New Bard w/ some questions

[chey]

Thanks everyone for giving their 2c, I appreciate the input and debate. Looking forward to playing alongside some of you on Green!

[Issar]

Originally Posted by chey [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thanks everyone for giving their 2c, I appreciate the input and debate. Looking forward to playing alongside some of you on Green!

Welcome Chey!

As you will find, there are lots of interesting debates on the forums and you can typically discern valuable information from them. For the most part, people mean well, but it's the internet and we all get salty sometimes. So don't sweat the debates.

On the original topic, I have a 52 bard on blue who is clearly not a raiding toon. However, this is my favorite class and I tinkered with it pretty extensively through the various play styles. I did do some swarm kiting, but tried to reserve that for hell levels. Most of the time was grouping, charming, and fear kiting/charming.

Here's my take. Bards are unquestionably the most versitile class in the game. As a result you can fill several roles at any given time. Bards are one of the few classes that truly benefits from multiple stats that are available for bonus (INT, WIS, STR, & etc...). And there are no other classes that have as meaningful of a benefit from as many stats. That's why you will always see Bard stats debated more hotly than any other class.

- STR, great for starting out as you can hold more items and makes up for some weight of that beautiful bronze armor. STR gear is easy to aqcuire late in game and so do weight reduction bags, so the value falls off in late game.

- INT, gives you a bigger mana pool, and while I've OOM'd quite a bit from charming sessions, the return isn't worth dedicating points into.

- STA, the returns are null to start, but becomes exponentially better at late levels. If you put 20 points into it, your return at level 60 is 80HP. Not bad, but you don't benefit from it until late. The most difficult to cap through gear.

- CHA, when stacked does help reduce crit misses on lulls which can save your hide in pulling situations. My experience with it is a minimal, but noticable difference. Does not have an effect on charm durations and I stopped using it entirely when not pulling. CHA is super easy and cheap to supplement through gear alone.

- DEX, my favorite. I twist like a madman and I can't stand a missed note. Two missed notes in a row do something nasty to my mental state, and I'm a pretty relaxed guy. DEX noticibly reduces fizzle rates for bards. When I finally pushed mine up over 200, my songs were rolling off like butter. I noticed the difference everytime I upgraded DEX in chunks of 15 to 20points, so it is a safe and solid investment for starting points. That being said, DEX is fairly easy to raise with gear.

This character was a low-moderate twink and I tried various gearing strats for various situations. What I found to be most important in almost all situations was not missing notes. If you miss a note in a swarm kite, you just keep running and try again, which is totally fine. However, when you're charming, mezzing or trying to fear a mob that is capable of splitting your HP in half with one round of damage, two fizzles in a row will make for a bad time.

Group situations was a little different. Suprisingly, I found myself as the main tank quite often. In these situations, I would pile on the HP/AC gear for noticable benefit. However, I would notice the increase in missed notes. I would also pull and cc quite a bit, and tried using CHA gear for this (which is easy to push over 200 w/ gear). I can't say that I really noticed a huge benefit, but again noticed the missing DEX because of the increase in missed notes.

IMHO, if your goal is to raid full time, STA is a solid choice. If you're planning on grouping most of the time, STA or DEX are also solid. The neckbeards will freak, but STR isn't a bad way to go for your first toon on the server either. It allows you to pack your bags with loot and wear heavier gear before you reach the weight penalty. For non-min/max non-raiders, I don't believe the returns on STA for Bards has a enough value to focus on it (not true for raiding min/max though).

Personally, I've been strongly considering rolling a Bard on Green. After playing a Bard for the first time on Blue, I just have a hard time finding another class as fulfilling. If I do roll one, I will probably dump all my points into DEX and forego the heavy Bronze armor for banded. If I had the time, flexibility, and desire to raid, I'd go with STA.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions on barding. I don't know it all, but I have tinkered a lot with the class and have a solid understanding about it.

May you slay the ladies clothing with your boastful bellows within the tavern halls, my friend!