Originally Posted by
Maerit
I'll echo Khorpulent's sentiment, that shielded brawler is not that great. No matter how much you train it, you still have a significant MM penalty. Monks have access to the best defensive tool for UAC, and that's 1214 - so any non-ambushing (stealth) style of UAC would benefit from 1214. That spell allows you to parry with your barehands, and disarms targets (at least) 25% of the time if they land a strike on either arm / hand.
The primary strengths of UAC comes from fast attacks with powerful tier-up mechanics. If you want to take advantage of the UCS, you either have RT reduction (1035 / 506), or train heavily into MOC. With MOC you can tier up and strike at the same time (usually just one tier though). Since your bare hands are the lightest weapon in the game, the mstrike recovery is quite low. With enough MOC training a player could land ~8 strikes to a single target with mstrike with a pretty small RT. Monks also use Rolling Krynch Stance to keep their tier ups active as they switch between targets - which is incredibly valuable for open combat UAC.
Similarly, Bards and Wizards can attack in 1s RT with UAC. This allows you to tier up quickly, with shorter RTs between so you start landing really hard strikes faster without the need for MOC. Bards also have the option of using a sonic brawling weapon. The weapon option is usually rejected by other UAC professions because it lowers your MM too much, and splits weighting / flares, but for Bards its actually a useful option. The sonic flares are sick, and the 1s RT means lots of opportunity for flares. The only other UAC fighter that might opt for a weapon in hand is the Paladin, for the benefits that 1625 / 1604 and 1605 bring to the equation. Most everyone else avoids the weapon as it rarely adds value to fighting with UAC.
Training a UAC bard is pretty straightforward. Get Tonis, train enough to maintain Tonis, and then train enough lore for Tonis to reduce your RT by at least 2 seconds (that will take Jab/Punch/Grapple to 1s with Kick at 2s). If you opt to using a sonic weapon, then chose to make Punch your top-tier attack. Kicking is higher DF, but won't activate the sonic flares of your weapon. That will only happen with Jab/Grapple/Punch.
You might also consider a training route that includes ~20 ranks of ambush. If you like, you can 1005 a target, then ambush them with a kick to the head. For this training, you might want 75 ranks of air lore in order for Tonis to have -3 RT, which would make an aimed kick 2s RT. Or, you can try punching them in the head while they're unconscious. For the open aimed attack sytle, I recommend not holding a weapon. You'll want your MM to be as high as possible to magnify the critical of your kick or punch.
It's pretty fun to play UAC, though I don't think anyone would say it's more efficient for a Bard than say a Lance. It's just a bit more interesting / less boring.