Guide:Bard

WORK IN PROGRESS TODO: Bard Guide

What Music Do I Bring? (Spells)

Core Songs

These 4 songs are core to bard play and should always be taken.

Rousing Rhythms - +2 to all stats for the bard and allies in range.

• Knowledge +2 means Spell Capacity +2
• Will +2 / Resourcefulness +2 means longer buff/song duration

Self buffs:

Beats of Alacrity - Increases the bard's movement speed

Aria of Alacrity - Increases the bard's action speed

Ballad of Courage - Increase the bard's physical power

Core Rotation:

Throughout the match, try to keep all 4 of these songs up at all times. This is the ideal order to play them in.

Rousing Rhythms -> Beats of Alacrity -> Ballad of Courage -> Aria of Alacrity

------------> ----------> ----------->

Example of playing core rotation with note skipping using Charasmatic Perfomance perk

Why buff in this order?

1. Start the rotation with Rousing Rhythms because it increases your spell capacity and the duration of your songs.
2. Play Beats of Alacrity because we already have our drum out.
3. Play Ballad of Courage and finally Aria of Alacrity.
4. We end with Aria of Alacrity because it is advantageous to have your lute ready in the utility slot in case a PvP situation arises.

Solo Songs

Highly Recommended:

• Lament of Languor
• Allegro
• Tranquility
• Accelerando
• Shriek of Weakness

Good Options:

• Song of Shadow
• Harmonic Shield
• Piercing Shrill

Example Solo Song Setup

Team Songs

TODO: Flesh out when to take which songs for team play

Stats

Primary Stats

Strength

Great: Increases melee weapon and ranged weapon damage, slightly increases health

Vigor

Essential: Increases health and rate of healing

Dexterity

Essential: The only stat which increases song playing speed. Also increases attack speed.

Agility

Good: Increases move speed, slightly increases attack speed.

Will

Poor: Increases magic resist, slightly increases how long your buffs last on you.

Knowledge

Poor: Increases spell capacity. Does nothing else for Bard, so only get what you need to take your songs.

Resourcefulness

Essential: Increases how long your buffs last. Increases your speed of opening doors/chests. Without at least 20 resourcefulness you will be playing your songs more often then you want to.

Stats to look for on gear

This is just a general guide, and some builds will favor certain stats more than others.

Best Stats

• Physical Power
• Weapon Damage
• Dexterity
• Strength
• Vigor
• Max HP
• Physical Damage
• True Physical Damage
• Movement Speed

Good Stats

• Memory Capacity
• Action Speed
• Additional Armor
• Magic Resistance
• Resourcefulness
• Agility

Mediocre Stats

• Buff Duration Bonus
• Knowledge
• Will
• Physical Damage Reduction (PDR)
• Magical/Regular Interaction Speed
• Debuff Duration Bonus

Stats to Avoid

• Spell Casting Speed
• Magical Power
• Magic Damage
• Magic Penetration
• Projectile Damage Reduction

Instruments

Utility Slot Layout

One of the biggest challenges of learning bard is juggling your utility slots. Switching between instruments, torch, and potions can be tough. The following is an optimized layout.

On the right side we have the drum, lyre, and lute. We want these instruments on the same side so you can go through your core rotation in the correct order (see core rotation above)

Left side top slot should contain a consumable. This is because when you right click a consumable in your inventory it will always try to go to the top left slot. This makes it much easier to swap potions, bandages, and other consumables instead of having to drag it to the correct slot.

Left side middle slot is the flute. We want the flute on the opposite side of the lute so we can easily switch between playing the flute and lute for various PvP debuffs, like shriek of weakness and lament of languor.

Left side bottom slot can be anything, but is typically a torch or pickaxe so you can easily access them when needed.

Drum

Used to play (red) drum songs and can be thrown to do significant damage to enemies. Has the most powerful team buff songs including Accelerando and Allegro.

Throwing tips:

• Holding left click with the drum out will wind up a throw by lifting the drum above your head.
• The drum is a slow moving projectile and it is quite difficult to hit enemies with.
• Use it against enemies trying to escape who will die in one hit
• Throwing is extremely risky as enemies can pick up your drum, it can get stuck under dead mobs, or even clip through the map where you will not be able to retrieve it.
• While in flight, the drum blocks projectiles such as arrows.
• When combined with the Reinforced Instruments perk, a purple drum can do upwards of 100 damage with a headshot.

Lute

Used to play (yellow) lute songs, can be used as a melee weapon.

• Has knowledge built in making it one of the best instruments to upgrade. For example, a blue lute has 4 knowledge built in and can take 4 points worth of lute songs for free if they are at the end of your music memory priority.
• Has some of the best debuffs available including lament of languor and song of silence.
• In a pinch, can be used as a weapon, however the swing pattern is hard to effectively headshot.
• When combined with the Reinforced Instruments perk, can be used to kill squishy or panicking enemies.

Lyre

Used to play (green) lyre songs.

• Has resourcefulness built in which will make songs played with the lyre last significantly longer.
• Has no alternate use, unlike the rest of the instruments.

Flute

Used to play (purple) flute songs. Can parry attacks.

• Has agility built in which reduces the movement speed penalty of having your flute out.
• With the Dancing Feet perk and a purple or higher grade flute, you will actually run faster with the flute out.
• Hold left click to attempt to parry (similar to a long sword). When successfully blocking an attack, quickly left click again to reach out and attack your opponent with the flute. Note this is mostly a meme, but can be used effectively against some enemies such as the bola goblin if you do not have a shield.

Bola Goblin Flute Parry Demonstration

Perks

Charismatic Performance

Description of Charismatic Performance and how to utilize it

The idea is to minimize the number of notes that need to be played. Additionally, the number of notes the song has will impact how much flexibility there is in terms of hitting the note on the center gold portion or if you can partially miss and hit the outskirts which is the white portion. *Probably need an image of the note icon*

Optimal skips and flexibility for achieving a Perfect performance:

• 3 note song- skip 1, need 2/2 golds (or skip 0, need 2/3 golds)
• 4 note song- skip 1, need 2/3 golds
• 5 note song- skip 1, need 2/4 golds
• 6 note song- skip 2, need 4/4 golds (or skip 1, need 2/5 golds)

Note that the 3-note and 6-note songs have no flexibility, all notes need to be gold. If any hits white instead you will need to skip 1 less, so try to skip later rather than earlier.

Optimal skips and flexibility for achieving a Bad performance:

• 3 note song- skip 1, need 1/2 golds
• 4 note song- skip 1, need 1/3 golds
• 5 note song- skip 2, need 2/3 golds
• 6 note song- skip 2, need 1/4 golds

Note that these are specifically for with Charismatic Performance**

Source (warning, contains math)