Best race for a bard?

[Getsmurfed]

Title says it all, what's the best race for a bard?

[Swish]

Arguably half elf....better starting stats, versatility in where you want to start, access to dark elf racial armor if that's something you'd like.

Fashionquest winner of the 3 races as well I'd say.

[Getsmurfed]

High Elves can't be bards right? I can't really recall.

[Dreenk317]

High elves can not, half elf, human, wood elf only.

[Swish]

Some masks are available though, including high elf with a lot of effort

[Maschenny]

The difference in stats is meaningless for bards. Humans win fashionquest.

[claypigeons]

Originally Posted by Maschenny [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The difference in stats is meaningless for bards. Humans win fashionquest.

Half elf females win Bootyquest, though.

[Rythiel]

Originally Posted by claypigeons [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Half elf females win Bootyquest, though.

They win Bootyquest and Fashionquest, my friend.

[TeemoOfAstora]

What race you choose depends on what you might want out of your bard. They'll all play the same way, and whichever way you go you're bound to have a lot of fun.
Some people are sentimental about fashion, so will roll human and thus be condemned to YEARS of skyshrine later on in their existence for the coveted nipple robe.
Some might be influenced by starting area. Freeport is close to everything, in a manner of speaking, and you'll run into plenty of people there. Kelethin is a bit too close to those stinkin' gnomes if you ask me, but some folk prefer it over everything else. Qeynos is not a bad little place to start either. A bit remote, sure, but if there's a class that's meant to laugh at the vastness of West Karana it's the bard.
Others still care a lot about starting stats. I've found DEX and CHA to matter most in what I do. DEX affects how often you miss notes, interrupting your song (like fizzles); CHA affects your lulls/mezzes/charms/fears which you'll be using a whole lot. STR/STA are worthwhile in your early life, but won't matter in the long run since melee damage is not what you'll be doing. INT affects your mana, but you only use it when charming, just about everything else is manaless (there is also an AE nuke that costs a bunch of mana but it won't be buying you a whole lot). All races start with the same base CHA/INT, and halfelves have the most starting DEX making them a good "by the numbers" candidate race.

[Triiz]

Originally Posted by TeemoOfAstora [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

DEX affects how often you miss notes, interrupting your song (like fizzles); CHA affects your lulls/mezzes/charms/fears which you'll be using a whole lot. STR/STA are worthwhile in your early life, but won't matter in the long run since melee damage is not what you'll be doing.

While this seems to be the standard bard advice given, I have to pretty much completely disagree with it. This is subjective, obviously, you'll have to find "your way" but my opinion is..

While it's true DEX does impact your level of missed notes, a missed note is almost always inconsequential. Meaning, unlike fizzles, there is no loss of mana or any penalty for the missed note besides a tiny loss of time. I put a bit of points into DEX at creation, and I've regretted it for 60 levels. If a bard struggles to twist due to a missed note or two, they should probably switch classes.

DEX will help with epic procs, but if you're a bard who can obtain his epic the way it is on p99 these days I don't think it will be a problem.

CHA - Ehhhh. The only time I would recommend switching in any CHA gear is if you're going to be constantly grouping and doing CC/Lull pulls. With relatively low CHA, like 110-120, I just never had much of a problem with resists. The higher level you get, the less you will be doing CC.

As far as charm, I did a lot of charming 50+ and I could probably count the resists on one hand and my charms were almost always full duration, despite my relatively low CHA.


STR -- Yeah pretty useless for a bard, besides being able to carry stuff. Lute of the Howler has a decent +STR buff in it for carrying stuff at later levels, when you'll have WR bags anyways.

HP/STA -- This (again, in my opinion) is the main thing bard should be worried about. Bards have terribly low HP's by default. A dead bard isn't doing shit to benefit himself or anyone in the group.

TLDR; stats matter less to bard than pretty much any, probably all, classes. In the long run, staying alive is the only thing that matters. Put points into STA at start, if you feel you need CHA than CHA gear is a lot cheaper/accessible than STA gear in most (almost all?) cases.