half it's duration or shorter.

Then that’s probably where I got the duration effectiveness from >.>

I’ve honestly never heard of a song being partially resisted, my bad.

Lullaby has always seemed to be a static duration time to me, regardless of CHR or skill. I use an Apollo Staff along with my +skill but from testing (and even taking off CHR gear and eating Jack-O’s, -10 CHR) I’ve always had the same result.

Elegy duration seemed to me to be effected by CHR, since the mob is dead before it has a chance to wear off it was hard to get the duration time.

I am still surprised that people think CHR somehow makes songs stronger or longer.

I'm not completely sure where people get that idea from, most likely just a misunderstanding of the job, most people would look at a jobs main stat and build on it believing it will make them stronger, like melee > STR, WHM > MND, BLM > INT. I know that’s not always the case, just saying it can appear that way at first.

I regret spending a lot of gil on +CHR equipment, when saving for an Apollo’s Staff would of saved me a lot of trouble.

 

[Vilurum]

I should go measure Elegy and Requiem duration some time ... Requiem's a moderate duration but I know Elegy lasts a good long time (like 3-4 minutes).

Lullaby is base 30 sec duration and Threnody is base 60 sec duration though. Each song+ is +10%. So 33 and 36 for Lullaby; 66, 72, and 78 for Threnody. Not that in general you'll want to use Lullaby +2 or Threnody +3 since they're strings and get unpleasantly high resists.

 

[Zyndara]

I agree, could've sworn Lullaby was a static 30s timer.

No, it isn't, coming from a 75 bard who has seen a mob wake in less time without getting hit. Really, guys, you can take it from the people who are actually the ones trying to keep them slept. :biggrin: It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Edit: On signa, yes, signa is worth it, but the concensus is right, the +1 instruments are important. I got through fine without Mary's Horn through necessity. The stretch of time when I wanted to get one, there were none on ah and for some reason, despite a week worth of killing sheep in Konschtat Mary was a colossal bitch and wouldn't pop (or I couldn't get to it in time) or wouldn't drop. With capped instrument skill and signa, very, very rarely did I have a sleep resist with Kingdom Horn.

 

[Rappa]

This is correct, Lullaby can get partial/hueeeeg resists and wear off pretty fast. This is why lullaby recast merits and haste gear and -song recast gear make you a happy camper at high levels.

Oh, and brd is one of the cheapest jobs to get to high levels, so there's no excuse to gimp your way up. Aside from things like Sha'ir Manteel that you don't even need anymore, almost everything is cheap, so get the good stuff.

 

[Ewok]

What BCNMs are BRD good for?

Anything with alot of enemies to sleep. Steamed sprouts we used one on all the time (lower recast then sleepga, and I think songs cant be interrupted by getting hit), and I think I usually always do Operation Desert Swarm with 1 Brd (been a while since I've done them, so not sure, lol).