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Post by nataani on Mar 30, 2009 13:04:02 GMT
Enchanter Bard[/b]
Notes
- This build is focused at the abyss, many forms of crowd control make it quite effective. It boasts an array of daze, stun, sleep, confuse and fear spells along with one main instakill and a few sources of damage. The build is focused at doing all required bard duties and bringing the added bonus of enchantment to the table. A bard has the highest possible dcs for most of these spells, making it the ideal candidate. It is worth asking around, as a few key mobs in the abyss can only be disabled via enchantment spells.
- This build assumes that you wear echoes of creation or aria of the unfaltering. If you dont have either of those, then you need to drop a spell for ethereal visage at level 5, I recommend lesser mind blank.
Human - Radiance Genesi
Starting stats/subrace Str - 10 / 8 Dex - 8 / 10 Con - 14 / 16 Wis - 8 Int - 14 / 16 Cha - 18 / 24
All ability points go into charisma, use Charisma artifact and Trans book.
Class Progression Bard 1-39 Paladin 40
Pre-epic feats
Lingering song Artist Curse song Spell focus Enchant Greater spell focus Enchant Spell focus Illusion Greater spell focus Illusion Spell pen
Epic feats
Greater spell pen Epic spell pen Lasting inspiration Spell focus Necro Greater spell focus Necro Great charisma 1-8
Legendary feats
Epic Illusion Epic Enchant Epic Necro Legendary Spell pen Legendary Illusion Legendary Artist Legendary Enchant
Skills Discipline - Max Lore - Max Perform - Max Concentration - Max Persuade - Max Pick pocket - Max Heal - Max UMD - 40 Tumble - 20
Spell selections
Level 1
Expeditious retreat Sticky fingers Joyful Noise Sleep Amplify Silver tongue
Level 2
Deafening clang Know vulnerabilities Tashas hideous laughter Ghostly visage Silence Iron grasp
Level 3 Gust of wind Confusion Displacement Confusion Treasure scent Charm monster (could take gmw)
Level 4 Hold monster Rainbow pattern Stone shatter Shout Dismissal
Level 5 Mindfog Mass cure moderate wounds Healing circle Lesser mind blank Wail of doom Phantasmal killer
Level 6 Energy buffer Dirge Mass cure serious wounds Ice storm Least spell mantle
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Post by jonuhey on May 8, 2009 21:14:56 GMT
Im reincarnating my bard and am searching a bit more of info. I didnt see this build in action yet, but it is really interesting. Just some doubts: 1) Do you use TS?? Wouldnt bestow be a better spell than it? 2) Illusory pit is a level 5 spell... what spell did you take in its place? 3) Is mass cure mod wounds better than healing circle? I didnt try the lv 5 mass yet, but Im quiet addicted to the lv 6 one and the healing circle combo. 4) why do you *need* to wear a tia ring? I know it has lv 7 slots, but what spell are you wanting to use with your metamagics? 5) how effective is confusion and hold monster? I never tried it with a bard, and even with my wizard I never tried it out during a run.
Thx Jonuhey
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Post by Eblis on May 9, 2009 10:13:17 GMT
While I'm not the creator of the build I'll try to be helpful as well since I have recently made such a Bard myself.
1) You don't need Bestow Curse when you are wearing the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus. You could take it pre-demi and reincarnate when you have pryed the rod from his cold, dead hands I guess. Not sure which spell you should give up for it though, I for one quite like Treasure Scent.
2) Illusory Pit is indeed a fifth level spell. In place of it you could choose Neutralize Poison, Legend Lore or maybe Shadow Conjuration as a fourth level spell. My personal choice has been Legend Lore. To make place for Illusory Pit I have excluded Greater Dispelling from my fifth level spell list.
3) I have chosen Healing Circle over Cure Moderate Wounds myself but I cannot really say which is better yet.
4) + 5) I cannot answer these as I don't have enough play-experience with my Bard yet.
I hope I have been somewhat helpful.
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Post by jonuhey on May 9, 2009 13:23:35 GMT
I always forget the bestow curse on the rod (maybe its because I dont have one =P)
Indeed I took legendary lore, but Im still with ethereal visage in case I never get an echoes (I always roll low when there's an item like this in the split) even though theres the uro armor...
Im still choosing between a build like this one or the "uni-tank" support bard of mish. Maybe this one is indeed better after some travels through nessus.
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Post by nataani on May 11, 2009 6:18:30 GMT
Im reincarnating my bard and am searching a bit more of info. I didnt see this build in action yet, but it is really interesting. Just some doubts: 1) Do you use TS?? Wouldnt bestow be a better spell than it? 2) Illusory pit is a level 5 spell... what spell did you take in its place? 3) Is mass cure mod wounds better than healing circle? I didnt try the lv 5 mass yet, but Im quiet addicted to the lv 6 one and the healing circle combo. 4) why do you *need* to wear a tia ring? I know it has lv 7 slots, but what spell are you wanting to use with your metamagics? 5) how effective is confusion and hold monster? I never tried it with a bard, and even with my wizard I never tried it out during a run. Thx Jonuhey 1) As Eblix said, you get bestow at level 60 on the ruby rod. The spell could still be useful since you have the trans feats, but even with my sorc I have found it iffy at best to land. 2+3) Illusory pit is pretty meh imo, it can be useful but... meh. My level 5 spells are listed there, the reason for taking mass cure mod over healing circle is because my level 6 spells get used up really fast, so I cant really afford to heal with the level 6 cure, instead I use the level 5. Greater dispelling can be very useful in aboleths if you have the elysium gr abj boots and plenty of abj draughts. If you are taking EV then I would suggest dropping gr dispel for it. 4) The tia ring. Well, your main spells that you will use are: Amplify (1), Wail of doom (5), Phantasmal Killer (5), Mindfog (5), Dirge (6), Gust (3), Stone shatter (4), Tashas (2). On layers like phleg, malad, cania and nessus you will use ALOT of dirge. I like to try and land it on every single pit fiend I see. Wail of doom is often needed to make sure this happens, once dirged you can amplify the crap out of it. Essentially this makes you a mini-pm. On layers with lots of wierdables like stygia and cania, you will also use alot of phants, while still using wail of doom. In the end, your mainly using your level 5 and 6 slots. With my gear setup I get around 32 to each without the tia ring. Those extra slots are almost required when your spamming dirge on things. 5) Hold monster has its uses on creatures that are not paralize immune, sahuagins are a great target with it. I mainly use it on the annoying casters, first hit them with tashas since your dc is ridiculously high, then with hold monster to keep them out of commision. It all depends on how competant your mages are, if they know what they are doing then you can better spend your time doing other things. Confusion is just fun to use, in areas with lots of wierdables you can make whole mobs scatter if you use it, essentially disabling the whole group with one spell. Your dc is very high, so it is incredibly effective.
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Post by jonuhey on May 13, 2009 3:22:55 GMT
Just wanted to post my version of this build with shard. You lose 1 DC and 1 metamagic (maximize), but gets extra speed, extra songs (for when the lyrics channeling comes ) and gets 57 extra skill points, plus some more gnomish bonuses. You can drop the 2 metamagics to get grt cha 9 and 10, but a bard without metamagic isnt that good even with 1 more DC. Jus an example: Extended Disp >>>>> Disp. Gnome - Shard Starting stats/subrace Str - 8 Dex - 12 / 16 Con - 14 / 18 Wis - 8 Int - 14 Cha - 18 / 22 All ability points go into charisma, use Charisma artifact and Evocation book. Class Progression 1-39 bard 40 paladin (needs to change alignment) Pre-epic feats (spell focus illusion) <- free with gnome Artist (1st level) Curse song Spell focus Enchant Greater spell focus Enchant Spell focus trans Greater spell focus trans Greater spell focus illusion Epic feats spell pen Greater spell pen Epic spell pen Extend spell Empower spell Great charisma 1-8 Legendary feats Epic Illusion Epic Enchant Epic trans Legendary Spell pen Legendary Illusion Legendary Enchant Legendary Evocation Skills Discipline - Max Lore - Max Perform - Max Concentration - Max Tumble - Max Taunt - Max UMD - 40 Divide the rest between PP and heal Spell selections Level 1 Expeditious retreat Insidious rythm Sticky Fingers Grease Amplify Level 2 ( I dont remember this level anymore, will check when servers are up again, or tomorrow) Deafening clang Know Vulnerabilities Tashas hideous laughter Ghostly visage Silence Level 3 Gust of wind GMW Displacement Bestow curse (for a not demi bard) Treasure scent Level 4 Hold monster Rainbow pattern Stone shatter Shadow Conjuration (for darkness and mage armor) Shout Level 5 Mindfog Ethereal Visage Healing circle Wail of doom Phantasmal killer Level 6 Energy buffer Dirge Mass cure serious wounds Ice storm This build is really good, you can even kill fumes if needed, dirge works with common mobs without needing to roll 1 =p, phantasmal killer lands (tho most of the times I dont have the opportunity to cast it, cuz I have lots of things to do as a bard, and when I finish it, the casters or insta-killers already killed them), stone shatter works here and there. Ofcourse this is always better after double demi with arti... but still its fun to finish a run and ppl saying "omg, bard got 2 kills!! =O" So far I tagged it to phleg, and I got an echoes already =D just needing the tag to use it...
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Post by Naeblis on Jun 11, 2009 15:53:44 GMT
All ability points go into charisma, use Charisma artifact and Evocation book. Hey Johnny, did you mean trans here? You already took the feats for evo.
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Post by jonuhey on Jun 11, 2009 15:59:20 GMT
No I meant evocation in that place...the typo was in the legendary feats where I had chosen epic evocation instead of epic transmutation, all other transmutation focus were already in their places.
And I prefer to put evocation for last because the book drops in a place I can get in 30 minutes without any trouble.
Jonuhey
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Post by jonuhey on Jun 20, 2009 3:38:46 GMT
Logs of a recent stygia run (ppl from it are shouting for malb now, sorry I cant go D: ) Anyway, I got 7 kills. Thats my record so far lol. My kills include an advespa, 2 ice fiends, 1 ice reaver, 2 baatorian gollems (1 being para) and an osyluth. And Im playing a version with 4 less DC than a rad gen, x2 demi and cha arti. I killed even an aboleth savant in my last and only abo part2. =)
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Post by nataani on Jun 20, 2009 4:51:51 GMT
Lol, need to track down the logs from when I went nuts on stygia and came second in kills... or phleg where I came third.
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Post by bort on Jul 31, 2009 18:51:37 GMT
I'm sure i saw this posted somewhere but couldn't see it in this thread... how did you set up your bard song? Cheers, -Bort
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Post by bort on Jul 31, 2009 20:07:42 GMT
Nevermind, found it. Here are the breakdowns I decided on for my bard: 600 total points. SongAttribute | Level | Points spent | Effect | AB | 48 (51) | 107 | +6 (break at 51) | Damage | 54 (57) | 135 | +8 (break at 57) | Skills | 60 (63) | 170 | +21 (break at 63) | Saves | 16 (19) | 17 | 3/2/2 | AC | 60 (63) | 170 | +16 (break at 63) |
1 point remaining Curse songAttribute | Level | Points spent | Effect | AB | 38 (41) | 69 | -5 (break at 41) | Damage | 18 (21) | 21 | -4 (break at 21) | Skills | 60 (63) | 170 | -21 (break at 63) | Saves | 60 (63) | 170 | 8/7/7 (break at 63) | AC | 60 (63) | 170 | -16 (break at 63) |
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Post by Tom Schreib on Aug 11, 2009 14:38:14 GMT
Kleb I was on that Stgyia were we lost our druid ( crash) and Wiz was afk for 45 mins). I belive i was on my barb/ Soak/damage guy and only the Assassin( Rockkkk) was higher than you in kills. We were a 7 man party too.
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Post by Delfestra Ruinvorn on Aug 26, 2009 15:00:28 GMT
So, why LSF Evo? I admit I'm not up on the bard spells/spheres...is that for stone shatter? 'cause obviously Ice Storm has no DC, so I'm curious...
Also, do you find lack of crit imm epic to be a problem when taking parties to, say, Minauros??
And why rad gen over shard? Racial feats?
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Post by Egg on Aug 26, 2009 15:16:18 GMT
I'm guessing for the epic - as offensive as they come. Demi bard so maybe Kleb uses the asmo rod (not that it helps others) but this is his offensive bard Oh and as for Rad Gen over Shard, I would imagine it's due to the +6 to charisma over Shard's +4. The feats from Rad Gen are useful too. Though I'm sure Mr Bard will confirm/deny this when he stops slacking.
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