Pinned Theyne's How-to-Bard


    • Theyne's How-to-Bard

      It's all about that Bard, 'bout that Bard, no treble.
      note: the collour pink is used because the artist-icon is pink. ty.


      Ello, since I have been getting more and more pm's and
      ingame whispers with questions about the Bard-class, I have decided to make
      some kind of guide how to play a bard. Please note: If you dont like me in
      general, if you dont like the bard in general or if you think you are better
      than me, stop reading already, ty. A short overview what to expect:

      1 The class called bard
      1.1 Basic Knowledge
      1.2 Keybinds

      2 Gearing up, tuning the sound
      2.1 Different sets + Manastones
      2.2 Stigma skills

      3 Bard as power DPS
      3.1 Bard's role in all kinds of instances
      3.2 DPS Rotation

      4 Bard in the world of PVP
      4.1 Duels - Please let Disharmony not be your first skill to use
      4.2 Survivability
      4.3 Bard with his friends - Group PVP

      5 Conclusion

      1 The class called Bard

      I started playing bard as soon as it came out with the 4.0
      patch. It must have been like November/December 2013. Back then I played ranger
      as main, and to be quite honest, I was not that good at it, certainly not in
      pvp. The bard came for me as a solution, not only because it was new, fresh and
      interesting. There was no cheap way of learning the class. No decent guide, no
      tips/trick, the guide was not known yet to its maximum value. I had to find it
      out all by myself, that was actually the best training I could have had as a
      bard. It takes a while before you really understand all the skills and the real
      value of those. One explanation for that is that the Skill Descriptions are not
      correct. I did send in a ticket half a year ago, it was forwarded, nothing
      changed, thanks for the heads up, Gameforge. Anyway, my first advice would be:
      take half an hour, read all the skills again.

      A few examples of skills not properly translated:

      - Paralyse Skill: The skill says something like
      "paralyses the target for 5-8 seconds", which is not true at all. It
      should be something like: "paralyse the target for 5 seconds, after a 8
      second delay".

      - Resonation Melody: Same story, its a Delayed blast. It
      hits one time after like 6 second delay, why the skilldescription makes you
      think its a DoT.

      And so there are more examples where you can see that after
      a year+, the mess is still not fixed, what actually annoys me, but enough about
      that. I always tell myself that it must be more horrible in the 23987 other
      languages Gameforge has to translate in.

      1.1 Basic Knowledge

      Bard is a Magic Class. It uses a harp to deal damage with. A
      harp has a ranged auto-attack (like!). A bard is in the Top5 of Damage classes,
      if you play it a bit keen. Basicly, everybody knows by know a bard can
      heal/restore mana. All nice that is, but healing mana takes a lot of time, you
      can heal 4k mana in 4 seconds. Bit more if you count pots in and the 1m cd big
      mana skill. Anyway, think about this, before the bard came to atreia, every
      class was able to maintain their mana, with the introduction of bard people got
      lazy and will see you for the only ability to give mana. Be smarter than that.
      The mana skills are for yourself, let other people fix their own. Only
      heal mana when targets got drained (see PvE bard later in this post..). A bard
      is powerful, DPS wise, Survivability, CC. Dont be a support class, be a bard.

      1.2 Keybinds

      I'm not sure if my keybinds will help you with any of your
      gameplay, but I'll give it a shot. Because if you are a bit keen on keybinds,
      you can be a lot quicker with the important skills to save yourself. Put the
      most important things on easy keys arround WASD (if that is what you move with,
      like me). Do with it what you want, I will save you from my dps keybinds, but
      the most important shizzle to keybind in my eyes are:

      E : Self Dispell, 8s cd

      Q : Movement dispell, the on-the-spot-dash

      R : Attackspeed buff

      Shift R-F-V : Covered Silence (S+R: March of bees, S+F: Msup
      debuff, S+V: Silence Chain)

      Shift R-F-C : Covered Bind (Same as above, but with
      Breathtaking Blast on S+C)

      1 : Remove Shock

      F : Greater Healing Potion

      Z : Manaserum/Recoveryserum (yes, use serums, potions take
      too long for bards)

      Middle Mouse button: AOE Sleep (Life-safer!)

      Well, I have keybound almost every skill, but thats
      everybody's own style. This is just an example, but please keybind all the
      above things whereever feels comfortable for you. 9 out of 10 times you
      dont have time to click the skills above to save yourself. Like I said, not sure
      if this adds anything to this 'guide', but yo, its for free!
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • 2 Gearing up, tuning the sound

      Lets talk about it; the gear, the socketing, the enchanting,
      and lets certainly not forget about stigmas, but that could be the shortest
      part of this, Bard basicly only have one interesting tree.

      Lets start off with showing my own sets. I show you my basic pvp and pve set:

      My PVP Set (MB/MR Composites)

      My PVE Set (Full MB, MA on 2.1k buffed) (click on pve, in the left-bottom corner)

      2.1 Different sets + Manastones

      Before I'm gonna tell that you should go full magicboost, I
      first want to point out the most important stat for bards: ATTACK SPEED. Bard
      is 80% non-cast skills, and the casts you have are 2s max. You should be full
      attackspeed, as full as possible. That means: use attackspeed scrolls. And use
      the 50E attackspeed gloves, which you can buy in the Abbys and most likely on
      other places.

      So, on lower lvl, pay the ap/medals to get attackspeed gloves as
      soon as possible. Really a NEED for bards.

      So with attack speed gloves, the scroll, you are on a fine
      base of atk-speed, but it even gets better with an attack-speed harp. Now, in
      here you have two choices, but they are both endgame, so it wont help you on
      lower level. There are three harps in game with atk-speed. Get one of those

      1) AP 2-star officer Harp [143 Cera medals], ofcourse THE
      fuse for your PVP weapon.

      2) Unique Dynatum Harp [Mythical AND Eternal] - Good fuse
      for PvE, good stats on mythical, decent stats on eternal, spam RST for those
      harps, really worth it!

      3) Lvl65 Mythical Crafter Harp [UG design], please dont even
      try, but my craftingsoul got smashed anyway by this craft. I started a craft
      with 30 attempts, gathered for 3 months+, but you need 4 procs before you get a
      6-slot weapon. And yes, out of those 30, I failed. And that hurt. So rather get

      NOTE: (Tip from the replies) Ofcourse, dont't fuse these harps with eachother. You want the attackspeed harp to be a fuse, the main weapon mostly still has Cast Speed. If not, then make Cast Speed as a fuse, you want both stats, obviously.

      Enough about Harps, lets talk about the rest of the gear.

      Well, Go Magicboost, capiche? It doesnt sound that
      difficult, right? On lowerlevel be sure you have 1 part of gear (out of the 5)
      socketed with Macc, and you will be fine. On endgame gear, not really much Macc
      is required. If you are on 2.1k macc for PvE (without Chanter) thats more than
      enough. Im running a 5-part Hyperion set [+1 part swb, ty, 200 runs kata...]
      and I think I have 3 macc stones in my full gear. With Food and the passive
      Buff called Magic Boost Mode that will be more than fine.

      Go for Strife accessories to start with, they have nice Macc
      on them. Keep them untill you have farmed Silverine/4-piece UG set/3-piece Kata

      So, thats basicly all you need for PvE. 2.1k macc, and rest
      MB. With the set I descriped above I have arround 2.1k MA and 3.9k MB without
      chanter. Ofcourse with Chanter it will get me to the MB cap in 4.0 content.
      Please, don't bother with HP sets (yes, met those bards..). As stated before,
      you are not a support class, you are a strong DPS, as long as you believe it

      Now for PVP, it depends a little bit. Macc is more important
      here than it is in PVP. As I am gonna state later in the PVP section, the bard
      comes in handy in nuking plates/leathers, so go full MB with a 2k macc base.
      You wont get resists at all, unless your opponent didnt understand their way of
      gearing up. So, Im am running a full MB/MR Composite 2-star officer set. Why
      MR, you would ask, would MA not be smarter to use for Compo? Well, I dont think
      so. First reason is that MB/MA lvl 60 stones cost arround 40kk-60kk each, and
      however im full Composite, im not THAT rich. And tbh, if you go full MB/MA
      Composites, you end up with like 2.2k-2.3k MA. Now, what advantage is that going
      to give you, compared to the 2.0k-2.1k I run with? You are still not able to
      hit any MR-Cleric/Chanter. So instead I chose for MB/MR. I end up with like
      3.9kMB and 2.2-2.3kMR.
      Now, endgame PVP opponents will hit through this MR
      anyway, its not for them. But believe me, with all the bad geared people on
      sieges, I resist 50% of all the magic attacks, launced on me. Especially in
      Xform, when im also using MR food etc, I resist a lot which increases my
      survivability a lot. I have had a lot of critics on my MB/MR set, but I totally
      love it. I do have a MA-set (rank 1 ap) to be able to hit MR-players though.
      Thats luxury, but ye, you kinda need it when you want to beat clerics in arena,
      or sleep them in Coop, or whatever, you name it.

      2.2 Stigma skills

      First: My own Stigma build for PVP and PVE, after that I will try to explain

      what the choices are out there to be made.

      Click on this fancy link to see my Stigma's

      Like I said before, there is not much to choose. The Support
      Tree it utter trash. The GroupDispell skill is actually not bad. But 10m cd?
      Really? No way that is gonna work. I ran a test in JMR with it though. Since
      Bards got Fear-resist, you dont get feared. So if your group (including cleric)
      got feared, you can use that 10m cd group dispell to save your party from
      getting kicked. But thats really the only use I can think of, for that certain
      skill. So in other words: Go full Disharmony tree. I think 99% of the bards are
      using that tree anyway, so nothing new there. Lets talk about the extra skills
      to take, besides the tree.

      I always have the Heal overtime skill with me, nice to put
      on a friendly cleric/tank, or to put on yourself. Not an OP skill, but nice to

      Then: Breathtaking Blast: NEED. Its binding your opponents.
      I hope you all know what binding is. Its certainly something else than
      rooting/immobilizing. Its preventing Melee's from using any physical skill.
      However, it works on Gunners/Aethertechs aswell, although they dont have
      physical skills, but yolo. In my keybinds you also find something about a
      covered bind. In combination with the Attackspeed buff, you land the covered
      bind (3x insta cast) within a second, which really gives you adventage against
      any melee. (watch out for Ranger/Sin/Gunner FE/other resist skills), always
      start with some auto-attack+meh-skills to get rid of them. You could replace
      this skill with the Emnity reducer for PvE, but I actually never do that. Bard
      should not take aggro if you have a decent tank, and if you have PvE-gear.

      Next: Snowflower Melody. The skill you get from fortress
      rewards. Those bundles you know. Actually I dont like the shield that much. Its
      3K shield with some slight healing, but it got 5m cd, which is a little long to
      be OP. BUT: its the only shield you can have against magic classes. Bards have
      the Shield Melody, yes, but that shield only works for physical/melee attacks.
      So trust me, if you want to beat a gunner/sorc/whatever, you really want this
      shiny snowflower shield.

      Time to choose: If you are a PvE player, you would take AoE
      mana here. Nice skill, good in different instances to fill mana of your group
      fairly quick. You can also cast it on a target, instead of yourself, buuut,
      nice as I am, I atleast always cast it on myself. The other choice is Ironclad
      Melody. Which could be called Mini-UD [Unwavering Devotion..]. It increases
      your Stun/KD resist by 1k (?) for 8-12 seconds. Really Decent skill when you
      inc somebody or a group in group pvp. No Stun = more dmg output, easy right? I
      have to admit, I like to run with AoE Mana all the time. Also in JMR/Kamer/PvP
      instances AoE mana is appriciated by my fellow groupmembers. I switch to
      Ironclad when I have those typical Duel-evenings. So I would vote for AoE-Mana
      here, if you are really PvP orientated or just hate to be stunned/KD'd, take
      the Ironclad.

      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard

      The post was edited 6 times, last by Theyne ().

    • 3 Bard as power-DPS

      3.1 Bard's Role in all kinds of instances

      I might repeat myself a lot: But dont be the Manab****, its
      a shame that word is blocked on the forum, because for real, the nickname of a
      bard is the manabot - or the word for a not-so-nice-lady.

      Go DPS, Find out your own rotation (Yes, wait for it, I'll
      give my Rotation in a second..). Between the mobs, between the bosses you can
      give mana. You dont have to take manabreaks anymore as a group, because a Bard
      can fix it in like 20s. So thats nice, but really, giving mana while fighting
      bosses is really a waste of your potential high dps. Practise your rotation on
      dummies (its worth it, but gameforge: wtb dummies with 4k mb cap, ty.)
      try to weave, I know bard has a ranged auto-attack, but really, for that
      200-500 damage, ur not gonna weave. Since the base attackspeed on a harp is
      low, its really not worth it.
      My tip would be: "Weave with Sound of
      Breeze". Weaving with another skill is not really called weaving, but
      still, you get what I mean, right? After every 2nd-3rd skill, use sound of the
      breeze. Low mana, low cast, decent dps in the long end. And also, it prevents
      you from running out of other skills to use. If you dont use Sound of Breeze as
      an inbetween skill, you will run out of mana+skills in notime. And yes, then
      you are worthless as a bard on dps. You better start healing mana then..

      3.2 DPS Rotation

      So, Sound of Breeze. Central point of your rotation. Use it
      as a ranger uses Deadshot, as a Sorc uses Refracting Shard or as a Cleric uses
      Smite. Put it on an easy keybind (I have it on one of my mouse buttons) and
      keep spamming it between your skills. 40% dmg increase guarenteed, because you
      run out of mana a lot slower + you dont have skills on cd all the time.

      Then, use your debuffs to your advantage. Use your highest
      nukes (Disharmony, The Horse, Gust tree, Wind Harmony tree..) in combination
      with the msup-debuff. Keep popping your little DoT aswell. Cannot even recall
      how that one is called. Im typing this while the server is in maintenance, so
      cant check, and too lazy to google, im sorry.. Anyway, that little DoT, is good
      for 10-12% of your total DPS on hyperion if you keep popping it. Since we are
      on percentages, Sound of Breeze should be like 25%, and Mosky Requiem also
      arround 12%.

      Also, use Battle Variation! Its the first loading skill you
      get, and it seems meeh in endgame dps. BUT, It is a really low mana cost. So
      basicly its a 7k-10k hit for like 400 mana. You dont get it cheaper! Also the
      loading/casting-time doesnt bother me, because my nukes need to get off
      cooldown anyway. So for all the bards who removed that skill from skillbar
      (yes, I was one of them..), get it back in and take your advantage!

      Dont use your attackspeed buff to DPS with. Certainly not
      when you have attackspeedharp. Myself, I always use the attackspeedbuff to heal
      my mana back, when really every pot/manaskill is on cooldown. Healing Mana =
      waste of time, valuable time which you should spend on DPS. But, if your out,
      you need to heal, so use atk-speed buff for it. By far the best use for it,
      because in PVE, it doesnt matter if your animation on dps skills is 0.5s or

      Now then, healing mana. I told it before on this forum: I
      only heal my own mana, unless somebody got drained (for example kata). If the
      Tank is hit with the manaskill in kata, he can fix it with a pot (tanks are
      lazy in general..), but, if the tank is using serums instead of potions, and he
      gets another mana drain within 10s, you might wanna help the poor guy with
      giving him some mana. You dont want him to lose aggro, do you? Then, in
      instances with more bosses than one, just heal mana between the bosses, if like
      a glad/sin -or any other class who is
      not willing to weave to keep mana up- is asking for mana, ignore it. Your dps
      is most likely higher then theirs. Especially if you see sins facing the boss,
      instead of rekting from behind. Oh man, I love perento in general. Have seen it

      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • 4 Bard in the world of PVP


      Now, Bards are pro. Not all of them, but the possibilities
      with it are endless. Let me start first with saying: Im anti-Paralock. Its as
      bad as the SM's Fearlock in duels. I just dont do that kinda stuff. Why duel if
      you wanna win in a cheap way. If you wanna play cheap, reroll gunner and get
      yourself two 4k dmg godstones, or put 10% silence on your pistol (hello Linxi
      -.-). Anyway, So, my duel tactics are without Paralock in general.. [Paralock =
      Aoe-Sleep+Paraskill+BigSleep, followed by a covered silence to be keen]. I do
      use the para skill btw. But I use it to force players to use their pot. Because
      I rather beat people with dps (like Mosky..) instead of other bs. So I love to
      start duel with para skill, pot gone, easy duel. Bit cheap aswell? Not as cheap
      as paralocking. Okay, per class I will share my duel tactic. Note: Im not
      underestimating classes, however, it might feel like it when you read the

      Gladiator: Covered Bind, instant. Dont use a movement skill
      on that cover, glad have wings-skill to get it off. After those glads are
      bound, put mosky on them, kite away, root them and start nuking. Before the
      nuking you might wanna put silence on them aswell, to prevent them from using
      Second Wind. In general, glads should never be a problem for bards.. Especially
      if you take Ironclad Stigma and you dont get random KD with cleaves, it should
      be no problem.

      Templar: More tricky than Gladiators. The thing I hate the
      most about it, is Ironskin. Ironskin removes all the debuffs and ofcourse gives
      massive defense. My tactic is getting 6 debuffs on a target as soon as
      possible. With Mosky always as last one, thats the only buff that really
      counts. It rekts people bitime. So, always keep shields up to avoid pulling.
      Out of shield and kiting away? Premium Anti Shock Scroll will save the day.
      Keep rooting/slowing/kiting and count their pulls. (They have 3..) Breakpower
      hurts. So if you get KD and templar is decent distance away, use RS to avoid
      BP, It really hurts. Templar is harder then Gladiator for Bard. Atleast for me.
      Oh and Aether Armour: Meeeh. I switch to Macc set in that case.. but ye,
      Templar has some defensive stuff yo.

      Chanter: See Gladiator I would say. Its kinda the same.
      Chanter needs those KD. If you pop ironclad you are safe for a while and you
      can cover bind them as you do on glads. However, chanter has more msup+heals,
      so its a bit harder. Use silence after the covered bind and keep kiting. And
      remember, Bard is all about kiting. with the low casts+ lot of instant skills,
      why stand still? Chanter is not that hard to kill I would say, just might take
      a while with spellstopping e.g.

      Cleric: MB clerics are not the problem. Just dont get near
      the servants, kite away from them. Covered Silence is almost inpossible on
      clerics due to Cleanse, so I gave up trying. However, what you can do is Sleep - Breathtaking - Msup debuff - Silence
      tree. But then still, since the silence is 3rd on tree a quick cleric already
      dispelled the 2 debuffs before the silence hits. Keep rekting mana. Keep using
      Silence tree and use the Mana Variation.. The one which takes 3k mana away, cba
      looking the skillname up. MB clerics can be a real pain. Especially when they
      get to nuke you.. personal tip: Save gust for when you see cleric casting Call
      Lightning.. Call Lightning has a longer cast than gust, so if you can stun
      cleric before CL, its gg.

      Ranger: Well, the sleep trap/arrow are out of play. I cannot
      recall rangers sleeping me. We have a sleep resist of a few hundreds, so thats
      nice. Ofc, every ranger will go in hide at start of a duel. He will have the
      first hit which will stun. I basicly use RS straight away. But leave the RS
      buff on you to prevent from getting more stuns on your face. Meanwhile cover
      the bind, root, and start with Gust-Tsunami-Discord.. this mostly does the
      trick on ranger, they kinda have low hp/low msup. If you have a though guy,
      just start the Wind Harmony tree. Cant imagine it didnt die by now. Now this
      sounds easy, but actually rangers can be pain. Because if they stunlock you,
      you are gone. So you really want to have some stun-resist here by the RS buff
      or Ironclad. Also watch out for the Covered silence. You really want to
      selfdispell before he hits it, so you can pot the silence. Keen rangers will
      then use the Seals arrow. Which is annoying as hell. But ye, you had to escape
      the silence, didnt you..

      (Assa)Sin: By far the most annoying class to duel, if you
      ask me. More and more sins are MR composite now, which is annoying. Also, the
      ability to resist 3 skills totally rekts my rotation. Because I want to cover
      bind in less than 1s, I dont have time to check whether all my covers landed or
      not. Well, you can count on it, they didnt. I basicly cover on sins with 4
      skills. But that takes up to 4s already, inwhich you can be perfectly trapped in some
      para/stunlock/other rektness. I dont like duelling sins. Bah. And then we are
      not even speaking about the dilemma to use RS or not. If you use RS to kite
      away, which is logical, then you know 5s later AetherHold is coming, which will
      rekt you. (save Snowflower for after you use RS, pop Snowflower after you used
      RS and you might stand a chance when you go helpless into Aetherhold..)

      Gunner: You have one shot on killing him. Pop Atk-speed
      buff, Pop Overtime heal, Pop Snowflower and Cover bind before he covers
      silence. If you are covered with silence you can count to 2 before you got hit
      by a 4k GS. So ye, be quick with the bind. If you bound them, they have to
      switch canon kinda, you can use that time to cast gust, stun them and nuke
      them. Put Mosky on them and run away as far as you can get. Mosky will kill
      them. Cheap? No, Gunners are cheap.

      Aethertech: Actually, I dont know thatmuch about
      Aethertechs. I do have an AT myself, but its on perma PVE specs. I do know
      their PVP stigs a bit, but not enough to tell what to do. I know they can cover
      silence and they can para you for 2s. I would say, keep kiting, keep
      slowing/rooting, keep binding. If you keep focussing his mana, his shield
      effect will run out sooner rather than later and you can finish the job. It
      takes mostly quite a while to kill them, they have a decent selfheal + that
      manashield they have. But then again, the one Aethertech you duel in a year..
      who cares..

      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard

    • Spiritmaster: Look out for the covered Silence. Dispell on
      the 2nd debuff and be lucky. Also, root the pet and kite away. If the pet is
      out of the picture, the shields are gone, a lot debuffs on you are spared, and
      you stand a better chance. Also watch your fear-resist buff. SM might dispell
      it, so keep an eye on it. You dont want it gone. Its a battle of covered
      silence, I reckon. But, dont cover silence it next to the pet, because you will
      waste all your nukes on substitution. What I tend to do is cover silence,
      root+para on the pet, kite away (they will kite the other way because of
      silence..) but if they come back atleast the pet is para'd for like 15s.. (10s
      root+5s para) Dueling SM requires timing and brain. They have a lot to annoy a
      bard, but we can annoy them aswell.

      Sorcerer: Also tricky. Sorc will start with Thunderclap +
      covered silence. To get rid of that silence you kinda HAVE to TS on that first
      stun. What happens is that you get out of silence, but you have to silence him
      meanwhile. Nuke through shield(s) and keep it stunned with Gust and RS-after
      skill. But if you dont nuke quick enough the holy Aetherhold is coming. And
      then with a few nukes on Yaziel's Wisdom its game over for Mr. Bard. Quite
      frankly there is nothing to do about it. Because if you can choose to accept
      the first covered silence, run away and save ur skills for the '2nd round', but
      a keen sorc will root you after the silence and you have then nowhere to go.
      Like I said: Tricky one, but doable. Starting with the big sleep might
      interrupt his covered silence.. But you have to chance to get stunned while

      Bard: Boring. Sleeps dont land, so dont even try. Just nuke.
      Atleast thats what I am doing. I know that I have move MB then mostly every
      Bard I meet. So I put overtime heal on me, Snowflower on, and full nukes..
      Also, double tap Sea Variation (also use it on melee's, I almost forgot..). It
      rekts the attackspeed, and bard hate that. If the battle takes long, try to
      focus his mana, and remove it. But ye, your opponent might to the same which is
      annoying. Bard vs Bard is measuring the genitals. The higher MB wins imo.

      4.2 Survivability

      Shield Melody, Snowflower Shield, Overtime Heal, 2 sleeps,
      root, para high dps. Bind skill, Silence skill (wtb 4.8 silence getting insta
      cast). Bard has kinda everything it needs. So you have always something to pop,
      just think about what you are doing. Dont nuke, but get control of the
      situation. Your survivability is high. A bard is not that easy to nuke down in
      seconds. Atleast not in officer gear. The only remark would be, Bard's Msup is
      kinda low, compared to sorc. Sorc easily has 1.9k msup, Bard has to deal with
      1.5-1.6. I could higher it with other accs, using officer food. But I like to
      focus my MR instead. Especially in groups/Sieges. Use survivability as your
      advantage. Dont be afraid to drop to 50% hp, you know what kinda nukes you
      still have left, when the opponent thinks he got you!

      4.3 Bard with friends - Group PVP

      Really the big plus on bards. I tend to believe that
      everybody underestimates bards in first place. If we go JMR, I can tell that I
      never have the nr 1 on my head. Mostly have a SM and/or Sorc in team, so they
      get targeted first. Bad for them, good for me. Because if im not targeted in
      group pvp, im Lethal to all glad/ranger/gunner. I mostly nuke 1 person in a
      party down, before a cleric realises he has to heal that target. After that I
      focus on binding other melee's. Rooting SM's pet (if SM is not dead by then..),
      Silencing sorcs. Then I switch to Macc gear, to take away cleric's mana. After
      that my nukes should be back off cd, so back to MB gear (macro's ftw) and nuke
      down another casualty.

      Heal the cleric when he is feared/silenced/para'd. All you
      can do, try to save him/her. Just realise you are the all-in-one-solution of a
      group. You can do anything. Heal, DPS, Control. Practise switching between the
      jobs and dont forget to use your brain while doing so. Also little warning,
      dont macro gear too much while fighting.. how many times I end up with parts of
      gear missing..

      5 Conclusion

      Bards are amazing, but might require some effort to really
      play it well. It seems easy (lot of quick skills, easy dps), but to get good at
      it requires practice, interest and a bit of brain. I did not even talk about
      Bard-Xform yet. I happen to be a Great General at this point and its awesome.
      The nukes gets increased, the AOE-DP hit hits like a train and in combination
      with the 2 xform skills it can create some space infront of a zerg. Especially
      when assisted by other xformers. Also the bard has 4k dp heal, which is awesome
      for xform. EZ mate!

      Anyway, this is the end of this tl;dr-piece. I'd like to
      hear whether you like it or not. Does it add anything to your current
      bard-knowledge. Do you like my writing skills? Do you miss anything in this
      'guide' I hate the word Guide, though. Ask all you want, but do it here, cba
      answering question in /w during siege. Anyway, Yolooo!
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • All that work and not a single reply? Good job, nice work :)

      Personally I don't play a Bard, so I can't really say much about PvP matchups, though I assume Gunslingers shouldn't be too hard as you have pretty high Magic Suppression, or am I mistaken? Godstones can procc, sure, but you'll have an easiert time against Gunslingers than most classes - in theory.

      You talk about how every class could manage their MP consumption before Bards came along, so why should things be any different now? Well, MP consumption of other classes got increased and more MP drain mechanics were implemented to fit a Bard's niche.

      I'm a Chanter myself, so I know how you feel, but even a Bard's primary role is not DPS. It's primary role is support with a focus on DPS. Just as a chanter's primary role is support with a focus on healing. Sure if we neglected our other purposes we can act as DPS. But our toolset allows for more and requires us to do more.

      And I'd like you to convince me how exactly Bards are within the Top 5 DPS (and which classes the other four should be) because honestly no, they aren't. Assassins deal better DPS. Gladiators deal better DPS. Rangers deal better DPS. Sorcerers deal better DPS. Spiritmaster deal better DPS. Gunslingers deal better DPS. Bards might just be on par with Clerics and Aethertechs and the advantage over Templars isn't too big either. Definitely the weakest class for ranged DPS - at least as off 4.6. The upcoming patches will give a rise to that without a doubt - maybe talk about those a little?

      But of course you're right. Being nothing but a walking manapotion is not what Bards are made for and their DPS isn't something to laugh at either - but there are occassions when acting like a mana battery increases overall group DPS - if you know your clothies handle the MP well.

      For weapons I think you could mention clearly that stacking RST + Offi-2-Star is not a good idea as you'd want both attack and castspeed.

      For Stigma Builds - well, good to spelling it out, though I don't any class has a more straight forward stigma build as Bards do. I think they'll reduce the big skills CD though?

      And one more thing about PvE rotation - again I don't play a Bard myself - so let me just share this.
      I do think you percentage of Pulse is a little bit high and if you make claims that your DPS is that good, maybe show how it actually works out in hard numbers? :)

      Here's the rotation of a 3.700 ARM DPS Songweaver in Katalamize (1.090.000 damage in 6 minutes 14 seconds) which slightly differs from your general idea. (Paean of Pain = Mosky Requiem).

      Also you could talk about movement buffs, as they're pretty big on bards. :)

      Apart from that, thanks for the good work :) maybe spice it up with a few pictures (Skill Icons for instance) and don't use 'Can't be bothered to google that'.

    • Yo, thanks for your reply and I do see some good points in your post.
      However, I dont agree with everything in your post :).

      Bard vs. Gunner, done it 9873824 times. In my opinion, bard need 100% cd, without snowflower you are dependent on luck. Dependent on whether the gunner is good or not. If you meet a endgame geared gunner, bard loses. Atleast I do.

      Then about DPS. In my legion, within my friends, im kinda outdpsing every class. Now, I know that not everybody plays like me. But I can call about 3-4 bards on elyos perento who do equal dps than me. You will see them nr 1 or 2 in kata dps in decent groups. You will see those bards in top10 dps on DDG Commanders (only sorcs and clerics outdps bards in the long run..)

      And yes, Sins and Glads cán do great dps, ofcourse I know. But that my point. People know how those classes can be epic on dps, but people dont know that a bard can really be close to a sorc, just with the right rotation. I found your tie to a cleric comment remarkable, because in my opinion, in big bosses (Runa, Kata, DDG etc) Clerics is in my opinion the strongest dps, and also with the easiest rotation.

      I will upload my next kata run on my bard with my dps stats. Maybe I overdid a bit of my percentages, but Im pretty sure my Breeze (or Pulse in NA language) will come on top, together with mosky.
      But then again, im not here to prove anything. I just want to show people how I play the bard. A lot of people start it and quit it because they dont see possibilities. Im here to show them after playing bard for 1year as main.

      The vamping of the post with images might be a good idea, might get on to that later on, or at next maintenance :D
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • I enjoyed reading it, being a bard myself I learnedsome things and I agree on a lot your points.
      Bards dps can be amazing its just sad when ppl think they're not dps or they be like: Oh, bard just shoots butterflies and unicorns so its a gay class so lets /ignore! I mean sure I will use the aoe mana skill for pve as much as I can but dont expect me to manaheal all the time.
      A lot of ppl decline me when i apply to lfg grps bcs they prefer a sorc/sm or ranger/gunner(which i outdps 80% of the time ayway+i can ((mana)heal them and cc if nessecary :|)

      There was also one thing that got me confused.
      Very early in your post u mention how important the 50e gloves are for the attack speed(which I completly agree with) and then you tell us how u run with 5/6hyperion and 1swb for pve and the 2 star officer set for pvp. Do you just use the attack speed scroll + atkspeed harp, and think its enough? because I recently got me a rst harp and use the harp+atksp gloves+atksp scroll and I'm loving it.

      I still use 60a2 set +50e gloves for pvp but with the upper abyss event Im getting ceras pretty fast now. So I was planning on getting 3/5 2star set + 1 r1part and 50e gloves or do you think the extra stats on the 2star gloves + 0.X% pvp def/atk% from set effect is more worth it? For pve same thing, as I prefer attack speed I wanted to go 4/6hyperion + jb eternal atksp gloves + 1 runa/rst myth armor part. Or should I just try to get 6/6hyperion?

      Erufuun wrote:


      In theory yes a bard has a fairly good chance vs them I think, but 99% of the geared gunners run with either silence/para/4k dmg godstones anyway which proc 9/10fights so yeah It pretty much always ends with the gunner on top
    • I enjoyed reading it aswell , I do agree with many things u said , even if for me the best compo u can use for pvp arent MR / MB but HP / MB (wich I dnt use myself cuz I m proly the poorest player ever T_T) , abt the gloves I use 50e for pvp/pve , using cast% is totaly useless imo use a magical def idian for the msup u loos on it (for pvp).
      I agree so much when you say that ppl get lazy abt mp when they see a bard , just like u do I never heal mp if we dnt get any drain :p.
      Abt pve gear I use only 2 part of kata ( weap / shoes ) glove50e and rest SWB part , not done with accs yet but I have a bit more than 4k MB selfbuf.
      Once again , rly nice post :like:
      AT 65 = Melon
      Cleric 65 = Stari
      Bard 65 = Doremii S A K U R A
      Sorc 65 = Konaan

    • Thanks, I like the comments :)

      First, about the attack speed gloves. I think the comment was more meant for newer bards. Get atk speed gloves asap, as it will help you through your way to lvl 65 a lot. Once at 65 there are choices to be made.

      For PVP im running full 2star officer set. So thats with cast gloves. I really dont wanna miss the set effect + other stats, which the 50E doesnt have. So yes, my full pvp set is with cast speed gloves.
      However, if I switch to my Rank 1 Macc set, Im using 5 parts + the 50E atk speed gloves. My macc set is meant for clerics, and for that some extra atk speed never hurts :).
      Then my PVE set is actually also a hard choice. Because why we have atk speed? To be more mobile, to be quicker, to land things faster. If we talk about Kata or other big bosses, I dont really care thaaat much for atk speed, I just go for stats in that case. So yes, at this point I have 5/6 kata set, missing the boots. But since I dont get the 6/6 set bonus, I go 4 parts hyperion with 50E. However, when I wil get my 6th piece, I might switch to full hyperion, but I first will test that over and over to be sure what is best for my dps in the long run.

      MB/HP composites. Yes, with the current MR nerf inc, I would wish my set was full MB/HP. But since it isnt, im not gonna change it at this point. But yes, I'd love to have a full MB/HP compo set.
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • Because you are a better Pve Hero than me, click :D
      Also, im not saying pro-bards can out dps pro-sorcs/clerics
      But we can out dps 90% of the server by just playing smart :)

      MB/MA is not worth it for me. Like I said, too expensive.
      And it will boost my Macc to 2.3. Then what? with 2.3 im still not hitting any cleric in MR..
      So, my conclusion to this is not worth it. But people might wanna go MB/MA, Im fine with that lol, Im not gonna.
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • Only 7, pff :D

      No thats kinda the problem, bards is kinda the only magic class without Macc buff..
      Yes, 100 passive, but thats not gonna make a difference, that just means we can socket more mb instead of ma :D

      Fear/Sleep Resist, dont know really. The way I see it, and you know this, I hardly get slept in JMR, and never feared (only if SM rekts my buff and I dont notice it..). So yes, I would say that im save against SM's, but whether it really stacks (2.3k MR+0.4k Fear Resist = 2.7K Fear Resist) I dont think that is true. Because a SM could have more macc than that and still they dont fear me. So idk.
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • MB/MR composites are nice for resisting non-magical classes, and that won't change much with the MR nerf as your MR really isn't high enough to cap at the 500 except for very few cases. So MB/MR is still strong.

      Theyne wrote:


      So can Templars and even Chanters, out dps'ing server trash isn't hard. :)

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Erufuun ().

    • [NICK]mancebador wrote:

      Would it be possible to check your gear and stigmas in one of those webs when you can see profiles?

      The bard guide is really nice and helpfull, thx.
      Yeah, wait for next maintenance, im planning on revamping the guide then.. I also saw a lot of typo's and non-logical sentences :D
      And yes, will also add my gear/sets and my stigma build.
      Perento Elyos - 65 Bard
      Deyla Elyos - 80 Bard
    • Cheers guys!

      As far as I'm aware there are two seperate checks, once for Magical Accuracy, once for Fear/Sleep.

      Having enough Magical Accuracy gets you through Magic Resist, but you might still fail the Fear/Sleep check.
      Having too little Magical Accuracy might not even get you through the Magic Resist check.

      I'm not sure that's the order these are checked in, this is just an educated guess.

      So long,