pure bard questions

[Solkern]

I'm thinking of starting a bard, and I do want to go pure

How should I do stat placement, and what should my training path be? I've never made a bard, so i'm clueless, I understand from other thread, pures are hard till 30?
But I want to set my stats so when I do get to 30, i'd be decent.
I just hit level 5, I can still reassign skills/stats

[nocturnix]

I also would like to see a good stat/skill template for a pure bard.

[AestheticDeath]

People don't know how to do anything themselves anymore. Kinda sad.

[Some Rogue]

There's only a ton of threads like this one already...

[mrjrd222]

Basically do whatever you want till your 30, then fixskill to a pure, or wait till a bit later to have more mana as it's a bit mana intensive...

For skills... you're gonna be in guarded, so for the most part people choose brawl/instrument. You get the 2h instrument bonus, and brawling parry defense.

Once you get enough manipulation lore (60 for open, 75 for focused) you can ditch the instrument, which gives a pretty good bonus until that point is reached (so I'd guess a lot prefer brawl/instrument till 60-75 trains in manip lore). The basics are, get at least 30 bard ranks, preferably at least 25 elemental ranks for targetting, single in manipulation, get 24 ranks of mental mana control (for unravelling) single in HP, get your pf to max your health, get armor use to whatever you want to use, and brawling, then pump the rest into more bard songs for CS.

For stats... Here's what Stretch posted in August about his lvl 41 pure's starting stats

Level 0 Stats

Strength (STR): 59
Constitution (CON): 49
Dexterity (DEX): 62
Agility (AGI): 73
Discipline (DIS): 82
Aura (AUR): 62
Logic (LOG): 88
Intuition (INT): 78
Wisdom (WIS): 58
Influence (INF): 49

[Solkern]

Thank you

[nocturnix]

Thanks for the info.

For a pure in terms of stats I would imagine Aura, and Wisdom are important as well as influence?

What makes up bard CS, and what else is needed for strong songs? Just rolled my baby bard and heres what i started him with:

Strength (STR): 70 (10) ... 70 (10)
Constitution (CON): 60 (0) ... 60 (0)
Dexterity (DEX): 50 (10) ... 50 (10)
Agility (AGI): 60 (10) ... 60 (10)
Discipline (DIS): 50 (-10) ... 50 (-10)
Aura (AUR): 90 (30) ... 90 (30)
Logic (LOG): 80 (15) ... 80 (15)
Intuition (INT): 30 (-5) ... 30 (-5)
Wisdom (WIS): 80 (20) ... 80 (20)
Influence (INF): 90 (15) ... 90 (15)

[Some Rogue]

Level 0 Stats for ME, Halfling Bard
Strength (STR): 70
Constitution (CON): 62
Dexterity (DEX): 24
Agility (AGI): 62
Discipline (DIS): 85
Aura (AUR): 62
Logic (LOG): 91
Intuition (INT): 82
Wisdom (WIS): 73
Influence (INF): 49



Level: 60
Strength (STR): 88 (4)
Constitution (CON): 87 (28)
Dexterity (DEX): 72 (26)
Agility (AGI): 87 (28)
Discipline (DIS): 94 (17)
Aura (AUR): 87 (13)
Logic (LOG): 97 (28)
Intuition (INT): 94 (32)
Wisdom (WIS): 90 (20)
Influence (INF): 85 (12)


Not an ideal set of skills, but I am working on a few things..

Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 122 31
Shield Use.........................| 162 62
Brawling...........................| 162 62
Physical Fitness...................| 93 21
Harness Power......................| 162 62
Elemental Mana Control.............| 105 25
Mental Mana Control................| 105 25
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 25 5
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 162 62
Survival...........................| 130 35
Perception.........................| 128 34
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 120 30
Trading............................| 102 24
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 35
Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 71

I used to be around 20 bardsongs over my level, but I've cut back to pick up other skills that were missing.

[Lumi]

Basically do whatever you want till your 30, then fixskill to a pure, or wait till a bit later to have more mana as it's a bit mana intensive...

For skills... you're gonna be in guarded, so for the most part people choose brawl/instrument. You get the 2h instrument bonus, and brawling parry defense.

Once you get enough manipulation lore (60 for open, 75 for focused) you can ditch the instrument, which gives a pretty good bonus until that point is reached (so I'd guess a lot prefer brawl/instrument till 60-75 trains in manip lore). The basics are, get at least 30 bard ranks, preferably at least 25 elemental ranks for targetting, single in manipulation, get 24 ranks of mental mana control (for unravelling) single in HP, get your pf to max your health, get armor use to whatever you want to use, and brawling, then pump the rest into more bard songs for CS.

This is all fantastic advice. I'd only add that you want to stay 1x'ed in shield Use as well, and instrument + manip lore bonuses stack (not to exceed the limit). So an adept 1 handed instrument + 30 ranks is the same as 60 ranks, for example.

I personally like Air Lore, too, so that you can use 1012 and 1035 for fun, or to give yourself truly killer 1-second Fu attacks.

[NocturnalRob]

I personally like Air Lore, too, so that you can use 1012 and 1035 for fun, or to give yourself truly killer 1-second Fu attacks.

not to mention, if you ever group hunt with squares, they will love you forever. buffed up warriors swing claidhs 3 times as fast...pretty nice.

[nocturnix]

Im a little confused on stat placement.

For a pure bard the primary form of attack is CS based songs/spells correct? And bard CS is based on...? Aura? Also your discipline and intuition are high and your influence is lower. What are these used for as a bard? and is influence not as important despite the fact that the two prime stats for bards are aura and influence?

Any info on what stats are important for bards and what they are used for would help.

[Solkern]

I think they placed them lower, for growth

[Some Rogue]

Yeah, most of mine will be maxxed at cap.

[nocturnix]

Cool.

But still curious about my other questions:


For a pure bard the primary form of attack is CS based songs/spells correct? And bard CS is based on...? Aura? Also your discipline and intuition are high and your influence is lower. What are these used for as a bard? and is influence not as important despite the fact that the two prime stats for bards are aura and influence?

So far from reading on simus website it seems Discipline and Logic determine how much mana cost increase you get per additional song sung at one time. But how important is this for a pure bard? Worth upping those stats and taking a hit somewhere else?

[Stretch]

Im a little confused on stat placement.

For a pure bard the primary form of attack is CS based songs/spells correct? And bard CS is based on...? Aura? Also your discipline and intuition are high and your influence is lower. What are these used for as a bard? and is influence not as important despite the fact that the two prime stats for bards are aura and influence?

Any info on what stats are important for bards and what they are used for would help.

I placed my bard's stats for growth, so they're pretty shitty for the first 20 or so levels. INF and AUR may look tanked, but they grow extraordinarily quickly. Not that I'll ever get this character to cap, but if I did, stats would end up at something like 8 100s, with 90+ in WIS and 89 in CON

I remain convinced that every new character should have the following build for the first 30 days:

High STR
High AGI/DEX
High LOG

2x THW
2x CM (1x if pure)
Whatever else

Buy 4k claidhmore. Pwn.

I fixskilled my bard to a pure build around level 36-37. 1002 starts getting nasty around 40-45 ranks of manip lore. I personally don't see the need to do the Voln Fu thing, as even with 1035 and 30 ranks of air lore (read: 1 second punch) you're still better off just using 1030.

[Danical]

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[Solkern]

So within 30 days of when I create my bard, I can change skills without witing right?

[nocturnix]

Yes, and you have 5 stat resets. It should say when you first login every time when the period ends.

[Solkern]

Strength (STR): 82 (31) ... 82 (31)
Constitution (CON): 52 (11) ... 52 (11)
Dexterity (DEX): 65 (2) ... 65 (2)
Agility (AGI): 74 (7) ... 74 (7)
Discipline (DIS): 83 (16) ... 83 (16)
Aura (AUR): 65 (2) ... 65 (2)
Logic (LOG): 88 (14) ... 88 (14)
Intuition (INT): 60 (5) ... 60 (5)
Wisdom (WIS): 61 (5) ... 61 (5)
Influence (INF): 56 (8) ... 56 (8)
Mana: 15 Silver: 0
>skill
(at level 7), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 45 9
Combat Maneuvers...................| 45 9
Two-Handed Weapons.................| 45 9
Physical Fitness...................| 45 9
Dodging............................| 40 8
Harness Power......................| 40 8
Elemental Mana Control.............| 40 8
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 45 9

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 8


anything I should change?

[Stretch]

Yes. Tank WIS further, pour the points into AGI/DEX/STR, and adjust your training thusly until your 30 days are up -

- Drop EMC
- Drop MMC
- Bump THW to 2x

[Solkern]

How much should I tank it?

[nocturnix]

All the way if you want, the idea is that youll be meleeing until the 30 days are up because its easier to level that way. Right before the 30 days fix your stats and skills to be how you want.