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Around hearth and table Bards work their wonders, spinning tapestries of poetry and music, and keeping the memories of ancient days alive. Their ancient craft was born among the skalds of the Northmen, but now Bards can be found among all the peoples of the World. Every Bard must be a master of tale-telling and music, and must hone their memory to supreme heights: the great sagas and chronicles span thousands of rhymes, and can take three days to hear in full. A master Bard knows several great sagas, and can sing them through from end to end without missing a single word. They need no books or notes to keep the sagas: the weave of rhyme and kenning is their only guide, memory their only tool. |
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| Bard
Keeper of Lore
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The bard is a stealth class that specializes in quickly eliminating one target. They are highly-prized in group fights for their ability to block all healing on a target with Shadow Mantle. Solo players will also find the bard's kit quite versatile, however, they have few ranged weapon choices and no way to increase their speed, relying on Steal Breath to slow their target instead.
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| Bard Information
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Base Classes
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Mage, Rogue
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Races
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Aelfborn, Aracoix, Elf, Human, Irekei, Nephilim
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Disciplines
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Animator,
Archer,
Archmage,
Artillerist,
Battle Magus,
Black Mask,
Blade Master,
Blade Weaver,
Blood Prophet,
Bounty Hunter,
Commander,
Conjurer,
Enchanter,
Huntsman,
Knight,
Prospector,
Rat Catcher,
Rune Caster,
Saboteur,
Sky Dancer,
Sun Dancer,
Traveler,
Undead Hunter,
Werewolf,
Wyrmslayer
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Mastery Runes
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Master of Daggers, Master of Great Swords, Master of Throwing
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Skills Granted
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Bardsong, Sword (level 10)
Staff Mastery, Sword Mastery, Unarmed Combat Mastery (level 20)
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Bard's varied kit allows the class access to a variety of builds with focuses on different spells. While Shadowmantle is often the key spell in their arsenal, Bards can be built to thrive in different PvP environment, with damage and support being their best roles. The choice of playstyle starts right from creation, when you pick your base class, as Rogue Bards and Mage Bards play very differently.
Mage
- Shadow Bolt is your bread and butter spell on a damage-based Mage Bard and Steal Breath allows you to kite very effectively.
- Support-based Mage Bards revolve around keeping Shadowmantle on a targeted enemy during a fight. Shadow Mantle is placed very far to the right on the effects bar so, with the plethora of Bard and Mage debuffs, key moments of a fight are often spent trying to keep a debuff in front the Shadow Mantle effect so a Dispel Debuff spell doesn't remove Shadow Mantle.
- Though Mage defensive stance gives good spell resistances, Mage Bards are light on defensive options so beware not to let someone get the jump on you!
Rogue
- The power rank 40 backstabs are a tremendous boon to your burst damage. Due to the nature of the powers, you activate Backstab first and then cast one of its poison variants you can execute a double backstab!
- Dodge is the best passive defense in the game so it is recommended to put at least some trains in it; however, high defense is often the primary damage mitigation method for Rogue-based prestige classes.
- Rogue Bards are very tight on trains, so have a clear vision of what powers and focus lines are necessary in which to invest heavily.
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