Bard Starting Raid Gear

[Saddil]

Hi all. I'm a new player to the server and my bard will be 46 soon so I've started buying resist gear to prepare for raiding. I have a question regarding this (really two intertwined questions): Is it worth it to get a resist weapon and shield? I was thinking of Sarnak Battle Shield for 10FR/10CR/10MR and something like Jagged Blade of Mourning for 10MR. Obviously though, the reason for Bards in raids is their songs so the other side of that question is whether or not I'll actually want a weapon/shield equipped or an instrument. As I understand it, during a fight, Bards are often used for resists and mana, correct? The Psalms are all singing, as is one of the two mana songs, so do Bards equip instruments during these boss fights or are they free to equip weapons/shields?

I recognize that not all fights are the same and that Bards will have other roles (e.g. pulling), but are there a significant number of boss fights where I can equip sword/shield without negatively affecting my role in the raid?

Thanks in advance.

[Ashenden]

Once you have mainhand instruments (e.g. Drums of the Beast) a shield such as SBS can be awesome, but I'd say you'll generally be using a drum to play Guardian + Elemental or Purifying Rhythms if the mob does AoEs that require them so you'll just be holding an offhand drum and standing around banging it until that point. Without Epic or Puretones Discipline the Psalms are inferior if you have a 21+ modifier drum equipped.

When you aren't playing resists you'll usually be with Clerics (or other casters, especially Mages and Necros) for mana, although the most significant source of mana isn't until 55 so I would place 55+ Bards with any clerics before a lower level one.

One weapon that is nice to have is Breath of Harmony. You can spam the clicky effect on your group to help reduce the chance of their more important buffs being dispelled versus things that dispel but you aren't worried about AOEs from, such as Glimmer Drakes in Temple of Veeshan. It's also just a 10/18 which is pretty gooog for the price.

If you aren't with a caster group pulsing mana (the range is super short, you won't be able to melee most of the time when doing this) or playing resists then at level 57 McVaxius' Rousing Rondo becomes an option, you can hang out in a group of DPSers and melee while swapping to Brass every 3rd or 4th song to give them (and yourself) a modest ATK increase.

If you're going to try to be in a melee group and melee things yourself, then Lute of the Howler is a great buy. Illusion: Werewolf is essentially a slightly worse version of the buff Avatar for yourself, giving you up to 91 ATK and 30 STR (more ATK if not capped from FoS+Str). People might make fun of you for meleeing, but since the most recent patches Bards are finally on the normal melee table with normal offense and weapon skills, so they're essentially a "real" melee'er with lower Dual Wield chance and no Double Attack. Hope you enjoy shitty werewolf noises for the rest of your life.

Another benefit to Lute of the Howler is you can use it in your mainhand while holding an offhand weapon, which means you can play the crappy Cantana that requires Stringed while meleeing with an easier instrument swap. What I mean by this is weapons in both hands, click lute, click mainhand, land the Cantana, click mainhand, put lute back in inventory or leave it on cursor until the next time.

Another essential aspect of being a good Bard is using drummed Occlusion of Sound (level 55 and unresistable -MR/FR/CR) and Fufil's Curtailing Chant (resistable -MR you'll need to spam to land in most situations) on incoming until your Shamans or Enchanters land a slow.

Sorry I wrote a lot and went off topic.


TL;DR shield only helps with Drums of the Beast for resists, use some weapons if you wanna and aren't doing anything instrument critical, get to level 55 asap for largest raid benefit.

Edit: If you really need resists you could hold SBS on your cursor and swap it with your offhand drum until the next song is going to land. Just don't mess up the swap or everyone in your group will get less resists for a while.

[Saddil]

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

Sorry I wrote a lot and went off topic

No need to be; I appreciate the thoughtful reply, so thanks!