Bard Template Advice

[Jon Leir]

Hello everyone,

I was looking at making my first Bard. I have already created him but haven't spent to much money on him yet.
Was wanting to make him a Bard Archer but I am a little torn on a template

Mains Secondary
Provo Tactics
Music Healing
Archer Macefighting or Peace (Torn on this one)

Using the new slot for Magic Resist.

Any suggestions or should I just go with the standard Mage/Bard builds I see around.

[Sei Ryu]

It depends pretty much on your playstyle, but if you wish to be BOTH an archer and a bard, first you need to know how they work.

First...

==Archer==
Archery determines your hit chance with a bow, and it's extremely effective against spellcasters, but not so against melee fighters. Tactics helps raise the damage, but there are also a few more skills that raise your Archery damage even further: Hiding, Stealth and Tracking. They need to be over 75 to grant a damage bonus.

Whenever an enemy gets into melee range, your attack switches to Wrestling. Your defense is Archery, though. Higher Wrestling will give you higher damage. The advantage of having Wrestling over some other weapon skill is you don't need to switch to another weapon to do some decent damage while equipped with a bow, AND you will use Archery for defense, so why switch to a weapon with which you have 80 when you can keep your bow and defend with 110 skill?

==Bard==
The main Bard skills are four: Musicianship, Discordance, Peacemaking, and Provocation. Discordance is a nice and interesting skill, as it lowers the target's skills as well as the difficulty for using THE OTHER bard skills on that same target. The magic musical instruments are supposed to be back in the game, but I haven't gotten any from the loot yet.

Bards can use their skills only while their hands are free or equipped with a mage weapon.

The upcoming Bard Masteries will require mana to sustain, so this means Meditation and Focus would come in handy, or maybe if some Mana Regeneration items could be added to the game...

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My advice is to use the Complementary skill for Peacemaking, OR you could put Discordance there, and have Peacemaking as secondary. Magic Resist is necessary when you are mainly a melee fighter, as mages tend to run away and chasing them is dangerous. As an archer, you are likely to kill them REALLY QUICK with a few shots. The new bows are quite fast and can do some decent damage. As for having a melee skill, I think the whole point of being an archer bard with Peacemaking is NOT to get into melee range. I have a necro bard, and am doing fine with just 60 Macefighting, 60 Archery, a +10 Archery crossbow, and a lich staff. I use Discordance and Provocation. I don't have Peacemaking.

[Chala]

I played a bard on another shard for 5+ years. Of course on this shard your first primary skill went to 120 (130 with a +10 Buff). But my layout was always as follows:
Mains Seconds
Provo Archery
Music Tactics
Anatomy Peace

Now im not 100% certain what a complimentary skill is on this shard, but it seems like another skill that will go moderately high, if you can I would put healing on there. That way you can dish out decent damage with a bow, but always remember your bow with a bard is a last resort, which will allow you to primarily focus on provoking creatures and peacing if necessary. (Peacing has saved my butt more than a few times so i find it a relevant skill to have.) While the extra high anatomy mixed with some good dex jewelry will give you lightning fast healing rate. If you are able to put healing as a complimentary skill then your healing rate will be quite high. With this build though i would recommend getting your MR to 60 and trying to find +10 in magic resist buffs. Unless you are going up against ancient dragons i wouldn't worry to much about getting a +10 provo buff off the bat, but it does help. Now keep in mind i played this bard on a shard with no discordance. It seems like a nifty skill, but im not sure i would be able to find a place for it in my arsenal.

Hope this helps

[Agata]

The Complementary Skill can go up to 90 and the choices are tied to the Primary skills you selected. For the three primaries Chala mentions, the choices are:

Magery
Wrestling
Meditation
Macefighting
Necromancy
Musicianship
Magic Resist
Inscription
Provocation
Invocation
Discordance
Peacemake
Alchemy
Animal Lore

As for the skill buffs, the limit is +20 now. In regards of going for ancient dragons, Discordance can be of great help too, as it lowers their difficulty. Also, most of the new monsters require high bard skill to provoke. Hiryu is 118, Lady of the Snow is 112, oni is 110, rune beetle is 110, yamandon is 140, Yomotsu elder is 126, Yomotsu priest is 117.

You simply have no chance against a Yamandon with plain Provocation skill even at 120, but Discordance works different regarding the difficulty, and discording a Yamandon IS possible, and WILL increase your chances of provoking it. If you have 120 Discordance, you will have a 50% chance to discord a Yamandon, and the difficulty to provoke it will drop to 124, giving you a 42.5% chance to provoke it with 120 Provocation.

If you have magic musical instruments, those can give you a check bonus between +2 and +10, so your chances will be increased. And I added the magic musical instruments to the loot right now, I had just forgotten. They are in the category of magical weapons, so whenever there is a chance to get a magical weapon in the loot, the instruments are also in the list of random choices.

IMPORTANT: The Provocation script has TWO Provocation checks. The first one is against the difficulty of the first target, and the second one is against the average of the two targets. So if the first target has a difficulty of 50 and the second one has a difficulty of 140, the first check is against 50, and the second check is against 85 (190/2).

One last thing: Musicianship at 100 is fine, you don't need more than that. Equipment buffs should be for the other skills if you have it as primary.

[Chala]

Thank You Agata for clearing that up for me, so since healing is not on the list of complimentary skills you may want to put it as a second and put peacemaking or discordance in as a complimentary skill.

[Jon Leir]

Thanks for the advise everyone. I decided to go with a straight mage/bard. and must make a pure archer. I really look forward to getting them both up to speed.

It is very nice that we can do +20 to skills now. Had no idea

[Lancelot]

+20 you say? Sweet! I was just wondering if +skill stacked above +10 and now I know!