Advice for a UAC Bard: Stats and Training

[sfogarty]

Making a Volner UAC Elf Bard, and looking for advice. I'm willing to accept that I'll need to fixstats at some point post-60 to have a better game now. Current plan to change to at 19 is:

STR | CON | DEX | AGL | DIS | AUR | LOG | INT | WIS | INF
70 | 60 | 35 |80 |60 |85 |85 |50 |50 |85

Training plan is roughly:
Brawling | Armor | CM | Phys. Fit | Dodge | Harness | Telepathy | Manipulation | Air | Perception | Spell
2x | 1x until .. | 1x | 1x (more early) | 1x + as fits | 1x-1 | 1x to 25 | 1x after 25 | 1x | 1x | 1x

With 1 TWC, and splashing into Climbing, Swimming, and Arcane Symbols as needed for hutning.

I'm finding that I run short on MTPs probably because of the two 1x lores. At the same time, I already feel like I want to move points from Log into Str or Con... which would further exacerbate the problem. However, all of this fits.. which makes me worry that I'm missing something. Do I absolutely need to get be 2x in Dodging, or 0.5x in TWC, for defense?

I'm also not sure how UAC interacts with Bards. Does Kai's Triumph affect UAS? Does that change the value of Telepathy lore? How does Sonic Weapon work with two weapons for brawling?

[Orthin]

I would make sure you get 1x dodge for sure. That little bit of DS low level and in offensive stance will be handy. I also beat feet to get to 60 armor ranks ASAP to be in Aug.

At 52 I still do not have any lore (including air) and have done fine. If I did decide to change anything it would be to sprinkle in more air but I pushed hard on spell ranks above all because I wanted the AS boost of 425 ASAP. I didn't do any AS until 40ish but when I did I exploded ranks to 50 quick and it is a helpful supplement not but a requirement.

I would try to sneak in at least 5 ranks of MoC if not more. That is very handy with UAC.

Kai does benefit UAS

I use a sonic Cestus and do normal UAC and it wrecks house

[sfogarty]

I was definitely 1x dodging, even trying to push it to 1.25x. But maybe I should put the points into MOC instead.

[Orthin]

the MoC is handy because the cooldown is so low for UAC and with UAC it will auto attempt to tier up so it will jab + whatever may come next on the FIRST MoC attempt.

I was voln until 46-47 and loved it, I decided for some weird reason to do GoS and MAN do I miss symbol of seeking.

[sfogarty]

I was voln until 46-47 and loved it, I decided for some weird reason to do GoS and MAN do I miss symbol of seeking.

I'm literally making this character because I did that with my warpath and miss Voln

[wetsand]

Here is my UAC bard at level 57:


Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 5 1
Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Combat Maneuvers...................| 82 18
Brawling...........................| 218 118
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 120 30
Physical Fitness...................| 157 57
Dodging............................| 157 57
Harness Power......................| 157 57
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 117 29
Survival...........................| 105 25
Perception.........................| 157 57
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 105 25

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 40

My suggestion would be to drop cman training til later, as you can see I only have 18 ranks (wanted a bit more TD from cman focus). I went up the 400 tree and prioritized getting 425 at level 25. Regarding armor, I wore doubles til level 30, wore brig til 55 and finally got into aug chain. This freed up some points for more spells/moc/lore. I grabbed 30 ranks of MoC before getting 30 ranks of air lore but if I did it again I might get the air over MoC, especially if you already have 1035. Mstriking is nice but will slow down your kill speed with tonis. I will get more ranks at or near cap.

I always planned a slow transition into a pure build augmented by brawling. I am now working manipulation lore up to 75 ranks and then will go back into bard spell ranks.

[Alashir]

Here is my UAC bard at level 57:


Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 5 1
Armor Use..........................| 160 60
Combat Maneuvers...................| 82 18
Brawling...........................| 218 118
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 120 30
Physical Fitness...................| 157 57
Dodging............................| 157 57
Harness Power......................| 157 57
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 117 29
Survival...........................| 105 25
Perception.........................| 157 57
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 105 25

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 30

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 40

My suggestion would be to drop cman training til later, as you can see I only have 18 ranks (wanted a bit more TD from cman focus). I went up the 400 tree and prioritized getting 425 at level 25. Regarding armor, I wore doubles til level 30, wore brig til 55 and finally got into aug chain. This freed up some points for more spells/moc/lore. I grabbed 30 ranks of MoC before getting 30 ranks of air lore but if I did it again I might get the air over MoC, especially if you already have 1035. Mstriking is nice but will slow down your kill speed with tonis. I will get more ranks at or near cap.

I always planned a slow transition into a pure build augmented by brawling. I am now working manipulation lore up to 75 ranks and then will go back into bard spell ranks.

Beautiful. How's it feel destroying everything with tonis?

[wetsand]

Beautiful. How's it feel destroying everything with tonis?

1 second punches are really nice and I love the extra dodge from tonis. But 1030(focused version playing a mastered instrument at the moment) is sooo much better its not even close.

[sfogarty]

... wait. Do sonic weapons not flare on undead? Does that render my UAC Voln plan a bit... ineffective?

[Maerit]

MOC can actually be slower than just spamming your attacks once they're all 1s attack speed, until you can have 90 ranks of MoC to focus strike 4 hits + free jab for basically the same RT as 3 hits + free jab. Also, you should be training Mental Lore: Telepathy as a UAC bard for now until post-cap, 25 or so ranks, so your spell songs last longer to keep mana issues in check. Also, I would swap the MOC out for more Air Lore, it increases the flare rate/strength or whatever of your sonic weapons which tends to be fairly amazing. Unless you're standing around in a bunch of swarms, it seems less valuable than having more air lore (you'll want 75 ranks of air lore by level 73).

Sonic weapons do not flare on undead. They are considered 2x permabless without flares. You can cast your bless on a pair of gloves and boots to gain some UAF vs the undead, but Voln is handy for Smite as a UAC bard since it will pull non-corp to corp for about 2-3 attacks (if you are maxing out Tonis RT reduction). That can be useful, plus you can get more UAF vs undead and CS as well to help with 1002. Voln bards are really strong in general, and that 50 mana from symbol of mana can make keeping tonis active fairly trivial in the earlier levels when it can be a challenge.

[sfogarty]

MOC can actually be slower than just spamming your attacks once they're all 1s attack speed, until you can have 90 ranks of MoC to focus strike 4 hits + free jab for basically the same RT as 3 hits + free jab. Also, you should be training Mental Lore: Telepathy as a UAC bard for now until post-cap, 25 or so ranks, so your spell songs last longer to keep mana issues in check. Also, I would swap the MOC out for more Air Lore, it increases the flare rate/strength or whatever of your sonic weapons which tends to be fairly amazing. Unless you're standing around in a bunch of swarms, it seems less valuable than having more air lore (you'll want 75 ranks of air lore by level 73).


I think you were looking at the other plan. Mine has Telepathy to 25, and 1x Air Lore.



Sonic weapons do not flare on undead. They are considered 2x permabless without flares. You can cast your bless on a pair of gloves and boots to gain some UAF vs the undead, but Voln is handy for Smite as a UAC bard since it will pull non-corp to corp for about 2-3 attacks (if you are maxing out Tonis RT reduction). That can be useful, plus you can get more UAF vs undead and CS as well to help with 1002. Voln bards are really strong in general, and that 50 mana from symbol of mana can make keeping tonis active fairly trivial in the earlier levels when it can be a challenge.

Since I'm planning on being Voln and mostly fighting Undead, would that make Air Lore less useful? Does it make UAC less appealing in general?

[Orthin]

I didn't miss the air flares hunting UD but yes that is also part of the reason why I didn't train much in air lore. Now that I went to GoS because reasons I wouldn't mind those air flares haha

[Maerit]

I think you were looking at the other plan. Mine has Telepathy to 25, and 1x Air Lore.



Since I'm planning on being Voln and mostly fighting Undead, would that make Air Lore less useful? Does it make UAC less appealing in general?

You won't always be fighting undead. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find undead in about 10 levels. Hoard favor now. Trust me, in your 70s, it'll be hard to keep favor up unless you bore yourself in EN and farm Shricken. Try to use symbol of mana sparingly.

Between 65-75 there's the 1 undead in the worst part of the red forest (warped tree spirits) and shricken. Then you get into the low 80s, and have to scour the rift for undead (which is where you'll be thankful to have melee options to hunt vvrael). I actually switched to pure at 73, and stuck with it until I decided to go GOS, which required me to switch back to UAC to master since pure bards are terrible in a warcamp. After which, I went back to pure and have stuck with that on my path to cap. It's easy as a pure in normal hunting grounds.