new bard aiming for pure

[Lithander]

Stats: Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 93 (21) ... 93 (21)
Constitution (CON): 55 (-3) ... 55 (-3)
Dexterity (DEX): 60 (15) ... 60 (15)
Agility (AGL): 65 (12) ... 65 (12)
Discipline (DIS): 62 (-4) ... 62 (-4)
Aura (AUR): 93 (31) ... 93 (31)
Logic (LOG): 61 (5) ... 61 (5)
Intuition (INT): 62 (11) ... 62 (11)
Wisdom (WIS): 55 (7) ... 55 (7)
Influence (INF): 93 (16) ... 93 (16)

Skills:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Armor Use..........................| 58 12
Combat Maneuvers...................| 58 12
Polearm Weapons....................| 108 26
Physical Fitness...................| 58 12
Dodging............................| 58 12
Harness Power......................| 62 13
Mental Lore - Manipulation.........| 62 13
Climbing...........................| 30 6
Swimming...........................| 25 5
Trading............................| 40 8

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 12
Training Points: 1 Phy 56 Mnt


Those are my training and skills at 11 trains. He is a Dark Elf. I am going polearm hopefully until I can convert him to a pure bard. I've been out of the game for 8 years and I could use any advice you can give including hunting strategies and such.

[EDubbs]

Don't count on really being a pure until 40+. I went pure/UAC at 30, and I've put the pureness on the shelf for the most part. I only bring it out every so often for swarms, which it is really great for. I'm 37 now, and things have gotten a lot easier on mana since 35, but I still fry my nerves every so often. My renewal cost is 32 for the most part, and getting from 106 mana to 127 has made a big difference. I know in another few levels, it'll be even easier, between having a few more mana, a little more CS, then a bunch more CS/UAF from 425, and more defense from 430, we're talking much more viability.

I liked my spell training. I went 1007, 406, 1010, 410, 1019, 419, 1035, now I migrating down to 1030 to get 425/working back up to 1035/430 over the next few trains. I'm almost 2x spells, and I figure I'll let things level out while I train up my physical stats/lores.

Polearms are pretty effective. Sometimes I do miss swinging them, especially since I have so many polearms that I really enjoyed using, and singing sword is worthless as a troll-claw. Also Song of tonis makes UAC a little bit cooler, much more so if you've got the air lore for 1sec rt, but makes lances quite vicious. It really isn't worth the 35 mana unless you're with a group. 1030 is much more worthwhile for swarms.

Keep doing what you're doing until you get your next fixskills, and you could be around 40 or so by then. Stop manipulation lore where its at, and get air lore and telepathy. I'd stop telepathy at 12 ranks, and just pump up air lore until you're ready to fix skills. You might fall in love with polearms and forget about being a pure until much later, when you probably have the TPs to throw into manipulation ranks.

Start practicing an instrument on the regular. I'd suggest grabbing a one handed instrument, as that opens up a lot of doors for you. I went with a two handed flute for RP reasons. Mostly because finger symbols just seems quite lame. I mean, what am I supposed to be? Some kinda belly dancer? It takes quite a while to master an instrument, so start practicing now when you're sitting around. I think you can buy straps for lutes and some other stringed instruments so that you can wear them, which I would have gone for had I known that you can't make a wearable flute. You don't really need an instrument if you've got enough manipulation lore, but at 37 trains, pulling out the flute, playing, then releasing a sonic disruption is easy enough, and much cheaper than 75 manipulation lore ranks.

[EDubbs]

Honestly, being a weapon swinger is a cool path for a bard.

Song of Noise is really cool. We get beat up a bit by warding spells, so if you can stop most spells from being cast with song of noise, and be enough of a powerhouse with haste imbeds, MOC, and heavy enough armor, then you can really take away the entire arsenal of some critters with song of noise. Sometimes you can drop a fancy mithril dagger, and a critter will snatch that up, and waste its time hacking away at you with it while it can't cast any spells. It's a pretty good time.

[Whirlin]

Yeah, I'll echo a bit of what EDubbs said.

Training points are a little rough early on as a Bard, and the main advantage of being a pure is focused 1030. So, that puts the requirements at least at level 30 before being a pure. Then there's the whole mana / TP thing, and lores. I know it's possible, but I couldn't really recommend being a pure until level 50.

Fortunately, you're on a great training path for a polearm bard, and we'll be getting our annual fixskills in a few months. You can always keep that in your back pocket til 50ish if you wanted to.

I recommend 25 ranks in Telepathy, and then moving all of those over into manipulation once you're ready to go pure. No reason to get into manipulation ahead of time. 25 ranks in Telepathy greatly extends spellsong duration, assists AS via 1007.

Since you're only going to 50, I wouldn't bother with air lores. You can get a cheap decent polearm for some silvers, and use the TPs elsewhere. A 6x lance maybe costs a mill or two if you don't get a crafted one, and that would provide the same AS boost until 40 ranks in Bard.

[EDubbs]

Just got 425 and I have to say that it makes being a pure much more effective. 425 + orb = 1002 blowing up weapons all the time. Leave a critter without offense, then just pummel to death has been the name of the game. Save 1030 for swarms. Pretty incredible really.

[Ricer]

I went pure at 58, when I could get 60 ranks manip, and play a 1h instrument for max 1030 effect. I wouldn't make the switch earlier if I did it over.

Your logic is terrible. As a bard, it will barely reach 70 at cap; unless you plan to fixskill. I think you need close to 90 at level 0 to max Logic. If you're still in your first 30 take points away from Aura and Influence - those 2 stats grow fast as hell for bards.

Definitely telepathy instead of manip for now - and I .5x trained lores to get into brig then aug chain early - 30 ranks for brig, 60 ranks for aug chain. If you're GoS you may want >1x PF also. I .75x'd dodge to free up points. I'd ditch the trading and swimming for now.

Assuming you hunt alone your strategy would be 1005 critter, kill critter. Throw in feint when you get good at it. Stance dance when out of mana and stamina. EN was good hunting for me; Vaalor til 20, Illistim since.

[Stretch]

If you're trying to optimize on speed, I'd go with something like this:

1-20 two handed weapon with AGI/DEX/LOG maxed out (assuming you're still in your 30 day window with reallos)
20-35 polearm
35+ pure

[Danical]

Pure bards are dumb.

[Drakefang]

Pure bards are dumb.

I concur. Complete waste of time.

[Tgo01]

Hey what's wrong with pure bards? I have a pure bard :(

Or is this a trick to steer people away from pure bards so it doesn't catch on to the GMs how powerful they can be so they don't nerf them?

[Danical]

Hey what's wrong with pure bards? I have a pure bard :(

Or is this a trick to steer people away from pure bards so it doesn't catch on to the GMs how powerful they can be so they don't nerf them?

I was saying it mostly tongue-in-cheek as I have some experience playing a pure bard.

GMs won't nerf bards (i.e., 1030) for the simple fact that it would upset an already small player base.

Despite playing a pure bard for 20934820394823094823094 years, I advocated for 1030 to get nerfed numerous times; it is absurdly overpowered.