New to Bard

[Lilynn]

Hello. Hoping I can get some help on a new character. I've tried bards a couple times, this is the highest I've gotten without quitting, she's 19 about to hit 20 and could really use some help on stats and maybe skills. I'd like her to mostly be for loresinging, was told the magic number for levels is 25? Higher if I want to make orb gems. I'll list my skills, maybe I could get some input on why I really suck at playing a bard. lol I'm either terrible or I really hate the class, but I don't want to hate it.

Is there a better/more fun build? Maybe I could take this character higher and actually enjoy it? I know bards are super OP at higher levels, but is there anything to help the lower level grind? I plan to take her through CoL just for the wracking. She's sylvankind, probably the worse race but wanted something different from my normal. I know INF is big in bards but I've always been terrible with stats. Anyways, any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM me.


Thank you :-)



Armor Use..........................| 90 20
Polearm Weapons....................| 140 40
Physical Fitness...................| 90 20
Dodging............................| 108 26
Harness Power......................| 90 20
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 90 20
Perception.........................| 90 20
Climbing...........................| 70 15
Swimming...........................| 50 10
Trading............................| 140 40

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 20



Gender: Female Age: 0 Expr: 425884 Level: 19
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 86 (18) ... 86 (18)
Constitution (CON): 58 (4) ... 58 (4)
Dexterity (DEX): 69 (19) ... 69 (19)
Agility (AGI): 69 (14) ... 69 (14)
Discipline (DIS): 53 (-4) ... 53 (-4)
Aura (AUR): 96 (28) ... 96 (28)
Logic (LOG): 92 (21) ... 92 (21)
Intuition (INT): 39 (-5) ... 39 (-5)
Wisdom (WIS): 66 (8) ... 66 (8)
Influence (INF): 99 (24) ... 99 (24)

[Maerit]

Drop your Bard spells to 19. That extra spell rank is unnecessary TP waste since you can't use level 20 spell at level 19. Drop your HP to 19 since that 1 extra HP is giving you 1 extra mana for a bunch of TPs. Somehow you need to get 1x in Combat Maneuvers. Probably by dropping your extra 6 ranks of Dodging and putting those into CM, along with the 1 spell ranks and 1 HP ranks - you may be able to get to 20 ranks of Combat Maneuvers.

You can also squeeze some TPs from dropping climbing back to down to 10 points since .5x in climb/swim is usually enough for most areas of the game.

Trading might not fit until later in the game (though I think it's fairly cheap, those are some valuable TPs). There's also a trading bonus daily cap, from what I understand. Really can't survive well without combat maneuvers for much longer. Not that you need active stamina maneuvers (though they can be fun, especially when you pick up Tonis), but the passive / defensive ones come in handy, and just training in the CM skills gives you defense.

[Lilynn]

Okay, was able to put 20 ranks in CM, dropped dodging to 19, the spell rank, HP, climbing, and trading. Here's what it looks like now.


Armor Use..........................| 90 20 20
Combat Maneuvers...................| 90 20 20
Polearm Weapons....................| 140 40 40
Physical Fitness...................| 86 19 19
Dodging............................| 86 19 19
Harness Power......................| 90 20 20
Elemental Lore - Air...............| 90 20 20
Perception.........................| 90 20 20
Climbing...........................| 50 10 10
Swimming...........................| 25 5 5
Trading............................| 90 20 20

Spell Lists
Bard...............................| 19 19


I've got 49 mental tps and 25 physical tps left. Is there a cman I should learn, or just train in it for the defense?

[Maerit]

Entirely up to you.

Some people like feint to lower target stance, which isn't that important for a bard if you open with 1002 or 1005 without struggling for mana.

Some people prefer cunning defense for the added CMAN protection.

As you are a polearm bard, Charge is a consideration, but I find the 7s RT to be too significant to warrant charging anything (it has killing power, which is why people like it sometimes).

Dirtkick is a nice active CMAN that dramatically lowers your target's EBP while also inflicting some RT and can be used from defensive stance (a nice bonus for any AS vs DS combat style).

Combat Focus will help if your TD is low, and you need some extra warding protection.

Also, it's entirely reasonable to bump your Dodge/PT back to up 20 ranks. Spell Ranks and HP are the ones which don't grant a lot of benefits when over-trained (unless you're going for higher CS with your bard attack spells). Everything else is viable to over-train. If I were going to over-train anything as a bard, I'd train extra ranks in armor use, dodge and maybe MoC. There is also a case to be made for some training in Elemental Mana Control, Magic Item Use and to a smaller extent, Arcane Symbols.

[Lilynn]

awesome, thank you so much!

[wetsand]

Here's my input and training suggestion, I would give UAC a shot while you can still instantly migrate;

Drop all CM(It's only providing +10 AS right now)
Drop all air lore(circle back once TPs allow)
Drop all trading(circle back once TPs allow)
Drop bard spells to 11
Max brawling
.5x level in TWC(10 ranks at 20)
Everything else into Minor Elemental til 425 and then back into bard

[Maerit]

Here's my input and training suggestion, I would give UAC a shot while you can still instantly migrate;

Drop all CM(It's only providing +10 AS right now)
Drop all air lore(circle back once TPs allow)
Drop all trading(circle back once TPs allow)
Drop bard spells to 11
Max brawling
.5x level in TWC(10 ranks at 20)
Everything else into Minor Elemental til 425 and then back into bard

Need logic explained. Brawling assumed unarmed combat style? Suggesting that +25 UAF is better than the bard spells, and no sonic weapon? I personally had my UCS bard go straight to 1035, be in Voln, and keep tonis going almost all the time during a hunt. That RT reduction was substantially more beneficial than having +25 UAF.

I would say the polearm combat style would benefit more from this strategy. OP needs to decide if they want sonic weapons + song of power + song of mirrors first, or get that extra AS boost from 425. Which is actually only going to be 16-17 more AS (because you lose +8-9 AS from 1007 by staying at 11 ranks instead of getting to 19-20 ranks) than just keeping their current spell config.

[wetsand]

Need logic explained. Brawling assumed unarmed combat style? Suggesting that +25 UAF is better than the bard spells, and no sonic weapon? I personally had my UCS bard go straight to 1035, be in Voln, and keep tonis going almost all the time during a hunt. That RT reduction was substantially more beneficial than having +25 UAF.

UAC is a cheap (and fun) weapon skill. Really can't go wrong going for 1035 over 425. I just like grabbing 425 at 25 and then going back heavily into bard.

[Maerit]

Yes, for me, UAC was much more interesting than polearms. Switched at 25, am 84 now on the bard. I did a few levels as a pure, and it was nice to see stuff explode, but ultimately back to boring while also being less versatile (though probably more efficient and safe).

[Dantx]

Need logic explained. Brawling assumed unarmed combat style? Suggesting that +25 UAF is better than the bard spells, and no sonic weapon? I personally had my UCS bard go straight to 1035, be in Voln, and keep tonis going almost all the time during a hunt. That RT reduction was substantially more beneficial than having +25 UAF.

Rushed 1035 as well on my UAC bard. Highly recommend that approach over getting 425 and 430. Your DS will be a bit weak until 430, so highly recommend getting R5 feint when you can to lock critter in RT and force stance or waiting out the first swing before attacking.