Bard training help

[Ohr]

thinking about playing my bard again, it's been quit a few year since I took him outside of city wall, so any advice is appreciated. Still has his yearly fixskill left, I'm not looking to turn him into a gem singing statue, so mostly seeking advice on how to be the best hunter possible with out breaking bank getting him new armor/weapon/shield etc. Thanks again!

His current info are follow

Name: xxxxxxxxxxxx Race: Giantman Profession: Bard (shown as: Skald)
Gender: Male Age: 128 Expr: 4728676 Level: 73
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 93 (36) ... 93 (36)
Constitution (CON): 84 (27) ... 84 (27)
Dexterity (DEX): 94 (17) ... 94 (17)
Agility (AGI): 94 (17) ... 94 (17)
Discipline (DIS): 84 (17) ... 84 (17)
Aura (AUR): 93 (16) ... 93 (16)
Logic (LOG): 89 (14) ... 89 (14)
Intuition (INT): 84 (17) ... 84 (17)
Wisdom (WIS): 83 (16) ... 83 (16)
Influence (INF): 98 (29) ... 98 (29)

Training

xxxxxxxxx (at level 73), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 180 80
Combat Maneuvers...................| 175 75
Polearm Weapons....................| 250 150
Physical Fitness...................| 180 80
Dodging............................| 176 76
Arcane Symbols.....................| 105 25
Magic Item Use.....................| 105 25
Harness Power......................| 172 72
Elemental Mana Control.............| 40 8
Mental Mana Control................| 25 5
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 130 35
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 70 15
Perception.........................| 160 60
Climbing...........................| 120 30
Swimming...........................| 132 36
First Aid..........................| 90 20

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 31

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 43

[Drakefang]

Drop your perception to 25 or 30 ranks and all your first aid. Switch all your EMC into MMC, best mana control for bards IMO. Keep either the MIU or the AS, but not both. Use all the accumulated points to max your air lore. At level 73 you might possibly be able to have 75 ranks of air lore, if you have the points. 75 ranks of air lore gets you to -3 sec on your RT from Song of Tonis (1035). This is huge. I would just say you need to trust me on that. Also, in my opinion, you need to decide if you want to use a polearm or use 1030 to hunt with, because I think those 35 ranks of Manip lore could be better used in Telepathy and making sure you get to 75 ranks of air lore...assuming you are a polearmer. Save the manip lore for cap or post cap. You will want more swim, single it at least from now on.

Your spells are fine. All you're doing now is boosting your AS via 425 with more MnE (and adding CS/DS). I don't even know the formulas without checking krakiipedia but I have 55 of both at roughly 1.5-2 mil over cap.

[Ohr]

Thanks for the Tips Galenok, one other question. If I want to change things up a bit and go with pure bard, from reading some of the other posts I need 1x in brawl, and 2x in shield, mainp lore instead of air and telephy, then just go crazy in the bard list?

[MrMortimur]

Couple things to add to Galenok's post which is all around good advice.

Assuming you want to stick with a polearming build, air lore at 75 ranks is something that will just feel godly. You can leave it at 75 also and use your future points elsewhere. As for mental lores I'd keep 15 ranks in manipulation to give you the option of using focused 1030. You could transfer them into telapathy or simply not train in any more lores at this time as well. Benefits of telepathy would include longer renewals, longer duration of Tonis (100 ranks would get you an additional 60 seconds of tonis..) and increased AS for your group as it increases 1007.

Do you use your sonic weapon? If so i'd continue with bard songs until 50 ranks to max that out. If not, 40 ranks of spellsongs would be acceptable. Learning the 400's to increase 425/430 would benefit you greatly as a melee.

Lastly depending on what disablers you use, you could either drop armor use to 60 ranks for minimum spell hinderance for the bard list (assuming augmented chain) or work towards 90 ranks for minimum spell hinderance of using the 400s, namely ewave.

As for a pure build, you are at a level where it really is a blast and also fairly easy but fun especially if you hunt in the Landing. Minotaurs all have weapons that are easy to blow up, krynches, elementals, and then after that Illoke all die very well to 1030. Every time I go hunt I picture myself just blowing up rocks all over the place. Here's a snapshot of the training plan I fixskilled into this year, works fantastic. I find I don't *need* the 1x brawling, but I enjoy it when I put away my gear to climb/forage/search bounties.

Lochiven (at level 88), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 200 100
Shield Use.........................| 280 180
Brawling...........................| 190 90
Physical Fitness...................| 190 90
Magic Item Use.....................| 150 50
Harness Power......................| 188 88
Mental Mana Control................| 120 30
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 175 75
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 70 15
Perception.........................| 120 30
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 160 60

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

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 80

[Ohr]

thanks Mortimur for also a very detailed and helpful reply, Your training looks interesting and I think when I get home tonight I'm going to give pure bard a try just to see how it goes. One question come to mind looking at your training at 88, with out single training in CM and Dodging are your bard very susceptible to all forms of CM attacks? I'm asking because if I recall correctly, most of the mob in minotaurs and Illoke area all has one form of attack or another.

[MrMortimur]

No issues to creature maneuvers of any kind. I have horrible physical stats and I think I died to minotaurs charge maybe twice in 8 levels (72-80). Hunting the bowels from 80-88 I've died to boil earth 0 times (only been hit by it once), 7 deaths to stone fist (hit by it probably 60 times, but I just shout 1040 and break free). 1x PF, song of luck (more potent from song ranks according to docs but I do not know in what way), and mobility are the only things I have going for me maneuver wise.

If you were referring to maneuvers like disarm/bandits, well bandits do cause me a bit of problems though I can usually finish a task solo without leaving to get healed. If I understand correctly, training in CM won't help your CM defense unless you then spend your CM points on learning the maneuver or cdefense. I was cheap and only went 30 ranks in perception, but 1x would give you noticable improvement with bandits over myself. I just rely on 402 and 1006 to get lucky.

My aim is the same as my PC username if you come up with individual questions. I've really enjoyed being a pure bard, glad I finally broke down and tried it. This level range really is amazing for it. 1018 is great for mana regeneration just remember to turn it off when you go rest. Also 1013 is very powerful for prolonging your mana. You'll find that lesser minotaurs, minotaur warriors, earth elementals all have about 40 mana to give you. Net return of 23-25 (with only 30 mental mana control, sometimes I have to cast at 13 mana, then renew at 4 mana, to drain them.) Greater krynch are even better with 80 mana, and greater earth elementals with 50 mana. These are all the ideal targets for mana leeching as they don't have spells to strip, except for the occasional krynch with colors.

Oh you should probably know also, if you go pure bard....your gemsinging sessions will get rather longer. Heh. Purify often or it simply gets mindnumbing!

[Ohr]

so my bard's training now look like this. Hope I didnt screw anything up.

xxxxxxxxxxxx (at level 73), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 180 80
Shield Use.........................| 250 150
Brawling...........................| 175 75
Physical Fitness...................| 180 80
Magic Item Use.....................| 145 45
Harness Power......................| 175 75
Mental Mana Control................| 120 30
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 120 30
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 160 60
Mental Lore - Telepathy............| 70 15
Perception.........................| 120 30
Climbing...........................| 140 40
Swimming...........................| 150 50

Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................| 41

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 70

[Ohr]

just did a quick hunt out in the cliff area where the invading krolvin are, HOLY Cow pure bard are powerful! Thanks again for all the helpful advice guys, much appreciated.

[MrMortimur]

Heh ya they are, Lochiven can kill stuff on the post cap ship painlessly. Not that that's saying much with how easy it is overall. Looks good to me, only things that jump out are your plans for armor, pf, telepathy. At 75 manipulation lore your focused 1030 will be maxed. You've got 5 extra ranks in PF and a like amount of armor. Going to dump a lot more points into those as they become available or let them unconvert as you level?

Happy Hunting!

[Musicalia]

Pure bards are amazing. Enjoy!

[TheOne]

So with that build do you not use an instrument at all? Would your DS go down if you had a one handed instrument and a shield, rather than being open and having a shield?

[Drakefang]

As I understand the concept, the right hand has to be open to qualify for brawling DS kicking in. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that's a 100% accurate but it's what I've always believed. The weapon in your right hand determines what skill you are creating DS with, including an open hand for brawling.

Many bards that don't have 75 ranks of Manipulation Lore, go the route that you suggest. Additionally, they probably don't train in brawl to begin with as it'd be a waste of training points. Just go 2x in shield, use your one handed instrument, and knock em dead.

Once I had 75 ranks of manip lore, I'd fixskill or begin my brawling training at an accelerated rate to catch up to 1x per level. I think my plan had me 2x brawl and 1.5x shield use.

Ohr, if I was you, I'd have made sure I had 75 ranks of Manipulation Lore at level 73, since you could. That allows for targeted disruption equivalent to casting it with a two-handed instrument. The extra 20 or so ranks of MIU are not doing you much good. I don't know many magical items that require much more than 25 ranks and the 15 more ranks of manip lore would be much more significant to your overall ability.

[Ohr]

yeh I'm in the process of moving them now, hit fixskill confirm bit too quick. Thanks again for all the tips!

[Ohr]

just curious, any pure bard out there actually tried going full 2x brawling with the new UAC system? If so, how's going?