Impactful/Useful Bard Gear in 40’s

[Saisu]

Looking for some advice!
My main is a 44 Bard, and I’ve been splitting my playtime between dungeon grouping, and outdoor charming (Hill Giants lately). Not focused on swarming.

Current gear is pretty standard for a newer player: self-quested Lambent armor, 5/55 rings, and odds and ends that give me magic resist (Runed Bone Fork, Bloodstained Mantle, etc). Have my MM drums and lute.

I know bards can level naked, and instruments will likely be my biggest source of power increase. So I’m looking for people’s experience with their most useful purchases on their bards.

I have around 12K pp saved up. What items will be most useful? Would saving for Selo’s Drums serve me best? Maybe picking up a few pieces of Singing Steel? Walrus Drum and put the rest towards that pipe dream Epic?

So bards, what was your most impactful item upgrades, clickies, or tools that you’ve been very satisfied with?

[Crede]

Don’t blow your load on selos. Walrus is where it’s at.

With 12k I’d get walrus, mystic koada, ss helm/gaunt/boots/bracer, and prob a BoH/or that new one from Chardok and guardians mace and some cheap worn haste.

Use the wiki gearing section on bard page, Focus on hp & dex(missed notes suck)

[branamil]

Jboots- don't laugh. You can't selos indoors and it's so useful to click before zoning into a dungeon.

Singing steel helm - the free eyeball is very useful for pulling or later, hammering off of

Walrus drum is fine, you can resell it when you have enough for selos drum

[Crede]

Good call. Jboots also great for charm killing outdoors no selos necessary.

[Wallicker]

Jboots- don't laugh. You can't selos indoors and it's so useful to click before zoning into a dungeon.

Singing steel helm - the free eyeball is very useful for pulling or later, hammering off of

Walrus drum is fine, you can resell it when you have enough for selos drum

Sow pots are faster than jboots and not super crazy to recharge if you get a bag full

Shrink pots - double shrink and you can shadow step through locked doors(who needs a rogue in seb newayz)

Singing steel bracer - clickie DS for ya tanks

All said above is also good SS helm and hammer is super useful

[Wallicker]

Oh and lev cloak is a nice QoL as well

[GinnasP99]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Rare_Coins

Check out this quest for a slightly better drum than MM drum. The quest isn't very difficult and the drum even looks neat in your hand =)

[Bardp1999]

Singing steel are good clickies for sure. As a Bard you dont really need much. Would save for Epic and velious armor gems.

[Legidias]

Nothing will be immediately impactful outside of some instrumnets (drums) if you're just dot kiting.

If you want to prep for later / more group utility, I'd honestly say just get tanking items. Bards can tank group content just fine with some decent gear. They have the best aggro and mobs come into camp pre slowed with aggro. Given how fast mobs die in that lvl range, bard slow works fine as a shaman slow would probably land at ~85% and only stay on the mob for like 1 min before mob dies. You dont even need to attack the mob. Can just hang out a lute with regen on, slow, and DS or something.

(For all the REEEE bards don't mitigate damage as well as pure tanks; true in pure dmg mitigation, but having a mob pre slowed @ 100% and dps able to hit it right away without aggro breaking is better for grouping. A slowed (even only 20%) mob hitting a bard is still dishing out far less dps than a non slowed mob on a war.)

There isn't really a decent lute to be bought at that price. Walrus drums are good, instrument modifier / price is an exponential increase. Barbed dragonscale boots and shoulders will last you till 60 and raid geared. Quest the ice forged shackles.

[falkun]

SS Helm (https://wiki.project1999.com/Singing_Steel_Helm) for eyeball.

Diamond (https://wiki.project1999.com/Diamond)/Blue Diamond (https://wiki.project1999.com/Blue_Diamond) resist gear (if you plan to raid one day).

Otherwise, spend it on another character.

You won't see epic without massive MQ plat for the white & red scales or a guild to provide them via kills.

By the time you need a better instrument than MM Lute/Drums, a guild bank should have plenty to provide.

Gear outside of resists aren't worth it if you can't earn them on your own. You could argue Velious quest gear gems, but PoG drops (Melodic (https://wiki.project1999.com/Melodic_Armor)) are equivalent to dwarf (Resonant (https://wiki.project1999.com/Resonant_Armor)) armor. Don't pay for gems unless you're getting Giant (Troubadour (https://wiki.project1999.com/Troubadour_Armor)) or Dragon (Twilight (https://wiki.project1999.com/Twilight_Armor)) turn ins. You shouldn't be taking hits and bard melee DPS is a joke.

Sionachie's Partisan (https://wiki.project1999.com/Sionachie%27s_Partisan), Jade Mace (https://wiki.project1999.com/Jade_Mace), and Crystalline Short Sword (https://wiki.project1999.com/Crystalline_Short_Sword) will be more than enough for the weapon's department, less than 1.5k total.

If you do want to spend money on yourself, then I recommend prioritizing:
If raiding: resists > HP > armor > CHA
If grouping: HP > resists > CHA > armor

[derpcake2]

You shouldn't be taking hits and bard melee DPS is a joke.

this is the kind of attitude that makes every class that isn't top DPS neglect theirs and makes characters / raids perform poorly

max the dps you can do, it isn't top parse stuff, but every bit contributes

you are a plate class and can tank well enough for a lot of situations, do not ignore ac and hp, because you'll end up getting hit by pulls and getting hit while mezzing stuff to split pulls

[Galenbor]

In addition to the above gear suggestions (where I agree with most except for weapons, waste of plat compared to instruments and armour), I'd like to recommend Barbed Ringmail Gloves (from Velketor's). I picked up a pair for 1K and they're hard to beat for non-ToV gear.

For shoulder slot, my permanent choice is Imbued Granite Spaulders (from Hole), it's difficult to argue with anything but the weight, wimpy Bards that we are :cool:

As for doing stand-in tanking duty, sure it's not ideal but neither is it an awful choice, given reasonable gear for the job. Bards sport much more defensive cap than offensive, and songs have plenty of potential for pissing off NPCs, at no mana cost.

Finaly, wee little note about Bards and weapons post 20ish level; Really not where I'd put any plat investment, a few utility procs like Orb of Tishan is all I'd consider putting in my main hand. Often consider using a shield in offhand, certainly would if I had a good one with epic and/or beast drums and other main hand useable instruments. I do not nor do I see it happening so I stick with instruments 90% of the time.

[Legidias]

I tank with epic or proc / shield in seb / HoT so a sarnak battle shield or equivalent is good if you want to go that route. If you get primary instruments you can do same.

[falkun]

max the dps you can do, it isn't top parse stuff, but every bit contributes
If you have enough experience with raids to see the flaws in my advice, then you have enough knowledge that you don't need my advice. If you need my advice, then a Sionachie's or CSS or Jade Mace will be enough DPS for what you are trying to kill. The advice is tailored for the audience.

As for the armor, Lambent is his pre-planar gear. He's L44. Once he's planar, he should upgrade to Imbued Platemail and/or Melodic, which matches my original recommendation. After that, he should be looking towards Twilight, Troubadour, and/or BIS single slot items. But all those gear decisions are out of the scope of where he's at and what he can afford.

I do agree with Galenbor. IGS are fantastic resist/AC gear and hard to replace and fit right in with my recommendation to prioritize resists. Orb of Tishan and other proc items are good toolkit items. But neither are necessary and you can get to 60 without them. And let me be perfectly clear, the most important thing you can do to improve your character in Classic Everquest is GET MAX LEVEL. No amount of gear is going to replace L60.

[pogs4ever]

Igs, tranix crown, breath of harmony, chitin wristgaurd, keep saving for a lodi sheild. Offer 10k for selos drums and you might get it, they’re pretty common.

Singing steel helmet, boots, bracer are good too.

I lug most of these around on my 60 bard.

[Wallicker]

Some of the guardian armor that people farm in Skyshrine is good too and you could probably get it for free. The bracers, belt, legs come to mind.

[fastboy21]

resist gear.

goblin gazughi ring.

ss boots (short duration lev), helm (eye), bracer (ds).

jboots (clicky jboots is useful for bards)

BoH if you are grouping. Melodious Trucheon is fun and has uses.

Lute of the Howler (werewolf illusion and good mod)

Best drum you can afford (or the kunark quest drum).

OT Hammer (everyone needs this)

[Legidias]

Tboots where its at for bards. F j boots

[demokatt]

Don’t blow your load on selos. Walrus is where it’s at.

With 12k I’d get walrus, mystic koada, ss helm/gaunt/boots/bracer, and prob a BoH/or that new one from Chardok and guardians mace and some cheap worn haste.

Use the wiki gearing section on bard page, Focus on hp & dex(missed notes suck)

What new one from Chardok?

[Legidias]

Hes probaly referrring to a symphonic saber which you dont really need.

[Wallicker]

Di zok wristsnapper