Bardic Training Lore and Benefits

[Luxelle]

Folks, I almost understand what those mysterious things on the the training screen means in the lore sections, and have been doing them as I can. Someone pointed me to a chart that shows what spell goes with which lore:

http://carabele.com/LoreBenefits.htm

... which confused me to no end. So I'm asking here for some no-nonsense help, please.

1. It appears that my spells require training in DIFFERENT Lores, but some of them have a limit to the total number they can be trained.

2. Which confuses me how I can keep the training up to my level as I advance.

3. And I do not understand how to read the chart at all. Some things say ###, some things have a list of increasing numbers, some things have even more stuff in the first column (or less...).

Help! It looks ever so hopeless to me every time I look at it.

~L.

[Cereal Killer]

For questions 1 and 2, the types of lore you want to train in will depend on your fighting style, which I'm not sure about. The three choices you're going to be looking at as a bard are Telepathy, Manipulation, and Air. In general, Pures will focus on Manipulation while Swinging Bards will increase Telepathy and Air.

For 3, you're reading the chart the right way, it's just that the progression of certain spells hasn't been discovered or given in an easily quantifiable manner. For example 1002, Vibration Chant. You get an increased chance of shattering the weapon or shield with increased Manipulation Lore, but we're not sure about the exact increase.

[GS4-Seomanthe]

1. Lores are not *required* for anything, really, they just enhance the spells to which they apply. You can 1x in each of your lores as a bard, so there is a cap to how fast you can progress in each one but you can train a few times per level as i recall.

2. I wouldn't recommend trying to 1x all of the relevant ones, just pick what spells you'd like to see enhanced and run with those until you hit your goal; for example, to increase your RT offset for 1035 to -3 seconds, you need 75 ranks of air lore. If you don't care about the additional enhancements, just stop there (and call maxing them all a post-cap goal ;)

3. I think the ### signs mean "this lore helps this spell, but exact mechanical numbers are unknown." The columns in which the numbers increase is showing you how many ranks of that lore you need to achieve the enhancement in that row. For example, at 10 ranks of Air Lore, you will get +1 rank of Dodge to GROUP [+06 total] when you sing 1035.

[Luxelle]

So I do not need to study the lore in question for the spell in question to work? And it will get better with each promotion anyway?

Thanks you guys. It's been driving me nuts.

~L.

[MrMortimur]

The columns with a specific number indicate that those spells only benefit at threshold X and threshold Y, so if you don't have the points to get to Y from X, you could skimp for a few levels and put those points somewhere immediately useful. As a bard, lores are powerful but you could easily wait until around level 40 to even start picking them up as you have enough already to train.

[GS4-Seomanthe]

So I do not need to study the lore in question for the spell in question to work? And it will get better with each promotion anyway?


Correct, your spells will work and will improve with more bard spell circle training and stat increases regardless of whether you train in any lores. Lores are just further benefits and specialization like CK mentioned.