Pure Bard Build Questions

[Logun]

Folks, I am an old school bard from back in the GSIII day and have recently returned to the lands. I have been hearing a lot about pur bard builds and I am interested in going this route.

I am from the old school where there was only one way to train a bard, 1 hand edge and max minor elemental as no bard songs existed at the time. I am currently 39th level and have a few fixskills banked.

Here is my build plan:

Armor Use: 35 Ranks
Shield Use: 82 Ranks
Brawling: 41 ranks
Physical Fitness: 23 ranks (max HP)
Climbing: 10 ranks
Harness Power: 41 ranks
Mental Mana Control: 24 ranks
Minor Elemental Spell Research: 30 ranks
Bard Spell Research: 35 ranks
Air Elemental Lore: 20 ranks
Manipulation Mental Lore: 41 ranks

STR: 46 (69)
CON: 55 (70)
DEX: 50 (71)
AGIL: 80 (91)
DIS: 50 (60)
AUR: 87 (100)
LOG: 70 (75)
INT: 70 (78)
WIS: 70 (82)
INF: 82 (100)

Following are my questions:

1. Could the experienced pure bards critique the above build for maximum solo hunting effectiveness at level 39. I will be receiving buffs from a ranger and a wizard for all hunts (friends account).
2. How to I maximize my CT (stats, skills, items, etc) for Song of Disruption deadliness
3. Where can I get a 1 handed instrument? Does quality matter?

Thanks for everyone's help.

Lord Logun Ulthwe

[Sheikh]

The mana is going to be VERY tight to be a pure at that level

[Logun]

The mana is going to be VERY tight to be a pure at that level

I was a bit concerned about this too. At what level is going pure bard sustainable from a mana perspective?

I was also thinking of two other builds, pure combat bard with 2x CM and a Polearm bard.

[Deathravin]

What I did at 30 was...

1x manipulation
1x bard spells
1x shield
PF to max hp
no climb or swim cause I didn't need it yet
and just pumped the rest into Harness Power

When we got to 2x Harness Power, we started getting MnE til 430
Then we got 60 ranks of armor
Then we started getting 1x PF
Then went for 2x shield
Then some climb/swim
tossed in 24 ranks of EMC
Stopped 2x harness power at 100 ranks
after that we were sorta stumped so we went 2x shield
again with the stumped, so 2x PF
Then we were close to 75 so we did 1x brawling
Then 1x dodge
then 24 ranks of CM
then staying with 1x Mental Lore, Telepathy (26 ranks)

that'll get you to cap. Now we're just pumping it into getting CS higher cause... I mean...


Brawling doesn't help with DS with a instrument in your hands.
Air lore? for what? - never used the stuff. I'm sure it does something. Does it do enough that you'd care more about mana?


To be fair, we scripted everything and she had all target-castable spells you could have all the time.

here -this could be easier to describe
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[Alorn15]

I believe I was around that level when I turned Sheikh pure. Only thing I can say is that it was doable and fun, but Sign of Wracking was an absolute requirement.

That being said, pure is totally worth a fixsociety imo.

[Deathravin]

DT's a GoS, the 2x PF helped a lot with frequent sigil power. Honestly, if you're scripting, you don't notice. She always looked fried to me. And obviously she was quick - she passed up the Sorcerer to be first to 100

[Logun]

DT's a GoS, the 2x PF helped a lot with frequent sigil power. Honestly, if you're scripting, you don't notice. She always looked fried to me. And obviously she was quick - she passed up the Sorcerer to be first to 100

I am a CoLer and figured sign of wracking would be key and had planned that to contribute to my mana situation. What happens if I was to drop Air Lore and brawling and go for 2x harness power to improve the build.

I would also like to learn more about scripting. What site would you recommend that would assist in researching.

[Logun]

Ok revised pure build, thoughts?

Armor Use: 35 Ranks
Shield Use: 82 Ranks
Physical Fitness: 23 ranks
Climbing: 10 ranks
Harness Power: 76 ranks
Mental Mana Control: 24 ranks
Minor Elemental Spell Research: 30 ranks
Bard Spell Research: 35 ranks
Manipulation Mental Lore: 41 ranks

STR: 50 (71)
CON: 55 (70)
DEX: 30 (61)
AGIL: 80 (91)
DIS: 50 (60)
AUR: 87 (100)
LOG: 86 (75)
INT: 70 (78)
WIS: 70 (82)
INF: 82 (100)

Health: 145
Mana: 163
Stamina: 56
Spirit: 10
Society: Council of Light

[Savageheart]

Tried several times with this build - @ 35 (now 43) I know it was viable I just didnt really appreciate the play style. The combat rotation at mid levels isnt 1030 renew renew renew or at least wasnt for me...

I had to unravel, mix in 410/425/430 a lot of stuff goes on that I found tedious - also I couldnt always hunt from 0 to fried had to go out muddled or clear to hunt to fry and then saturate without fail.

MMC is key you will need to unravel as a basic component in your combat rotation keep it in mind think its still the only thing in game that can return more than 100%.

Even if you plan to use a shield I think singling it would be excessive let alone 82 ranks?

I would consider MIU or Arcane Symbols Statues, imbeds and Ruby amulets were more critical to me pure than semi. I used to prefer Scrolls but they are harder and harder to come by regularly.

I may be wrong on this but I thought it was frankly an either or with shield use or brawling. You need to have an instrument in your hand you aren't going to get the parry. Were you planning to only offensively use MnE?

And yeah def dont try to do this when you JUST switched over to GoS and haven't mastered heh without a society regen component this is really hard in the middling levels.

[Deathravin]

All I ever did was prep 1030, cast <target>

it's boring boring boring, but I NEVER needed to do anything but that.
If they had a weapon I'd recommend the weapon explode. never needed DS or CS. I could ward things 15-20 levels over me. I'm not understanding why everybody's having such problems with this build.

[Savageheart]

Dunno could have been entirely racial and poor stat placement on my part tbh. It was doable in the late 30s-40s wasn't easy though.

[Lumi]

I think the build you outlined in the first post was nigh-perfect. I made the switch at 40 and hunted for several levels in Bonespear, and it was pathetically easy.

I have never felt 2x HP was worth it for a pure bard, it's just so little return on the TP investment.

Air lore is great for the shield size reduction for your sonic shield. The extra elemental resistance on your sonic armor is nice, too.

I made careful use of 1018 and 1013, and never had mana problems.

Looks like a very promising bard to me.