Life has a way of making me put my foot in my mouth. On Friday, I said I didn’t expect to play Bard much. Over the weekend, just about the only thing I did was run the Feast PvP on Bard. That’s actually great, since it gave me an excuse to finalize my Bard glamour (and also to use some different pieces of gear from my Machinist, opening up the way for more divergent looks if I ever get around to it).

The basics from last week didn’t really change, of course: I was already committed to the Aoidos’ Cloak, and from there it was just a matter of figuring out the other bits and pieces.

Glamour Components
Head: Elegant Rimless Glasses (Jet Black Dye) | Body: Aoidos’ Cloak (Pure White Dye) | Hands: Aoidos’ Shoulder Gloves (Pure White Dye) | Legs: Miqo’te Loincloth (Pure White Dye) | Feet: Oschon’s Sollerets of Aiming (Jet Black Dye)

In general, my favorite color schemes for Alahra always involve white and black pairings, and the Bard AF2 continues the trend set by the first one with very crisp juxtapositions. I love that the Cloak doesn’t go white and grey two-tone like the Iga Ningi—that makes it so much easier to figure out glove and boot pairings, since so many of the good ones are naturally black or look best in black. The Aoidos’ Shoulder Gloves were a natural choice to continue the black and white theme, and also just for some differentiation from the gloves I’ll likely end up using for Machinist (the Oschon’s Gauntlets of Aiming).

I’m still thinking about picking up the Aoidos’ Tights to use here, but at the moment, Bard and Machinist are both using the same leg piece, so the skirt’s a better choice for now. For the boots, I’ve been looking for an alternative to the Bogatyr’s Thighboots of Aiming for ages, and the Oschon’s set finally provided a solid option. I like how they’re angular at the top quite a bit, and overall I like their profile better than the Aoidos’ Thighboots.

I’ll admit that I copped out on the Elegant Rimless Glasses. I’m having a pretty hard time finding a head piece to use with the Cloak. The Choral Chapeau doesn’t really have the right style. The Gryphonskin Eyepatch has the right color scheme but looks a little too…rough-and-tumble. The main thing I’m considering is the Griffin Leather Blinder of Aiming, but that’s expensive at present, and it’s likely that the Odorless Animal Fat needed to make it will come down in price in 3.3 once there’s new Disciple of the Hand gear, so I’m trying to hold out. The more I play Bard, the harder that will be to do, though.

With Bard (and soon, Machinist) all sorted out, I think I’ll actually be at a point where I won’t really fiddle with glamours too much until 3.3 releases, so I’ll probably end up talking more about specific pieces or other general FFXIV stuff for the next few weeks. But, to be honest, every time I say that I end up building a new glamour for some reason or another, so we’ll see what actually happens.