Lliira's Chosen (59 Bard/1 Paladin) w/ 6 epics

[ilovedietpepsi]

Update 8/30/2010:
- Changed name of the build to give it a bit of RP flavor. (also due to the use of Lliira's augumenter)
- Updated build info
- Added Spell Selection and uses
- Added Song point allocations
- This character is now 2x and will be soon 3x.


The lack of bards is getting on my nerve lately and i decided to make one myself. So heres the build.
Special thanks for Jean Helix, Test, and Many Bard Gurus who have helped me understand the class and provided me with many insightful advices.

Pros:
Works well for non-demi.
Dependable defense - 131 AC with Girding and 85% Conceal with Lliira's Ego item (80% without). 20/+15 soak (with ego). - 36 dex at double demi, can tank most dex check foes in hell other than malabranches. (can tank non-para malabranche with Asmo belt if you choose to)
Single Level Splash -> Be able to get full 85% conceal with Lliira's Augumented Items (bard CL ego)
but even without it, 80% conceal and 131 AC (with girding at 2x demi) is still reasonable defense.
6 bard epics, legendary focus to illusion.
can max bard song level (L63 song) with artist and legendary artist
Max radius for epic auras with 60 charisma
Decent saves with pally splash
Almost always have 127 Perform (to reach L63 song requirement) - 124 at Nessus with 1x penalty).
Have Bard cloud epic - very very very cool epic for most hell boss fight like asmo fight.

Cons:
Biggest drawback of this build is you lose Pally saves in Ely as all classes with Pally Splash.
Not a DC build, so most spell cast will be buff or no-saves spells. but SP is reasonably well with epic SP and bestow curse.
Not a uni-tank (but defense is quite reasonable).


Base Race: Human
Subrace: "Shard" (secret Beyond UltraRare)
- FC: Bard
- DEX +4, CON +4, CHA +4, free feat: Lasting Inspiration, free feat: Extra Music, free feat: Lingering Song, increased base movement rate - very fast

Stats:
Str 9 - [27 at 2x w/ +14 item]
Dex 14 (18) - [36 at 2x w/ +14 item]
Con 12 (16) - [34 at 2x w/ +14 item]
wis 8 - [26 at 2x w/ +14 item]
int 14 - [32 at 2x w/ +14 item]
cha 17 (21) - [64 at 2x w/ +14 item]

*Note: however it can be difficult to fit all the +14 stats into the gears, so mostly you will have +12 except for chosen stats.

* The reason im doing a odd number, because the build gets an extra feat if starting with 18 charisma (due to not being able to take epic spell focus before LL as a bard), if I do 17, and take an extra Great charisma, I can add 2 points to dex for an extra ac and help make dex check better. 9 str for the same reason.

Level Progression : 39 bard -> 1 pally

L1-20
Feats:(taken in the order listed).
stats: all goes to charisma
Artist
Curse Song
SF : Illusion
GSF : Illusion
SF: Necromancy
SF: Transmutation
Metamagic: Extended Spell
GSF: Necromancy

L21-40 (all stats goes to charisma)
Feats: (taken exactly in the order listed)
Armor skin
GSF: Transmutation
SF: Enchantment
GSF: Enchantment
SF: Evocation
GSF: Evocation
Spell penetration
Greater Spell Penetration
Epic spell penetration
Epic skill focus: perform
Great Charisma I, II, III

L41-60 (all stats goes to charisma)
ESF: Illusion
ESF: Enchantment
ESF: Evocation
ESF: Transmutation
ESF: Necromancy
LSF: Illusion
Legendary Artist
*read Conjuration book.
*Eat charisma Artifact. Note: If you can demi quickly, i would strongly suggest you switch to con arti instead, and shuffle the stats a bit, as it will not only make you more steady and be able to tank a lot of instant death stuff, the Breathe also help tremendously in boss fight. A mistake I made myself.


Skills:
Concentration max
Discipline max
Parry max
Perform max
Persuade max
Listen max (optional, can replace with heal for healing circle, or craft armor for +2 to ac) After some consideration, decided to go with healing.
Tumble 60
Lore ~40
UMD ~25

AC: 131 with Girding at 2x if you have +14 dex item and asmo shield.



Spell selections and way to use them:

Level 1:
Expeditious Retreat
Amplify (-30% immunity to sonic, great when used together with bard cloud, this may need to be spammed if used on high conceal foes due to no listen).
Joyful Noises (used mainly to dispel enemy buff song after their bard is dead, have to redo song/curse tho, can also be used in the coil when run out of HMR, but again, need redo curse/song)
Appraisal Touch (really cool spell, with song you can easily reach +50 skill bonus to appraisal, can also buff party when shopping at stygia)
Silver Tongue (buff persuade, self-explanatory)
Grease (used to slow enemies down, but dont count on get the KD due to poor dc).

Level 2:
Deafening Clang (for those with multiple weapons, ask which they need this on, usually people want to keep one weapon without for the sonic-heal paragons)
Endure element
Ghostly Visage
Know Vulnerabilities
Clarity (I use this quite a bit when people get confused dazed or stunned)

Level 3:
GMW (for those runs with no cleric, +13 enhancement is better than none)
Displacement(Auto caster#1, your main line of defense when wearing uro armor or echoes of creation, also can cast extended version on strength tanks or clerics for 55% conceal)
Remove curse (used on party getting mazed, such as in abos)
Remove Disease (used to remove disease like effects, such as those in POM, swarm master, and mephistopheles)
Bestow curse (use extended version on high SR things such as Narz, Advespa, PF, Mal, Hamatulas, green golems and paragon mobs)
Treasure Scent (self-explanatory)

Level 4:
Shout (in the odd situation when you need to break out of a wall).
Stone Shatter (can used to destroy items, or construct, but due to poor dc, not used much)
Legendary Lore (buff your lore high enough for TS to work better)
Shadow Conjuration (for the darkness spell for ely)

Level 5:
Ethereal Visage (I keep this just in case, but this can replaced if you have uro/echoes and some backup of those for limbo/shredding).
Mind Fog (I dont find myself using this very often due to poor dc).
Wail of Doom (use this often especially when the cleric isnt doing a lot of prayer, primary targetting cluster of Insta-able mobs, like machines, fumes, you need to bestow curse the high SR stuff for this to work etc)
Lesser Mind Blank (self-explanatory)
Healing circle (have this on at all time to help with party healing)
Mass cure moderate wounds (spam this when dealing with mobs with kb things mixed in there, you can use the !opt to toggle healing circle to do the same thing)

Level 6:
Lesser Spell Mantle (useful in places like abos or POM)
Energy Buffer (Auto caster #2)
Mass Clairaudience/Clairvoyance (buff the party to give them some bonus to listen if not maxed by items - keep in mind this dont last long).
Mass Cure Serious wounds (ill spam this first before spamming the Level 5 spell in tough fight while things does party-wide damage)
Shades (for Stoneskin, gives you 20/+15 soak when wearing CL ego), also useful for Wall of Fire)


Song Points allocation:
Buff song:
AB - L51 (+4 is probably enough if party get IoF, but i got plenty points so +6 for +14 weapon)
AC - L63 (maxed)
Damage - L57 (maxed)
Saves - L11 (whatever leftover points dump here)
Skills - L63 (Maxed)

Curse song:
AB: L51 (-6)
AC: L55 (-7)
Damage: L19 (only put leftover points here)
Saves L63 (maxed)
Skills L60

[jonuhey]

I really dont think going without Spell pen is a good idea, my first bard was like that and I didnt like to play him much. Why? Take a look at these spells effects

*Dirge: 14% vuln to all physicals (for splash ones, 15% for pure)
*Ice storm: Nice damage empowered by tia harp, and no save
* Wail: Prayer-like effect, and automatically fail any will save if the fail this one
*Mind fog: -10 to will save
* rainbow pattern: good for boss fights and if the party slow and let you lay down a few for each spawn
*amplify: Sonic vulnerability


Basically all your good spells wont work against enemies, you still can be a good addition to party playing only as healer, but IMO you lose a lot by not being able to land these spells on the big guys.

Im not saying epic bards arent bad, Im just saying its more fun to play one that can also use spells.

You also need 50 base cha for another possum (which is very nice).

I used speed arti on mine to be even faster even with Shard, and even with 64 cha pre-demi can land these spells effectively.

[CataclysmicDeath]

As a CHA Bard yer AC is gunna suck anyway, I wouldn't even waste time worrying about AC to be honest.

As for 80% Conceal there is nothing squishy about that much conceal.

With Crit Immune Epic and KD Epic you should be fine.

Jonny: You forgot Phant Killer, ok it wont kill a Rak but if you just wail of doomed and that pesky mob is hitting on you and no one wants to get it off yer case a Phantasmal Killer in it's face can be quite satisfying when you make it go pop.

If it can be Wierded it can be Phant Killed. Unless it is a Rak of course in which case it's not a level 9 spell but then you can't have everything Obviously there are other exceptions as well but still, it's a nice spell for anyone Bard with Leg Illusion imo.

Cata

[jonuhey]

I was remembering phant killer at first, but after I started writing I forgot to mention it hehe

Its indeed a good spell for sure.

[redbeard]

Actually, no bard gets level 63 across the board song. There aren't enough bardsong points to max everything. My 59Brd/1Pal gets level 63 song in AC and skills. Level 57 in damage is just as good as 63. AB (51) and Saves (11) are a bit weaker, but most characters max out saves with +20 on gear. A pure bard would get 10 more song points and could bring the saves up to level 22.

[mishimayukio]

130 AC on my 70 cha bard doesn't suck, so don't say its pointless.

[CataclysmicDeath]

Shrugs, wish my bard could say the same. 110ac on a good day.

Either way ac on a bard wouldn't be my biggest priority, it copes just fine.

Cata

[ilovedietpepsi]

Jun 25, 2010 13:20:22 GMT @jonuhey said:

I really dont think going without Spell pen is a good idea,

I have epic penetration.

[jonuhey]

Jun 25, 2010 19:26:02 GMT ilovedietpepsi said:

Jun 25, 2010 13:20:22 GMT @jonuhey said:

I really dont think going without Spell pen is a good idea,

I have epic penetration.

I swear I Used Ctrl+F and searched for "penetration" and didnt find anything. I certainly made a typo

Then the build is fine imo, only thing you lose is one possum pre-demi, but thats not so much at the end.

Btw, my bard is a gnome shard, it gets one more AC than human, 57 more skill points and the only bad part is that my body doesnt look cool At the end she can get 120 AC pre demi with Echoes and BUR shield. She was one of my first toons here, but I never demi'ed her yet, maybe I should start playing it again

EDIT: Change that armor skin and that Epic Skill Focus: Perform (it is good when you are x1 demi but not so much before and after it).

[simpetar]

Just out of curiosity, why maxed listen? Bards usually need it for touch attacks, but most touch attacks are offensive spells. And, honestly, I doubt you will be landing lots of these, with only 60 charisma, ESFs (and 65 spell pen); definitely not on the big nasty mobs that would otherwise live long enough for you to land it. I would switch Listen for Heal, this way you can spam mass cures when there is nothing else left to do, or get some decent regeneration from healing circles.

simpetar

[ilovedietpepsi]

Jun 25, 2010 20:53:21 GMT simpetar said:

Just out of curiosity, why maxed listen? Bards usually need it for touch attacks, but most touch attacks are offensive spells. And, honestly, I doubt you will be landing lots of these, with only 60 charisma, ESFs (and 65 spell pen); definitely not on the big nasty mobs that would otherwise live long enough for you to land it. I would switch Listen for Heal, this way you can spam mass cures when there is nothing else left to do, or get some decent regeneration from healing circles.

simpetar

that IS something i been considering. I do think there could be something I CAN touch, please tell me if im wrong:
1. With persuade, i can drop some SR on top of something to add to my penetration.
2. Amplify its -30% even they makes the save (29% for my build)
3. Bestow curse, another thing that i can spam after a successful persuade.

Any feedback on this?

[ilovedietpepsi]

Jun 25, 2010 20:10:47 GMT @jonuhey said:

Then the build is fine imo, only thing you lose is one possum pre-demi, but thats not so much at the end.

Please explain, i thought you get 1 possum per 10 points of charisma, so i'll be getting 60 charisma at the end, don't see how you lose 1 possum? unless im missing something

I'll get 44 base charisma at 60, +2 from cha arti, and + 14 from items, = 60.

[jonuhey]

Possum is based on base charisma.

Illusion - Possum's Farce
- The token for this effect only serves to display how many uses are left per day. This ability can be used (base Cha / 10) times per day.
- If an ally dies in the same area and there are uses remaining, the ally will be resurrected, as if by a Stone of Rebirth.
- When only one use remains, this protection applies only to the caster.

[ilovedietpepsi]

Ahh you are right, thanks, will update with this fact on build accordingly.

[Mortis]

I play my bards quite often and have been playing them for years. Some advice, since you’re usually up front behind the tank line with some epic running, cursing, or whatever task among the limitless bard tasks is consuming your time... I would invest in maxing heal skill and using the regen healing circle ALOT. I find that the amount healed to those around me is very effective and I dare say even life saving in certain circumstances.

All aside, the build looks great. I run my bard in Tiamat – Cania and even Nessus if I find the right amount of time, and I have an AC of 96 with conceal buffs. Who cares about armor, just use visage for the temp eth, conceal, and stay out of the fray combined with savvy from long time playing and you've got it made.

Barding is a different mentality than most take on playing deep hells but avoidance combined with high concealment and mord/breech immunity is extremely effective.