New Bard w/ some questions
 

Hey all, I'm new-ish to the game and Green server and enjoying my time here after finally settling on a class. The utility, supportive toolset, and active playstyle of a bard really appeals to me; the only problem is, it seems like an easy class to play poorly. So I figured it's better to ask questions now, when I'm level 6, than not know something vital later.

#1: What stats should I prioritize when I can get gear? I've read that DEX affects procs and missing notes, and that CHA affects lulls/charms, which both seem pretty important. Anything else I should know?

#2: In a party, should I be meleeing, or using instruments? I've read some conflicting opinions over this, with some people deriding 'lazy bards' who only use instruments, and others saying that the boost from the instrument is a better help than a bard's wimpy melee DPS.

#3: What's a good duo partner for a Bard?

1. you might want to look at a bunch of different sets of armor/gear depending on what you'd be doing. A cha set for charming, a good tanking set with AC/HP, and dex in general helps.

2. depends on party and your level... generally as you level your songs will become more and more impactful than melee, and additionally it also depends on how big the party is, the smaller the party generally the more useful meleeing might be. But every situation is going to be different and you will slowly learn whats most effective and when.

3. Almost anything after you get mana song, charm and fear.

Hi OP,

1. Ignore charisma. It doesn't matter for bard charms as they last 18 seconds anyway. The most important thing you can do is use charm, lull, and mez on blue mobs. Level disparity between yourself and the target makes a MUCH bigger difference than charisma. If you lull blue mobs, your charisma won't matter. I'd advise putting zero points in charisma and just avoid using lull on yellow+ mobs. If you have to, equip one or two big charisma items like opallines or a stein. Don't gear for charisma, either.

I recommend aspiring bards do some research on this and compare the value you'd get from charisma (tiny, and applies only in rare situations) versus the value you'd get from stamina (small, but applies much more often).

Please read my post here: https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...36#post3037436

Additional threads with info you may find useful:
https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=295878
https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=344860
https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=317022
https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=318170

I'd go all stamina and the rest in strength. I understand if it's hard to resist the urge to put points in dex, though.

2. It depends on what the situation is, and what songs you're playing.

Let's say you're playing Hymn of Restoration and people in the group have taken damage. Put on a lute to heal them faster. Once they reach full HP, you don't need the lute on, or even the song. Maybe put on weapons and start meleeing until someone takes damage.

3. Here are some fun ideas:
• Rogue: snare and fear the mob so the rogue can go to town. Twist in damage songs once you have the situation under control.
• Necromancer: play heal song (with lute equipped) so they can lich more; twist in damage songs on their target; pull for them so they can focus on casting and meditating; and probably twist mana song along with heal song during downtime
• Druid: give them mana and twist DoTs; fear the mob so the druid can med while "kiting."
• Monk, warrior, ranger, SK, paladin: pull singles for them (using lull on blue mobs only to avoid resists), haste them, slow the mob, perhaps use a damage shield song or other damage songs. Help them win! Or fear-kite like with a rogue. Or alternate this tactic with fear-kiting to take advantage of passive HP regen.
• Wizard: autofollow them with Selo's on while they quad; mana song them while they med. Also, pull four mobs for them so they can continue to med. If they have 1-2 mobs at very low HP, finish them off to conserve the wizard's mana. They also have greater security with your assistance. Quad kiting perfected.

Have a 60 Bard and Red and currently 40 Bard on Green. Here are my thoughts as well:

Stats
As mentioned in the previous post - charisma is not too relevant nor is dexterity. The beauty of bards is that if you "Miss a note" (fizzle), you can immediately recast. I cant think of any situation in which the fizzle caused me to die or fail to do something critical in the 1/2 second timespan it took me to restart the song.

As a half elf - I went full stamina and remaining in STR. I do slightly regret not putting more into STR early on as wearing bronze basically left me with 0 room to carry loot, but as the gear progresses + weight reduction bags come into play - STR becomes less critical and I'm happy with my decision on STA.

Songs
It entirely depends on the group make up. I've been in groups where I was the only "healer" so I was forced to go lute / restoration and we managed very well to keep pulls constant.

Other situations where there is nobody who can slow, I will do snare song and whatever else the group needs (haste, dex, mana, heal etc).

If you're in a pet heavy group (necros, mages, ench etc.) I will often snare kite and let pets beat the mobs down and also throw in a fear depending on the dungeon / amount of open space avaialble without risking pulling adds.

If you have no enchanter and things get hairy, I can spend entire fights just chain mezzing 3-4 mobs to keep things under control while the group takes care of the mobs.

If you're solo'ing, you have two options - swarming or charm kiting. Both subjects have been written on immensely and with plenty of videos, so definitely look those up.

I think the beauty of Bards is that they are so incredibly versatile that you can fulfill any role and when played right, they add incredible value to any group. Fair warning though, once you get mana song, you might be asked to just afk and sit there and play mana song. Good time to watch Netflix.

Duos
Literally anything as mentioned in the two previous posts.

With any pet class you can face tank with slow, let pet go wild and just mitigate damage or fear / snare kite.

With a melee class, you can haste, fear, snare which is nice.

With a root / rot class (druid, shaman, necro), you can throw on any of your single target / AoE DoTs and just hang out and watch the mob drain away.

If you got any questions at all - feel free to msg me anytime on my bard on Green - Mignart.

I'll disagree a bit with some of the info here about cha and starting skill point investment. Bards have both cha-influenced lull and charm as well as, I believe, cha also effects the chance of landing a mez just like it does for enchanters. Those are three very big reasons why cha will give a big return on investment. If i were rolling a bard today (and I am going to roll on up on green soonish) I'd go human and dump all 25 points into cha.


edit:
I wanted to specifically address this comment giving how grotesquely wrong it is. Cha has a huge impact on reducing critical lull fails. When i die on my chanter and go from 220ish cha to 150ish, it hurts -- a lot, and lulling becomes wy more dangerous.

Videri Bards gud, I done seen it

I disagree with previous posters about the importance of charisma. My understanding is that charisma is used in the critical lull fail check, and therefore if you pull on your bard (which you probably should because they make excellent pullers) it's pretty important.

Just read Videri's post that he linked, and I would disagree when he says that you don't need to worry about critical lull resists, but even so, I agree that charisma is not important enough to allocate starting points into it. Go with STA. Charisma is one of the most easily and cheaply boosted stats with items.

I've never understood this logic, and i've hear it related to pals, clerics, and bards now?

What good charisma boosting gear exists that also has good ac/hp? You'd like to have both at the same time for the charm breaks/crit lull fails.

My point is that charisma does reduce the rate of critical lull resists, but you’ll have fewer critical lull resists if you have fewer lull resists in the first place (because you lull greens and blues).

I am aware of what charisma does, but I don’t prioritize it over stamina anymore.

I should have said “If you lull blue mobs, your charisma won’t matter as much as if you lull yellow mobs.” If you don’t get resisted much (level check), you won’t get many crit resists (charisma check).