pure bard help

[AestheticDeath]

OK, so tell me whats glaringly wrong with this plan. What will and won't work.
Is his DS going to be high enough. Is his CS going to be high enough? Can you use spells to hunt effectively, or are there gaps where you will need some physical skills.

Basically a level 44 giant bard with maxed agility, aura and influence. His main roles would more then likely be gem purfication, selling things, and perhaps beefing up a group. But he needs to be able to hunt effectively, whether solo or in a group.
The plan was CS hunting, in guarded. I am assuming stance and open hand doesn't affect bard spells affectiveness.

I found manipulation lore to be the most beneficial I think. Telepathy didn't seem worth the points, and air lore didnt seem to be worth it at this point. Is there something major I am missing with these lores?

For the pure bards out there, did you train in CM or dodging? And are there any pure bards who used runestaves and pure magic skills, no physical?

8 armor ranks - for doubles (Is this enough?)
1x shield
1x brawling
30 ranks in CM - (not sure if its needed, and if so It probably wont be enough)
26 PT for max hp
15 climb
10 swim
10 perception
2x trading
1x HP(will this be enough mana for a casting bard?)
24 ranks of EMC
(do I need mental mana control too?)
30 minor spell ranks
44 bard spell ranks
1x manipulation

I would appreciate any and all responses.

[Danical]

Gnimble's plan around 44 was . . .

-Nearly 2x spells.
-20 ranks for asg 10 (I would go to aug chain but I have pretty decent asg 10 armor).
-1x shield.
-2x brawling.
-1x HP
-1x manip until 75 ranks
-24 MMC (unless you have someone sharing Elem Mana with you, I used it to leech from critters that don't gen with spells a la 1013).
-I would begin to get the CM instead of dodge for the maneuver defense at higher levels.
-You might want to pick up some MOC for the FoF you experience as you should be trying to hunt in high spawn rate places to maximize mana/kill ratios with 1030.
-The rest really isn't all that important since nothing should be able to stance force you or breach your DS for the time being.
-Don't do runestaves.
-If you're in voln you have the option of getting 30 ranks of air lore and using punch for 1 sec RT which can be pretty brutal. At 75 ranks 1 RT kick is exceptionally brutal in the rift.
-Something I didn't use then, but find tremendously useful now is 1018. Just make sure to stop it before it renews.

I moved to the flows, at 42, where it swarms nicely. Thraks are easy to ward but watch out for pyros (i.e. shards - 1002 them immediately and shouldn't be hard since 1002 has a pushdown on them or at least did when I was there) and skayls (boil earth - and they don't stun iirc, so I generally run at first sight until older) at lower lvl.

You can IM me at alphacancerboy if you have any more questions.