Dwarves... Yae or Nae?

[DaCapn]

I'm thinking about making a bard. After considering my options, I was going to go with a pure bard and wasn't sure how well a dwarf would do, considering that they have -10 to aura and influence. You guys think I would feel the penalty much when purifying, etc? Anyone with dwarven bards out there want to share? I'm totally new to bards but have been reading past posts pretty thoroughly.

[Avern]

The -10 to CS from Aura is pretty brutal since you are planning to go Pure. It will lose you 2-2.5 levels of CS. The -10 to Influence bonus also means your time to renew will be 30 seconds sooner than a race with a 0 Influence bonus. Obviously, just about anything works in GS. However, if you want an optimized character, I wouldn't go Dwarf for a Pure Bard.

On purifying gems, the formula isn't public and there hasn't been much research done on the impact of various stats and skills, so anyone would be guessing on the impact of Influence Bonus for that.

[Talmien]

There does seem to be a small bonus to being a Dwarven Bard. You have a high Logic and Discipline bonus allowing you to maintain more songs without penalty. At level 13 my Dwarf Bard can maintain 5 songs with only a 5 extra mana penalty.

Of course... at level 13 he doesn't have enough mana to maintain 5 even with no penalty.