Rolling a Bard

[Metalord]

So I've decided to make a bard to play when I don't have a lot of time on hand to progress my main. I'm leaning towards Half Elf. Now that we are in Velious I'm wondering where would be the best place to allocate my starting points and what stats should I be looking for on gear? Also, does choosing a Deity have any make or break impact, or should I just go Agnostic?

[Troxx]

Agnostic is always the ideal choice in my book. I actually dumped starting stats into str/dex and don't regret it. The str is not terribly useful at 60 but being able to carry more weight and having better melee dps helped early on (before bards lacking double attack made melee almost pointlessly bad compared to others).

For raw stats on gear other than hp/resists? Str/dex/cha early is what I did later transitioning focus to dex/cha. Returns on stamina are low on bards. Raw hp and resists will translate to better survivability than chasing high stamina gear.

[Samoht]

Elf Bards have really good cultural armor choices. Half-elf can also wear Dark Elf cultural, and if you roll RZ, you can also wear human RZ cultural and then you can have lots of fun playing dress-up to mix/match the gear sets. Lol.

Bard STA to HP is better than any other caster, and it's as good as Monk/Rogue. I'd dump starting points into STA. Str/Dex/Cha is easy enough to find on gear (particularly Mystic Koada`Dal).

[Tenlaar]

I absolutely recommend starting points go into stamina. The other stats don't matter enough for a bard to make a difference in my opinion, and that sta is basically a free piece of good gear's worth of HP at level 60.

[Fasttimes]

Sta sta and more sta.

[aaezil]

all points into intelligence cuz ur smarter than the other noobs on this forum. For diety pick the one with the coolest name. For gear look for ones that are good. Don't forget the most important thing have fun

[Troxx]

Eh 25 stamina on a bard makes or breaks nothing. Fully buffed in casual gear that's 3500hp vs 3600hp 3% more health. Buffless it's 5% more hp. Str may seem like a silly choice but it improves low level quality of life being able to haul around 20 more pounds of junk for 59 levels [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] . Low levels where our melee isn't comparatively bad it helps the puny elf races put out damage.

Bards can do their job naked. High end raiding has more to do with resists - something our class does supremely well.

I never chased stamina and I don't regret it.

[Tenlaar]

It doesn't make or break anything, no, but in the end it's a better benefit than what you get from any other option.

[Troxx]

At the high end yes. At the low end 25 stamina yields very little. I guess it depends where in the game (level wise) you want those starting stats to pay off. My bard was my first real p99 toon - broke as a weak elf wearing heavy plate gear.