melee as a BardFollow

hello everyone, wondering how many bard's out there actually melee in a party?
I'am now a level 32 bard/whm and every party I have been in I have drawn my sword and joined in fights...never had a complaint from pt members but I don't seem to see any threads with bards ingaging in fights and if not, why?. As for food I use meat kabobs in Pt's and still do my songs without missing a beat. Do bards fight or just stand back and cast songs? what is the best weapon of choice for a bard? I have used a dagger at lower level but now using a sword for awhile now and doing half decent damage, my sword is capped right now but dagger has fallen behind...should I concentrate on dagger and bring it back to wear it should be?
My next question, songs!! do bards check with pt members as to what song they would prefer or you just use your judgement? I use my judgement and my standard songs for melee is acc/def and ballad for mages...should I use different song besides def for melee? thank you for your time..cheers

I am currently a level 40 brd and never swap away from my chanters staff. I pull already though. Sometimes if lullaby is sticking I'll pull links just to not have to go pull again. Bats in garliage citadel come to mind. I use acc/att on front line and ballad/etude on the backline. I don't join parties that are overcamping so kill speed tends to be fast meaning I don't have much time to melee anyway.

PS. /wave rick.

Upto 51 I would /nin with 2 daggers (merited). I never had trouble keeping songs up and contributing 3~10% of the damage depending on the setup (and slightly skewed by the parser not counting the hits while out of party range).

Post 51 ele staves are too full of win to pass up I think. Also as kill speeds increase during ToAU and the inclusion of Ballad II, I do not think it feasibly possibly to pull and engage at all.

As for what songs to use, having a parser helps to decide what songs would benefit the party most. Below 80% accuracy madrigal/minuet is likely the best choice. If the DDs are already wearing significant amounts of haste madrigal/march may even be more beneficial. Above 80% acc(before songs) minuet/march is the way forward.
Defence and evasion songs are mostly useless unfortunately. PLDs should be relying on there shield skill to negate damage, while Ninjas their shadows. Ninjas will likely benefit more from reduced recast time from march anyways which benefits the DDs also.

Food wise have a butchers at Rice Dumplings and Crab Sushi. Having a B- to C- weapon will need more accuracy than just madrigal.

I don't melee in a party on BRD (or much at all on the job). Normally I'm pulling, so there's really no time to do so. If not, then I'm splitting songs between front and back line, so there's again little time to melee.

Far as song choices, I tend to parse, so I can check accuracy rates and things to adjust if needed. By and large, however, I've established which songs tend to work for activities I do, and stick with those.
Yeah, you should be using ACC/ATT for melee. DEF is nearly always a waste of a song slot. Typically the tossup in a single buffer situation is Minuet/Madrigal or Minuet/March.

At any level past 20, a BRD meleeing in an exp PT is doing nothing more then feeding the mob TP sadly. You would be more use using what MP you have assuming you subbed /whm inbetween songs. At 75 a BRD in the right gear is an okay DD, especially with haste gear and a joyeuse.

However, that should only be applied in things like campaign or besieged. Whenever you have 'time to melee' in a PT, there is usually something better you can do with that time. Especially in merit parties, although I said BRD /can/ do some nice DoT, there just isn't time to do all the things you're expected to, let alone engage the mob.

Dagger/Joyeuse combo is fun.

At 75, with Evisceration, in full haste gear with double marches.


In campaign.