Bard CS at cap.

[Clintonia]

Working my way towards cap and I had a question.

What's the best way to finagle my bard CS at cap? I know up to 120 it's better than minor elementals (for 425), but after that it seems to be the same as long as I'm right about Bard spells counting as elemental for 425. .5 per rank for both 400's and 1000's

Is it better to take the 400's to 75 to max out 425 and help out 430? Or is it better to take Bard spells to 160 and leave the 400's at 40 in order to boost song of valor and mirrors? DS is a bit of an issue at the moment, working on moving some skillspoints to get shield use 2xed so vrael destroyers don't whack me.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone out there use runestaves? Is that even possible? I'm pretty curious with the recent changes since we can sing up a sonic flaring runestaff.

[Riltus]

Working my way towards cap and I had a question.

What's the best way to finagle my bard CS at cap? I know up to 120 it's better than minor elementals (for 425), but after that it seems to be the same as long as I'm right about Bard spells counting as elemental for 425. .5 per rank for both 400's and 1000's

Is it better to take the 400's to 75 to max out 425 and help out 430? Or is it better to take Bard spells to 160 and leave the 400's at 40 in order to boost song of valor and mirrors? DS is a bit of an issue at the moment, working on moving some skillspoints to get shield use 2xed so vrael destroyers don't whack me.

On a somewhat related note, does anyone out there use runestaves? Is that even possible? I'm pretty curious with the recent changes since we can sing up a sonic flaring runestaff.

Ranks up to level in bard base add more CS than MnE ranks but the 20 addition bard ranks above level would add slightly less CS than 20 MnE ranks above 425. The 20 bard ranks add 15 CS while the 20 MnE ranks will add 16 CS.

This is the CS calculations.

Asssumptions: level 100 w/202 spell ranks and 25 aura bonus

CS w/ 75 ranks MnE + 127 ranks bard base


Level * 3 = 300
Aura bonus = 25
425 bonus = 50
Bard base = 119
MnE circle = 23
---------------------
Total CS = 517


CS w/ 40 ranks MnE + 162 ranks bard base


Level * 3 = 300
Aura bonus = 25
425 bonus = 32
Bard base = 136
MnE circle = 14
----------------------
Total CS = 507


If you wanted to max overtrain bard, a better distribution would be 43 MnE and 159 bard base = 509 CS

Mark

[Clintonia]

So I decided I would do the math on the other bonuses for each training path for people who come later and read this.

Bard songs at 127 and MnE to 75:

Increased Ewave Potency
16 additional DS and TD from 430
Increased Major Ewave potency

Total:16 DS and 16 TD

Bard songs at 159 and MnE to 43

16 additional DS from Valor and increased renewal cost of 4
16 additional dodge ranks from valor 3 additional renewal cost (roughly 7 ds with a tower shield)
Increased activation of Song of Luck
Possible increased elemental resistance from Sonic Armor
Boosted mana return from Unraveling

Total: 23 DS. The 7 more mana on song renewals may be mitigated by the boost to Unraveling.

Well it's actually quite a tough decision. My gut reaction is to take the boosted CS, but I don't know how well things ward in areas like the scatter and the increased song of luck and elemental resistance on the sonic armor is impossible to quantify. I wear augmented chain so I don't ewave much, but that's another bonus I can't really compare. People should chime in with their opinions and experience!

[Malvadere]

Your CS is going to be ridiculous, and you will rape everything. Doesn't matter once you're over 480 or something.

[Buckwheet]

I prefer the added TD/DS over just DS. My defense is like 800 something already and that is not with any CM training/dodge.

Defense won't be a problem. I think my CS is 540 or something stupid right now and things are a cake walk.


You sing a melody, directing the sound of your voice at XXX.
CS: +541 - TD: +315 + CvA: +12 + d100: +50 - +30 == +258
Warding failed!

I still can bump that with enhansives a little and I am missing spells.

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 75

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 117

Last edit: Don't forget with air lore our 7x tower shield becomes a 7x small shield with the defensive bonuses of the tower.

[Sheikh]

TD is harder to increase then DS, I would always choose the route that leads to better TD.