Bard Help

[zanderklocke]

I put Dain Ring in the Magelo page’s inventory slot for the click effect, but I think the other two rings have better overall stats. I mean those are all kind of the three best rings.

Fair point on the others though. I added spirit wracked cord to arms instead of Vulak arms. While Vulak arms have better AC, overall stat additions, and resists, you get more raw HP on your character with the cords. Now, when not using Drums of the Beast, a bard is 4 stamina under the max. I guess you could carry a dragon steak in your inventory to still be at max Sta. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think ultimately, Cha is the hardest stat to get closest to maxed out in best in slot Velious gear for a bard, for what it’s worth. Dex will be maxed via an Avatar proc with Primal weapon.

[Wallicker]

Haha yeah to get all that gear before green timeline ends would be truly impressive lol oh and don’t forget summoned cold stone everyone loves mages for that BiS ammo slot haha

[Ahris]

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

Hi! As a person who has never even reached cap, much less touched a bard how would I go about playing a bard?
Any helpful low level quests? I plan on going Human. Any gear I should go for? How would I go about making macros and the like?

Think of yourself as a mage more than a fighter, even though you can melee, most of the time you can often deal more damage using instrments while also being able to heal yourself and the group at the same time.

Be versatile and adapt your songs to the group you're in; If you don't need to heal and you have someone else doing crowd control you can whip out your weapons and stick to singing but if you lack a healer and get adds you might as well use your lute and do AoE damage, Healing and group haste for example, you'll get aggro from the add but your healing compensates for it long enough for the tank to take over once the main target is dead and by then you will have worn down its health a bit. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The songs you typically twist changes with your levels but keep in mind that all songs increase in power with your skills and only a few (Charm and mez) are ever outgrown. By lvl 50 even your lvl 1 song will be super powerful. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
There are many ways to play a bard so the best thing to do is to learn what the songs do and change them according to what is needed for the moment and how you prefer to play, you can be a ranged or close range DPS guy if you want or a backline buffer/pocket healer, it's all up to you. You will mostly be the one who decides what the group really needs from you so it's good to know what other classes do and spot what they need help doing (Because many people don't play their class like a pro).

Almost all songs can be sung without instruments but by playing their associated instrument (if they have one) they will become twice as powerful.

While you will have many soloing options, what bards really do best is boosting the power of any group.

I've never used macros, i have five songs hotslotted for twisting and an assist button in the sixth slot. You typically twist three songs but you will need to change a song sometimes so the other two are to change to an alternatice sequence; You might for example need to mez an add suddenly or stop doing AoE damage if you have an enchanter mezzing, this way you can easily do that without interrupting the other songs.

You don't really need any special gear except protective gear since bards get slapped around a lot but the stats you want to increase are CHA and DEX, up toa point in the early game you will also want to build STR to be able to wear heavy armor.
When it comes to weapons you will never deal much melee damage so personally i primarily use weapons with debuff procs, keep in mind though that your songs are already generating tons of aggro so you have to learn to manage it unlesss you have a good tank. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Something worth to remember is since you are mostly actively buffing the whole group, if anyone gets attacked you automatically end up on the mob's hatelist. So if a sand giant hits your mage you will be next so get selo's up and zone it, preferably take the mage with you. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[ArunaGreen]

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

I mean if CHA is a bonus stat on a piece of gear great, gearing towards it as a main stat on a bard? Meh kinda silly especially if you get a crit resist you can easily keep 5 mobs mezzed for your group, tank stats AC/HP/Resists are far far more important. I guess if you wanted to waste precious inventory slots on a set of high Charisma gear to help you split a camp deep in a dungeon solo that would be okay. But then again when splitting a camp be smart and lull the lower lvl mobs that don’t self buff with MR first and you will pretty much never get a crit resist. Putting any of your starting stats into anything but ALL Stamina as a bard is a step away from min/max. I’d love to put 25 sta and 5str but alas bards only get 25 points so put them in stamina.

You won't be saying this when you're doing level 40+ mobs. +25 to charisma, no question about it. I never get crit resists pulling efreeti.

[Vizax_Xaziv]

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

Think of yourself as a mage more than a fighter, even though you can melee, most of the time you can often deal more damage using instrments while also being able to heal yourself and the group at the same time.

Learned this as my Bard increased in levels. Sure, when you're in the lower levels your Bard melee will help the group kills things MUCH faster. Once you're around the mid-30s though, you'll be far better off using instruments. For example you Lute+Hymn is absurd amounts of HP regen. Your Drums+Rhythm can make your tank resist 80% of all enemy spells in a place like Mistmoore.

Especially right now, when Clarity isn't in game yet, saving your healers mana will increase your group's killing speed FAR more than your Bard melee DPS will.

It's also a helluva lot easier on your fingers (instead of constantly swapping weapons/instruments in/out)

[Ataria]

Originally Posted by astuce999 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't have /stopsong macros. I ALT + Double Tap for songs 4-8. I use the keypad for movement and not WASD. I pretty much only use the mouse to instrument twist.

I always likened barding to playing the piano IRL. A two-handed non-stop effort that can leave you crippled if you don't do the right warm-up exercises.

I like double-tapping. I find it gives the class 'tempo'. It keeps you alert and concentrated when you have to have different reactions to missed notes/stuns than your "normal" twist (not sure i'm explaining this right).

cheers,

Astuce

This is exactly how I played on Live. Not sure why I never used /stopsong. Not sure i even knew about it. I like how you likened it playing the piano. I never would have made that association.

I did start up a little bard on green, first one since Live. And it was like riding a bike, the double tapping came right back, the notes and timings still in my head. I could double tap with my eyes closed.. I know exactly when the songs end on the dot intuitively.

The biggest thing I remember on live is people would always be mad at me because I could not chat with them.. My reply was always "twisting!"

I wonder, is it so much of a loss if you do not use /stopsong?

I will have to experiment, but double tapping is just so automatic for me, so natural.

[Wallicker]

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

You won't be saying this when you're doing level 40+ mobs. +25 to charisma, no question about it. I never get crit resists pulling efreeti.

Having leveled two bards to 60 and multiple more to 50+ and already having a 40+ bard on teal I’m happy to say I’m glad I went 25 stamina and again any bard trying to min/max shouldn’t go Charisma, so you get a crit lull on efreeti just mez the adds.

[roj1]

we permit download links to the Quran? holy sh1t

[Cyrillious]

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

This is exactly how I played on Live. Not sure why I never used /stopsong. Not sure i even knew about it. I like how you likened it playing the piano. I never would have made that association.

I did start up a little bard on green, first one since Live. And it was like riding a bike, the double tapping came right back, the notes and timings still in my head. I could double tap with my eyes closed.. I know exactly when the songs end on the dot intuitively.

The biggest thing I remember on live is people would always be mad at me because I could not chat with them.. My reply was always "twisting!"

I wonder, is it so much of a loss if you do not use /stopsong?

I will have to experiment, but double tapping is just so automatic for me, so natural.

This is exactly how I used to play on Live as well. It becomes melodic in nature. Also, it is nice to have that manual cadence going, and be able to immediately switch over to another song if needed based on the extra pull/add w/o skipping a beat. I tried /stopsong at one point, and found it clunky at best compared to the cadence/flexibility I had doing it manually.

I got really good at fast & furious typing in between the 3 seconds...

[blooder4]

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

make 1-8 hotkeyed to spellgems 1-8.

Is there see way to get 8 hotkeys on the UI? Mine only show 6 currently.