[size=180]Contents[/size] [size=150] 1. The Guide 2. The Job 3. The Skills 4. The Tips & Tricks 5. The Sub 6. The Frequently Asked Questions 7. The Videos 8. The Updates [/size] ________________________________________________________________________________________________
[size=150]1. The Guide[/size]
This guide is made to clear most of the confusion regarding bard's build. I'm lvl 80 farmed Bard in Venus. I will try my best to explain what made Bards important and why it is fun to be one. I will update this guide from time to time to answer new questions regarding the build and the playstyle. And for the record, this is an advance guide for Bard, I will not describe all the skills. I will only explain the extras that most people didn't know bout Bard.
Bard is all about MP,speed and damage absorbing. At lvl 80, u will get around 50% MP increase when Harp is equipped. Your speed with Swing March will be at 90%. That is the fastest speed buff in the game minus the Drug of Typhoon that costs around 200k for 30 minutes. Nukes skills is among the fastest and the cooldown is fast too. So, what is your role? What can you contribute? I called it The 3 elements. MP, Speed and Tambours.
First of all, Bard is a support character. Get it in your mind. Dont whine about Bards not hitting much and so on. Bard should help others heal their MP. One will ask, "I got pots, why should i get a bard to heal my MP?". For all information, wizards, clerics and even warrior need MP to keep using / spamming their skills in party. And the 15 seconds pot time is not helping because they will use more MP than pots can heal. That is why Bard is important. To make the party do what they do without running out of MP. Bard is also good at damage support. It may not do much good in party grinding, but in group pvp, it will shine.
Secondly, the speed. The faster your tanker move, the more mobs they can lure. More mobs means more kills for wizards. More kills means more exp/sxp. And to have speed for all is a great thing when you are in pvp / guild war / fortress war / jobbing.
Thirdly, tambours. Bard have 2 main tambours and hit march. Guard tambour, mana tambour and hit march. At lvl 80, Guard tambour will absorb 38% damage from physical attacks and mana tambour will absorb magical attacks. Hit march will increase your party attack rating. At lvl 80, it will increase it for 79. Higher attack rating will increase the overall damage done from you and the party. Since so many people underestimate the power of tambours, let me give a simple example and calculation. Imagine you are a wizard with 8K HP. A person come and hit you for 10K damage and you are dead. With tambour, it will absorb 38% of the damage. At the end, you will get hit for only 6.2K and you are still alive and able to hit that person. The same concept can be use when you are in a grinding party.
Battle Bard. Your nukes is almost as good as chinese nukers. But the casting time is extremely fast. You will need 3 main nukes and 1 extra absolute damage skill. You will most probably 2 or 3 shots anyone without extra buffs or block. Nuke away when you have time in between healing mp for your party. Keep your tambour / dance up at all time and you will notice how fun it is to be a Bard. I will make a video of Bard in battle in future updates.
This is my current skills list. To make it easier for a new bard, just take all the maxed ones. I will not explain each of the skills and what they do. You can read the description in game and you will know. There are some skills I didn't maxed and I will explain why.
Skills Not To Max and Why
1. Mana Switch - This skill will absorb 50% of the damage made by the target. Dont get your hopes high because there is a limit. For example, Mana Switch lvl 7, the max MP you can absorb is only 742. And it costs 1112 MP to cast. Sure it will continue for 20 seconds, but my Mana Cycle is enough to max my MP. I did lvl up the skill before but I soon realized it is not worth to max and I dont use the skill anymore.
2. Holding Clamor - Useless because you will get Patter Clamor later without having this skill maxed.
3. Temptation - If you like to watch mobs fighting each other for 30 seconds, then max it. I dont. It's fun for the first time, but worthless after that.
4. Mana Wind - Good at early lvl when your mp cycle is not good enough. Can be use for emergency. It will aggro mobs to you. When you are higher lvl, you will find it not that important and the high lvl skill called Mana Breeze will replace it and it doesn't need Mana Wind to be maxed. Little advice from me, a good Bard is a Bard that got totally ignored by mobs. Just keep your Noise skill up and use only Mana Cycle.
5. Rave Melody - Dont need it because I'm pure Int and I have a high max Mana. But, for a str Bard, this skill will be usefull since you have low max Mana. Should be use in emergency time only.
6. Discord Wave - It is not always do what the description does. It will mostly do the opposite. Instead of decreasing aggro, it increases it. This skill is useful to get botters killed and I don't need it max to increase aggro on the target.
I will not explain all the skills needed to be maxed but only the ones that people think is not worth to get but I found it otherwise.
1. Cure Melody - It doesn't appear to be good at first. With relatively slow cooldown time and only on 1 target. I didn't include this skill for my farming calculation. But at lvl 90, this skill will get an upgrade called Cure Music and it will randomly cured one of bad status from weakening, limitation, curse line for all the party members. EDIT : This skill is not needed for Cure Music skill. So, dont max it if you dont have enough SP. It is still usefull when you are out of pills in war.
2. Tuning Noise / Tuning Sound - This is a low absolute damage output skill. I didn't add this before but as time goes by I have learn that absolute damage is very important. I got it maxed now both Tuning Noise and Tuning Sound. The max damage from Tuning Sound is at 2661 and it will absorb 100% Mana depending on the damage. Since the damage is fixed, I will get 2661 Mana when I hit a target. But it is also depend on the target's HP. If the target have lower HP then the damage made, I will only get Mana at the same amount of the target's HP. Why absolute damage is important? When a target is fully buffed for instance with bless, screen, fence quota and so on, you will be making the exact damage of 2661 regardless the massive buffs that the target have. And Tuning Noise is a fast cast skill and the cooldown is only 3 seconds. I have seen wizards made less than 1k damage with Meteor on a fully buffed target, where absolute damage skill will hit as much as the description says.
3. Horror Chord, Weird Chord and Booming Wave - At this particular time in Venus. I am the only Bard that have all these skills maxed. People will think, "Bard attacks is useless and low". I dont think so. Many people have seen me PVP in groups where I used all these 3 skills. And I can safely say it is deadly. Horror Chord (single target) and Weird Chord (3 target) cooldown time is only 3 seconds. It is among the fastest casting and cooldown skill in the game. I am known as the ultimate KSer in group pvp, guild war, fortress war because of these skills. I hit faster than anyone else. And if the wizard cant 1-shot a target, I will finish them off. Practice these skills and you will find it usefull. One more thing, Booming Wave is among the best/huge looking skill in the game.
[size=85]4 max dances and Booming Wave in action[/size]
4. Patter Clamor - Aoe bind skill. Most people will not get it but since there is no pre-requisite skill to max to get this skill, I would suggest you to get it. Use it when you are running from a target or to stop a running target. Useful in group pvp.
5. The passives - Get them all. I hate to see Bard without max passives and their tambour / dance is down seconds after they got hit once. Max it to stop interrupting the party. And to have the extra range is good so you dont need to be so close and still keep tambour / dance up.
1. Dance will give your party a great buff no other build can give. The max number of dances your party can do is 4 with 5 bards. For example at lvl 80, you can give your party 34% Physical / Magical Damage increase, 34% increase in cleric healing and 34% decrease in mana consumption. Add Dancing of Wizardry with wizards with Life Turnover, it will turn out deadly. For example, a 20K nukes will be 26.8K nukes. Enough to kill most people in 1 shot. Your party will have better chance to get uniques kill with this dance. Use Dancing of Healing when you need more heals from cleric. Useful in uniques hunting and group pvp. Use Dancing of Fight to pleased your STR party members when they zerk and you can see HUGE criticals. And Dancing of Mana if the party already have the other dances and if you just want to afk for a seconds/while. This will help the INT not to cry for MP when you are away.
2. How to make dance easy? I have seen many new Bards struggling to make dance. It always made me smile and wish I made a guide on how to make it easier. This is the easiest way to describe it.
(a). Bard-1 = Any Tambour or Hit March (b). Bard-2 = Any Dance + tambour or Hit March (cannot be the same as Bard-1)
That's it. Your party will enjoy the great dance. Tambours and dances will depend on your party. Usually the highest skill lvl bard will do the important tambour / dance. When fighting a physical mobs, make sure you get the highest skill lvl bard to do the Guard Tambour. Same with when fighting a magical mobs, make sure your party have the highest lvl of Mana Tambour.
3. Max 4 dances. How cool is that to make a full dance party when you celebrating a victory or anything? How to make it? It is easy as a,b,c,d,e. This example will show the easiest way to do it.
(a). Bard-1 = Guard Tambour (b). Bard-2 = Dancing of Fight + Mana Tambour (c). Bard-3 = Dancing of Wizardry + Hit March (d). Bard-4 = Dancing of Healing (e). Bard-5 = Dancing of Mana
There you go, a max dancing party. One thing I found out is you dont need all the tambours up to make more than 1 dances. 1 tambour is you only need to do all 4 dances. To make the fastest max dances in a party, just do it like this.
(a). Bard-1 = Any Tambour or Hit March (b). Bard-2 = Dancing of Fight (c). Bard-3 = Dancing of Wizardry (d). Bard-4 = Dancing of Healing (e). Bard-5 = Dancing of Mana
4. The most important thing you have to do is to keep an eye on your tambour if you are the first Bard. When your tambour is down, all the dances will go down too. Make sure you didn't get hit too much or you will interrupt the party flow. Know your role. If you are the initial tambour Bard, it is all depend on you to make the dance work.
1. To make it easier for you to do your job. re-organize your party list depending on their builds. For example, I will always put both of my tanks on top of the list and the most mana hunger member (fully farmed lvl 80 wizard) is at the bottom and the second mana hunger member on top of it (cleric or slower skills spamming wizard). Use Mana Cycle on yourself first. Then start Mana Cycle from the bottom of the party list. I usually dont do Mana Cycle on the tanks because they usually dont need it. And most of the tanks that I know always have lags when I cast Mana Cycle on them. I dont know why but It sure did. To counter this, I will use Mana Breeze to max their MP. But only use Mana Breeze when you can take couple of hits because it will aggro. Make sure you Mana Cycle on yourself first before using Mana Breeze as it cost 5727 MP to cast. You dont want to ended up with no mana. It may sound easy to manage your own mana, but when you are in an active high lvl party on Generals, you wont have time to watch the action as you will be busy healing MP for your party members. You will concentrate mostly on your party list most of the time.
2. If you found Bard to be boring at not challenging, try to raise your standard. Try to make your party members have full MP at all times. This will help you not to fall asleep while Barding in party. Especially in a long party (4 hours+).
You can use any build as your sub but my sub is Wizard. I was a pure Bard until lvl 4X and made Wizard as a sub to make myself more versatile in a party. It is all about what you want to contribute in your party.
Why Sub?
1. It is important to be able to switch role when needed. When the party lacks wizard, I will switch to it if there is another bard around.
2. To solo when there is no party around or to do a quick quest.
3. To powerlvl / powerparty friends or union members. No doubt wizards is the best at powerlvling, with 4 constant AOE's it can be the fastest powerlvling build in the game.
4. Uniques kill. You will have higher chances to get the kill or to get your party the kills with wizard. More damage = more chances to get it.
To make it easier, just get the maxed ones. You might think I have more wizard skills than Bard skills. It is true because wizard have more useful skills to maxed. For me, I want to be good at both builds that is why I have all the skills needed maxed. Personally I dont call wizard as my sub as I have both of it maxed.
My role in a party is different when I switch to wizard. Bard is about the support, wizard is all about damage. Choose your role or let the party choose it for you. It is all about how you want to contribute to the party.
[size=150]6. The Frequently Asked Questions[/size]
This part will remain open to discuss the questions people may ask in the future.
1. Question regarding the chances of using Dancing of Healing / Mana
phulshof wrote:
How often do you get to use dance of healing/mana? On Troy it's hard enough to even find a high level bard, let alone 2 or 3. I would assume that the other dances are preferred over these 2, so unless you get 4 or more bards together, dance of healing/mana would not be used. Am I overlooking something here?
I would say not much. Especially Dancing of Mana. You only use Dancing of Healing when you seriously need more healing power from the cleric and Dancing of Mana only when your party need it. It is rare but to have them available when you need it is a good thing. Venus for instance, most of us lvling in a party, so there's plenty of bards around even bard as a sub from a STR build to use the dances. And you dont need all high lvls to do all the dances, just a high lvl bards to do the most important dance and the other dances is a bonus.
The benefit, of course, is the tanking ability, though not as close as a warrior's, or simply put it: Survivability. But then again, why would you still worry about surviving, when you're buffed up and protected by both tankers and healers in a working party? Well, with survivability comes two notable benefits:
You will ease off the work of tankers and healers. Instead of giving you fences, the warrior can just give it to someone else - another pure INT damage dealer perhaps. The clerics need not worry about you too - well, not as much as other support builds.
Mana Wind or Mana Breeze can be used without hesitation. Even if it increases your aggro, dying from getting mobbed is lessen.
First of all, in a good funtional working party there would be 2 tanks (meaning 4 person can be buffed), 1 cleric, 1 Bard and 4 wizards (or it can be 3 wizards and another bard or 3 wizards and a warlock). Out of that party, the cleric and 3 of the wizards will get buffed by the tanks. So, it will leave 1 wizard and 1 Bard without a warrior's buffs. Either the wizard share the buffs from one of the tanks or just go without warrior's buffs and without Life Turnover.
I need to stress this out again, a good Bard is a Bard that always get ignored by the mobs.You have noise skill. You have the speed. You will get ignored by mobs, you wont need any warrior's buffs. Bards don't need any buffs except the free buffs from cleric (this is optional too) to do his job. Why? Because we rarely get hit, if you want to use Mana Breeze or Wind, just move to a spot where not many mobs around. The range from that skill is good enough to get it to work. So tanking ability is not needed because in a party Bards usually become the last person standing (if the party got run over by mobs or cleric dced). This is from my actual experience.
Will STR Bards work? Yes. This is from what I saw everyday in Venus. We have many STR builds with Bard as a sub. They are doing ok in a party. The only downside is they are struggling for MP themselves and the MP they heal is not as good as INT Bard (even though the skill show weapon reflect, it actually refers to your magical attacks reflect). But they manage to heal most of the INTs in party. I have no problem having STR Bards in party as I know they can do their job. Just give them INT buff from cleric and they are fine. The good thing about STR Bard (as a sub) in Venus is they have all the good skills too and it is up-to-date with their current lvls. So we can expect high tambours, speed (they still lacking on this) and especially Dance of Magic. I dont know if they will get the 80 skills or not, but I hope they do.
The most simple way to describe STR Bard are as follows : Grinding Party - Same as INT Bard but they will struggle for their own MP but still can do their job.
Solution = Use Rave Melody (convert HP to MP), get INT buff from cleric and always Mana Cycle on yourself first.
Group PVP - You would think you can tank more with more HP but without fence / quota, even a STR builds will be an easy target for wizards / nukers. Plus you cannot do support damage to your party. It is rare to have STR builds to Bard in a war. But if it happen, just hope the opponent will ignore you and you dont get too much hit.
Final words, STR Bard is do-able and can do their job without the bonuses (support damage, higher MP healing, higher max MP).
19/05/2008 - Guide released. 01/06/2008 - Added Battle Bard in Fortress War Video (80 Cap) 03/06/2008 - Added Video Section 03/06/2008 - Added Battle Bard in Grind Party Video 03/06/2008 - Edit regarding Cure Melody skill 11/07/2008 - Added Battle Bard in Fortress War Video (90 Cap) 21/09/2008 - Added Battle Bard in Grind Party lvl 90 with Mana Orbit Video
1. More Battle Bard / PVP Bard Video. 2. 90 cap skills. 3. Lvl 90 Bard playstyle.
________________________________________________________________________________________________ [size=85]Guide made by Guardia in Venus. You can use this guide at any legit sites as long as you put my name on it. [/size]
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