Best race for a bard?

[Klik]

I read this title and first thought someone was going to post FTE bard racing times per mob...

Iksar master race... so any bard with the mask is OP.

[Rimjobs]

human so you can jump 4 way easier than the elf counterparts when fte racing.

[Triiz]

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

DEX affects how often you miss notes, interrupting your song (like fizzles); CHA affects your lulls/mezzes/charms/fears which you'll be using a whole lot. STR/STA are worthwhile in your early life, but won't matter in the long run since melee damage is not what you'll be doing.

While this seems to be the standard bard advice given, I have to pretty much completely disagree with it. This is subjective, obviously, you'll have to find "your way" but my opinion is..

While it's true DEX does impact your level of missed notes, a missed note is almost always inconsequential. Meaning, unlike fizzles, there is no loss of mana or any penalty for the missed note besides a tiny loss of time. I put a bit of points into DEX at creation, and I've regretted it for 60 levels. If a bard struggles to twist due to a missed note or two, they should probably switch classes.

DEX will help with epic procs, but if you're a bard who can obtain his epic the way it is on p99 these days I don't think it will be a problem.

CHA - Ehhhh. The only time I would recommend switching in any CHA gear is if you're going to be constantly grouping and doing CC/Lull pulls. With relatively low CHA, like 110-120, I just never had much of a problem with resists. The higher level you get, the less you will be doing CC.

As far as charm, I did a lot of charming 50+ and I could probably count the resists on one hand and my charms were almost always full duration, despite my relatively low CHA.


STR -- Yeah pretty useless for a bard, besides being able to carry stuff. Lute of the Howler has a decent +STR buff in it for carrying stuff at later levels, when you'll have WR bags anyways.

HP/STA -- This (again, in my opinion) is the main thing bard should be worried about. Bards have terribly low HP's by default. A dead bard isn't doing shit to benefit himself or anyone in the group.

TLDR; stats matter less to bard than pretty much any, probably all, classes. In the long run, staying alive is the only thing that matters. Put points into STA at start, if you feel you need CHA than CHA gear is a lot cheaper/accessible than STA gear in most (almost all?) cases.