Just started a bard..

[RoKnRuiN1]

And boy do I love it. I have decided to invest fully into him. I am wondering if any of the cultural armor would be worth using? My buddy is a Blacksmith and he can make Tier'Dal armor. I was thinking about investing in a suit for my bard since I get a major discount.

Just wondering what kinda of armor I should be going for? I figured the Tier'Dal since I plan to be AoE kiting my way to 60 when I am not grouped. Though I do have the option of the wood elf armor.

Anyways, thanks guys =D

RoK

[Itap]

http://wiki.project1999.org/Mystic_Koada%60Dal_Mithril_Greaves

This is what most bards use up until planar/kunark armor.

In reality, you can pretty much be naked and kite your way to 50, just invest in a decent horn. No amount of ac/hp will save you when you're 35+ with 50 mobs on you

[falkun]

Buy vendor horn + drum + lute. Ding 47. Buy MM drum, gypsy lute. Loot planar rots. Buy 5AC/55HP rings. Buy BoH & guardians mace. You are now in the top 20% of geared bards and you've spent <10k.

If you want to group to level up: buy sionatche's partisan and some other cheap weapon (Sainy's Singing Dagger, Harmonic Dagger, Crystalline Short Sword, Symphonic Saber, Jade Mace, Guardians Mace, Melodious Truncheon). Save for BIS pre-epic combo: Breath of Harmony & Guardians Mace. Buy MM drum and gypsy lute (~100p/each). Get 5/55 rings. Quest lambent. Bards are NOT a gear dependant class.

[RoKnRuiN1]

Well I have been practicing a lot with this level 2 aoe, but man its range is shit. I am already pretty decent at kiting but it's too risky so I am going to group till 18. I am one of those people that will gear an unplayed character just because, so gettinggear is a definite, haha.

I figured stacking AC and Dex would be optimal for avoiding attacks and stuns.

[Karafa]

You can kite from 2+ with strafe running, and it gets even easier with Selos. I stacked HP most importantly. No amount of AC is going to save you from a kite once you hit 35+.

Instruments, 5/55's or a djarn's if your budget supports it. AC/Stam would be your second best bet - I found that resists/dex seems to frequent higher end bard gear (sky, planar), so you'll get those in abundance eventually anyways.

[Silent]

I have jboots on my bard, as well as 2-3 sow pots at any given time with only 4 bags. 2 are 10 slotters(LSB for food/wind instrument sow pots) and a box of nil space even though is 70% WR). Jboots are nice and all, And every swarm kite changes based on what you fight, Aviaks/gnolls jboots or a sow works just fine if you are like me and don't want to twist selos into kiting. I am not sure if you're blue or red, Blue the MM drums/lute should be dirt cheap considering I can get both of them on red for 400pp total.

I stacked mostly HP gear, 5/55 rings, BS 55hp necklace, rest sebilite scale gear with mithril arms/legs bagged for when/if I need the resists(already twisting ele/guardian to 200ish MR at level 33 iirc with MM drums.) Call me crazy, But I wan't a full set of singing steel minus bp/legs just for the cool green plate look. I would go lambent BP/Legs but they are a TOTAL down grade from sebilite scale gear(very common drops if you exp there can get nearly a full set in 8-16hr grind session).

Mostly I can always grab a sow and save my pots for later, I only use them if I am mid kite and sow is like 1 to 2 minutes from ticking off ill selos away and stopsong refresh. Jboots/self sow pots give you that easy edge where circles are so easy to make that you can always land lvl 18 dot NP. and lvl 2 chords is a 70/30 mostly. Sometimes you have to swing around again to get it. I don't do any type of auto run circles or what not, I simply kite with WASD and a wireless mouse(yes, they work fine this is 2013). Generally when I get ready to do a lvl 2 dot I strafe ahead a bit and then turn towards them and strafe cut the side of them just barely out of melee range. Obviously perfection takes a while, And sometimes shit happens where you will die whether lag spike or something bashed/stunned you by desynching. I use a jagged chokidai dagger and breath of harmony(Which I feel is wasted, because I do not even use weapons but it was nearly 3x cheaper then the going rate).

Back to Hp, Ac, Dex, Agi etc. HP is the main thing that matters, if you can get ahold of the 55hp rings and a 55hp neck(expensive on red for some reason still 1-2k plat min) and then HP on any other slot(skull shaped barbute etc) every bit helps. I have survived 35-40 kites taking me down to 20-25% sometimes lower(<20% swap drums and start that selos up ASAP else you wont be outrunning your death) I cheat occasionally by getting my friend ported over and ran to me for a marzin/heroism and rest druid buffs for around 2.5k hp which isn't bad for mid 30s, gives you 2-3 screwups easily. Twisting resto with regrowth is a joke with lute equipped you go back up within a minute or two to max. Anyway enough of my rambling, I must acquire a DE mask and go bind myself in OT somewhere safe incase i die(thinking of muling a char solely for backup crap drums/flute/strings at OT for deaths)