Un guide extrèmement bien fait, pointu et instructif... Mais en anglais.

Bard guide

Common information

So, what is a bard in Daoc? First of all, bards are a pure group player. Bards
can't do anything solo, they always need a group. On the other hand, almost all
groups needs a bard. So, you'll have no problems with finding party for xp or
RvR. By the way, bard in PvE and bard in RvR can be two absolutely different
chars. In PvE you can just turn on your endurance regen song and go AFK for an
hour or two. :) In RvR you have to be extremely intent, because you will have
not more then 1-2 sec to ensure victory to your party. A Bard in RvR is the
hardest class in Daoc I ever played.

So, you decided to make a bard...

Getting started

Race:
Bards can be celt or firbolg. I'll recommend you to choose short celt .
Firbies have huge strength and a bonus to empathy, but Bards don't melee and
don't use empathy.
Celts have a higher dexterity and quickness. Dexterity affects your casting
rate, Quickness/Dex affects your chance to evade (for sure, bards are not a
NightShade, but they have evade 2 and it may save you life in some cases).
Next, celts are shorter, and so harder to be recognized in RvR. All the enemies
will try to kill you as fast as possible, so the shorter bard has a better
chance to survive.
Summary: the best race for best bard is a short celt.

Starting stats:
Bard wills not melee, so you don't need strength. The additional hit points is
always good, so spend some points in Constitution, and that will be a good
choice.
Next, bard use charisma for all spells and his mana amount is affected by this
stat.
Dexterity – affects the cast speed.
So you can spread your starting points like 10con/ 10 dex /10 char.

Now you have a bard.

Xping:

You will need a party for xp. But usually it's easy to get one. All the parties
will want you to play endurance song in battle, power song on rest, speed song
while running. In addition, you will need to heal, buff and resurrect. You will
not have to mezz a lot on low levels (maybe till lvl 40+), so concentrate on
Nurture specing as a main spec and regrowth (up to 16) as a secondary till you
hit 43. Then full train music.

The full template for bard on lvl 50 will be like:
47 in music: last AoE insta mezz with a good range (300). AoE insta lvl 37 has 2
times less range, and therefore not so effective.
43 in nurture: last speed and endurance songs, lvl 4 mana song.
16 in regrowth: rezz with 30% of life, cure diseases, cure poison, bonus to
heal.
And you still have some free points to raise weapon skill to 5.

Stats.

The determining stats for bard are: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, +Hit
points, +music, +resists. Afterwards going Quickness and Strength. All +stats
are capped by the following formula: Cap for +stats = 1.5*clvl (+75 on lvl50).
Cap for +Hp = 4*clvl (+200 on lvl 50). And
Cap for +resists = 1+clvl/2 (+26 on lvl 50).

1. Charisma. Affects you mana amount. Mezz/heal eats a lot of mana, so capping
charisma will be very useful.
2. Constutution and +HP. Hehe, you can't have 'too much' life, so try to cap
those stats.
3. Dexterity. Affects you casting speed. Can be critical in the beginning of the
battle in RvR, when you and the enemy mezzer are casting mezz on each other at
the same time. Next, Dex affects your chance to evade. You will not evade really
well, but one day in a duel with a skald I evaded 3 hits of 8!
4. +music. First of all +music affects your shout strength. The question
concerning dependence of chance to mezz and your music spec is not clear. I have
capped music and I still didn't see anybody resisting my mezz in RvR. But Mythic
says that raising music over 50 gives you nothing in your mezz chance. I can
confidently say only that +music affects the PvE mezz chances. Not sure about
RvR.
5. Resists. Well, like with your life, resists cap are very useful in all cases.
But it's hard to cap them all. The main resists you need are: thrust (against
assassins), slash, heat, cold, body, and energy.
6. Armor factor. With your AF buff you will always have capped armor factor. So
you don't really need to wear the entire epic set. By the way- the bard's epic
armor and sleeves are not good enough :(
7. Strength. You won't need it in PvE, but extra strength may be useful in RvR,
because the enemy usually casts str/con debuff. With low strength you may become
overloaded or even unable to move.

Some tips and playing strategy for bard in PvE.
1. If you have to heal much in the group – try to stay as far as possible from
the mobs. Aggro rating decreases significantly with distance. So you can heal a
lot without getting aggro on you.
2. You have a very good spell – Lullaby. This spell cancels a mob's current
aggro. How to use it? If party gets a big add, or just an uber mob, and the
druid uses insta group heal, all the mobs will immediately turn on him. Tanks
usually can't help in such a case. But the bard can. Cast lullaby (or AoE
lullaby) and mobs will forget about the druid. Lullaby + shout will aggro the
mob on you, but sometimes it may save the life of a mage, because the bard can
survive after getting much more damage than a caster.

Bard-puller.
It's a little risky, but awesome bards pull strategically -

Once, in a fins party, I said: "I'll pull", and all the tanks cried "LOL!" ...
Before I started to...
Well, I want to say that the Bard is an awesome puller for AoE (and even mezz)
parties. What are bards normally doing in an AoE party? Playing songs, sometimes
healing, and sleeping all the other time. In other words, they have a lot of
time they don't use. On the other hand, tanks and mages have to wait all the
pulling time, when one tank will run to mobs, pull, then return back... It takes
almost the same time as killing mobs. So, bard pulling method:
Best spell for pull is targeted lullaby – insta cast, 5 sec to recast, and 2300
range. Mobs will run to you if spell resisted. If not – use mezz + lullaby. Then
run to tanks. After party started killing, target the biggest mob and run for
next pull. Then, when the last mob is low on life – pull again. It's important
to find out how much of a mob's life counts as low :) In party with 3 tanks 48+
and 2 AoE nukers 49, I pull the next mob when the current mob was 50-60% of
life; in party with one tank and 2 tanking rangers, I pull the next mob when the
current mob was 10-15% of life. And one other important thing – don't forget to
check mana state of main nuker/healer before next pull. Usually they have no
time to write 'oom' :) If you use mezz kill, pulling becomes much harder. But
still possible. Lullaby, then AoE mezz running mobs, and pray for no resists :)
After party almost killed one mob, break mezz on next one (by casting lullaby).
So you'll again get nonstop kill. :) With bard-puller in good party xp rating
rise almost twice. My record is 30min of nonstop kill and 0.9 bubble getting for
this time on lvl 49.

P.S. if you are the only bard in party, you'll have to switch mana/end songs.
Use mana song running to pull and endurance one on coming back to party.

Well, enough for PvE. Let's talk about the bard in RvR.

RvR bard.

Spells in RvR.

I think you know all about mezz, songs and heal, so I want to stop on one of the
most powerful bard's spell – lullaby.
It has a horribly long range – 2300, huge range (400), instant cast, and short
time to recast.
What can we use it for?
1. Interrupt cast for mages/healers.
2. Interrupt shout for hybrids
3. Drop speed from enemies. For example, if you need to catch a running skald –
shout lullaby on him and he will loose speed.
4. Lullaby prevents assassins from becoming stealthed. Well, only for 2 sec.,
but it works.

But be careful with AoE lullaby after you cast mezz - it has a big range and
will remove mezz.

Make sure you have /effects self. Some magic (like void eld. GTAE) have a very
big animation and can blind you. On the other hand you have to see who catch
your mezz, so leave self effects on.

Bard's realm abilities (RA).

From all the RA list bard hardly need following:
1. First Aid 2 (instant heal close to 700 hp once in 15 min)
2. Ignore Pain (instant full heal once in 30 min)
3. Purge (cure all negative effects like DoT, mezz, stun, root)

Also you may want:
1. Mystical Crystal Lore (replenish 30% of you mana pull per lvl)
2. Avoidance of magic (+3% all magic resists per lvl)
3. Augmentation Constitution (+6 con [= +24 hp] per lvl)

RvR starting

First of all you need a good group. Bard can't do anything in RvR (well, not
true actually, but about solo RvRing I'll say later). Bards just give a
strategica advantage to group (mezz, speed), and the party must use that
advantage if they want to win.
If the group is just forming, bards have to buff party members. What kind of
buffs do they need? Tanks need dex/con/str buffs and if the tank is not in epic
armor - AF buff (epic armor will cap AF). Mages – dex/con/str (yes, strength
buff, to evade rooting them by strength debuff).
Next, play speed song and /stick on the party leader. After that you'll need all
your attention on the screen to detect enemies in the first moment they appear.
Here it's better to have a "free mouse", not binding to your personal movement.

ENEMY INCOMING!

Well, enemy in sight. Never try to be in the front line, because most likely
you'll die. Stay behind the strong tank's back. Your work now is to stop enemies
by mezzing them. For sure, the fastest way to do it is an instant AoE mezz, but
I'll recommend you to leave that for absolute necessity. First of all you have
to cancel auto-follow. You can move to cancel it, but it's faster to use a /face
macro – you'll immediately stop and be ready to cast. Shout AoE lullaby to drop
enemy's speed and AoE mezz after it to immobilize them. After that, switch to
the endurance song. Sometimes you'll need a second mezz, if the enemy is too
numerous or is spread out in a big area. Next - heal your group.
A notice for when healing: In a keep battle, or on some other place with many
obstacles (target not in view) – use group heal. You even heal assassin in
stealth by it. Also, use group heal in case of enemies using AoE magic. Bard's
group heal is not so strong, but cheap, has a fast cast and heals all party in
huge range (2000).
Well, your main job done. Now your main task is to survive and provide party
with endurance song. If some tanks attack you – immediately sprint and run
around your party. With endurance song you can run and sprint as long as you
need. If absolutely necessary you can use AoE instant mezz on them.
If an assassin attacks you – instant mezz him.
If an archer is trying to kill you -> /face -> lullaby -> single mezz.
By the way - you have a shout, so use it on enemies with low life. Maybe you'll
even get a kill :)
If no one wants to kill you – watch for cries "MEZZED" in party chat and use
your "cure mezz" spell. If you'll see something like "... was poisoned by..." –
use "cure poison".

So, spells which you must have on your battle bar:
1. Heal
2. Instant mezz
3. Single mezz
4. AoE mezz
5. Sprint
6. Lullaby
7. Ignore Pain /First Aid
8. Shout

I, for example, use 2 almost identical bars, differing only by:
1. AoE instant mezz <-> Single insta mezz
2. AoE lullaby <-> single lullaby
3. FA <-> IP
4. Sprint <-> Purge

Some advice for a group bard in RvR.

1. Positional war. This is when a lot of enemies are on one side, and lots of
hibs are on the other, and no one wants to run to attack first. Only pets
running are from one side to the other. Use them as a base target for AoE mezz.
Your spell has a 350 radius, so with a little luck you can mezz some enemies.
Now use them as a base for the next mezz. And so on.
2. Don't forget about your own life. Usually bards die only because they were
too busy healing others/mezzing and didn't watch for their own life. Use First
Aid or Ignore Pain realm abilities for a fast self heal.

Solo bard in RvR.

What can bard do solo in RvR? First of all – scouting, next – duels.
1. Bard – scout.
With your speed song you can be a good scout, you just need to know some rules:
a. First of all, you are a scout, not a fighter, don't try to kill them, just
run.
b. Never stay in one place. Moving is life.
c. If you see enemies far from you – lullaby on them, turn and sprint
d. If you found enemies close to you – instant AoE mezz and run.

2. Duels.
Hmm. Well, bards can kill mages or pure tanks. Not sure about all the others.
a. Duel with mage: use you lullaby to interrupt casts, mezz, then kill him
with melee.
b. Duel with pure tank: it will be long, long fight. First of all, you need
endurance song and sprint. Run all the time, use your shouts to make damage, and
if you are wounded – run away and heal. In case of emergence use instant mezz.
You'll waste 5-10 min on the battle, but you'll win.


UPDATED 1-9-2002:

SpellCraft (SC) Template

Unlike most other classes, Bard's epic armor is not really good. Well, it's better then nothing, but even some common
DF items have much better stats. So, after SC comes in game, I decide to make a full crafted and SCed armor for my
bard.

Here is one of the possible templates.
First of all you have to select jewelry. You can't make them, so you need to choose items from common mob's drops.
Well, there are some really good, but incredible rare drops. I'll not use them here.

Jewelry:
Avernal Necklace (from DF): +10% heat/energy; +19 con
Infernal Black Diamond (from DF): +10% body/cold; + 18 str
Glimmer Spirit Band (from EZ): Qui/Body/Spirit/Heat 6
TrueSilver Ring (from Coruscating Mines) 6% Slash/Body, 6 Con/Str
Infernal Black Diamond Bracer (from DF): +10 cha/con/dex
Bracer (not sure, EZ or CF drop): 10% Matter/Cold; 9 con/qui
Belt (BoC, Black Wraith drop – a little rare): +6% thrust/slash/spirit; 18str
Infernal Pyre Walker's Cloak (from DF): +10 dex/quick; + 12% heat

Armor (all 100% qui 51 lvl items):
Vest: +68HP; +16 Con; +25 Cha; +2 music – 33/32 IP
Leggings: +68HP; +16 Con; +25 Cha; +2 music – 33/32 IP
Helm: 7 Matter; 9 Energy; 5 Spirit; +4 music – 33/32 IP
Sleeves: 9 Crush/Thrust/Matter; +2 music – 34/32 IP
Gloves: +68HP; +16 Cha; 7 Slash/Crush – 34/32 IP
Boots: 11 Trust; 7 Slash; 9 Crush; +1 music – 34/32 IP

Instruments (100% qui 51 lvl): 7 Cold/Energy; 9 Spirit; 5 Body – 32/32 IP

Weapon (99% qua, 16.5 dps): +5 Weapon skill; +13 Str/qui; 1 Crush – 29/28 IP
Shield (99% qua Round Shield): +6 Weapon skill; +7 Str/qui; 1 Dex – 30/28 IP

Finally stats with instrument (with weapon/shield):
HP: +200
Con: +75
Cha: +75
Dex: +20 (21)
Qui: +25 (45)
Str: +42 (62)
Crush: 25% (26%)
All other resists 26%;
Music: +11;
Weapon skill: 0 (11);

So you'll have cap hit points, charisma, all resists (except of crush), armor factor, music and weapon skill (with w/s in
hands).

WARNING! All items with overcharge required 1000+ SC skill and at least 99% qua SC gems (100% gems will be a
little better, but they are TOO EXPANCIVE).
Chances to overcharge for 1000+ SCer:
+1 overcharge with 4 99% SC gems: 98%
+2 overcharge with 4 99% SC gems: 88%
Each 100% qua gem will add 3% to successfully imbue chance.
So you may order 100% low lvl SC gem (like +1/2 music) and 99% all other SC gems.

After you'll get this armor you may want to put some alchemist's effects on it. Ablative aura and/or health regeneration
will be really nice.

Woo-a-la, Mr. Survivor readies to battle!

How to get gold…

100% items are really expansive, so you'll need to get A LOT of gold. For example, I spent 12.8pp on my Bard (100%
full set armor + 99% blunt/shield + SC + Alchemy + Enchanting).
How to get so much gold?

1. Farming gold / seals.
Bard can't do it himself, but most good gold farming parties require bard. Best places: fins in CF, DF, and new RvR
dungeon. In DF you'll get not only gold, but seals too. Crafters buying diamond and sapphire seals. You may get up to
150g in hour.

2. Salvage items
First of all you'll have to get a high level metalworking for completely salvaging most items. 800 at least. After this
you may salvage mob's drop and items from DF merchants. It gives a very good profit. For example, you'll get 150g
from fin's hammer, up to 4.5g from one sapphire seal or up to 14g from one diamond seal.
Warning. For completely salvaging new RvR dungeon drops you'll need 1000+ metalworking. But even with 800 MW
you'll still get some gold from them.


Well, this is all I know about bard. Hope it will help you to slay enemies of
the realm!

Hibernia, Igrane, Arahorn <Free Will> Bard 50.
e-mail: aragorn_@pochtamt.ru