New Bard Guide

[pink grapefruit]

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

You're thinking with an end-game raider, Kunark + Velious mentality. If you are a Bard trying to do solo artist challenges or pulling for groups 40-50 in bad gear, the stamina won't save your life as often as reduced crit resists from lulls or from mez resists (both which check to Cha, not just charm and duration)

If you are a solo bard you might also want dex to get quick procs on Orb of Tishan or to stack DD procs. Also, if you are trying to twist 5 songs while soloing, fizzles ARE a big deal.

If you are a true newbie, you might not want to suffer being permanently overweight from level 1-50, so some STR points may make your life more enjoyable.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that the question of which is the 'best' allocation of stat points for a bard is very open to how you plan to play, and not everyone plans stat allocations around raiding. The only wrong answers are wisdom, intelligence, and AGI if it pushes you over 85.

I don't think I'm approaching this with an end-game raider mindset. Going sta seems to make the most sense for anyone planning to be level 60 someday, whether they raid or not. If anything 100hp is a bigger deal for those without plans to get the awesome raiding gear as they wont have those high hp items available to them. 100hp is obviously a higher percentage of your total health the less gear you have.

Do you have evidence suggesting cha affects mez somehow? Not saying you're wron but I'd really be interested in logs like that, and there were long and detailed posts back in the day on The Concert Hall with logs showing that cha really only affected lull resists, missed notes, and possibly charm duration. If cha does affect bard mez here I'm not sure it's classic.

For the specific purpose of proccing orb or other weapons, a 60 bard can buff dex +20. And again there is a lot of dex on bard gear, even at the lower levels. Cha gear is even easier and very cheap. Swap a few items before lulls and you'll be just fine. Not to mention the +45 cha buff bards get. Your examples of cha and dex usefulness seem to be pretty specific situations that you can often prepare for with a few inexpensive items, while hp is useful in virtually any situation. Even if your goal is to be a level 30 group puller I would go sta.

[brecon]

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

I don't think I'm approaching this with an end-game raider mindset. Going sta seems to make the most sense for anyone planning to be level 60 someday, whether they raid or not. If anything 100hp is a bigger deal for those without plans to get the awesome raiding gear as they wont have those high hp items available to them.

You make a fair argument, and I'm sure it works for you. I said in the guide it's not a big deal and there are lots of arguments on all side. I don't personally put any points in sta at creation.

If you think about the Enchanter Bard skills (lull, mez, cha) you see a similar debate on the Enchanter forums about maxing int or cha. Some enchanters say you don't need Cha even when charm soloing...which blows my mind. I think one of the most important things for a Bard is avoiding lull crit resists, and I think the second most important thing is getting quick procs with weapons. So I put most points into Cha, and I get Dex to 100.

If you are raiding you basically don't need anything besides resists and hp. If you are soloing or pulling for a group, you'll have HP/AC buffs, but a lull crit will destroy you

[Eugee]

I'm 54 and can safely fear kite a geonid with all three dots on it, so I disagree. Ordinarily I charm-kite them obviously (as they have so many HP) but when doing a shaman and geonid, you don't play games to keep their health even--you just keep that shaman charmed and attacking (instead of casting on you).

Once one of them is down the other frequently has 40% health, and with 3 dots you'll only knock off 2-3% per tick, meaning you'll be there awhile, even with fear.

1. Mez.
2. snare/fear
3. Play dot 1 & dot 2
4. Snare/fear
5. Play dot 3 & dot 1
6. Snare/Fear
7. Play dot 2 & dot 3

See what I mean? You're only twisting 4 songs for the fear kite, but you rotate through your dots. Most of the time (like 95% of the time) you'll see three dot ticks.

Note that this is if you are worried about the 5th song dropping.

I just play snare/fear/dot/dot/dot usually. If there is *any* trouble in the twist, then I just skip the last dot, picking up that dot first on the next cycle.

On my hotkeys it's 1-MR DOT, 2-FR DOT, 3-CR DOT, 4-AE Fear, 5-Snare/Slow. (6 is ALWAYS speed/or lull indoors, 7 is ALWAYS charm, 8 is ALWAYS mez) I have 6 7 8 mapped to W R T respectively as well, and Shift R & T are charm/mez with chat announcements.

So from me, my keypresses go 5... 4... 3... 2..*fizzle* 2... 5... 4... 1... 3... 2... 5... 4.. *fizzle* 4... 3... 2... 5... 4... you get the idea. Note that even with a dropped song you have a 50/50 chance that it will be snare or fear. If snare drops, you have 6 seconds till the next tick when fear will drop. Just keep playing and you're fine. If you know you're behind on the twist and snare *doesn't* drop, then just move outside of melee range as you reapply fear just in case it drops early.

I've been 5-twisting fear kites since I hit 46 and got my third dot, and I play with 100-150ms pings, up to 200 at worst. It's quite doable, and at my level it's the difference between 128/tic and 171/tic. That's a big difference when killing a geonid! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I like the guide, lot of good information, thanks for writing it.

[Tewaz]

Need to add a guide for the most important bard skill: AoE PL for cash.

[brecon]

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

Need to add a guide for the most important bard skill: AoE PL for cash.

I think by the time people want free advice for how to monopolize zones in order to make phat stacks, I no longer wish to provide them with free tips [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Lartanin63]

Well done.

[pink grapefruit]

Dex is a bad choice for stat allocation on a bard. And so is str and cha :/

Dex and cha help with missed notes for sure, but they don't impact a bard the same as they would a caster. Missed notes happen instantly and don't waste any mana. You're saving fractions of a second each time. Plus bard gear is full of dex and cha so getting over 100 in both just happens naturally with a few pieces of gear.

Besides the missed notes, cha really only helps with lull on a bard. Maybe charm duration is impacted too, but when it maxes out at one minute or whatever it's not a big help regardless.

Always go all in with sta when making a bard.

Also going sta is a 100hp difference at level 60. HP probably most important stat after resists, and 100hp is equivalent to a piece of high end raid gear.

[Eugee]

One could argue that 25 extra Strength would be most useful so you can carry more phat lewts from the 50 mobs you just PBAE-Kited, for that matter.

I like 15 dex/15 cha, because it really doesn't matter.

If you have a drum, you can get to 60. If you have a horn, you can get to 60 faster.

[pink grapefruit]

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

One could argue that 25 extra Strength would be most useful so you can carry more phat lewts from the 50 mobs you just PBAE-Kited, for that matter.

I like 15 dex/15 cha, because it really doesn't matter.

If you have a drum, you can get to 60. If you have a horn, you can get to 60 faster.

25 str for loot when you have Selo's and str buffs doesn't make much sense to me :P

[iruinedyourday]

When i started on p99 i rolled a bard for my first character, had people pay to sit afk in my group and wound up with lvl 50 and 20k

not bad for a first character idk