Troubadour is a job ability available to Bards in Final Fantasy XI who have earned enough merit points to learn it. Troubadour will double the duration of a song's effect. Generally, beneficial songs last 2 minutes, plus any modifiers for using special instruments. This is a tier 2 merit ability, as such it takes 3 merit points to learn initially. At this point, a Bard can use troubadour once every twenty minutes. It can be upgraded with 4 points a second time, reducing the recast time by 2 minutes, and then 5 more to reduce the recast time again.