After turning 30 as a whm, I decided to become a bard. I've been messing around with the class for about 10 levels, and I've encountered a problem. I don't know how I should ideally equip my bard. I'm a Bard/whm, if that makes a difference. I was looking at my character, and I thought - he doesn't use mp for songs, so mp boosting equipment isn't necessary anymore. Then I thought - for all intents and purposes, I should treat my character as a mage, so HP boosting equipment isn't critical (I don't imagine Bard's melee often). Mind is useless in general, and Int is useless for a Bard. My current line of reasoning is swaying me towards a pure defensive setup. My delvings into the frontlines to buff the melees will put me in AOE range. If I'm on the right track with my reasoning, my only debate is agility/evasion or vitality/defense. Tarus have a knack for the former, and are pathetic at the latter. However, IT enemies don't care how high your evasion is. Anyway, any advice on the equipping of a bard would be appreciated.

On a side note, I have a knife and an instrument equipped. I have one string, and one wind instrument. It'd be great to be able to swap the instruments midbattle without entering the menu. Is there a macro command to change equipment? If so, could someone note it down? I'd greatly appreciate it.