Bard cloak question - opinions wanted
 

Overall gear for my level is moderately poor - limited planar gear. Have best weapons available that can be bought and dragonborn sash. Otherwise it's the basic ac/hp JC rings and hp/mana ears - mix of lambent with 2 pieces of imbrued and hero bracer/SS bracer.

In not having much planar gear, my dexterity isn't great. It's over 100, but I'd prefer it to be a bit higher to minimize missed notes. My options for cloak (currently naked) are Hooded Black Cloak vs Cloak of Shadows.

5str 45hp vs the dex on the Shadows cloak? If I had higher unbuffed dex (ie a fat bank roll to buy cultural with) it would be no contest HBC.

Which would you choose?

How important is dex to you?

Shouldn't be as important as HP.

That's my dilemma :P

I suppose I could just go for the hp cloak and look for dex options elsewhere ... since there's not a ton of slots to buy that have raw hp on them at my budget level.

I'd recommend seahorse scale cloak for the resists. It also has some dex.

I made a list of Bard Gearing options - to start with I got all the DEX/CHA jewelry options and started to replace these with other items as I got some big DEX/CHA items in other slots - highly recommend treeweave; as STR is important to melee dps output and carrying capacity - All the items have an EffectiveWeight (WT-STR) column because when I got geared out with full banded by my guild I had no weight capacity left - so I wanted items to increase STR or decrease WT (or both) per slot. I think at the moment I'm sitting at 90/120.
I got a pair of AC5/HP55 rings, but I keep those in a bag for those instances that I'm Tanking most of the time I'm running around with a pair of DEX5/CHA7 rings.

On live (2000-2002), I was told go for stats STR/DEX/CHA/MR until they were at 200 unbuffed, and then start swapping out for AC/HP so that's been my strategy here.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_B...yahin_Elbereth

Dex is like the anti-fizzle Stat for bards. Cloak of Shadows has a lot of it...

I see the delema but I would go COS. Not that many items with so much dex. However, hp's are obtainable relatively easy in other slots.

Great advise, I agree also. Bards are not suppose to get hit. :p Not really going to Tank anything over level 15 anyhow. Just go with 55hp rings and a few other HP slots and go with the CoS. :cool:

AoEs hit everybody. That's why HP/Resists are king.

Do not listen to this person. He is WRONG. I tank in sebilis and the hole on my bard. It's awesome. You can do it too.

Don't be this guy.

Yeah I know ...

So HBC or dex cloak??