Despite the fact that I’ve been picking at Bard for quite some time now (it’s 79!), I’ve not actually touched the Choral Chapeau since sometime back in February. Instead I’d largely been using my “canon” ARR glamour while I did my leveling (and I’ll probably be picking that up again soon once we actually have A Realm Reborn in New Game Plus. That glamour’s served me fairly well through the leveling process, but after some messing around, I’ve ended up with something new for the last leg of the journey.

But I’ve also got a new glamour darling in the form of the Dirndl’s Bodice, and I had the thought that it would make a solid base for a ranged glamour a little while after I put it to use for Monk. Originally, I’d planned to do something for Dancer, actually, which has been in a glamour that has largely left me uninspired since I finished it. As far as ranged DPS go, Dancer’s closer to canon for Alahra than Bard is (because while she has rhythm, she has a poor ear for musical talent), so it tends to be where I go first.

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Glamour Components (Requirements: BRD 50, Female)
Weapon: Yoichi Bow Zeta (Rust Red)
Head: Augmented Choral Chapeau (Chocolate Brown)
Body: Dirndl’s Bodice (Rust Red)
Hands: Replica High Allagan Gloves of Aiming (Chocolate Brown)
Legs: Foestriker’s Skirt
Feet: Raptorskin Boots

So, naturally, the centerpiece here is the Dirndl’s Bodice. From my experience fiddling with it for Monk, I knew the Foestriker’s Skirt model was going to be a good way to start. The Saurian Boots I used to great effect alongside the bodice last time aren’t available to Aiming classes, though, which left me with just two options: the new Raptorskin Boots or the Infantry ones, with the Raptorskin pair being a much better fit for the Foestriker’s Skirt. (The Infantry ones might be a decent choice to pair with the Cashmere or Direwolf Skirts of Aiming, though!)

With those two pieces alongside the bodice, I largely had my bodice color in mind—Rust Red pairs well with the leather belt on the skirt—but needed to look for other ways to tie in the Raptorskin Boots, which don’t dye in the way I need when it comes to textures. After cycling through my glamour dresser, I noticed that the Auroral Bracers were a solid fit—if a bit bulky—in terms of colors next to the boots, and I settled on them for a little while. Eventually, I thought to test the High Allagan Gloves instead, though, which line up quite well with the boots in Chocolate Brown.

At that point, the glamour was almost entirely a color-swap of my previous Monk glamour (outside of the gloves, which were a different model), which felt unfathomably boring! Of course, the only place I had left to really offer any particular twists was headgear, so I started browsing. The classic Bard chapeau hit me like a ton of bricks. It’d been forever since I’d had it in my glamour spread, and it felt like the perfect way to spruce up what was otherwise a fairly standard look for me.

Of course, that also means this one is likely to be short-lived. Even if Dancer feels like the better fit for Alahra, I’m generally more comfortable with Bard’s gameplay since it has fewer random elements, and I’ve just about got the job to level 80. I’ve been looking forward to its Shadowbringers Artifact set for a good long while now, so I imagine that I’ll be putting together a new Bard glamour pretty quickly once I have it! Until then though, I’m always glad to get solid use out of a great item like the Dirndl’s Bodice!