Twinking a Bard, Help!

[Skrimp]

So im considering making a bard. Im looking for some ideas on lower budget twink items for them. I have about 20k to spend. What are some good weapons and Armor?

Thanks for your help

[alexandervaccaro]

http://wiki.project1999.org/index.php/Bard

scroll to the bottom yo

[falkun]

How do you plan to play your bard? If you plan to solo via AE kiting, get the best horn you can afford and don't really worry too much about the rest. If you plan on grouping, then a more balanced gear-set would suffice.

You do realize that bard's are one of the most gear-independent classes in the game? No item will make your songs cast faster than 3.0sec, no weapon will increase your solo DPS, and no instrument will increase your DPS more than better skill, a more solid internet connection, and a beefier computer.

With that said, if you do want to spend the cash:
- Full Lambent set
- TBB or FBSS, or go loot a Hangman's Noose
- 5AC/55HP rings (these are incredible for nearly every class for dirt cheap)
- Singing Steel Gauntlets (the EB works from L1 I believe)
- Lute of the Gypsy Princess
- Mistmoore Battle Drums

Weapons:
- Breath of Harmony will eat up most of your twink money, but won't likely get replaced until raiding in Velious
- Sionachie's Partisan is cheap and good
- Guardian's Mace is a good weapon if you can find one for sale
- Jade Mace

[Slave]

The main things you will be wanting are +MR and +HP in about equal measure. After that, AC/ dex/ charisma/ stamina in that order. Dexterity absolutely determined your chance to miss a note in Classic; I've noticed on the character creation screen that it attributes Charisma to that effect. Which is false... so I'm not sure if that's an artifact of whatever they used to lift the code but Dexterity was 100% responsible for holding a tune on Classic.

So:

Platinum Fire Wedding Rings 5ac/55hp 225pp each, are a must.
Earring of Essence 10mr 30hps 3kpp, is awesome.
Singing Steel isn't too expensive for great AC boosts.
Platinum Star Ruby Veil 9cha 9dex 250pp, is superb.
Runed Bone Fork 10mr 10svd 10svp 200p, is handy.

Beyond this, concentrate on MR. Basically the one thing that will ever be able to kill you is snare or root. And cancel magic is MR resistable on this server (lol supposed to be unresistable).

[Skrimp]

Falkun, I plan on grouping as much as I can, but will also rely on soloing about half the time. Whats the best horn for the money?

Thank you for the info. I will certainly be purchasing the rings, singing steel, lambent and all the MR gear I can find. Good call on the 9dex 9 cha mask too

[falkun]

A McVaxius' Horn of War is the best horn, but it drops from a dragon and will eat up a disproportionate amount of that 20k. With no other options, hit up your local instrument vendor NPC for the best horn available.

[Slave]

Falkun, I plan on grouping as much as I can, but will also rely on soloing about half the time. Whats the best horn for the money?

Thank you for the info. I will certainly be purchasing the rings, singing steel, lambent and all the MR gear I can find. Good call on the 9dex 9 cha mask too

Even a Sarnak Emblazoned Tabard you can get for 50pp, looks like bronze chain, and has 14ac +10mr +15hps. That is pretty awesome for the money. I would mostly skip lambent tbh, it just doesn't have the HP/MR/AC that you will require when drawing massive aggro. There is no class in the game that can out-aggro a bard, making them actually superb twink tanks till level 50ish.

[baalzy]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/592/bardv.png

[baalzy]

Damn... should have underlined the date of that circled thread too.

[falkun]

For aggro generation, are you talking about slow song? That's the biggest aggro generator I've run into, and I've known paladins, SKs, and even warriors that can out-aggro that song.

Also, bards get crap for tanking skills compared to the true tanks, and even rangers have higher tanking ability caps/earlier levels learned.

But I guess with enough Singing Steel and stacking AC in every slot possible, you could tank. But then wouldn't you want to try to find AC neck/ears?

[falkun]

Image showing how often this thread comes up.

/agree

At the same time, there are worse questions that get repeated in roughly the same frequency.

[Slave]

For aggro generation, are you talking about slow song? That's the biggest aggro generator I've run into, and I've known paladins, SKs, and even warriors that can out-aggro that song.

Also, bards get crap for tanking skills compared to the true tanks, and even rangers have higher tanking ability caps/earlier levels learned.

But I guess with enough Singing Steel and stacking AC in every slot possible, you could tank. But then wouldn't you want to try to find AC neck/ears?

You can mez, charm, aoe slow, snare, you're probably pulling... if you want to take aggro from ANYONE, you can. You can find ac neck and ears, but they still won't be as useful as hp/mr/dex/cha in as many situations, as the AC can be pretty sparse for those areas.

In most high level groups, you're going to be crowd control anyway and they will want you to stay out of melee. Till then holding aggro is the prime requisite to being the group tank and I believe the bard excels at both that and mitigation.

[Skrimp]

Damn... should have underlined the date of that circled thread too.

Ya I actually read that other thread too. Its a bit confusing. Maybe a bit more advanced that what im looking for an It seems like everyone there is contradicting eachothers information. And its mostly based about starting stats etc. Im only curious about gear really.

[Messianic]

Dexterity absolutely determined your chance to miss a note in Classic; I've noticed on the character creation screen that it attributes Charisma to that effect. Which is false... so I'm not sure if that's an artifact of whatever they used to lift the code but Dexterity was 100% responsible for holding a tune on Classic.

I can't seem to find authoritative answers regarding whether dex or cha is responsible for missed notes. I see credible people saying both.

Can you or someone else show which one it is, and how you know that?

[deakolt]

^

Somewhere in one of these bard posts, someone said that someone definitively proved that CHA, not DEX, was responsible for less missed notes.

How's that for knowledge?!?!?!!?!?!!!!

[Slave]

I can't seem to find authoritative answers regarding whether dex or cha is responsible for missed notes. I see credible people saying both.

Can you or someone else show which one it is, and how you know that?

I played about 5 bards to 55+ from Kunark to LDoN and it was a very well-known thing. There must be a lot of information around regarding it, I just won't play a bard anymore without #Melody which will never happen on P99 so I don't care to search it out honestly.

[Dr4z3r]

If you really just want to blow through the levels with a bard, here's what you need:

Vendor Lute
Vendor Drums
Full Set of Banded
2x Opalline Earring
2x 5/55 Rings
MAYBE a Troll-Hide Belt

If you're feeling Saucy, get:
Sarnak-Hide Mask (the 4 STR one)
MM Lute/Drums (Anything over 250pp for the pair is a ripoff)
Troll-Hide Belt
Dwarven Work Boots
Hero Bracer

The people running around in full lambent at lvl 20 are just showing off how they have more money than ability to actually play a bard.

[Messianic]

The people running around in full lambent at lvl 20 are just showing off how they have more money than ability to actually play a bard.

But...lambent looks so good :D

[Slave]

But...lambent looks so good :D

Singing Steel looks better (to me) and is more effective.