Lets Talk Em, Bard STAAAAAATS!
 

So after consulting a few high level bards, I have completely different answers on what stats are good.

Some high level bards say that Dex/Cha don't effect your missed not percentage much and state that its better to simply stack Resists, HP, and AC.

Other high level bards swear by Dex/Char and says that not only does it improve their missed note rate, it also additionally supports your ability to dual wield, and helps enough with lul/charm to be noticeable. They also said AGI is important because it effects your defensive skills such as Riposte, Dodge, etc.

I was unaware that Dex/Agi had the additional effects on your defensive and dual wield stats. Is this information correct?

There obviously is a big gap in between truths here, so I've come to the forums to figure out what exactly the truth is. Help me out I'm buying gear right now.

It depends on how you plan on leveling. If you're only going to swarm kite then get the best instruments you can buy and don't worry so much about the armor pieces. If you plan on grouping or soloing with any tactic other than outrunning targets then read the p99 wiki bard creation guide. It tells you what kind of songs benefit from high charisma and why you should care about dexterity. Grab some 55hp rings and a few pieces of MR gear to swap in when needed. Other than that follow the wiki's advice. I started with no plat and worked my way up from banded to ending up with backpacks full of gear that I swap around depending on what role I'm filling in a group or what kind of soloing I'm doing. So you should be fine. As long as you don't buy a bunch of mana gear or something :D

hp/resists/stamina

HP and resists yea...but stamina? Don't waste your plat. Or if you don't believe me go ahead and buy one of those stamina earrings just for fun and see just how few HP it gives you. Bards get terrible HP returns for Stamina.

A patch note some time ago confirmed that DEX and CHA affect the chance of missed notes. For my bard I just made recently, I got a full suit of Mystic Koada'dal armor because of the AC, DEX, and CHA. My plan is to kite more-or-less as long as possible, though I'm not against grouping once in a while. I hadn't ever really done it before, so I figured that not missing notes would be pretty important. Not sure how true that is, though. I guess if you're kiting you don't really need any gear other than instruments, although if you get hit and don't immediately die thanks to AC, that's nice too.

It's anecdotal but once my instrument/singing skills maxed on my bard on live I almost never missed notes, and I didn't have DEX or CHA anywhere near maxed. Also, missing a note is almost never critical and so rare at high levels I never thought about it.

Probably resists and HP are going to be the most important. I do believe CHA will affect your mezzing/charming success but you aren't doing that most of the time.

In my experience pretty much all bards keep a backpack or two of alternate equipment to switch between melee mode and survivor mode. Melee stuff just being as much +STR stuff as you can stack, and the survivor stuff being mostly HP/resist gear.

If you're kiting, you don't need any gear. But if you're insisting on gearing up, you probably just need HP/resists to help you escape the odd bad pull or wandering caster.

The most important things are AC, MR, and direct +HP (don't bother with STA, returns are terrible).

Pay attention to the weight of the armor you're buying. You don't want to be sitting at 85 weight with 88 Strength. It sucks.

Don't be one of those gay Bards that only kites. The Bard is the one class in the game where you can truly show off your skills and make yourself stand out in a group as a good player.. If you weren't planning on doing that, why even bother playing a Bard? When I used to play a Bard like 10 months ago, I admit that I was lame and kited to 50, and it was one of the most boring things I have done and I regret it. After I got to 50 I was so burned out that I just sold the character. EQ not a "race" and EQ doesn't suddenly become fun at 50. Enjoy the road to get there, and learn how to group as a fuckin Bard.

Personally, I'm finding kiting pretty exciting (I'm only level 8, though). It's very cool to just take down a huge group of monsters by myself and get a giant chunk of EXP at once. Yeah, grouping as a bard is more interesting and in some ways more challenging, I'm sure, but I already have other characters I play when I have the time to group (let's be honest, if you want to group you should have at least 2-3 hours free, so that it's worth it given the time it can take to find a group and get situated). Grouping's great but it's not the right thing for every bard in every situation.

resists > raw HP > everything else.

what about AC big falkun?