FFXIV A Realm Reborn: Bard Guide/FAQ
How do I become a Bard in ARR?
The new Job requirements are yet to be finalized, until then you may look at our Job Requirement assumptions. You need to be a Archer (30) and Pugilist (15) First)! If you’ve met these requirements, you can return to the Archers Guild in Gridania to get your quest to obtain the “Soul of the Bard”. In FFXIV ARR, becoming a job is as simple as equipping the required Soul.
What’s the Bard playstyle?
The main role of Bards still remain the same as Archers; Ranged DPS. Bards gain a few supportive skills, augmenting their allies in battle by helping with resource management (Regenerating TP or MP of your party). They also place significant debuffs to enemy defenses (-10% Elemental Resist, +10% Damage Taken).
Basically, Bards help your party do better and more consistent damage.
What are good Bard stats?
DEX is still most important for Bards, to do damage. PIE becomes an attractive secondary stat, to maintain songs for a longer time. For secondary stats, CRITICAL CHANCE is an obvious choice.
What are the Bard Traits?
As of now, there are no advanced job specific traits. You inherit all Archer traits you’ve already learned.
What are the Bard Skills?
Aside from the skills below, you may use any skill you’ve learned as an Archer. Bards also have access to some Lancer and Puglist skills.
Patch 2.1 changes:
- Rain of Death - Additional effect has been changed to reducing enemy evasion by 10%. TP cost has also been reduced to 180 from 200.
Name | Level | Cast | Recast | Cost | Range | Radius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mages Ballad | 30 | 3.00s | 2.50s | Free | 25y | 0y |
 | Refreshes MP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs. |
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| Foe Requiem | 35 | 3.00s | 2.50s | Free | 25y | 0y |
 | Reduces all enemy elemental resistance by 10%. MP is drained while singing. Effect is lost if targets move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs. |
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| Armys Paeon | 40 | 3.00s | 2.50s | Free | Self | 0y |
 | Refreshes TP of all nearby party members while lowering own damage dealt by 20%. MP is drained while singing. Refresh effect is lost if party members move out of hearing distance, and ends upon reuse. Cannot be used with other songs. |
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| Rain of Death | 45 | Instant | 2.50s | 200 TP | 25y | 0y |
 | Delivers an attack with a potency of 100 to target and enemies near it. Additional Effect: Lowers target's evasion by 15% Duration: 20s Additional Effect: 15% chance next Quick Nock will cost no TP Duration: 10s |
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| Battle Voice | 50 | Instant | 300.00s | Free | Self | 0y |
 | Doubles the effectiveness of all songs. Does not work with Swiftsong. Duration: 30s |
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How many cross-class skills can I use?
When choosing advanced job, the amount of cross-class skills you may equip decrease to a total of 5 (as compared to 10)
Do I have to level up Bard separately?
No, your EXP in Bard rises as you level up your Archer class.
Any other Bard Guides and Resources?
As we learn more about each job, we will be linking useful guides in each Job page, as well as our community discussion on the Job.
I noticed you can’t stack the evasion down debuff from rain of fire with 2 bards, they overwrite each other.
i have a 30 and 15 but its not letting me take the quest!!! now what????
Switch to Archer and you should get quest for bard
Also, make sure you have completed the level 30/15 quest for the respective classes as well. Then talk to the dude in the Archer’s guild.
Pie is not an attractive attribute for bard. Bard is a massive dps and its songs reduce its damage by 20% on your main songs, mages rarely need ballad up and you have plenty of pie to use ballad and paeon unless your in a shitty party but then theres no amount of pie going to make up for that. If your out of Dex points put the others into Vit you will thank yourself for it many times over
Yes which is why “take as much dex as you can” is the main recommendation
Is the Rain of Death skill description outdated? Not seeing the “while increasing damage taken” anywhere else
Sadly yes, some of these skill are outdated. Without a “official” changelog released from OB>Launch, we are manually updating this next week. Sorry
Can you equip bard with ARC 30 & CNJ 15 or ARC 30 & THM 15 ?
It’s most likely ARC CNJ, but they might add a third class in the mix. We will know by p4-launch for sure!
It’s archer lvl 30 and pugilist lvl 15
Fixed. Good catch thanks.
So does “Cannot be used with other songs.” pertain to that individual bard, or all bards, like a debuff so no other songs can be played by any other bards at the same time?
We’re pretty sure it means that you cannot have 2 active songs as a bard at one time. Although I’m quite sure two different bards can have the same song active (Although if it causes a unique stat altering debuff, I’d think that wouldnt stack on the target)