Song Order/Savage Blade Questions

Looking for some up-to-date advice on how people prefer to sing their 4-5 songs w/Nitro these days. The two general schools that I am familiar with are

--sing your 4-5 dummies (paeons, status effect songs, w/e), then CC/SV/Nitro and sing your 4-5 actual songs

--CC/SV/Nitro and sing two full length, swap to dummy, sing three dummies, and then swap to full and sing your last three again

I've always been more comfortable with the first option because I have less of an issue Pianissimoing songs on other players without overwriting my hastes.

My question is which do you prefer, why, and if you are using that option, what order do you sing your Minuets/Madrigals/Hastes so that you can get those on your DD's and Pianissimo 2-3 songs (Minne's/Ballad/etc. on tanks, Ballads/possibly stat+ on mages, etc) without cutting out your hastes or other songs you don't want overwritten?

In the above example, I would sing either my 2 Minuets first, or HM first with the Minuets to follow, then my Victory March and 5th song. Usually, I can get two songs on the Tank/Mages because the Minuets will get overwritten first. However, every once in a while, those pesky Marches get caught instead. I understand duration wins, but figured that there may be an easier way to do it.

Last question is what are people currently using for Savage Blade sets? Is Cento still worth it with Gaol content, and can you get worthwhile WSD/STR/MND augments on Reisen gear to outweigh using something like Lustratio (Path A, presumably). Ignoring that Nyame Path B exists. I'm currently using:
--Head/Hands/Feet = Lustratio
--Neck = Fotia
--Ears = Telos/Ishvara
--Body = Bihu +3
--Rings = Epam/Karieyh (NQ) [presumably metamorph +1 should replace Karieyh]
--back = Intarabus (STR30, Acc/Atk 20, WSD+10)
--Legs = Bihu +3
--Waist = Sailfi +1 (R15)

Appreciate the input.

I do option b, but I don't sing dummies at all, I sing proper songs but with daurdabla and no duration in gear. Then overwrite them with duration and gjallahorn. The reason for b is because it's faster and time is important (limited time event like Odyssey or simply you can farm more if you farm faster in case of repeated events). Reason for singing proper songs is because if ***happens and I for some reason can't overwrite "dummy" songs, at least those songs are proper, just with less potency.

In what order do you sing your songs in this instance? Would you presumably do your Marches as songs 3-4/4-5 to help ensure that the first two songs (presumably your minuets/madrigals) get overwritten for backline and other jobs?

I typically do the in-between thing if I know I'll be overwriting. Do the actual songs without NiTro up (Daurdabla when needed) and then pop JAs and redo all, starting with Minuets or whatever I want to overwrite.

I'll tend to change that to more of the 'b' strategy above if I'm -not- overwriting songs, but I still do the actual songs with Daurdabla and then overwrite.

Either way, I agree with the notion to not do true "dummy" songs, and simply setting up for shorter Daurdabla songs when getting those additional slots up. Better lower potency songs than useless ones.

Personally I don't use dummies, but I guess it depends on the definition you give to the word "dummy", I've seen it used in at least two ways.

What I do is pick 4-5 songs. Whatever they may be, it's what I cast with Daubla, then overwrite with horn.

Say I'm supposed to do HM, VM, Minu5, Minu4, ok?
What I do is
1) Marsyas HM
2) Ghorn VM
3) Daubla Minu5
4) Daubla Minu4
5) Ghorn Minu5
6) Ghorn Minu4

Wether I'm doing NiTro or not changes nothing.
Sometimes I change this, like if people are too spread out and refuse to listen to my "wtf get in range already" or if they are but still more than 9,9 yalms away, I might cast more songs with Daubla just for the increased range.

For your question about priority, sometimes things can really get *** up.
Let's take the situation above. Someone by accident has HM, VM, Minu5, Ballad3. You want to fix it by applying a Minu4, but those songs are NiTroed (10m+ duration) and your Nitro is over.
If you try to cast a Minu4, it will overwrite the Minu5.
Soooo annoying xD


Most common situation I find myself in is: I have 5 songs up on the pt but someone died and lost a song.
In that case I cast the song with the lowest priority first, the song that I judge is gonna be the least important for the guy with only 4 songs.
Let's take the example above and let's add a 5th song: HM, VM, Minu5, Minu4, Minne5.

Minne5 is the least important song in this scenario, so I will cast that first, then the others. That way the guy with 4 songs will end up with 4 songs I want, and everybody else will still have 5.

The song order doesn't really matter much, aside from a few situations:
1) Players in your pt have a different number of songs (situation above)
2) You want to overwrite a song with ballad and you want so that the song overwritten is NOT scherzo (typical example in Dyna runs to give Ballad to the healer, for instance)
3) Between the songs you are casting, one has a noticeable less duration than the others because of less song+ specific buffs (in this scenario I try my best to cast that song as last)

These are my "general" rules I guess, but each situation is different and I try to adapt to each and every one of them in real time.


Personally I don't, I despise it with all of my soul, but it's an awesome option for BRD, especially for Odyssey where some monsters resist Piercing damage.

4 Dummies -> CC/Nitro/SV -> Mad/Min -> Marches -> Pianissimo w/e else

Always sing marches last, never have issues with them being overwritten.

I used to use Lustratio for Savage Blade, but found I missed too often. I've switched to just full BRD Relic +3 and do consistent dmg with way less missing. I use Cento if acc isn't an issue and blurred +1 if I need the acc.

You do them for different reasons.


You do this to maximize your Nightingale/Troubadour timer. This is important if you have to rotate or debuff. You can also do this and have people split if you want to do entirely different songs to different people.

You can also use Marches/Ballad as your dummy songs in certain situations. For example, in Sheol-Gaol so your mages can buff faster/start fight with higher MP. They will appreciate it if they have to do 6x haste etc.

The dummy songs being different is kinda a relic of how songs used to work.

If you have 2 bards in the same party you'll want to make sure you don't cast the same dummy songs.


You can sing 3 full length songs and 2 dummies in this situation. You do this if you need relevant buffs asap cause it's faster.

Sechs covered keeping 5 songs up when 1 person has 4.

A couple of other points.

If I'm doing Dirge I like to do it first to make it easier to replace on a tank. I'm not opposed to Dirge being my shortest song if there's a tank in my party.

Scherzo can be important to keep up to avoid 1 shots. I sometimes cast it as my first song and my last song. Under SV it gets double duration. It makes a good song to sing first when SVing.

Marcato job points add 20 seconds duration. This means you have a little leeway on not replacing your Marcato'd Song even if you sing it first.

You can sing a song that is up in no duration gear to make it the lowest duration song then replace it with your next song. (Except maybe Scherzo when SV is up.)

I always do SV+CC+Nitro min4, mad, VM 1st then 2 dummies and then HM and min5.

If someone failed to get 5 songs then he only miss a min4.

Yep, they changed the rules of how songs overwrite each other a long time ago.
The new system is better, granted that there are still a couple of annoying situations that are hard to handle, like the one I described above, but in general this "new" system is much better imho.

This, this, this, this, so much this.

If you have 2 BRDs rotating and each is assigned to his own set of songs, you have to ABSOLUTELY MAKE SURE that the "fake" songs they cast are exactely the same that you've been assigned, otherwise things will get *** up and once you're done with your rotation people will start asking "hey, why do I have only 6 songs instead of 10?"
That's why.
Because one of the BRD used part of the same songs as the other BRD, overwriting each other instead that occupying 5 slots for each BRD.

I so wish every new BRD learns this very important aspect, if they are ever requested to BRD swap with another to apply 10 songs to an alliance.
I know not many people do that these days, but still...


SV makes it super easy indeed!
But my typical situation in Dynamis is something like

HM, Minu5, Minu4, Scherzo.
These are the 4 songs my PT will end up with. Then the healer wants a Ballad. In this setup, Scherzo will ALWAYS be the song with the shortest duration, even if you cast it last.
How to solve this?
Well, there is no easy and failproof solution, but what I do is:

1) Wait a few more seconds (around less than 40 seconds remaining on NiTro)
2) Pianissimo Scherzo again on the Mage
3) Pianissimo Ballad 3 on the Mage

Nitro will end shortly after but if all goes well, you'll manage to overwrite one of the minuets with Ballad3, and Scherzo will remain.

To make things easier in this scenario, instead of using HM > VM > Minu5 > Minu4 order, it's much better to use Minu4 > HM > VM, > Minu5.
This will let you save a few seconds while doing the process I already described.

It's still super annoying to do honestly, but if you ever find yourself in such a situation, this is how I handle it.


Yep. In the first situation I described above, It's basically the only way to "fix" it.
Let's go with a clear example again.

I said a DD in the pt by accident has HM, VM, Minu5, Ballad3. All 4 songs are 10+ duration (NiTro).
Your NiTro is over.
Ballad3 will be the song with the least duration, but it will still be 10+ mins.

If you cast Minuet5, it will overwrite your Minuet5 10m with a Minu5 5m.
If you then cast a Minuet4, it will overwrite the Minuet5, and so on.
At this point you need to overwrite the Ballad3 (10+ m) with a Ballad3 (5+ m).
After that Cast Minuet5 again (it will overwrite Minuet5 with a full duration 5+ m one).
At this point Ballad 3 will be the song with the least duration, cast minuet4 and it will overwrite Ballad3.


SUPER annoying. Pray it never happens to you, especially if you're in a situation where you're required to do many other things lol, so much time gets wasted to solve this!

I wouldn't recommend doing it this way.

Do two regular songs under Nitro, two Dummies then your last two songs. The way that sechs does it is much faster and more guaranteed to get everyone in your songs.

As noted above, when wanting to get songs up asap CC+SV(if applicable) >> Nitro >> 2 full duration >> dummies >> full duration the dummies.

In scenarios when you will need a lot of piano work and pre-buff time is less of an issue, or of course when songs are already up in longer events, then I will certainly get all dummies up and then CC+SV >> Nitro.

As for order and sustaining a mix of a 4 and 5 song party it has pretty much been covered above. I would only add to what Reain touched on regarding re-applying same song with low duration gear to easily manage piano'ing over songs with duration issues.


Using Sechs example of Nitro'd HM VM Min5 Ballad3 on a DD when nitro is down we can simply regular duration ballad3 to overwrite itself and then Min4 over that ballad since Minuets are naturally higher duration to result in HM VM Min5 Min4. You will need to keep track of the lesser duration Min4 and re-apply between the next nitro to not lose it of course.

When it comes to more problematic scenarios like overwriting madrigals / doubling up ballads on a mage while still under Nitro we can handle this in a similar fashion with the use of your dummy set or low duration set.

For example this months ambu where we might find ourselves without haste2 and needing to double march double madrigal:

Nitro your marches and madrigals, then you could piano a madrigal in your dummy/low duration set onto whm dropping the madrigal's duration enough to easily overwrite with a nitro'd ballad, this can be repeated with the remaining madrigal to result in march march ballad ballad.

In my experience this is the best way to manage your tanks and mages when needing to overwrite specific songs and avoiding overwriting songs you don't want to.

Unless I have a ton of songs to Pianissimo I:

1) Sing my 2 songs (3 if CC is up)
2) Sing 2 dummies
3) Sing the remaining 2 songs

Is there something wrong with this method? Never had any complaints or issues.

If I’m not in a rush and I have a lot of songs to Pianissimo then;

1) 4 (or 5) dummies
2) 4 (or 5) main songs