Bard Q's

[old.Sirex_85]

Hello all of HIb.......

Im a total n00b at Hib and was just wonderin what i should put my pts into besides music and nuture..

Will i put into blades or into regrwoth ?? plz help
Also how much into music,nuture, and whatever esle ?

 

[matax]

Bards are a group animal and therefore you should spec for this. If you want to solo, then you should pick another class. Healing, mezzing and regen (health/pow/end) is what you do so ignore blades/blunt etc.

My bard template is based on never soloing and therefore have put 1/3 of my points into each of Nuture, Regrowth and Music.
Final level 50 template is:

39 Nurture
37 Regrowth
38 Music
2 Blunt (there was 2 spare points and I put these in at the beginning when I had to do some soloing!)

Once you get to a reasonable level you will have no problems getting groups - everyone loves a bard

Have a look at the character builder at http://daoc.catacombs.com to play around with your points.

Can't remember exactly why I chose those particular points levels for each skill, and can't get onto the builder at the mo to check. Think most of them gave about the 2nd best of each skill which is usually not that much worse than the best for the extra points you have to spend.

Thats my opinion anyway, I'm sure others will have different views Good luck out there.

 

[Tar-Aldarion]

I took regrowth up to 16 for the good resurrection and make it fot the 17 just for the AE heal. The rest will go to blunts, for the after block chain and that is all. Target is to get at least Nurture and Music to 43.

 

[old.Greggor]

Ther are a few tread about specing bards

43 nurture
20 Regrowth
44 music

Rest into blunt is good

Song end speed 5 and mana 4

best ae mez and DD

ok healing but u will near be as good as a druid

 

[idril_daoc]

43 nurture speed5mana4
16 regrowth better rezz PS. bards are never main healers in FGs
47 music Best insta aoe mess
rest blunt

mostly coz bars CANT kill an even con despite how high you specc your weapon coz naturalists have worst dmgtable ingame

most bards that have specced otherwize will prolly respecc if

 

[old.Toirdhealbhach]

Discussing spec templates is somewhat silly issue, as you will find that your character will almost inevitably adapt to your playstyle and not vice versa However, here's a pointer or two.

As stated by earlier poster, bard is primarily a group animal. Even if it's possible to spec weapons, I maintain that this is only because Mythic doesn't want bards to get the benefit of unspeccable melee. With a pointy stick in your hand, you are throwing away your whole Nurture line. With a glowing set of bongos in hand, on the other hand, everyone will want a piece of you, especially in RvR, so it might be considered a no-win situation.

What Greggor suggests is very functional bard spec at the moment. Matax's spec looks interesting as well, although I'm not absolutely convinced Mana4 is enough to justify taking Nurture to 39 instead of leaving it to 33 - our realm's merry mentalists tend to have equal or better mana regens, and the difference between Mana3 and Mana4 regen rates isn't overwhelming. At the moment (note: going strongly subjective) there's no excuse not to get the best AE Mezz at Music 43 (70 vs 61 seconds, 350 vs 300 radius). And you can count on enemy music classes having Run5 after level 43.

However, future might change things a bit:

- Hibernian heal spells have lacked the efficiency of Alb and Mid ones. Hib healing will be brought up to par with others in patch 1.51
- Bard and warden spec heals will be made more effective (in respects of healed points, mana usage and casting time) in patch 1.52
- Mezz will be curable by using Purge and Group purge after 1.50
- Mezz will be curable by using a dedicated cure spell after 1.52
- Mezz duration will be affected by spirit resist after 1.50
- Mezz duration will be affected by realm ability Determination after patch 1.50
- AE Mezz duration will be affected by victim's distance from mezz epicenter after 1.52
- Every AE Mezz in Music spec will have it's radius normalized to 350 units after 1.50
- Instant (AE) mezz uses same immunity timer as normal mezzes
- Instant (AE) mezz is on it's own 10 minute recast timer

Music spec 47 Insta-AE mezz (31 vs 26 seconds, 300 vs 150 radius) is not necessarily worth allocating points from other speclines to Music. Diminishing returns hits very hard when taking into consideration the abovementioned facts. Now what's really tempting is allocating some points from Music to Regrowth, because in RvR you will want to heal as many points at once as possible. Regrowth spec 20 gives 216HP heal, and with epic gear it's easy to modify Regrowth to 30 for more efficient baseline healing. Even if bard can't match druid's healing abilities (after 1.52 this will be mostly due instaheals and lower mana reserve), a high regrowth spec can make all the difference in RvR.

Regarding the statement about bards not being able to kill an even con - definitely not true. Even con robes are quite easy to rid of their lives in one-to-one situations, and hunters usually fall quickly as well. Bard's realm ability Ameliorating Melodies, which provides somewhat substantial group HP regen over 30 seconds' time will make it possible to take on even harder targets (especially when coupled with instamezz). Don't get me wrong - bard melee is mostly a joke, one has just got to find a bigger buffoon in the court of life


Sorry for this blurt of subjectivity, just had to vent some exhausts a bit

 

[old.Nikolas]

Battlebard

I have a Bard alt. which i enjoy using, spec'd more towards solo:
(at level 50)
Blades - 40
Music - 44
Nurture - 10
Regrowth - 26

Im not a serious typical group crazy bard, as i only use now and again. I can solo most yellows no problem, and enjoy a good scrap in BG when i get chance.

Claim to fame - Hacking a Red Saracen to pieces on my 1st BG trip (much to his supprise)