Bard Bang for the Buck

[somnia]

I'm a level 40 bard.
I'll likely AoE kite to 60.
I have FBSS, cultural armor, breath of harmony, harmonic dagger.
My other slots are filled with standard issue equipment in the 1k-5k range.
I have 100k.

Aside from obviously buying nice instruments, what higher-end gear should I invest my plat in? Take into consideration overall usefulness, best-in-slot, depreciation speed, etc, etc, in your analysis. In other words, I don't see a fungi as incredibly useful to me given I rarely take damage and price is rapidly falling on it.

Go.

UPDATE
I bought a few items:
Naggy Drum, Vox Horn, Crown of King Tranix.

What else should I buy yo?

[falkun]

Why? If you aren't getting hit all you need is dragon instruments (and that, only drum and horn) and you can AoE kite to 60 NP.

But if you really want to go all out:
Full SS for when you do get hit. Fungi for when you do get hit (and not 1-rounded). Selos drum. McVaxius' Horn. Lute - maybe loot rights to Maestro lute? Djarns ring + 55/5 ring. BS neck, earrings. Heiro cloak or HBC for AC+HPs.

Basically, if you are AoE kiting, you want BIS Instruments > AC > HP > regen.
Sort the equipment pages by those filters, and you'll have your gear list.

[somnia]

Why? If you aren't getting hit all you need is dragon instruments (and that, only drum and horn) and you can AoE kite to 60 NP.

But if you really want to go all out:
Full SS for when you do get hit. Fungi for when you do get hit (and not 1-rounded). Selos drum. McVaxius' Horn. Lute - maybe loot rights to Maestro lute? Djarns ring + 55/5 ring. BS neck, earrings. Heiro cloak or HBC for AC+HPs.

Basically, if you are AoE kiting, you want BIS Instruments > AC > HP > regen.
Sort the equipment pages by those filters, and you'll have your gear list.

I lied I'll probably group a little in the 50's for funsees but I also want to feel badass while I AoE kite.

I have several items on my radar just soliciting advice from the pros. I roll with 50-100 mobs while AoE so I'm guaranteed to get 1-rounded. Happens to the best of us sometimes unfortunately (this one time I was like 20 feet away and screen jumped to me being dead....sucked)

I have HBC now. Earrings are good advice. May be djarn ring. Should I get a crown of king tranix? Necklace of superiority? hierophant's cloak? what order cause probs can't afford them all.

[falkun]

Heiro and NoS are both good. Crown is more for resists, which you shouldn't have to deal with much while AE kiting.

As for order, get the best bang for your buck?

Honestly, I think you are caring too much. BiS for a bard is pretty insignificant, even for raids. Get the best drum for resist mods, get 60, get decent resists against dragons, and the rest of your gear won't matter that much. Spending that 100k on a monk or other melee will net you a stronger character than spending 100k on a bard.

[somnia]

Heiro and NoS are both good. Crown is more for resists, which you shouldn't have to deal with much while AE kiting.

As for order, get the best bang for your buck?

Honestly, I think you are caring too much. BiS for a bard is pretty insignificant, even for raids. Get the best drum for resist mods, get 60, get decent resists against dragons, and the rest of your gear won't matter that much. Spending that 100k on a monk or other melee will net you a stronger character than spending 100k on a bard.

Did I mention badass?

[falkun]

Did I mention badass?

http://goldgrill.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gold-grills.jpg

He thinks he's a badass too. Personally, I can think of many other things to spend that money on.

[somnia]

http://goldgrill.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/gold-grills.jpg

He thinks he's a badass too. Personally, I can think of many other things to spend that money on.

http://www.mbpopart.com/assets/paintings%20by%20year/2008/He-Gets-Me.jpg

[Egil]

My Order of Useful Bard Tools and Vanity Items:

1) SS Helm - you'll want the Eye of Zomm click when you pull
2) 2x Melodious Truncheon - for interrupting non-stunnable/mezzable mobs
3) Illusions Masks
4) Resist Kit: Diamond/Blue Diamond Gear - Tranix Crown

[Slave]

Resists are the ONLY thing you need for AoE kiting. The only things that can possibly stop you are the following three things: Snare, Root, and Dispel. All of these are resistable on P99 - Dispel should not be resistable, but for some reason it is.

Crown of King Tranix is the perfect Bard item. SS Helm is MORE for procing your OT Hammer, which is also nice. Basically, get a ton of resist gear and the rest of what Egil just said.

[fischsemmel]

Have you solo AE leveled on a bard, Slave?

Resists are entirely pointless.

If you aggro a caster such that you would even have anything to resist, you're screwed even if a spell never lands on you because whenever stuff stops to cast they aren't in the pack anymore and if you circle back around they are right there to bash you and get you killed.


I guess maybe resists could avoid a death if you accidentally aggro a caster and are then trying to zone out or something. But if you're paying attention to what's going on you should be able to outdistance anything that tries a spell on you before it finishes anyways.

[falkun]

So much ignorance in one thread. I hate to agree with Fishy, but he's absolutely correct in this instance (don't let it go to your head).

[fischsemmel]

So much ignorance in one thread. I hate to agree with Fishy, but he's absolutely correct in this instance (don't let it go to your head).

We just need to hang out ingame. I'm only an asshole on the forums! Well, and in real life I guess.

[azeth]

no bards banging4bucks in this thread.

i leave disappoint

[Lazortag]

Resists are the ONLY thing you need for AoE kiting. The only things that can possibly stop you are the following three things: Snare, Root, and Dispel. All of these are resistable on P99 - Dispel should not be resistable, but for some reason it is.

Crown of King Tranix is the perfect Bard item. SS Helm is more for procing your OT Hammer, which is also nice. Basically, get a ton of resist gear and the rest of what Egil just said.

I'm trying to be as nice as possible when i say this, but almost nothing you said in your post was correct. Saying that SS helm is just for proccing your OT hammer is ludicrous. It's obviously much faster to proc it off of a player or a mob, and the only situation where you need it for this purpose is maybe if you're stuck in trak's lair and no one else is around. Moreover, SS helm is CLEARLY useful for much more than that, it's one of the best pulling items in the game. It allows Bards to pull while staying at their camp and playing their songs. It also takes HT's and lets you pull through areas that are difficult to travel back from (like the paintings in Howling Stones).

[Slave]

Have you solo AE leveled on a bard, Slave?

Resists are entirely pointless.

If you aggro a caster such that you would even have anything to resist, you're screwed even if a spell never lands on you because whenever stuff stops to cast they aren't in the pack anymore and if you circle back around they are right there to bash you and get you killed.


I guess maybe resists could avoid a death if you accidentally aggro a caster and are then trying to zone out or something. But if you're paying attention to what's going on you should be able to outdistance anything that tries a spell on you before it finishes anyways.

Have you ever leveled a bard? When you accidentally pull a caster, you don't run to the zone, you dispose of it with other mobs using charm. This will save your ass about 30 minutes of gathering and kiting time. Way to totally distort what I said. Resists aren't for pulling and kiting casters (DUH REALLY?!), they're to survive long enough to dispose of threats without losing a huge, valuable AOE.

I'm trying to be as nice as possible when i say this, but almost nothing you said in your post was correct. Saying that SS helm is just for proccing your OT hammer is ludicrous. It's obviously much faster to proc it off of a player or a mob, and the only situation where you need it for this purpose is maybe if you're stuck in trak's lair and no one else is around. Moreover, SS helm is CLEARLY useful for much more than that, it's one of the best pulling items in the game. It allows Bards to pull while staying at their camp and playing their songs. It also takes HT's and lets you pull through areas that are difficult to travel back from (like the paintings in Howling Stones).


SS Helm is more for procing your OT Hammer

You're going to be procing your OT Hammer off your Eye about ten times more than you'll be taking HTs with it, or pulling through paintings in Howling Stones. It's so ultimately useful in just getting out of areas, and the guy says he's going to be pretty much AOEing to 60, that wow, go figure, I broke down and said that it's more for procing your OT Hammer. Way to go crazy over nothing.

Of course you can do fun and even unique things with it. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, and I will go back and CAPITALIZE the word MORE. But if you're regularly pulling in dungeons with your Eye, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of classes I like to call Monk and Shadowknight.

I'm glad that you spared me your impotent wrath on the rest of what I said though, especially since almost nothing I said in it was correct. Explaining the obvious again and again whenever you post is getting tedious.

[somnia]

http://roflrazzi.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/funny-celebrity-pictures-woah-calm-down-you-are-full-on-mad-bro.jpg

[Kraftwerk]

Lolbards agro'ing casters while kiting. What is this amateur hour? And of course you fucking zone it instead of wasting time killing it. How long do you actually spend gathering in OT anyway? In like 10 min you can have 50+ mobs, waste of time killing casters you agro because you're bad at gathering.

[Slave]

Really, you're going to give up a level of experience and 20-30 minutes of gathering and burning because you're too big of a wuss with no resist gear to take on one caster?

[Arrisard]

no bards banging4bucks in this thread.

i leave disappoint

We're sorta like 7-Eleven. We're not always doing business, but we're always open.

ETA: The best bang for the buck item I ever bought for AE kiting was Jboots. Not even trolling.

[Kritimus]

Most bang for your buck on bard:

Epic

[fischsemmel]

Meh.

When I aggrod zealots or extremists in BW, I used charm to get rid of them when I had a big enough pull already that it was a better use to time to kill them than it was to zone.

Guess I take the stance that you don't need resists because the shit never snares or roots (at least in the course of leveling from 18-57, mostly ae kiting, I've never had a snare or root attempted on me, let alone landed), and bards shouldn't die to 30 chromodracs dispelling them in SF let alone one stupid little sarnak standing still (lol) to try to dispel you.

BW is where I ran into the most accidentally-pulled casters, and 90% of the time I would land charm on them before they finished their vots or frost nuke so it wouldn't finish anyways.


I'll take back what I said about resists being pointless. But they definitely are just a convenience, not a necessity like you initially claimed.

[Slave]

In all fairness, I never said they were essential, just the only thing that would really help beyond instruments. Though Singing Steel is pretty, and saves some time when you're not slain outright. IE not really pulling your weight anyway.

[Lazortag]

You're going to be procing your OT Hammer off your Eye about ten times more than you'll be taking HTs with it, or pulling through paintings in Howling Stones. It's so ultimately useful in just getting out of areas, and the guy says he's going to be pretty much AOEing to 60, that wow, go figure, I broke down and said that it's more for procing your OT Hammer. Way to go crazy over nothing.

Of course you can do fun and even unique things with it. I didn't mean to imply otherwise, and I will go back and CAPITALIZE the word MORE. But if you're regularly pulling in dungeons with your Eye, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of classes I like to call Monk and Shadowknight.

Bards pull better than Monks and SK's with the eye except in certain very high level camps (like juggs/reets), while being able to play all of their songs and still losing no utility. I would rather have the monk stay behind and DPS while I'm chain pulling. I use the eye much more for pulling (in groups and also for pulling raid mobs) than I do for proccing my OT hammer off of it. Usually there are mobs or players around that I'm able to proc my hammer off of instead of having to wait for the whole 6 second cast time and take forever to proc it. I echo what another poster said - you're mad.

[Slave]

Why do you insist on beating the dead group horse the whole time when the man clearly said he's AOEing to 60? Oh that's right, because you're Lazortag and thus incapable of debating a point on its merits, instead preferring to troll and flame.

[Lazortag]

I'm not sure why you're being so rude. The SS helm is important even if he just ae's to 60 because he probably intends to raid at some point, and it's helpful for pulling raid mobs. He also specifically said that he would "group a little in the 50's" so my point is still valid. I'm trying to warn Bards who may be reading this thread not to listen to your advice because I know what I'm talking about and you don't.

[Slave]

I'm not sure why you're being so rude. The SS helm is important even if he just ae's to 60 because he probably intends to raid at some point, and it's helpful for pulling raid mobs. He also specifically said that he would "group a little in the 50's" so my point is still valid. I'm trying to warn Bards who may be reading this thread not to listen to your advice because I know what I'm talking about and you don't.

Yes, I was clearly talking out of my ass when I said that for soloing to 60, a SS Helm is more for procing your hammer. Thank you very much for calling me on my tomfoolery and shenanigans. I am really such a jackanapes. Really I can't believe you would stop at a mere 4 paragraphs of posts when ignorance of my magnitude should be much more severely punished. Everyone on the forums thanks you for being such a huge member.

[Kraftwerk]

Everyone on the forums thanks you for having such a huge member.

[somnia]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t_5rAbu2-FI/T0K2wJGgOLI/AAAAAAAABJs/g3SfjKL2S7o/s1600/ohgodwhathaveidone.png

[somnia]

So yall have been royally unhelpful arguing among yourselves. New questions, what resist gear should I snag?

[fischsemmel]

In all fairness, I never said they were essential, just the only thing that would really help beyond instruments.

Resists are the ONLY thing you need for AoE kiting.

Sorry for thinking that something that is needed is essential, but it IS what the word need means.

[DOPE]

So yall have been royally unhelpful arguing among yourselves. New questions, what resist gear should I snag?

EARRING OF DISEASE REFLECTION
/THREAD

[somnia]

Sorry for thinking that something that is needed is essential, but it IS what the word need means.

damn fail

[Kevlar]

I'd never use the eye to proc my hammer. Either find a blue mob or /duel someone. Much much faster.

[Wudan]

This thread proved once again, that all bards are idiots. God i hate bards :mad:

[Kritimus]

This thread proved once again, that all bards are idiots. God i hate bards :mad:

You play a shaman correct? You and a good bard could take on some pretty sweet content as a duo.

Just sayin...

[Slave]

I'd never use the eye to proc my hammer. Either find a blue mob or /duel someone. Much much faster.

Maybe once you make it to 20th level or above your opinion will change.

[Kevlar]

Maybe once you make it to 20th level or above your opinion will change.

My bard was clearing sleepers tomb when it was new. I miss duel wielding my scepters of destruction.

[Slave]

My bard was clearing sleepers tomb when it was new. I miss duel wielding my scepters of destruction.

Oh, you used them in duels a lot?

[Wudan]

You play a shaman correct? You and a good bard could take on some pretty sweet content as a duo.

Just sayin...

When u see one, let me know. All i see here is 1 song lamers. Hate to group with them.

[Spudsy]

What's this about a bard bang?