Should I go SMN or BRDFollow

two very different jobs. i suggest u read the stickies in both the brd and smn forums. this should give u a understanding of the job, and ull be able to decide.

I'd say go for BRD. You'll probably end up being invited more often for parties for fast leveling. Bard songs, most intruments, and CHR is all dirt cheap. Also, you can get in on BCNM40, Steamed Sprouts, as a great way to make money, buy Mary's Horn if you plan to do so. The BRD flag quest is a breeze too.

I say skip SMN, as it can be a pain for you. You'll be main healing, but if you like that go for it. The problem with SMN for you is, you'll need to get your avitars, and if you just dinged whm to 30, that means you'll do the mini fights. They're no cakewalk, and you'll spend roughly 10k each fight, win or lose, for supplies. No fenrir till very late. The SMN flag quest is difficult with a lv30 whm to say the least without an escort, and can take a long time if the weather you need is being stubborn to appear. The carbuncle ruby has a painfully low drop rate, and farming them yourself will be slow. You'll be expected to have austere gear and all the elmental staves. Thats a LOT of gil, and though you can farm okay on your own as a SMN, BRD is better as a money maker cause of Steamed Sprouts.

SMN is a great job, but as your first advanced job, I can't recommend it unless you love the job. Love of the job comes before anything else. Instead of asking us though, you should simply unlock both and try each one. Though you won't get a good indication on how these jobs play in a party environment till midgame, while soloing you'll get a general idea, and base your choice on that.

Depends...

If you want to continue main healing for a long long time, then around level 70 become really powerfull... go with Summoner. They are in demand in all sorts of activities, thanks to their insane 2h and certain bloodpacts. At 70 you might be even able to go get fenrir... That is the way of the summoner !


If you dont want to be main healer too often, go with bard. You will main heal every now and then, but it isnt that bad. Althought you never become the "Uber-Post-70" like a smner, you will always be invited for your refresh songs and also be able to give major boost to parties without requiering MP. Your abilitiy to handle links is really good and rarely resisted with good gear... That is the way of the bard.


I tried summoner but found out I didnt like it very much. Too much healing, not enough good BPs pre-70. So I switched to bard... I'm not looking back to smner. To each is own.

Good Luck!
^_^

I sometimes feel really bad for summoners. They generally don't get to use the job to its full potential until very late in the game (partly because of some questionable game design, partly because of community pressures). Summoners spend most of their careers substituting for a white mage in parties, making up for a somewhat limited spellbook with a huge MP pool. Most of the summoners I know have been or are really frustrated by this. I know lots that have experimented with subbing black mage, not to nuke but to make serving as a main healer impossible. In the end, they've all gone back to subbing white mage. Summoners are invited to main heal, and rarely for anything else.

Bard is a different animal. It doesn't play like any other job in the game, and my feeling is that what it does and can do is widely misunderstood by other players. Bards can make their parties much more powerful, but in indirect ways that won't earn you much credit. There's no amazing 2hr ability that will save everyone, no real offensive ability, and when you're playing well, no one will even notice you're there.

Unless you have a good static (and I am blessed with one^^) you will have to deal with people that don't understand how your job works. The majority of a bard's songs are self-centered AoE, meaning you cast on yourself and everyone within a certain radius will gain the effect. This is awesome because you can buff multiple people with just one cast, but it makes it very important that people stand in the right spots and move around. Mages tend to stand in one spot (I think we learn to neglect our movement keys early, interrupting our own spells in the solo levels ^^;), but some melees can be all over the place. If there's a SATA going on, it's understandable, but some people just can't stand still. It can get on your nerves after a while.

There's also a third option for you. If you actually enjoy main healing, why not stick with white mage? There's no rule that you have to switch to an advanced job at 30, and white mage has its own challenges and rewards the whole game through.

Anyway, it all comes down to what you like best. Unlock all the jobs and try them out. Being able to level multiple jobs on one character is one of the things that makes this game so great!

Edited, Thu Oct 20 08:30:07 2005 by Mindel

It all depends on how much patience you have. BRD is on the top end of the invite spectrum, while SMN is towards the bottom. Still, there is nothing quite like tearing a new one in the last couple of mobs with your 2 hour. Fenrir's Howling Moon is a bad *** thing to see, and ripped over half of the life of an IT++ Gob in the Jungles last night, then rested for 1 minute for BP and dumped an Ifrit Inferno into a VT Mandy taking it from 3/4 to dead. We have 3 high level BRDs in our LS and they complain of boredom all the time. SMN will fill the WHM roll for the most part, even though we would rather have our avatars out.

BRDs are a huge Supporting job in any party.

SMNs can be...
- Support
- DD
- SCer
- MBer
- Puller
- Healer
- Lover
- Hater

It all depends on the needs of the party and your playstyle. Many people categorize SMNs only has "lesser-WHMs"; however there are a lot more things you can do with the job (both jobs actually). If you want to run back and forth and play a huge number of songs, Bard's a good job. Bards are very busy and take a lot of work to do. SMN can be very busy also; but takes more work to know how to do their job well in all the aspects I listed above.

It all really depends on what you want to do.

Do SMN really have that much of a hard time getting parties? The SMN in my LS never seem to have any problems.

Granted they get invited exclusively as main healers, but a party is still a party - and last I checked, healers don't quite grow on trees.

I haven't had any invite trouble yet on SMN, but its only 25, give it time. One night I sat in Kahzam for 3 hours without an invite, but there weren't enough people in the whole 3 hours to make a party. A BRD would have sat just as long.

Why go with just one? Seriously, go BRD first. It's one of the cheapest jobs, and it'll get you to endgame FAST. Once you've got BRD to 70+, get Fenrir and the other avatars, and go play with SMN.

skipping all the other responses because im too lazy to read them today...

They are very, very different. I find SMN to be enjoyable, but it really is WHM with the ability to MB. I think SMN would be so much more enjoyable if it played out like I wish it would have (that is, good DD and some backup healing rather than healer and support, which is what it seems to be).

BRD gets invites much faster than SMN. You can melee without getting b[/i]itched at (well..I do anyways. Maybe they hate it but are too afraid that I'll get pissy at leave?), which gives the added fun of trying to skill-up and weapon skills. I find it particularly entertaining to shoot off different WS after the PLD goes as I attempt to construct a random SC (this of course assuming that the PLD isn't in the main SC).

As for your question, /WHM makes SMN get its invites a lot of the time, as it is often made to be healer. I honestly don't see people invite SMN as a DD very often. If I am wrong about this, then I deeply apologize to all of the SMN out there. As for BRD, subbing WHM doesn't offer a whole lot. At 63 I have ~170 mp with RSE M Hume pants on (+32 mp), which adds up to less than four Cure III's (I think >.>). Honestly, I'd rather just sub THF and get SATA and Steal, but this isn't what people want. And really, 2x Ballad + your own Sneak and Invisible makes getting to camp a hell of a lot easier than relying on someone else or wasting gil.

I would obviously go with BRD instead of SMN. But what you need to do is unlock both and play then to 15-20 to make a real decision.

[EDIT: One last thing. As a BRD, you always know you're going to have a BRD in your pt. That's definitely and positive that shouldn't be overlooked.]

[i]Edited, Thu Oct 20 12:37:18 2005 by Azriell

I say try both: you have nothing to loose.

My BRD is 75 and I made an overdose of it, and SMN is only 14 but I LOVE it, if I don't main heal since I only have cure 1, and I have a couple of avatars too.

I suggest you to do your BRD quest and try to get help for SMN. You mich not be able to get help for SMN fast so you will be able to lvl bard if you can't get any help. Plus you will need to gather all elements, which rarelu can be done all at the same time.

Also, this way you will be able to experience both. Most important thing: lvl the one who seems the most attractive to you. This is a game, not a job ^^

Everyones given excellent advice, I'll just add my 2 gil.

Whm is main healer, period. From here to eternity, if you like main healing, stick with whm. You'll never want for a party, and you will always the be the center of attention. If those are 2 roles you like playing stick with whm. You will never do damage so don't even try.

Smn is an awesome job, and alot of fun, BUT and here's the big thing, 9 times out of 10 you will be asked to main heal. Very few low level smn's get to asked to parties to play as smn's. Once you get into a party check around, you'll notice there isn't a whm, and guess what, they want you to main heal. It's the price for playing smn, and if you say you won't main heal, you won't get any parties. The blood pacts are neat and fun, but your avatars won't do any real damage til your 70. That's when smn's finally come into their own as DD. You get your last blood pact which will hit in the 1k rng on IT's and over 3k on too weaks. It's impressive to see, but a looong road.

Brds are loved by everyone, and if you don't love a bard, your an idiot. A Bard makes a good party into a great party. He speeds up your party, makes your DD's hit harder and more accurately, your tanks take less damage, and your healers heal for more and with constant mp and your nukers hit harder with constant mp. Truely if I can ever get a bard, I always have one for my parties, problem is, bards are THE rarest job in the game. Don't believe me, do /search all bards, and compare that to whm's, you'll be shocked. You'll never hurt for a party, trust me. Any leader with a half a brain will snatch you up the second your seek goes up, faster than even whm's. The draw back is, your even more invisible than the whm. With whm, I can usually get a Holy or Banish 3 burst in and people will go" oohhh the whm bursted, isn't that cute..." With bard, they won't even notice your doing all this hard work, but they sure will notice it when your gone. It's a quiet job for all the singing you do, but if you don't mind not doing the BIG DD, then it's a great job. Like I said, everyone loves a bard. :)

In all things:

Listen to your heart
It knows right from wrong
Let it guide you
Listen to your heart
It'll make you strong ^^