Bird camp songsFollow

So I took a break for a few months from about Oct '09 to Jan '10. Since I've been back I haven't merited at all just been doing LS events and doing some subs for the upcoming cap increase.

So today I went out with a few LS members to merit on birds. We picked up a couple of random pick up guys. It was Brd, Rdm, Sam, War, War and Mnk (me). The Brd we has sang Att/Acc songs the entire time. I was the only one using food (mithkabobs) and wanted Att/Haste songs instead (I have the gear to support it).

After the pt was done and talking with the Brd (he's a friend of mine), he was saying that Att/Acc is the best way to go at birds. Now he's not an idiot and a really good player so this seemed really odd to me. Another really talented and well geared LS friend, who plays Sam, also says that Att/Acc are the best way to go as well.

Now I have Brd, Mnk, Nin, and War all leveled so I have a VERY good idea of what songs would be the most ideal. Before I took my break in Oct, Att/Haste was always the way to go. So my question is: Did something change to make Att/Acc more ideal at the bird camp?

Even in a pick up group, what songs do you guys usually sing or do people ask you to sing for?

Error in your assessment of a pick-up party.

For those of you talking about damage, this is less of a question of DPS and more of a situational balancing act for BRDs. Sometimes we WANT you to slow your kills down (or speed them up), so its possible to maintain chains. Also there's a difference between having haste on a mob your able to continuously hit and having haste to hit continuous mobs. There are pros and cons for having Marches on all the time. BTW, In case you were wondering - I prefer Marches in my Merit Parties.

The only situation in which Marches are not ideal is when you have slow pulls, long downtime between monsters, and/or during situations where the monster dies before you get an extra attack round. Additionally, long-term damage potential is reduced any time where the benefit of swinging faster (or swinging again) is lost.

Unless you were either...
A) In a slow party where birds were not ready or...
B) In a party where Melee frequently failed to swap-target or..
C) In a party with a RNG or COR or..
D) In a really great party where birds died extremely quickly (and thus, you couldn't get any extra hits in)*, then...

...Marches will always be better.

Keep in mind that some of the same reasons would overlap for ATK/ACC songs (ie: not having a bird ready would hurt in all situations), while others have large bonuses over Marches (Rangers, etc).

Also, while it isn't mentioned much, Marches do wonders for recast timers on Utsusemi and Elegy (if you use Elegy). Sometimes kills go too fast, even in situations where the melee *could* benefit from ATK/ACC songs, it's better for the group in the long-term to keep Marches in order to maintain a good pull order.

It's important to mention that there's also no black/white answer either. Each party will be different. Each BRD is different (Minuet Merits? Madrigal Merits? March Tiers? Instruments?). Each situation is different (Like those 4xRelic parties where you just constantly pull and never buff -.-). The right answer is to be multipurpose and not be set in what "should be" used rather than what "is needed".


Edit: *You know what I'm talking about...those moments where everyone seems to have TP and the bird gets mangled from every direction simultaneously.

Edited, Apr 4th 2010 6:23am by Asmoranomar

My marches would add 0% to their damage output, because I would leave that party.

RAWR 2K DRAKESBANES ONRY I DON'T NEED ACC FOR WEAPON SKILLS IF YOU GIMME MADRIGAL

From a bard perspective?
1. Never take pickup parties.
2. Use Marchx2 until someone complains. Then continue using Marchx2.

Pickup parties tend to have less than ideal group members, which may also mean using less than ideal songs. If I've got Einherjar in a few hours and I want the EXP buffer bad enough, there's no end to the strange groups I'll put up with.

Experience is knowing what songs will give your party the most return, and when switching from the 'standard' is desirable/appropriate. Deal with idiots on a case-by-case basis (I'm looking at you wifftastic DRK).

if you're running out of birds and not killing wivre, kill wivre. you won't lose chain as long as you kill things as fast as they pop. not buffing doesn't help at all. that whole story about dropping march "to help the party" is wrong.

yes, (a) happens (if (a) is supposed to mean a party with weak melee). and again, march/march is the appropriate thing to do in (a). (b) happens too. march/march is the right move there (want to explain why it isn't?). (c) only matters of it's all RNG (CORs melee for TP, so you messed up mentioning them as well). 1 RNG; still march/march. and, again, (d), march/march is better than no songs at all. you'll kill faster when the mob finally pops, and you will not run out of mobs if you kill wivre (and you won't run out of birds if you're incapable of killing wivre).

Edited, Apr 4th 2010 8:48pm by milich