[Blue] Bard Final Push to 60

[Saisu]

Hoping to pick some of the community's brains for something to break up the grind.

I'm 75% through level 58, and about to hit the double (triple?) hell level of 59. I'm thinking it would be good to find maybe 3-5 locations to break the level into chunks, and experience something different or new. I have super basic mostly self-found gear (lambent, ry'gorr chain, Mistmoore-found instruments, JBoots) and not a fan of swarming (yes I know this would get me to 60 fastest, but at risk of my sanity).

Lately I've mostly been solo at either Ry'gorr Keep in Eastern Wastes (Chief/Oracle/Elite/Avenger) or at 4s/6s Sentient Armors in Wakening Lands.

Some of my thoughts:
1. I have decent Thurgadin faction, and plenty of gems from the Sentient Armor. Are pickup groups in Kael for plate house a thing? Would I be able to get a group as a 58/59 bard? Would be great to work on some Corroded Plate drops.

2. I do have a Seb key and an OT Hammer. I haven't spent more than a couple hours in there, but it seems like pickup groups happen every once in a while?

3. I hadn't paid any attention on the ZEM changes until just looking them up now. It seems like The Hole is the new 50-60 popular zone? I've never been, but assume pickup groups happen regularly enough?

4. As far as soloing, I can't see any non-suicidal way to kill summoning mobs. That said, are there any higher level outdoor mobs with decent loot that don't summon? Would be interested in taking on something fun.

5. There are a few Crystal Chitin pieces from Velk that would be decent upgrades. Looks like mobs are 45-49ish, but there isn't a lot of room to move around for charming or kiting... possible solo? I don't often see people here, but do spider groups form up?

6. Any quests you'd recommend? I'm a big fan of getting gear through quests/drops rather than purchasing. Lately I did the Nostrolo Tambourine quest in Kunark for a new drum, and the Ice Forged Shackles quest in Velious for a bracer.

7. Last item I guess is that I have ~45,000pp saved up with no clear place to put it. I've seen some Singing Steel pieces that might be useful, but not ready to pull the trigger (who knows, maybe I'll get a chance to camp them in Seb?). I've been able to get to high 50's in rags, so I certainly don't NEED any gear, but is there anything that stands out as useful or a great quality of life item? Otherwise I can just keep amassing wealth and get a fungi or something for a new alt. The only item I'd be super excited about is Singing Short Sword, but that's of course a pipe dream.

Appreciate anyone's thoughts on useful items, fun solo spots, or good places to find a pickup group. I've never had a level 60 (made it to 58 on live back in Velious/Luclin), so hoping to have some fun adventures on the home stretch here!

[Legidias]

BW fort is easy and mindless. Either straight dot kite w/fear under fort, (preferably) charm kite 2 at a time, or just 1v1 man fight with slow (yes, you can do it in your gear and probably end at like 20% hp, but you can just regen it). You have a (miniscule) chance at a nice ring to drop, and often they drop vendor plat stuff.

1. Dunno what you're doing for guilds, but most any guild with a decent high lvl population do Kael groups oftenly and its super easy to get Thurg armored. You usually don't need to commit to any sort of raiding relationship.

2. Bards are great in seb, but be prepared to die trying to get to any camp if you dont have experience in there.

3. Hole has always been good. Pick up groups arent very common IIRC.

4. Not really, no.

5. You might be able to do entrance spiders, but none of the ones with loot. Often the loot spawns are camped 24/7.

6. See thurg above. Doesn't hurt to work on epic cause you never know.

7. You don't need singing steel for anything besides maybe EB gloves and a helm if you want to self-OT hammer. You don't need a fungi either as a bard. Honestly, spend the money on the best instruments you can. The better modifers on some string / percussion will do wonders. If you want to man-fight BW giants, a breath of harmony / guardians mace do fine. Depending on what you want to do with your character, invest in resist gear.

[Dolalin]

At 59 I swarmed velks on my bard. Aoe snare plus the 59 dot and chords of dissonance = just keep your lute equipped.

To stack mobs, pop either the invuln song or deftdance to bunch them up, then play snare and you are off to the races.

I'd generally run up to top floor with invis, aggro anything I could, then drop down and wait for the train to arrive. Usually got 15-20 mobs.

Each pull was about 1 blue in 59. I did it casually over a weekend.

[nyclin]

1. I have decent Thurgadin faction, and plenty of gems from the Sentient Armor. Are pickup groups in Kael for plate house a thing? Would I be able to get a group as a 58/59 bard? Would be great to work on some Corroded Plate drops.

Pickup groups don't usually do it but a single, solid group of 56+ can do it and the drops are frequent enough that finding a WAR/CLR who want to come should be fairly easy.

2. I do have a Seb key and an OT Hammer. I haven't spent more than a couple hours in there, but it seems like pickup groups happen every once in a while?

There aren't many PUGs in Seb on Blue any longer. You can solo entrance -> bridges via fear kiting but I don't feel that the exp is worth the effort. Most folks level in the Hole these days.

3. I hadn't paid any attention on the ZEM changes until just looking them up now. It seems like The Hole is the new 50-60 popular zone? I've never been, but assume pickup groups happen regularly enough?

It is, and it's become like any PUG zone -- just head in and spam OOC for a group. Most of the times I've checked on it during prime time, there have been at least 3 groups going.

4. As far as soloing, I can't see any non-suicidal way to kill summoning mobs. That said, are there any higher level outdoor mobs with decent loot that don't summon? Would be interested in taking on something fun.

Your only real option for dealing with summoning mobs is to use fear, or Puppet Strings and hope that charm lasts long enough for your pet to kill the target.

5. There are a few Crystal Chitin pieces from Velk that would be decent upgrades. Looks like mobs are 45-49ish, but there isn't a lot of room to move around for charming or kiting... possible solo? I don't often see people here, but do spider groups form up?

As Dolalin said a lot of bards will swarm kite in Velks for solo xp at 58+ because the zone usually isn't busy outside of ENCs soloing Kobolds or upper spiders. You can likely solo the named mobs via charm or fear kiting - they aren't particularly magic resistant and none of the named spiders summon iirc.

6. Any quests you'd recommend? I'm a big fan of getting gear through quests/drops rather than purchasing. Lately I did the Nostrolo Tambourine quest in Kunark for a new drum, and the Ice Forged Shackles quest in Velious for a bracer.

Bracers of Benevolence - grind up that dragon faction and log in for the Scout roll. You can basically do it solo since folks will generally stick around to help the winner complete the fight.

Other notable quests with decent rewards that you could probably solo:
https://wiki.project1999.com/Velium_Retrieval - Bracer of Hammerfal
https://wiki.project1999.com/Friend_of_the_Kin - Dragon Tooth Choker

7. Last item I guess is that I have ~45,000pp saved up with no clear place to put it. I've seen some Singing Steel pieces that might be useful, but not ready to pull the trigger (who knows, maybe I'll get a chance to camp them in Seb?). I've been able to get to high 50's in rags, so I certainly don't NEED any gear, but is there anything that stands out as useful or a great quality of life item? Otherwise I can just keep amassing wealth and get a fungi or something for a new alt. The only item I'd be super excited about is Singing Short Sword, but that's of course a pipe dream.

Items I'd want:
- Selo's Drums of the March
- McVaxius' Horn of War
- Lute of the Howler
- Fungi Tunic for soloing -- yes, you get massive regen via songs but having 15pts of always-on, passive regen can be incredibly useful. It's also nice to not have to twist in regen when taking light damage.

[kjs86z]

Just go to the hole. As a bard you'll probably get a group invite the moment you step inside the zone and /ooc "xx bard lfg"

Its PuG around the clock doesn't matter what time / timezone you're in.

The ZEM is unbeatable and the best pullers I've had in my groups there have been confident bards.

[Zipity]

If swarming isn’t your thing, you want to be in the hole whether your soloing CE/Rats or grouping you won’t beat the exp.

DN / Velks is the best xp if you do want to swarm.
DN is mindless easy pull and kite but you won’t be able to utilize pbaoe snare efficiently so if you experience periodic lag this won’t be a stable source of XP due to deaths.

Velks is a front end difficult pull(thanks haynar) that used to be the golden gravy train for bards bc once you master the pull the pbaoe snare trivializes the kite and even small lag spikes mean nothing. With pathing screwed up in this zone it takes very very precise pulls to gather 20+ spiders consistently pre-DA song.

TD raptors is another swarm option albeit not As good It is retardedly easy. 15 mobs on a 12 minute timer with zero adds in an outdoor zone. Gather them up, snare and kite , afk for 12 mins, repeat.

Hole, classic mob difficultly, Coupled with a huge zem Where one kill basically equals two kills in terms of experience. This is where you want to be if not applying swarm tactics.

[Zipity]

100% buy a singing steel helmet.

[Crede]

BW fort is easy and mindless. Either straight dot kite w/fear under fort, (preferably) charm kite 2 at a time, or just 1v1 man fight with slow (yes, you can do it in your gear and probably end at like 20% hp, but you can just regen it). You have a (miniscule) chance at a nice ring to drop, and often they drop vendor plat stuff.

1. Dunno what you're doing for guilds, but most any guild with a decent high lvl population do Kael groups oftenly and its super easy to get Thurg armored. You usually don't need to commit to any sort of raiding relationship.

2. Bards are great in seb, but be prepared to die trying to get to any camp if you dont have experience in there.

3. Hole has always been good. Pick up groups arent very common IIRC.

4. Not really, no.

5. You might be able to do entrance spiders, but none of the ones with loot. Often the loot spawns are camped 24/7.

6. See thurg above. Doesn't hurt to work on epic cause you never know.

7. You don't need singing steel for anything besides maybe EB gloves and a helm if you want to self-OT hammer. You don't need a fungi either as a bard. Honestly, spend the money on the best instruments you can. The better modifers on some string / percussion will do wonders. If you want to man-fight BW giants, a breath of harmony / guardians mace do fine. Depending on what you want to do with your character, invest in resist gear.

Does anyone know if scimitar of the emerald dawn is worth it for bards over guardians mace? Given their lower dual wield skill despite being almost identical ratios curious if that makes the scimitar even better.

[Legidias]

I mean, he has money but guardian's mace is like 600? plat vs nearly 10k for the scimitar. Scimitar is somewhat better (very slight better ratio, stats) but if anything, the lower DW cap makes it less worth to go for the scimitar.

[zanderklocke]

Breath of Harmony and Guardians Mace/Jagged Blade of Mourning all the way until a bard can get raid weapons.

I would think the Scimitar would be a poor investment for how much it costs and how much better raid weapons are when acceptable options above are way cheaper.

[Crede]

I mean, he has money but guardian's mace is like 600? plat vs nearly 10k for the scimitar. Scimitar is somewhat better (very slight better ratio, stats) but if anything, the lower DW cap makes it less worth to go for the scimitar.

Wouldn’t a lower dw negate the value of a lower delay secondary? Since bards haste is so ridiculous when the delay is up you’d have a less likely chance of the faster secondary firing because of a lower DW skill that the scimitar would be even better

[Legidias]

Your overall chance of DW working is still the same (and based on the skill). You'd still the same # of DW hits in (after factoring delay).

[MikeXG]

If swarming isn’t your thing, you want to be in the hole whether your soloing CE/Rats or grouping you won’t beat the exp.

DN / Velks is the best xp if you do want to swarm.
DN is mindless easy pull and kite but you won’t be able to utilize pbaoe snare efficiently so if you experience periodic lag this won’t be a stable source of XP due to deaths.

Velks is a front end difficult pull(thanks haynar) that used to be the golden gravy train for bards bc once you master the pull the pbaoe snare trivializes the kite and even small lag spikes mean nothing. With pathing screwed up in this zone it takes very very precise pulls to gather 20+ spiders consistently pre-DA song.

TD raptors is another swarm option albeit not As good It is retardedly easy. 15 mobs on a 12 minute timer with zero adds in an outdoor zone. Gather them up, snare and kite , afk for 12 mins, repeat.

Hole, classic mob difficultly, Coupled with a huge zem Where one kill basically equals two kills in terms of experience. This is where you want to be if not applying swarm tactics.

I did TD Raptors a while back and it was a super chill camp. Not hard to get to with Selos song of travel. Can AFK if needed. Nice scenery you don't normally get. I really enjoyed this camp, even if it isn't the most optimal spot.