Fixskills

[Seizer]

So here are my skill placements.

(at level 68), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
  Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                     |   Bonus   Ranks
  Armor Use..........................|     168      68
  Combat Maneuvers...................|     169      69
  Polearm Weapons....................|     236     136
  Physical Fitness...................|     157      57
  Dodging............................|     168      68
  Arcane Symbols.....................|      25       5
  Magic Item Use.....................|      50      10
  Harness Power......................|     168      68
  Mental Mana Control................|      93      21
  Elemental Lore - Air...............|     142      42
  Mental Lore - Manipulation.........|      90      20
  Mental Lore - Telepathy............|     142      42
  Perception.........................|     140      40
  Climbing...........................|     124      32
  Swimming...........................|     124      32
  Trading............................|      90      20

Spell Lists
  Minor Elemental....................|              30

Spell Lists
  Bard...............................|              40

So when I fixskills for polearm bard, I need to bring up physical fitness per Whirlin's core training.
Besides the obvious of dropping armor to 60, manipulation to 0, and telepathy to 25. What other suggestions can be made for my skills? Get rid of MIU, and AS as well?

I don't like crunching numbers, so what benefit is it to bring air lore up to level? See more sonic flares I am guessing? I've also seen that charge is a good CM to have, but is it that more superior over trip?

[Cereal Killer]

Armor to 60, definitely. You won't need more than Augmented Chain.

If you don't want to play the imbed/scroll game, then you can safely drop MIU and AS. I didn't have any ranks of those until around cap.

Also consider bringing perception to 1x. It's a cheap way to pull your maneuver defense up.

The lores -
Manipulation was probably brought up to 20 to help with gem purification. You can safely drop it with no problems if you have no interest in the attacking side of spellsongs.

Telepathy increases your AS, increases the time between renewals for all spellsongs, and probably most importantly for a swinging bard increases the duration of Song of Tonis (1035), which is our version of haste. You get +1 second for each lore up to 20 ranks, and +1 s for every two ranks after that. 25 is an effective use of TPs, but more won't hurt if you have points to spare.

Air Lore gives you more sonic flares, and buffs up 1035 by giving you more dodge ranks as well as increasing the haste benefit by 1 second at 30 ranks and 2 seconds at 75.

Charge is the best cman we have access to. It is mechanically superior to trip in terms of effectiveness and the damage it can do to enemies.

[Seizer]

Charge is the best cman we have access to. It is mechanically superior to trip in terms of effectiveness and the damage it can do to enemies.

I forgot to ask about CDefense, and CMovement. I do like bandits, and escorts, so keep these or scrap them?

[Cereal Killer]

I'm a fan of cdefense, and also training in the other cmans for defensive reasons. Each rank of Feint and Shield Bash will give you 15 defense when something uses it against you.

You obviously don't need to train in disarm since sonic weapons are immune to it.

You shouldn't be running into DS problems, so I would advocate the use of Focus over Cdefense as our Spiritual TD isn't the best.

[Seizer]

Copy that, and other than needing mental mana control for 1030, I trained in it to leech crystal wands when I was lower train. Something else to set to zero?

I forgot what a PITA it is to unlearn cmans. I would buy a potion, but I didn't know shit about stat placement, so saving for the fixstats.

[Cereal Killer]

Don't drop MMC.

Being able to leech crystal/blue wands for mana whenever you're in a bind is one of the more broken aspects of being a bard. I would set that baby to at least 24. In addition, it increases the chance that you can break yourself out of stuns/immobility with 1040. I've been meaning to push it up to 30 myself for this reason, but haven't run into problems at 24 ranks.

[Jeril]

Something to consider is pushing your armor up to 90. While not a huge issue for a pure bard to keep it at 60 as a polearm bard you'll probably want to make more use of ewave.

Also pushing air lore up or having a plan to get your 75 ranks of it by 73 isn't a bad idea either, mostly for tonis but the flares are sexy too.

[Whirlin]

Armor to 60, definitely. You won't need more than Augmented Chain.

If you don't want to play the imbed/scroll game, then you can safely drop MIU and AS. I didn't have any ranks of those until around cap.

Also consider bringing perception to 1x. It's a cheap way to pull your maneuver defense up.

The lores -
Manipulation was probably brought up to 20 to help with gem purification. You can safely drop it with no problems if you have no interest in the attacking side of spellsongs.

Telepathy increases your AS, increases the time between renewals for all spellsongs, and probably most importantly for a swinging bard increases the duration of Song of Tonis (1035), which is our version of haste. You get +1 second for each lore up to 20 ranks, and +1 s for every two ranks after that. 25 is an effective use of TPs, but more won't hurt if you have points to spare.

Air Lore gives you more sonic flares, and buffs up 1035 by giving you more dodge ranks as well as increasing the haste benefit by 1 second at 30 ranks and 2 seconds at 75.

Charge is the best cman we have access to. It is mechanically superior to trip in terms of effectiveness and the damage it can do to enemies.

Completely agree with everything you said... Just wondering around Manipulation... I dunno if you would know if you've always kept them, but I find that just by leveling, my 1004 is pretty solid nowadays, and I can get quite a few purifies out of a gem (takes me forever on cleaning day).

Also... as far as CMANs go... I've become a fan of side-by-side... but then again, I try to hunt in groups when I play my bard.

[Cereal Killer]

This is a pre-cap bard. Pushing armor up to 90 is a lot of TPs (300 ptps at 10 ptps per level), and I don't think it's necessarily worth it pre-cap for a bard just to use e-wave.

If you find yourself with a surplus of extra training points, I would pick up a few ranks of Multi-Opponent Combat over Armor Use. It's roughly the same amount of TPs per rank, and it will give you some tangible early bonuses for a reasonable TP investment (Force on Force offsetting and the ability to multi-strike).

My comment about the 20 ranks of Manipulation was just trying to reason what he already has going on in his build (in case he is coming back to the character from a long time or purchased it). I don't think it has any place in a swinging bard's training plan pre-cap given how tight points tend to be. I also think that he should have reasonable success at his level purifying with just the number of spellsongs he has.

[Seizer]

Thanks for the input. Just leveled, fixed PF, and perception. Will be fixing when the free one is granted soon enough. I haven't had any need to leech a wand in a long time, but since MMC factors into 1040 I will leave it alone. Having fun with charge vs. trip. It does seem far more effective, inducing RT on critters, and pushing them on to their ass. Only draw back is 7 second RT, but seems I am hitting more than with trip.

Someday I would like to wear hauberk instead of augmented chain, so long term goal on armor use. I am sure another day when I get bored I'll try my hand at pure, but long long ways off.

One thing I would like better is crowd control. Most of what I hunt tends to ward off 1030, even with 425 up. Plus not having tons of MMC and I am not going to walk around playing my war pipes. So assuming once I dump telepathy to 25 and manipulation to 1, and other skills to 0, would it be more beneficial to bump up MOC to 15 before air lore to level?