Bard stats Cha and Dex
 

Wondering how much of a diff dex actually makes in regards to missing notes and such, is it minimal unless you have 200+? Also same with Cha in regards to the mez / charm songs, do you need 200+ for it to be reliable?

Im thinking of leveling my bard again too. Was having a convo about it with a friend right now. I was gona have fun and do something different, even tho mana regen is so horrible i want to stack mana gear and charm solo with him. Thought it would be fun.

I would do cha for charming, but when charm breaks it makes like little to no difference to me... i just charm it again heh.

Yeah not sure if I should just go all points into Dex at char start or split between Cha/Dex?

Cha will only affect your lulling.

Actually man, I have a sneaking suspicion dex might be broken on p1999. When I tried out the beta-buff'd bard a while ago, I was missing notes way more often (seemingly) than my current bard does (who is 44 and has far fewer dex points).

Even if it's working correctly, missing a note is not a big deal. As for leveling, the biggest difference you're going to notice stat-wise is extra strength. Carrying your gear, selling loot, and melee damage at lower levels.

As for charisma, you don't really need it that badly until you're using the level 38 charm which requires mana. If you're outdoors charm kiting, you can just recast charm indefinitely on your pet magna-free, so I would guess that whatever small increase in success rate you'd get from charisma gear would mostly be unhelpful for a leveling bard.

I suppose if you want to min/max, you can look at the bard end-game gear in velious and notice which stats are most difficult to improve. Strictly speaking, i haven't done this but I believe the consensus is stamina, and maybe charisma.

I don't even remember how I spent my points, but i'm pretty sure I prioritized the stats STR, STA, CHA, DEX.

It's a matter for debate but imo strength isn't a bard priority. Get some WR bags and you're fine on about 100ish.

I wonder how str affects parsing, if you are doing fear kiting primarily? I may try some gear swaping with my rog and see how it goes and report back in like 100 years when I actually try it

Charisma matters significantly if you are (lull) pulling. It's the most important stat for grouping 50+

Theoretically, Cha works the same way for a Bard as it does for a chanter. More Cha = better Mezzes and Charms. Dex helps you with songs. More Dex = less missed notes. However, as I've geared my own bard on P99, I've not noticed that much of a difference. I'm not sure if it's always like that or Dex doesn't have the same effect on P99.

In my experience with my bard I tried out various stat allocations and I basically came to the conclusion dex is marginal, it is not a stat to focus on at all for a bard. Ideally you will want several sets as a bard. I group and solo mostly, so my focus tends to be on Charisma/Strength/Health/Resists. Charisma, resists and health are vital, strength is helpful but not on the same tier as the rest.