Bards and You by Binsin

Bards

Bards are not the class to play if you are looking for something that puts out high dps numbers or is a tank/dps hybrid early on. Bards, until nearing current endgame, are merely there for their songs, but are still very fun to play when you get down into it. Bards have alot of good points leveling up and during the lower tier with their ability to help enchanters CC, the ability to slow/kite mobs that dont summon, and basically bring alot to the table for groups/raids at the cost of not doing much dps.

Bards offer great utility to their allies, through the two beneficial songs they can play, and have a wide variety to choose from. Once they have their Relics they will either play 2 of those, Mostly Fiery and maybe a Resist Song/Regen Song/Mots depending on the situation. As you gather experience and items, you will increase the strength of some of your songs. This too applies to the Detrimental song you will be able to play, slows, dots, pacify, charms, mezes, Bards are the Jack of All Trades, Master of None, this is something everyone, whether or not you have played a bard, can agree on. But lets get in to the details.

Note: BUT DO NOT LOSE HOPE, You do later become a dps machine

. Bards get alot of good AAs, including, but not limited to,

• Sonic Blades - Innate Magic Based DD Proc
• Jayla's Insight - Gives you information on an NPC's Class, Level, Bane, Resists, and many other stats
• Item Adept - Increased Proc Rate on weapons
• Glamour of Shiritri (My personal favorite) - Increases your faction standing with EVERYTHING by 1 level of Faction. (Ready to Attack = Threateningly, Threateningly = Dubious, Dubious = Apprehensively, ect, ect)
• Extended Notes - Increases all song ranges up to 25%
• Sionachie's Crescendo - Further increases the range of GROUP ONLY songs.
• Speed of the Wind (My second favorite) - short max movement speed buff at the cost of 500 mana (useable anywhere)

Theres a lot to bards, and are not a simple class. They can be a very big part of a raid with their songs. The biggest beneficial songs are;

• Song of the Blademaster - 60% (spell)haste, with increased Strength, Dex, Attack, and a small DS, amounts affected by Brass Instrument Mod.
• Relic: Fiery Warcry of Tarhyl - Increase DD Damage by 13%, Increase Bane DD and DoT Damage by 18%, Increase DoT Damage by 13%, Increase Melee Haste v3 by 22% (Not affected by instrument mods)
• Relic: Lcea's Lament - HP Regen +22 per tick, and Mana Regen + 20 per tick and Cure Poison/Diease 2 counters per tick.(Not affected by instrument mods)

Note: You can only play 2 beneficial songs at a time

And the Detrimental songs are;

• Relic: Chant of Destruction - 200 point base Magic damage DoT that also lowers the Magic Resist of the target. (affected by instrument Mods)
• Tuyen's Chant of Venom (Pre-Runic 2) - 80 point base poison damage dot that also lowers the Poison Resist of the target.(affected by instrument Mods)
• Runic: Denon's Dissonant Duet - 100 point base Poison damage DoT that also lowers the Poison Resist AND AC of the target.
• Brusco's Arrogant Bellow - A pulsing 100 point base magic damage DD, that does not stun. (Available at level 39)

Note: You can only play two Detrimental Songs at a time

• Relic: Crescendo of Strife - a buff that lasts 3 ticks, and gives magic attack to every primary swing. When it fades, it does a 1001 base PBAoE.(affected by instrument Mods)

• Brusco's Bombastic Bellow - 200 point base Magic Damage DD that stuns the target for 4 seconds.(affected by instrument Mods)
• Brusco's Overbearing Bellow - 300 point base Magic Damage DD that stuns the target for 6 seconds.(affected by instrument Mods)
• Brusco's Belligerent Bellow - 1200 point base Magic Damage DD that stuns the target for 10 seconds and can only be used with a flute equipped, which is how it got its nick name "Flute Nuke". (affected by instrument Mods)

Those would be a bards most used songs in groups/ and most raids, especially around mid/end game. As I continue on, things will go into more detail, like how much Monks benefit from the Song of the Blademaster,as it gives Strength and Dex, which affects their fist dps.

Our next topic will touch on the tomes that Bards like to read.

• Tome of Magic Mastery
• Tome of Critical Evocation
• Tome of Striking
• Tome of the Mind
• Tome of Infection Mastery
• Tome of Enhanced Strength (And Dex)
• Tome of Bodily Resilience
• Tome of Bodily Avoidance
• Tome of Vitality

Those tomes are in order of importance to a bard after finishing AAs. There are other tomes that are useful, but I listed the tomes I believe are more important to a bard.

Now we will talk about the Class Tomes for a bard, which are what help them shed their "Play songs and Afk" life style and let them enter the race of their allies in terms of dps.

• Rhythm of the Blademaster - 2.5% chance to flurry per rank while the bard is playing Song of the Blademaster. (This only applies if the Bard himself is singing the song. You will not benefit from this tome if are not playing this song, but another bard is playing this song. You need to play it.) This tome caps, at Rank IV, 10% Flurry chance. This is the main tome that brings bards into the dps race, while not making them anywhere near other dps classes, they are at least slightly useful in a group sense.

• Crescendo - 10% increased spell damage per rank against NPC's with 15% or lower hit points. This tome caps out at rank IV, for 40% increased spell damage. This is what makes the "Flute Nuke" Brusco's Belligerent Bellow extremely strong.

and the lackluster class tome

• Quiet Reflection - Increased the Bard's Meditation Cap by 25 points per tome, capping at 100, putting bards at a 230 meditation skill.

Level 65 Playstyle

At level 65, Without relics, You wont be doing much in the dps department, BUT you can do so much more for your group/raid, such as CCing, lowering resists of mobs, but and overall support role until you get your relics, because before relics, bards arnt much at 65. One of your biggest most useful commands is /melody. If you are boxing or someone else is boxing a bard, /melody is your best friend. It will automatically rotate songs for you. /melody 1, 2, 3, 4 will cycle those 4 gems on its own, until the target dies. Mind you, this is not the most dps efficient because Brusco's bellow have different cooldowns, so to do the best dps, you have to do the work yourself, but if you are in a situation where you cant actively press buttons, /melody is a great backup.

Once you have relics though, you become a source of great utility able to increase the dps of your group/raid by up to 40%. Depending on the encounter, and who you have in your group, you can change your beneficial songs accordingly. In a group with even just 1 Monk, I suggest playing Song of the Blademaster and Relic: Fiery Warchant of Tarhyl. Combined with the increased Strength and Dexterity from Blademasters, as well as haste if you lack an enchanter, you also offer 13% spell focus for DDs, including procs, and 22% "overhaste".

Note: This is a sidebar to explain how haste works. There are 4 types of haste. Item, Spell_v1, Spell_v2 and Spell_v3. Spells of the same "v" do not stack, such as GoE and Song of the Blademaster are both V1. Warcry, a Warrior AA, and Fiery Warchant of Tarhyl are both v3. The higher haste of the spells will be applied over the lesser, while they do "Stack" as in you can have both buffs on you at the same time. V2 haste is normally some sort of short term haste, such as but not limited to, Boon of the Vulfwere, and Legacy of the Dragonkin. So all together you are looking at, Worn Haste, that stacks with spell haste, so say 32%, then GoE, 77%, Fiery Warchant, 22%, and Boon of the Vulfwere is 60%, adding up to 191% bonus haste, with 100% as a base attack speed, puts you at 291%.

Dont get me wrong though, Rouges and Rangers benefit from Song of the Blademaster too, as it also adds attack, so if you are in a group with say, 1 rogue, 2 rangers, and 1 monk, Song of the Blademaster, and Fiery are your best choices, depending on what it is you are doing. Raiding might force you to do something alittle different as Fiery and Lcea's Lament to cure any disease/poisons and offer Mana/Hp regen.

Now we will move on to your Detrimental songs, including DDs, and how you should go about using them to maximize dps. Your basic rotation is Relic: Chant of Destruction, and one other detrimental song, whether it be a slow, another dot, a mez, ect. from there you would then use your level 63 Bellow, Brusco's Overbearing Bellow. This is a higher damage, shorter cooldown bellow than your level 55, Brusco's Bombastic Bellow, which you would use after Overbearing. The rotation would go, Relic DoT, Det. song #2, Overbearing, Bombastic. You would then reapply your relic DoT, as they only last 3 ticks, for a total of 18 seconds. After reapplying your Relic DoT, Overbearing Bellow should be off cooldown, and depending on what your second detrimental song is, you can either use the bellow, or if you are applying some sort of CC, I would reapply the second detrimental first. Whether you apply the second detrimental first, or do the Bellow then second detrimental, after those two are complete, Bombastic should be coming off cooldown and you can recast it, if you are fast enough in reapplying everything, you might even have 1-2 seconds before it comes off cooldown. As an edit, I would like to recommend, thanks to Burglecut, using Brusco's Arrogant Bellow as your second Detrimental, as it has no cooldown, and pulses, allowing it to be considered a second Detrimental song.

Note: The change to the bard songs Hymn, Lcea's Lament, MoTs and the introduction of Crescendo of Strife came after this guide was made. I cant find a good time to use Crescendo of Strife other than when you are killing more than 4 targets (to make up for the mana cost) or timed it properly to land on a named/raid mob at ~15% to utilize the Finale of Strife damage.

Bards are deadly casters, as most of their songs do not interrupt their melee, so while you are doing all this casting, you are still swinging your weapons, procing procs, and cutting down the enemy. I will go over briefly the difference between your Relic DoT and your Runic DoT. I find that, with my current set up, Runic > Relic by alot, because not only are you more melee than spell dps at this point, (4.3 sword, Rhythm of the Blademaster IV), it also will affect any other Melee dps attacking your target. Runic: Denon's Dissonant Duet is a 100 point base Poison damage DoT that also lowers the Poison Resist AND AC of the target. This means that your melee hits, and those of your allies, will hit harder, as they are mitigated less. There are times where you will come across poison immune, or high poison resist npcs, and then you would swap back to your Relic for that time, but outside of that, your Runic, while is it alot lower in damage, offers alot more utility and increases the dps of others as well as yourself.

Note: Quick lesson on Bard stances, will be slightly detailed. As you know /s 1 is your Normal stance, and does nothing, and drains no stamina, /s 2 is +10% haste, at the cost of 10% avoidance, /s 3 is +10% avoidance, and it applies a 10% slow. Your main stance you will like to be in when you have decent weapons and are going for dps, is your 4th stance, which increases your damage, and accuracy. Outside of that, if you are tanking and a mob bashes you, it will interrupt your currently played detrimental song, if you dont like having to keep re applying because a mob keeps bashing you, you can go into your 5th stance which will prevent your songs from being interrupted. your 6th stance is your 100% parry stance which will make you parry all melee blows, but you still take spell damage. Your last stance, is very situational and I will admit that I almost never use it myself, but that dosnt mean it is not useful. It gives you immunity to stun, mesmerize, fear and charm, as well as increased resistances as long as stamina is available.

As you can see, you are almost always pressing a button as a bard. One of the bigger things to remember is that your Bellow's can proc wrist effects, so Wrists with Procs > Wrists without procs due to the constant casting you are doing. The only songs that can proc your wrists are song that cost mana, so your dots, mezs, non runic charm, pacify and the likes will not be able to proc your wrists.

Other Information

Focus Effects that increase elemental damage, such as Fiery Chaos, or Rending Anarchy do not affect Bard Songs. They do, however, apply to your procs, so your Sonic Blades, Werefrog Illusion, ect. This includes Damage Increment. Bards main source of damage/song amplification is of course, Instrument and Instrument Mods. Your base modifier is 100%, or as you see on most items in client, 1.0. this means an item with 1.1 Wind Instruments will increase songs related to Wind Instruments by 10%. 2.0 would be by 100%, and so on. Bards DO NOT need all instrument modifiers, but having swaps for certain occasions, or even having one item with a "All Instrument" modifier is suggested as swapping songs will also make you want to swap items to make those songs stronger. The big ones are your AE Slow/Runic - Stringed, 4.3 Sword, Relic dot - Percussion, Song of the Blademaster - Brass, Psalm of the Four - Singing and Your Bellows, Which are Wind. As far as which you would want equipped at all times , Percussion, Wind, Brass. The others would be situational, and if you can itemize it, you can include Stringed and Singing too. Another thing to note is that Elemental Damage does apply to your Bellows and DoTs. So Magic Damage will increase the damage of your Relic dot by 1/3 per tick, and Bellows by the full amount. So 15 Magic damage would be applied over your three ticks of your dot, so 30 damage per tick would then become 35 per tick. and your 200 damage bellow would then be a 215 damage Bellow.

Other items you should look out for, or try to get are;

• Call of the Ancient or Piccolo of Petrified Winds - these flutes are the best you can get for your Refuge bellow, Brusco's Belligerent Bellow, which requires you to equip a flute to use, unlike your other bellows. That is not to say that the bellow uses the mod on the flute, If you have another item with a higher wind mod than your current flute, it will base its damage off that, you just need the flute equipped to be able to cast it in the first place.
• Strings of the Marching Dead - This item is a Undead slow clicky, which allows you to slow an undead npc, without using up one of your Detrimental song slots.
• Strings of the Gelid - I, myself, do not find myself using lich much, and there are other items that offer a faster cast time of the same clicky, but it is also the highest stringed modifier currently in the game, allowing your slow song to be 190% better.
• Bracelet of the Overfiend - I am in no way saying this item is only good for bards, over all, its a great item for any class that melees as it offers another life tap proc that stacks with Werefrog Illusion.
• Shard of Magic - A Type 5 Augment that gives you +24 magic damage, acquired by an NPC related to the Refuge faction. putting these aug in gear you wont replace any time soon is a good way to boots your relic dot damage and bellows.

Edit- Ive made various edits due to the nerf of their T12 4.3 weapon Dissonatatus, Bladedancer's Enmity which is now at a high T9 low T10 range, and is still good until you acquire any weapon above T10 weapons P.S. ALL INFORMATION ABOVE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WHEN STAFF REWORKS BARDS