Military Parade - A DD Bard Guide

The pros of Carn is AM3 which means Mordant spam, or Rudras. Also depends if you're Rank15 Carn.

Is your Carn R15?
If it's not: get it to R15!
If it is: I think you're either eyeballing numbers wrong (try to have a longer parse with much larger sample) or not using WS at 1000.

If your carn is R15 and you're WSing at 1000TP using Sari OH then Mordant Rime should do more damage than Rudra at least in the majority of situations.
Granted I guess that might depend on target and buffs but *normally* it should be like I said.

just got it not r15 yet >.>
, thanks for replay will do <3

While it's not R15 you can uh... do Mordant Rime to activate AM3 if you really want (granted that's usually a DPS loss) and then use Rudra at 1500+ TP.

But realistically you should just use another MH until Carns is R15.
Tauret MH? Aeneas MH? Both are very good and probably better than Carns MH.

then i will stick to aeneas till r15 for melee since tauret still @ Kaja, not getting any luck with pulse for a while now

Managed to get this last night. Seems good except for the low ACC. How does this compare to Ayanmo feet?

Or I'll get this augment this morning:

Would anyone have an evisceration set they could recommend? Relatively new to bard but got myself a tauret to poke things with.

I don’t have the gear to test but Evis benefits from crit gear which we don’t have. The 50% boost is nice but the DEX mod is low which is all we have to boost this WS. I think it’s best to use Tauret with Rudras as we have the DEX and WSD to compliment it.

For THF, though, Evis can rival or outparse RMEA as Simon revealed a while back.

Ahhh gotcha, that makes sense. Thanks :-)

At what point does Carn (R1-15) outdmg Aeneas & Rudras?

Does it ever? Someone could say.
In my tests Carn was slightly above Aeneas at r15. Difference between r0 and r15 Aeneas was quite negligible.
I've always taken those results with a bit of skepticism though. What's for sure is that at r15, to say the least, Carn is very close to Aeneas and perfectly viable in most situations.

We're talking about am3 down Carns, with am3 up there's no contest and there arguably was any even at rank 0.
Thing is that getting am3 has a "cost" and in most situations the dps you were wasting by setting am3 up wasn't compensated by the am3 effect itself, with due exeptions.


To get back to your question: I never tested the ranks before 15,but given what I said before the right answer is probably r15. Personally I went back to maining Carns at like r5 (my Aeneas is just r1 and staying there for a while) and had full af2+3. Rank5 and full af2 was quite a nice boost, compared to my previous gear, for my Carns.

Carn for me is better, because I dont need to switch weapons :)
Also Mordant set is mostly Relic +3 5/5 and that has fantastic defensive stats (talking from memory high meva and 30%PDT?), so it's very nice to not get caught during TP moves. Last thing is with Carn I can go /thf to dyna and still easily make Mordant>Mordant for my COR to make Darkness with 3000TP Leaden on bosses and I close that with 2000TP+ Rudra for double darkness. I think it would be much harder to pull solo SC on BRD without AM and /nin and I would also barely make TP for Rudra to close, but that also very specific scenario :P

I also use Carn keeping AM3 up (easy to do) and utilitize Relic +3 5/5, Bard's Charm +2, and can confirm what Simonses, nothing else comes close in mainhand because your TP Gain is sooooo much better.

Your can consistently skillchain (lightning quick) with 2k tp with PT unlike the other options of mainhand. With Samurai Roll up your a TP God of Songs & "Stab them with the pointy end".

Well Ive been mostly main'ing Carn since I got it anyways, it's Rank 13 atm, So was more of a point of interest. Will keep upgrading it bit by bit.

Same reason I started using cars early, but I can't deny I'm obviously biased towards cars regardless of results.
Carns is very special to me, it's my precioussss

I've been building up my Savage Blade set for bard and considering different set pieces. Would the physical limit+ from the JSE neck +2 help at all with Savage Blade?

Yes, if you have the attack buffs to make use of it. There aren't a lot of options for neck, so like Caro Necklace or JSE +2 would be you're primary options I'd think. If you don't have attack buffs, probably Caro Necklace, if you do, JSE +2.

I think it's still probably a good thing to have an Evisceration set, especially if you're mainhanding Tauret because you can extend skillchain to double dark if you want to. Rudra's > Evisceration > Rudra's.

Besides, a lot of it would overlap with Rudra's, with a few differences.

It would something like this:

ItemSet 368170

Augments:
Linos: Acc or Atk or both | Crit Rate or Crit Damage +3 | QA +3
telchine braconi: Acc or Atk or Both | DA +3 | DEX + 10
Intarabus's cape: DEX +30 | Acc/Atk | Crit Rate +10

What's recommended for a hyrbid set for BRD outside of defending ring? I'd assume you'd never want to swap out JSE +2 neck for a Loricate Torque +1 when meleeing.

Anyamo is a good starting point I guess, cheap to obtain, decent DD stats, lots of acc.
Then you can make a cape with DT5 or PDT10 according to your needs.
Lotsa of accessories to equip in the rings/earrings slots and, if need be, Flume Belt +1 in the waist slot.

And you're right, no neck swapping.

"Aya. Zucchetto +2",
"Ashera Harness",
"Aya. Manopolas +2",
"Aya. Cosciales +2",
"Aya. Gambieras +2",
"Defending Ring",
"Intarabus's Cape", 'Phys. dmg. taken-10%',}},

This would be -41pdt, -40 if you use Ayanmo Corazza+2.

I prefer Lustratio/+1 Subligar (B path), but that set's a pretty reasonable suggestion.


While I'm not the ultimate melee BRD pro, I am pretty happy with my hybrid sets...

Ayanmo +2 set is pretty strong for hybrid purposes, I actually kinda like 5/5 for a pretty safe BRD TP set. Excellent acc, good DEF and MDB, DT- on every piece (DT-20% total), 26% haste with 5/5 set, some other nice offensive perks (STP on head, DA on body, high haste on legs to allow you to cap without sacrifices elsewhere, crit rate on feet, etc.)

Moonlight/Moonbeam Ring x2 is probably a good call for a true hybrid set. Or one Moon ring and D.Ring.

Ashera Harness is also a phenomenal hybrid piece, so use that if you have it. But I don't like to recommend Omen bodies in general suggestions due to the heavy luck requirement. Ayanmo+2 is a very solid alternative though.

DM augments on Chironic pieces might result in something with lucky augments, but I don't personally use em for BRD melee.

ItemSet 368261
Here's a single wield set with DT-30% and PDT-20% (so, capped PDT-), assuming PDT-10% augment on cape. Could also do something like DT-40% and capped PDT by swapping back augment to DT-5% and using a D.Ring in place of one of the Moonlights.

ItemSet 368262
And a DW set - for /NIN you need 11 DW to cap, so swapping out the waist and one ear for DW gear, and maybe go with a D.Ring to make up for some of the loss from shield. That's DT-35% plus whatever you stick on the cape (PDT-10% or DT-5%).

For either set, Depending on the level of DT-/MDT- you're seeking, the highest priority swaps would probably include:
- Staunch Tathlum/+1 (2%/3%)
- Loricate Torque +1 (6%) - but at this point, I see that as more of a "DT" set than "hybrid" if you're giving up the neck. It's nice that even BRD's full DT set is pretty decent offensively though!

I know this post is old but I am only recently reading it because I want to finally make my afk bard a DD.

Is it really THAT big of a difference for r15 where r0 should just be a swap piece?

I would think Lustratio legs would be pretty good for evisceration, but I dunno on brd.

I forgot BRD could use that. :P

I would switch Ayanmo feet to Relic+3. You lose some DEX, acc, 3%DT and 6% crit rate, but you get 58 magic evasion, 66 attack, 2 mdb, 5% pdt.

I currently do not have regal earring. What would be a good alternative for Mordant till i get one?

I have the exact same set except the linos. With frailty/fury and drk/cor buffs im doing 19k MR constant. Is this normal (30 ws's on reis mobs)? I have literally no one else to compare this too and the spreadsheet sticky below this doesnt have a bard one lol

First question: are you R15 Carn?

Second: rei mobs more specific? NMs? Or trash mobs?

With your songs. And R15 carn and those rolls you should be one shotting trash mobs. And I dont believe you'll be doing more damage than the mob has in HP. (Corrext me if I am wrong there).

Those buffs on a kirin fight mordant rime should be doing 30k-45k

Also I don't know who made that set you posted, but Bard can't even wear Regal ring. My set is BiS Mordant rime.

<set name="Mordant"> <!--Mordant Rime Set-->
<range augment="S37576958767127">Linos</range>
<ammo>displaced</ammo>
<head>Bihu Roundlet +3</head>
<neck>Bard's Charm +2</neck>
<ear1>Ishvara Earring</ear1>
<ear2>Regal Earring</ear2>
<body>Bihu Jstcorps. +3</body>
<hands>Bihu Cuffs +3</hands>
<ring1>Epaminondas's Ring</ring1>
<ring2>Ilabrat Ring</ring2>
<back augment="S8139218489191018759">Intarabus's Cape</back>
<waist>Grunfeld Rope</waist>
<legs>Bihu Cannions +3</legs>
<feet>Bihu Slippers +3</feet>
</set>