What zones can a bard reasonably 1v1 solo in using primarily melee?

[Legidias]

Up to you, the only stat you really should care about is sta/hp, followed by resists and str.

Cha ONLY affects lull for you, and if that matters a ton then sure go ahead. Ive never had issues with it.

[Loadsamoney]

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

Up to you, the only stat you really should care about is sta/hp, followed by resists and str.

Cha ONLY affects lull for you, and if that matters a ton then sure go ahead. Ive never had issues with it.

Doesn't it affect Mez too?

[Legidias]

Nope, only critical lull resists

[Troxx]

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

cha only affects critical lulls and doesnt affect resist rate. Lvl >>>>>>>> cha for lulls.

I don’t disagree. Levels are indeed the most important aspect. And you’re right it doesn’t affect mez. Charm is so short it doesn’t really matter there either.

This is just about lull. Resists will happen, though, and murphy’s Law of the universe dictates it will always happen at the worst time. -48 charisma for a full set isn’t worth it for a class who’s going to pull with lull. If you didn’t have any other +cha gear and didn’t dump starting points into it that drops your charisma to 37. 37 charisma is a cha range where any ol’ resist can realistically be expected to be a critical resist. Have fun explaining to your group why that room of 5 they asked you to split all aggro’d. I don’t think they’d be keen on hearing why more stamina/str you didn’t functionally need was worth the group now scrambling to deal with a mess.

I suppose you could always just strip visibly naked when pulling ... but that kinda negates the benefit that armor actually gives eh?

Bards are not a class that is heavily stat dependent. More str and your dps will still be bad. Stamina returns are not stellar for bards and certainly not worth crucifying your pull capability.

I always liked to hover in the 100-120 chat range on Troxx with a cheap kobold jester crown and another item to situationally boost it another 30-45 for pull duty.

Good cheap lowbie armor set for a war/sk. Situationally decent for a paladin who doesn’t realize lull on a plate tank almost laughably breaks the relaxed xp group part of the game (or is just too lazy to be bothered to ever pull). Bards don’t need the perks the armor offers and only really stand to suffer.

Beyond the low/mid level game, its got garbage ac and isn’t much good for anyone.

[Legidias]

Meh, I was pulling and tanking in seb at 55+ with mixed crusty / thurg, so I never really had issues with -cha.

Everyone has their own experience. Just know that if lull is important to you and pulling, then yes keep cha high. Otherwise its a worthless stat.

[Troxx]

In general I never worried much about it unless I was splitting the dangerous areas (like emp room in CE or tightly packed areas with 5-7 mobs in close proximity) or later in some of the higher level velious zones. For those situations having and shaman around for an extra boost was always helpful.

If I’m completely honest though Troxx was a shit-flip’s worth of xp from 60 when velious hit and I got him full thurg not long after velious went live in a few early platehouse runs with my guild. I was never tempted by that rusty bucket of insanely high stamina. I have, on occasion, died quietly inside since then watching a rust-bucket paladin try in vain to do the puller duty and have a hard time splitting rooms. I still enjoy splitting with my paladin. In most zones it’s nice to know that the uncommon lull resist is only very rarely a critical resist.

[Loadsamoney]

My base Cha would be 100. +15 Cha, +5 Dex, +5 Sta with my bonus points.

[Legidias]

Up to you, bud. Regardless of whether you like lull or not though, to your original question about melee'ing stuff, it wont help you nearly as much as AC, HP, or str would once you're duking it out.

(Id upgrade your weaps a little bit if thats really what you want to do. Your max DPS will be having melee out, like breath of harmony or other >0.5 ratio weaps, while casting non-dots, and then switching to instrument right as dots land)

[Loadsamoney]

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

Up to you, bud. Regardless of whether you like lull or not though, to your original question about melee'ing stuff, it wont help you nearly as much as AC, HP, or str would once you're duking it out.

(Id upgrade your weaps a little bit if thats really what you want to do. Your max DPS will be having melee out, like breath of harmony or other >0.5 ratio weaps, while casting non-dots, and then switching to instrument right as dots land)

Symphonic Saber isn't a good weapon? It's 11/23. CSS is 12/24.

My argument for BoH is that it doesn't proc until 50...but then that negates the argument for using Symphonic Saber too. Heh.

Maybe CSS and Jagged Blade of Mourning?

[Legidias]

So, BoH doesn't proc. It's a click. 10/18 is an amazing ratio, and if that sword was usable by other classes it would be like 10k (but its bard only so <2k).

11/23 (or anything beneath 0.5 ratio) is pretty poops. 0.5 is 'standard' ratio for weapons. 12/24 is fine for offhand, though there is better (like that jagged blade of mourning).