Events
If you think about it, leveling a job is only a small portion of the time spent on the job. After getting to 75, many jobs change in role and nature. Once I hit PLD75, the way I played it, geared up for it and almost all my macros changed. SCH also changed significantly from regens & en-spells during exp to defensive buffer/nuker. I haven't experienced enough on DRG to really conclude if it has relaly changed, especially since I really want to experiment more with DRG/mage. DNC goes from a main healer to... well, a really weird evasive healer-buffer-enfeebler-DD hybrid that I still can't make much sense of, except that it feels much better to be DNC in smaller groups compared to larger ones.
So... thinking about what Bard & Corsair do at events... (Dynamis, ZNMs, Einherjar, etc.)
BRD
- Group light-based sleeper - Good in Dynamis/Einherjar, anything with lots of mobs. Crowd control basically. Horde Lullaby has a 24 second recast, with a 30 second base duration
- Used in all parties, critical in tank party, enjoyed by melees, though... not as critical to BLMs?
- Must-have for zergs due to 2-hr
- Light based dispel
So... general role for BRDs in events is as a crowd control, support/enhancing performance, and backup healer. Generally more to do in events with lots of mobs since crowd control is something that BRDs do well, but for single target mobs (like ZNMs), BRD is basically relegated to singing 2-4 songs, then doing backup healing.
COR
- Single-target, light-based sleeper - Can sleep up to 2 mobs at one time, but after that the recharge time is 1 minute per Quickdraw charge.
- Dark-based dispel
- Used in BLM parties, though... still usable in melee parties? Less use in a tank party since COR can't provide Haste
- 2-hr is more of a "last ditch cross your fingers" type of thing for events and not relied on
- Ranged Damage
General role for COR is support/enhancing performance, extra ranged damage and to an extent, backup healer if /WHM. For events with lots of mobs, COR really can't do much since the shots/sleeps are all single target. In all events, COR is basically get 2-4 rolls up, while shooting mobs at the same time unless you're doing COR/WHM.
Am I missing anything here? This is, of course, all from an observers perspective. To me, it seems like BRD is a lot more versatile compared to COR in events. And, of course, more necessary, while COR is a "nice to have". When comparing the two, I'd probably choose a BRD over a COR, unless we're doing a simple nuke-only party.
Exp/merits/having fun
Now what are these jobs like beyond the narrow view of events? Mmmm... well, again, this is from an observers perspective, so people with the jobs leveled will be able to give me a different perspective...
BRD
- Sing a few songs, then basically be a backup healer, helping to top off people or with some -na spells
- High level exp becomes a lot busier with /nin pulling and staging. Also useful for certain events like Limbus where you want to stage mobs for DDs to go after
- Can help fix situations with links due to lullaby
- Pianissimo means that positioning people to get the appropriate songs is no longer an issue
COR
- Roll a few die, then basically add to the damage. Has the option of going /WHM and being Bard-like
- Not as good for pulling due to the delay in guns, as well as recast time with Quick Draw for sleeping mobs
- Can sleep single mobs, not too good if more than 1 link due to the charge/timer issue with Quick Draw
- Still has to be concerned about party member placement. Timer on Phantom Roll also makes it difficult to re-apply rolls in case of a position mishap.
Overall... my impression that COR feels like a DD-support hybrid, while BRD is more of a mage-support hybrid. COR has the option of doing mage-support at the expense of DD, while BRD won't be able to do any DD, but is better at crowd control. Both jobs are good for merits, but BRD is a much better puller.
Other Considerations (Outfits, cost, inventory, people)
Now for some other considerations that are outside of the normal event/activity stuff.
BRD
- Ugly AF outfit, generally nothing special to look at, except at level 72 BRD can wear the very cute Sha'ir Manteel outfit
- Zu assures me that this was cheap to level, songs are generally reasonable on AH. Not too many expensive instruments to buy... though some nice pieces of gear such as the Minstrel's Ring is really expensive
- Has some gear that would need to be quested... Gaudy Harness and Opo-opo crown come to mind, though I guess I could just gimp it...
- Would share many pieces with SCH, at least MP wise. However, the +chr pieces and BRD-specific pieces would take up quite a few slots of inventory. If I decided to carry the appropriate instruments, that would really kill inventory space
- On the plus side, I do have the Assault Points necessary to buy the Yigit gear. However, I really don't like the way that set looks on humes D: It looks cute on taru though!
- Many people have BRD leveled. In AP alone, we have Zu & Cala. Vanh has it leveled if he decides to show up again. In Impact, there's tons more... Rooks, Weap, Cao, Helo, Py, Anna and probably more people than I remember xD
Funny thing about the Manteel is that waaaaaay back when I was finishing up DNC, Utaru was trying to convince me to go level BRD. I was really not interested until I saw a Bard in campaign in this outfit and I thought it looked really cute. However, once I found out how much it cost, that pretty much killed any thought I had on leveling BRD back then.
COR
- AF is a pirate outfit! I think that looks awesome :D
- Definitely expensive to level. COR die alone cost over 600k, and that's before bullets and cards. I'd guess in expendables alone, it's at least 1M gil
- Can't think of any COR-specific gear that would need to be quested... I guess I don't know enough about the job to name things off the top of my head. The AF quest however, would be expensive since it's a "buy the AF" type rather than coffers
- Would share some pieces with SCH due to the magical nature of Quick Draw shots. I also have the full Denali and Enkidu's harness sets, as well as a Coffinmaker, so that gives me a head start in collecting gear. Main thing I'd need would be some accessories for ranged attacks. Carrying the necessary card to use Quick Draw would take out a chunk of my inventory though xD
- Have enough IS to pick up Luzaf's ring... but that's not THAT much IS in the first place
- Not too many people have COR leveled up. Fuuji, Spengler, Marcux are the only three I can name, and Conceptx who has since retired. However, I can't remember the last time Fuuji or Spengler came as COR for anything... Marcux has been COR recently, and I think last time I saw Spengler on COR was when we were doing Nyzul, where I like to experiment with interesting setups.
My current impression is... while COR is more expensive to actually level to 75, the gear itself isn't too expensive. BRD has some expensive pieces near or at 75 which would wipe out my gil(though I could go with cheap/free alternative even though they are ugly), while COR has regular expenditures which would pile up. There are also a lot more people who have BRD leveled up so chances are that it's not as critical to have yet another BRD. On the other hand, COR isn't as critical to events, so how often would I actually come as COR to something?
Soooooooooo.... ya, still confused xD
Other stuffs
Randomish other thoughts/stuffs!
- I've had a chance to come as DRG to quite a few events now... ENMs, KSNMs, Einherjar, Dynamis, and even a part of sea. So far, my impressions of being a DD are... kinda... what I expected. It just isn't that much fun for me. I mean, I like being able to go out there and do a ton of damage (and I feel satisfied that I'm at least keeping up with most people), but I don't like my inability to really do much else except put out as much damage as possible without getting killed. During the KSNM runs on Saturday for Anna's Destroyers, I kept on looking at the HP bar and wanting to do something whenever I saw someone going into the red. In Dynamis, I quickly got bored once I validated that my WS gear was the right combination for hitting and doing damage. Thankfully Ohemgee had to go and I could be main assist, or else I would have been bored out of my mind for the rest of that run xD I'll probably still come to things on DRG, though it isn't my priority
- Had a chance to try out DRG/mage... in this case, it was DRG/RDM during some WS points in Kuftal tunnel. Of course, Kuftal isn't really a good test since most mobs are EP there, but Ghiren & I did have a small challenge when a Ghost decided to teach us a lesson since our HP was in the yellow. I think that was the first application I had on DRG/mage where Healing Breath from Lumiere was critical to our survival. Lumi did nicely, though I think I want more practice with this aspect of DRG. I think the top Healing Breath III was just over 600 HP healed with 300% TP and Deep Breathing. I'll have to go duoing with Teia sometime!
- Made SOME progress in the ASA mini-expansion. Ghiren & I decided to go tackle all 6 avatars for the ASA mini-battle, as well as some easy gil. Along the way, we also picked up the Synergy stones, though we can't use them until we unlock Synergy and get Synergy up to level 5... right now, those silly stones are sitting in my mog satchel ~.~
- The ASA mini-avatar battles were stupidly easy. They quickly became TP building for the real "trial by" battles. WHM & DNC meleeing finishes them in under a minute, so any real DD should take about 30 seconds. You can see SE's laziness here in creating content as they don't even bother with dialog, just a truncated version of the avatar fight ~.~ Oh well... at least we got 50k gil from doing them all, and another 60k from doing the real fights
- While wandering over Vana'diel, we came across a new ghost NM in Fei'Yin: Sluagh. Rooks was just talking about this on Saturday where he and Helo were duoing it to get the cloth to craft for the +1 enmity ammo item. I don't remember what jobs he was using, but Ghiren & I went at it as DNC/NIN & WHM/SCH. Easy fight since with my evasion setup, he barely hits me. If not for his Grave Reel move that strips Utusemi, I doubt he would have hit me at all. My Fan Dance merits came in handy as it reduced his melee attacks that did manage to land from 250-300ish to barely doing double-digits. Still, this fight did take a long time due to slow damage... I forgot about the properties of Banish, so it took a long time to get his HP down. A nearby THF offered us TH4, and helped us finish the fight faster by building TP on nearby bats, then coming in to SA. Too bad there wasn't any drop xD
- Also came across Aquarius last night... took him down easily, though it is annoying to keep hitting for single digits. At least I know enough now to eat some meat and use Box Step to counter his Scissor Guard. I got the axe, though it was halfway through the fight that I realized that COR couldn't use axes xD Oh well... another addition to my storage collection.
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