Post by Paradoom on Feb 24, 2012 0:14:31 GMT
Outdated, still a valid built though
The Idea
Bards are one of the major core supporter classes and thus highly wanted on many runs. But playing one and playing one well is very different.
As bard you have alot of jobs to take care off: Cursing, healing, weakening monsters with other spells, lift up knocked down partymembers, granting the party special epics you have to get up at the right time, ressing killed partymembers and very often looting, running from monsters, buffing partymembers, spawning monsters…. It is quite the job u got, but practice makes the master.
Or in other words: You haven´t barded if u haven´t done it in Ely!
But you are always last in damage and kills and allthough you add a viable support with the mentioned tasks and have alot to do, now u can do alot more, once u handled the stuff from above.
I play alot other casters and I wanted to make the casting damage power beefed up as well as the nerfspells.
Shadowspells in particular give u some good options and a variaty of damage and defence spells and summons of course.
Icestorm with the Tiaharp has quite a punch as well. The Sonic damage also adds to the fight.
But first things first:
This is NOT a beginner bard. (But feel free to get ideas from it). What that means is: as long as you haven´t mastered the cursing and partysupport side you will have a hard time with this built in a party. So I recommand "training" those first, which can be done with this built, and then try the agressive side.
Tested and approved built that is a conquerer of HG now.
This is a Casterbard with several damage spells and desinged for any Endgamearea.
It also has several spells with nice efects to make the mobs more vulnerable or weaker.
The built demands to be 2x demi and I advice not to use it before you have achieved that. (or live with the downsides)
This built makes use of the new Paragonspells. (Illusion and Enchantment)
It is sturdy enough to stand near or even in the frontline if needed.
The support side:
Bardsongs (43 should be enough)
Healing Circle (gets efective very late in Paragon levels)
Mass Cure Wounds (same as HC)
Displacement (Conceal maxed at 55% (with Aria of the Unfaltering on yourself 85%)
Improved Heroism (Boost the AB of the Tanks by 4, they luv it even though the have no idea u did it ;-) )
Remove Curse, Desease, Poison (very needed in certain LL areas, Abyss, Aboleth and sometimes Hells)
UUU, Dirge, HMR with maximized circle
10 Possums (Autores if a partymember or you yourself dies)
Lesser Mind Blank (good to free ppl from Confusion and grant a one time protection in hells)
Absolute Blindimmunity and Ultravision (Dexarty) U are KDed in GS? IDC!
The offensive side
Empowered Icestorms
2 Sonicspells
Shadowsummon + Elemental summon
Epic Bardcloud (undispellable, elec + sonic + div, KD check)
Illusionary Henchman (The Cabana Boys, A very neat mini summon Army of up to 8)
Cacophony (massive sonic area dmg with 39 Rounds of use and also a very large area with this built)
Cursesong
Phantasmal Killer
Wail of Doom (same efect as Prayerspell and if it lands completly puts a fear efect on the mobs + If monster is feared it more or less autohits + with the fear efect Weirds from ohter casters hit easier)
Mind Fog (very strong dc of 58 thx to ench para lvl - 10 to will saves (turners luv it))
Amplify (add sonic vulnerability 15% (30% if dc 46 check is failed))
Rainbowpattern (daze)
Bestow Curse (nerf their SR, very handy on Elites, Supers, Bosses, if they fail their save it even drains alot of their abilities)
Unlimited Darknessspell (dex arty) A huge bonus when running Elysium. Esp. on Solars and any others of those sun lovers.
Taunt, Persuad or Bluff for special debuffs on certain abilities of the monsters. You can choose one of them and I recommand persuade.
You can use any Arcane Spellscroll you want. (e.g. BBoD, Stone to Flesh, Weirds...)
Confusion (very nice in LL areas if u help out groups, and on "trash" mobs)
With those offence options you can put out serious damage and what loggers do not show nerf the spawnes powers drastically.
Charakter
Skills and when to take
Hints about the Skillpoints
With this built you will have a total off 555 Skillpoints, but before u reach lvl 41 you can pump up just 6 skills.
Apon reaching lvl 41 u will be granted +1 extra Skillpoint per level as bard and +2 as gnome. So +3 total.
At 41 you will have 131 Skillpoints to spent.
Put your Points (as needed) in the top 6 Skills, then Parry and Lore.
Get Craft Armor to 43
Listen gets what is left over.
At Paragonlevels you can maximize listen and put
the Rest of the points into Heal which boosts partysupport
Saves
With and Without the Paladinsplash (getting a little evil sometimes ey)
AC depends on gear but 120+ is easily achieved.
Fully geared I hit 128 AC. Combined that with 80% Conceal and 121 Parry (with song) you know what I wrote earlier about standing in the frontline! Mind the layer panelties in hells though, which lower things like parry a bit.
HP
Level 60 double demi it is close to 1000
Level 80 something 1285
Feat- and Levelprogression and Spells in tested correct order or in other words DO AS I SAY! and u have no worries
At Creation you will be granted the following extra feats:
Gnome Illusion Spell Focus, …. (some more but that is the one that matters)
Shard Extra Music (+4 Songs), Lasting Inspiration (5x longer Song Duration), Lingering Song (+5 Rounds Song Duration) Extra Fast Movement
Level Progression
39 Bard / 1 Paladin / 40 Bard
All statpoints into Charisma
At level 41 read the fitting Spellfocus Tomb. In my case the Evocation one.
Additional Information
When you are lvl 39 and want to take the Paladinlevel you will have to change your alignment to lawful/good.
When taking lvl 41 read the evocation pandect or w/e spellschool you want to learn.
E.G. if you want to play a more supportive side, then Conjuration is a great option. You get a special summon that heals, restors and resurects party memebers, and the Paragonepic is a 4 rounds lasting timestop that leaves the party unaffected. Mind though that you will have to adjust your spellbook a bit for this. The Icestorm and shout can be exchanged then for something different.
The spells can be taken now in any order.
I just recommand taking the lvl 41 spells not with HG spells. That wasn´t possible in the past. That is changed now but better save then sorry.
They get granted at the Spellspedastel in the Docks and you will be granted one extraspell in every level from 1 to 6.
Read the additional discriptions on that here in the forums!
And since u have one more Extra Spell at level 3 do it as followed:
Toch the pedestal when u are lvl 41. Booya +1 to every spelllevel. (They will be summonspells) Change your Spells to match the ones that you see further down. Especially change the level 3 spell no matter what!. Commit and Relog.
Now touch the Pedestal again and you will get your additional lvl 3 spell and again can change that to what u want.
You can change your spells that way once per LL level you reach. At 80 you can make your final choice!
Spells
Know Vulnerabilities is a good spell to find out what the weaknesses of a certain monster is. If you are using HGX it will store that information in the database for you so you will have that intel on your other characters as well. I went went with the soundburst, but simply because I know the areas and what to do.
You can drop Remove Desease once you reach the demi status and get a RD-Rod from the demi shop in stygia.
Treasure Scent reads good on paper but sadly has a way too limited use. It has to be recast every time you popped a lootspot. So keen is a better option and gives great support for the tanks.
Gear
Setup One
Setup Two
To set your Bardsong you have to be in town and use the !bardsong command. When entered a textbox with the options to customize your bardsong will apear. You have to redo this whenever you gain a level, so the first time to bother with setting this will propably be level 40.
Bardsongsetup
[/td][td]56[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Skills[/td][td]20[/td][td]60[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Cursesongsetup
[/td][td]62[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Skills[/td][td]20[/td][td]60[/td][/tr]
[/table]
The Idea
Bards are one of the major core supporter classes and thus highly wanted on many runs. But playing one and playing one well is very different.
As bard you have alot of jobs to take care off: Cursing, healing, weakening monsters with other spells, lift up knocked down partymembers, granting the party special epics you have to get up at the right time, ressing killed partymembers and very often looting, running from monsters, buffing partymembers, spawning monsters…. It is quite the job u got, but practice makes the master.
Or in other words: You haven´t barded if u haven´t done it in Ely!
But you are always last in damage and kills and allthough you add a viable support with the mentioned tasks and have alot to do, now u can do alot more, once u handled the stuff from above.
I play alot other casters and I wanted to make the casting damage power beefed up as well as the nerfspells.
Shadowspells in particular give u some good options and a variaty of damage and defence spells and summons of course.
Icestorm with the Tiaharp has quite a punch as well. The Sonic damage also adds to the fight.
But first things first:
This is NOT a beginner bard. (But feel free to get ideas from it). What that means is: as long as you haven´t mastered the cursing and partysupport side you will have a hard time with this built in a party. So I recommand "training" those first, which can be done with this built, and then try the agressive side.
Tested and approved built that is a conquerer of HG now.
This is a Casterbard with several damage spells and desinged for any Endgamearea.
It also has several spells with nice efects to make the mobs more vulnerable or weaker.
The built demands to be 2x demi and I advice not to use it before you have achieved that. (or live with the downsides)
This built makes use of the new Paragonspells. (Illusion and Enchantment)
It is sturdy enough to stand near or even in the frontline if needed.
The support side:
Bardsongs (43 should be enough)
Healing Circle (gets efective very late in Paragon levels)
Mass Cure Wounds (same as HC)
Displacement (Conceal maxed at 55% (with Aria of the Unfaltering on yourself 85%)
Improved Heroism (Boost the AB of the Tanks by 4, they luv it even though the have no idea u did it ;-) )
Remove Curse, Desease, Poison (very needed in certain LL areas, Abyss, Aboleth and sometimes Hells)
UUU, Dirge, HMR with maximized circle
10 Possums (Autores if a partymember or you yourself dies)
Lesser Mind Blank (good to free ppl from Confusion and grant a one time protection in hells)
Absolute Blindimmunity and Ultravision (Dexarty) U are KDed in GS? IDC!
The offensive side
Empowered Icestorms
2 Sonicspells
Shadowsummon + Elemental summon
Epic Bardcloud (undispellable, elec + sonic + div, KD check)
Illusionary Henchman (The Cabana Boys, A very neat mini summon Army of up to 8)
Cacophony (massive sonic area dmg with 39 Rounds of use and also a very large area with this built)
Cursesong
Phantasmal Killer
Wail of Doom (same efect as Prayerspell and if it lands completly puts a fear efect on the mobs + If monster is feared it more or less autohits + with the fear efect Weirds from ohter casters hit easier)
Mind Fog (very strong dc of 58 thx to ench para lvl - 10 to will saves (turners luv it))
Amplify (add sonic vulnerability 15% (30% if dc 46 check is failed))
Rainbowpattern (daze)
Bestow Curse (nerf their SR, very handy on Elites, Supers, Bosses, if they fail their save it even drains alot of their abilities)
Unlimited Darknessspell (dex arty) A huge bonus when running Elysium. Esp. on Solars and any others of those sun lovers.
Taunt, Persuad or Bluff for special debuffs on certain abilities of the monsters. You can choose one of them and I recommand persuade.
You can use any Arcane Spellscroll you want. (e.g. BBoD, Stone to Flesh, Weirds...)
Confusion (very nice in LL areas if u help out groups, and on "trash" mobs)
With those offence options you can put out serious damage and what loggers do not show nerf the spawnes powers drastically.
Charakter
Stats | Creation | Progression | Geared | The Finals | |||||
Gnome | Shard | Arty | Asmo | Final stats | Paraadds | ||||
Basis | Subadds | At lvl 40 | At lvl 60 | 2x Demi | Dex | At lvl 65 | At lvl 60 | At lvl 80 | |
Str | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 16 | 16 | 32 | 34 | |
Dex | 12 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 20 | 2 | 16 | 38 | 40 |
Con | 14 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 22 | 16 | 38 | 40 | |
Int | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 16 | 34 | 36 | |
Wis | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 16 | 28 | 30 | |
Cha | 16 | 20 | 36 | 46 | 50 | 16 | 66 | 68 |
Skills and when to take
From the Start | Final Stats | |
Concentration | 63 | |
Discipline | 63 | |
Perform | 63 | |
Taunt/Persuad/Bluff | 63 | |
Tumble | 60 | Dump at lvl 57 |
Use Magic Divices | 40 | Dump at lvl 37 |
At Level 41 | ||
Listen | 57 | |
Parry | 63 | |
Lore | 40 | |
At Paragon Level | ||
Listen | 63 | |
Heal | 54 |
Hints about the Skillpoints
With this built you will have a total off 555 Skillpoints, but before u reach lvl 41 you can pump up just 6 skills.
Apon reaching lvl 41 u will be granted +1 extra Skillpoint per level as bard and +2 as gnome. So +3 total.
At 41 you will have 131 Skillpoints to spent.
Put your Points (as needed) in the top 6 Skills, then Parry and Lore.
Get Craft Armor to 43
Listen gets what is left over.
At Paragonlevels you can maximize listen and put
the Rest of the points into Heal which boosts partysupport
Saves
With and Without the Paladinsplash (getting a little evil sometimes ey)
at60 | at80 | at60 | at80 | |
Fort | 84 | 90 | 55 | 61 |
Reflex | 90 | 96 | 61 | 67 |
Will | 85 | 91 | 56 | 62 |
AC depends on gear but 120+ is easily achieved.
Fully geared I hit 128 AC. Combined that with 80% Conceal and 121 Parry (with song) you know what I wrote earlier about standing in the frontline! Mind the layer panelties in hells though, which lower things like parry a bit.
HP
Level 60 double demi it is close to 1000
Level 80 something 1285
Feat- and Levelprogression and Spells in tested correct order or in other words DO AS I SAY! and u have no worries
At Creation you will be granted the following extra feats:
Gnome Illusion Spell Focus, …. (some more but that is the one that matters)
Shard Extra Music (+4 Songs), Lasting Inspiration (5x longer Song Duration), Lingering Song (+5 Rounds Song Duration) Extra Fast Movement
Level Progression
39 Bard / 1 Paladin / 40 Bard
All statpoints into Charisma
At level 41 read the fitting Spellfocus Tomb. In my case the Evocation one.
Level | Pre Epic Lelves |
1 | Artist |
3 | Curse Song |
6 | Metamagic Extend Spell |
9 | Spell Penetration |
12 | Greater Spell Penetration |
15 | SF Enchantment |
18 | GSF Enchantment |
Level | Epic Levels |
21 | GSF Illusion |
23 | Great Charisma I |
24 | Epic Spell Penetration |
26 | Great Charisma II |
27 | SF Necromantic |
29 | Great Charisma III |
30 | GSF Necromantic |
32 | Great Charisma IV |
33 | SF Transmutation |
35 | Extra Spell Known Level 3 |
36 | GSF Transmutation |
38 | Great Charisma V |
39 | Great Charisma VI |
Level | Legendary Levels |
42 | ESF Enchantment |
45 | ESF Illusion |
48 | ESF Necromatic |
51 | ESF Transmutation |
54 | LSF Illusion |
57 | Legendary Spell Penetration |
60 | LSF Enchantment |
Level | Paragon Levels |
63 | PSF Illusion |
66 | Spellknowledge Illusion (U did it. The Cabana boys + double possums) |
69 | PSF Enchantment |
72 | Spellknowledge Enchantment (sonic area damage of CL rounds(39)) |
75 | Paragon Spellpenetration |
78 | Paragon level adaption one (pre 5x and lvl 80), after: Para evo focus |
Additional Information
When you are lvl 39 and want to take the Paladinlevel you will have to change your alignment to lawful/good.
When taking lvl 41 read the evocation pandect or w/e spellschool you want to learn.
E.G. if you want to play a more supportive side, then Conjuration is a great option. You get a special summon that heals, restors and resurects party memebers, and the Paragonepic is a 4 rounds lasting timestop that leaves the party unaffected. Mind though that you will have to adjust your spellbook a bit for this. The Icestorm and shout can be exchanged then for something different.
The spells can be taken now in any order.
I just recommand taking the lvl 41 spells not with HG spells. That wasn´t possible in the past. That is changed now but better save then sorry.
They get granted at the Spellspedastel in the Docks and you will be granted one extraspell in every level from 1 to 6.
Read the additional discriptions on that here in the forums!
And since u have one more Extra Spell at level 3 do it as followed:
Toch the pedestal when u are lvl 41. Booya +1 to every spelllevel. (They will be summonspells) Change your Spells to match the ones that you see further down. Especially change the level 3 spell no matter what!. Commit and Relog.
Now touch the Pedestal again and you will get your additional lvl 3 spell and again can change that to what u want.
You can change your spells that way once per LL level you reach. At 80 you can make your final choice!
Spells
Spelllevel 0 | |
simply all. there are no options here |
Spelllevel 1 | |
Joyful Noise | HG |
Apprasing Touch | HG |
Balagarn`s Iron Horn | |
Amplify | |
Expeditious Retreat | |
Scare | lvl 41 |
Know Vulnerabilities is a good spell to find out what the weaknesses of a certain monster is. If you are using HGX it will store that information in the database for you so you will have that intel on your other characters as well. I went went with the soundburst, but simply because I know the areas and what to do.
Spelllevel 2 | |
Iron Grasp | HG |
Deafening Clang | |
Endure Elements | |
Ghostly Visage | |
Soundburst/Know Vulnerabilities | |
Silence | lvl 41 |
You can drop Remove Desease once you reach the demi status and get a RD-Rod from the demi shop in stygia.
Treasure Scent reads good on paper but sadly has a way too limited use. It has to be recast every time you popped a lootspot. So keen is a better option and gives great support for the tanks.
Spelllevel 3 | |
Treasure Scent/Keen | HG |
Bestow Curse | |
Displacement | |
Greater Magic Weapon | |
Remove Disease | |
Remove Curse | lvl 41 |
Confusion (pre Hells)/ Gust | lvl 41 |
Spelllevel 4 | |
Shout | HG |
Stone Shatter | HG |
Rainbow Pattern | HG |
Shadow Conjuration | |
Neutralize Poison | |
Summon Creatur IV | lvl 41 |
Spelllevel 5 | |
Improved Heroism | HG |
Wail of Doom | HG |
Lesser Mind Blank | |
Mind Fog | |
Healing Circle | |
Phantasmal Killer | lvl 41 |
Spelllevel 6 | |
Mass Cure SW | HG |
Ice Storm | |
Energy Buffer | |
Shade | |
Dirge | lvl 41 |
Gear
Setup One
Helm | To Reign in Hell (Asmo helm, Artifact +16 to all stats at 65) |
Chest | Aria of the Unfaltering (Uro bard light armor, Adds Conceal boost + Spellslots 4,5 and 6) |
Boots | Legendary Boots of Defence (Spelllevel 6 and lower Immunity, Exotic imms, Fear imm) |
Robe | Hide of the Dread Ram (Abyss robe, 50% Cold imm and Cold resist III, Confusion immunity) |
Belt | Inspiration (Bard Burbelt, Spellslots, Several Skills, 1 Massress) |
Neck | Amulet of the Axerian Grandmaster (Tia bard ammy, many spellslots, +14 Str at 65) |
Gloves | Masterful Performance (Bur bard gloves with phys resistance, regen and 3 good skills) |
Prim Hand | Harp of the Axerian Grandmaster (Tia bard harp, many spellslots, Empowered Icestorms, +14 Cha at 65, 3x Shadowshield, 2x Epic Warding) |
Sec. Hand | Bastion of Cormyr (Bur caster medium shield with acid and elec imm, Fear imm) This is variable dependend on what u might wanna cover |
Rings | Plainwalker (levitation and waterbreathing, Mord imm, one elemetal imm 100% and one exotic imm 25%), Bur imm ring W/E needed |
Mote | Ely Posimm mote (+5% Pos imm) (I stick to this because of the machines and ice fiends with their nasty pos dmg) |
Setup Two
Helm | Variable: Soul Mirror (Illithid bard helm with spellslots lvl 4, 5 and 6) |
Chest | Aria of the Unfaltering (Uro bard light armor, Adds Conceal boost + Spellslots 4, 5 and 6) |
Boots | Styxwalkers (Asmo boots, Artifact, +16 to all Stats, many Spellslots) |
Robe | Variable: Hide of the Dread Ram (Abyss robe, 50% Cold imm and Cold resist III, Confusion immunity) Or the fire Daze imm one (forgot the name) |
Belt | Inspiration (Bard Burbelt, Spellslots, Several Skills, 1 Massress) |
Neck | Variable: Balduins Spellturner (Randomized so it has lvl 6 and lower spell imm, and around 10% magic imm as well as div and magic resistance) OR Heavenly Haunts Neclace (Bur Confusion imm Nec, Spelllevel 6 and lower imm) |
Gloves | Masterful Performance (Bur bard gloves with phys resistance, regen and 3 good skills) |
Prim Hand | Harp of the Axerian Grandmaster (Tia bard harp, many spellslots, Empowered Icestorms, +14 Cha at 65, 3x Shadowshield, 2x Epic Warding) |
Sec. Hand | Variable: Bastion of Cormyr (Bur caster medium shield with acid and elec imm) |
Rings | Plainwalker (levitation and waterbreathing, Mord imm, one elemetal imm 100% and one exotic imm 25%), Bur imm ring W/E needed |
Mote | Ely Posimm mote (+5% Pos imm) (I stick to this because of the machines and ice fiends with their nasty pos dmg) |
To set your Bardsong you have to be in town and use the !bardsong command. When entered a textbox with the options to customize your bardsong will apear. You have to redo this whenever you gain a level, so the first time to bother with setting this will propably be level 40.
Bardsongsetup
Stat | Bonus | Songlevel |
AB | 3 | 41 |
AC | 3 | 44 |
DMG | 8 | 57 |
Saves |
[tr][td]Skills[/td][td]20[/td][td]60[/td][/tr]
[/table]
Cursesongsetup
Stat | Bonus | Songlevel |
AB | 3 | 41 |
AC | 3 | 44 |
DMG | 7 | 50 |
Saves |
[tr][td]Skills[/td][td]20[/td][td]60[/td][/tr]
[/table]