New Bard Questions

[Machtunes]

Hello!

I am new to p1999 and I decided to roll a bard. I wanted to maybe get some general tips and tips on gearing.

When I can I'll be soloing maybe with AoE kiting or playing in a group/trio with a few friends that have been here for a while.

My friend that if he can find some good gear with an 8k budget he would so any advice would be appreciated. I know that I can level naked etc, but since the whole thing is new to me I'd like to be geared a bit while learning how to play the bard the way I want to.

Thanks!

[reborn649]

Dex so you dont miss notes and Charisma if your gonna be in groups and charming/mezzing =)

[cs616]

Dex so you dont miss notes and Charisma if your gonna be in groups and charming/mezzing =)

This is bad advice. Dex/cha play a pretty small role in what bards do. They're definitely important secondary stats, but you'll be better served by raw hp, sta, ac and situationally resists (if fighting casters). Cha supposedly helps with lull, but not enough to sacrifice hp, and mez/charm will almost always go full duration even with abysmal cha. Dex for missed notes is nice, but again, not worth sacrificing hp.

[indiscriminate_hater]

^ bad advice

DEX is very important later on, when one of your main roles will come from weapon procs. tishan's orb, melodious truncheon, trochilic's skean, etc., for lowering resists and interrupting high-level casters.

CHA gear is super cheap and plentiful so don't worry about it. STR and STA are much less important, since bard melee DPS and tanking is dismal at best. 20 STA will only yield 80 hp at level 60 - you can make up for that with a djarn's ring.

[indiscriminate_hater]

i should have been more specific: DEX is the main stat you should put points into. you can pick and choose which gear and stats you want/need as you keep leveling up

[cs616]

Bards don't need sta and hp for tanking, they need it for not dying on raid encounters with AEs. Resists are king for bards, followed by hp. Bard procs don't mean anything on raids, with the possible exception of epic (for the atk since you should have enchanter haste which is better). I guess it all depends on what you want to do, but if end game is someone's goal, HP and resists are king. Additionally, you say that bards aren't meant to tank, but then cite dex for procing Tash Orb and Skean, which are both very high aggro weapons. If a bard procs a skean on a mob with a mediocre tank, the bard just became the tank.

Yes, you can make up 80 hp with a djarns, but if you're wearing a djarns instead of diamond/jacnith rings on a raid you're doing something horribly wrong. When resist gear comes into play those STA and raw hp items that you have sitting in your bags don't mean nearly as much as the STA that you never have to remove.

I guess we should have specified what type of play style he wants to have, but STA will serve you well leveling, in groups, and on raids. Dex and Cha mean shit on raids. I'd rather be prepared for all scenarios instead of just a few. I think if you ask any high level bard on the server they'd agree.

Plus, without even considering dex as a stat, wearing gear that I wear for resists or hp, I think my bard has like 170 dex without resist gear, and like 155 with resist gear. Throw a shaman buff on top of that and you're golden. Stamina gear is much less plentiful for bards until velious, and even then we still get a ridiculous amount of dex on basically every bard targeted item.

edit: oh and the reason I listed AC in my first post is because 9 times out of 10 in a group the bard's primary duty is going to be CC or pulling. Bards take hits more than enchanters CCing due to the nature of their songs, so anything you can do to increase your longevity when leveling is nice. Dex/Cha do not help with longevity. AC is meaningless if you're not CCing though, and even then not really worth sacrificing HP due to the effectiveness of AC on this server.

edit 2: less snarky

[zanderklocke]

There's no right or wrong answer, but this is how my stats were allocated on my half elf bard, and I'm very pleased with how he has turned out.

* BaseSTR: 80
* BaseSTA: 85
* BaseAGI: 90
* BaseDEX: 95
* BaseWIS: 60
* BaseINT: 75
* BaseCHA: 90

Honestly, as a bard, you'll have different sets of gear depending on what you're doing. You'll have resist sets, a hp set (I didn't use this much until high 50s), and a dex/cha set if you're going to be doing a lot of lulling or charming.

There's no right or wrong way to make your bard...well putting all your points in int/wis might be silly. Just have fun and enjoy the journey.