FFXIV Archer / Bard Stats & Materia Guide

What’s a good archer stats build? What are useful bard stats? Archer/Bard materia? If any of these questions brought you here, you came to the right place. Whether its by stat allocation, gear or materia, knowing what stats your Archer or Bard need should never be far from mind!

Archer (ARC) & Bard (BRD) Stats

What are the archer or bard stat weights?

DEX > Critical Chance > Determination  > PIE > Skill Speed > VIT

*These may vary slightly from patch to patch, or by personal preference. Following the recommendation above will always give you a good ARC & BRD build.

Archer (ARC) & Bard (BRD) Primary Stats Allocation

What stats should I add as a archer or bard?

DEX > PIE > VIT

Since this is where people may mess up the most, I’ll explain it in word for word. When you allocate stats, put as much points into DEX (Dexterity) as you can. If you cannot put any more points into DEX, place points into PIE (Piety). If you cannot put any more points into DEX and/or PIE, invest in VIT (Vitality).

Dexterity – Ranged physical damage up. Move on.

Piety – More mana to keep bard songs up longer. The value of piety rises sharply depending on how organized your group is.

Vitality – Increases total HP. Again, a luxury stat to give more breathing room for yourself and healers. Welcome, but not integral.

 

Archer (ARC) & Bard (BRD) Secondary Stats

What are good secondary stats for archer and bard, and why?

Critical Chance > Determination > Skill Speed

While you can’t allocate this directly, these will be heavily considered when picking gear upgrades and slotting materia.

Critical Chance – Nuts on Bards. Doing critical DoT damage with [Wind Bite] and [Venomous Bite] reset [Bloodletter].

Determination – Generic damage increase. Nothing special here.

Skill Speed – Even if returns are low, this stat is theoretically amazing on archers and bards. Why? 2 reasons. First, Enhanced Barrage is disgustingly strong. Second, Landing auto-attacks are essential to archers, who do not have a (dedicated) resource management mechanism. This has a soft-cap of around 1,000 where you hit the GCD cap of 1.50s.

Mahiko’s Note – I hesitate whenever recommending Skill Speed, and personally I’d value it much higher. I guess the explanation is long, and belongs on the eventual Page 2 “Theorycrafting” of these stat pages…

Archer (ARC) & Bard (BRD) Materia

This is directly related to the first section. As you may know, all gear has a limit for each stat it can have, the higher its Item Level, the higher amount of stats it can hold. So the idea is to max out (or get close to maxing out) the left most, and work your way right. Again:

DEX > Critical Chance > Determination  > PIE > Skill Speed > VIT

Mahiko’s Note: PIE is always good to have (We’re discussing PvE here). The importance really depends on how organized your playgroup is…

Materia Name
DEX: Dexterity
Critical Chance: Savage Aim
Determination: Savage Might
PIE: Piety
Skill Speed: Quickarm
VIT: Vitality

See Also: Materia Guide | Melding Guide

Summary:

  • Overall ARC BRD stat importance: DEX > Critical Chance > Determination  > PIE > Skill Speed > VIT
  • ARC BRD Stat allocation: DEX > PIE > VIT
  • Secondary stats for ARC BRD: Critical Chance > Determination > Skill Speed
  • Reference links: Archer FAQ, Bard FAQ
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