Lets Talk Em, Bard STAAAAAATS!

[Crawdad]

Played a raid-crazy bard from 99-04, just started barding again here recently.

Back in the day, my priorities for gear were:

Resists (Only for AE fights/Raids) > HP > Cha > Dex > Stam > All else.

Wear Plate and don't worry about AC, it'll be on all your gear anyways. In groups, unless you're tanking (usually a bad idea), HP always > AC. The damage you take in groups is going to be a few hits from the mobs you pulled to camp, from casters switching targets to nuke, or from you stealing aggro from your tank (lol). Whichever way it happens, AC isn't going to safe your butt as frequently as having a larger HP pool.

Flowing Thought would be right after HP... if we somehow saw Fading Memories on this server.

Stats I would do 10 Cha/10 Dex/5 Stam, but I like round numbers. Some people swear by starting points in Stam, I personally don't think the abysmal Hp returns on it are as helpful as less missed notes/resists while leveling. You want +HP on your items, not +Stam.

Instrument skills (Singing) definitely matter, and coupled with your latency(/luck) will determine if you're great or mediocre at twisting.

[Jeffari]

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

What about for a non-raiding Bard in XP groups? Is HP still > AC?

When do bards actually start to join exp groups? Is it like way later in the game like mid 50's? Or is it just for raiding? I mean, I've been playing project199 for a little over two years, I know that two years isn't that long compared to others, but I swear, I've never, and I really mean this, never have grouped in an exp group with a bard in it. I remember back in live how awesome it was when a bard joined the party, all the cool shit the bring to the table and all. I mean I can understand it, why sit through slow group exp when you can just like nearly ding in one swarm kite pull. I get that. Ah, I don't know, that bard song box, where the bard song effects go, haha I think I've seen bard effects in that box like twice or three times the whole time I've played, and one of those times was asking a bard who was traveling through the karanas if I could hitch a ride autofollow style. I'm not knocking the class or anyone who plays it, I dig the bard I just miss grouping with them. It really does seem like the bard is the most rarest class to join a group, well it seems that way to me anyway.

[Crawdad]

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

...Ah, I don't know, that bard song box, where the bard song effects go, haha I think I've seen bard effects in that box like twice or three times the whole time I've played, and one of those times was asking a bard who was traveling through the karanas...

Actually, bard buffs weren't given their own buff box until way after Velious, so you'll never notice any buffs in your "Songs" box. Might as well disable it.

About the soloing, its the same reason you seldom see Druids or Necros in groups. A majority of people who play those classes chose them because, well, why group when you don't have to? Sometimes its nice to group until you get your key soloing spells/abilities (SoW, a better DoT, etc) but afterwards its way less of a hassle to solo. Personally I can't imagine soloing 1-60 with my Bard, but I don't blame those who do... Except Low Hp Kiting, seems like cheese to me.

[Stinkum]

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

When do bards actually start to join exp groups? Is it like way later in the game like mid 50's? Or is it just for raiding? I mean, I've been playing project199 for a little over two years, I know that two years isn't that long compared to others, but I swear, I've never, and I really mean this, never have grouped in an exp group with a bard in it. I remember back in live how awesome it was when a bard joined the party, all the cool shit the bring to the table and all. I mean I can understand it, why sit through slow group exp when you can just like nearly ding in one swarm kite pull. I get that. Ah, I don't know, that bard song box, where the bard song effects go, haha I think I've seen bard effects in that box like twice or three times the whole time I've played, and one of those times was asking a bard who was traveling through the karanas if I could hitch a ride autofollow style. I'm not knocking the class or anyone who plays it, I dig the bard I just miss grouping with them. It really does seem like the bard is the most rarest class to join a group, well it seems that way to me anyway.

1. They AE kite to at least the high 40s or low 50s.
2. Then they get hit a wall in AE kiting and have to group for XP, but are terrible at their class because all they did for the last 51 levels is AE kite.
3. No guild will take them because they earn a reputation as a terrible Bard who can't pull for shit and only knows how to AE kite (easy as fuck to do, a chimp can do it).
4. Then they notice how slow XP is in groups compared to AE kiting, and ragequit and sell their character.

^ The above scenario describes 90% of Bards experiences on P99

[Legend]

I grouped and lvld my bard 99.9% in groups. From lvl 1-51

From crushbone all the way to Karnors.

I geared him as a primary tank. Mostly ac/hp/stam gear. I was able to tank all the way to soldungb. Holding aggro was no problem. I had a blast, 50+ i can't tank like i did with the same gear, the game has changed.

I was even able to peel aggro off all warriors till 45, and bad sk's. Never swarm kited, ae kited, or solo/fear/snare kited.

[zanderklocke]

I swore by dex/cha leveling up and I still do. I noticed doing seafuries a lot in high 40s/low 50s that if my cha was not above 150/160, my charm would not last full song duration.

When I got to be in the high 50s, cha seemed to be less important so I swapped in pure hp rings/earrings. Dex still seems important to me.

Now, at level 60, I try to go for dex, pure hp, and some MR (assuming it doesn't destroy my other stats...always keep full MR in bags for raids) in regular situations. Honestly though, as a bard you eventually should have multiple sets of gear. If I'm in Seb, I put on resist jewelry, but in KC, I use more hp jewelry.

I basically have a regular equipment set (dex, hp, AC, Str, some sta), a MR gear set, and a cha set (this is used less frequently since high 50s).

If anything, I would think the biggest flaw as a bard would be thinking one set of gear will cover you for all situations. It all depends on what you are doing. I mean shit, you can level naked to 50 with a horn a drum if you really want to. If you look at my Magelo page, everything I have listed there I have for one reason or another.

[Zyn]

I was under the impression that it was only and always DEX

[falkun]

I have a mediocre 142ish CHA in my normal gear set up, and I don't resist too many lulls when grouping (therefore killing blues). I'm convinced bard lull is less dependent upon CHA than the enchanter/cleric/paladin line of lull/soothe/calm, and that's with a L39PAL who often pulls for his group as my primary alt.

[t0lkien]

I've always gone Resists -> HP -> Sta -> Cha -> Dex -> Str -> at the endgame. That seemed to pretty much be the consensus with top end Bards that I could gather. The point was always to stay alive, and Resists and raw HP and any more you could get from Stamina were always so far and above anything else that it didn't matter. Stacking any stat at the expense of HP/Sta was just silly. On p99 which is not exactly the same as live, who knows.

However:

http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6733

[SamwiseRed]

ye resists and hp are king, anything else is just gravy

if you have epic or in a fight where resists arent important and you are not wielding drum then haste is up there as well.