Pure Bard and Luck

[Obsidian]

I have a pure bard that I am gearing up to play a support role in group hunts. Here is my question: Is there any benefit of fitting luck in my bard's suit?

I'll use him for group fights with bosses and, if it actually works, in the invasion pods under Blackthorn's castle (not sure if I will get minax drops as a pure bard).

Thanks for your inputs!

-OBSIDIAN-

 

[Acid Rain]

Id go for maxing out ur MR and HPR cause running those multiple bard songs can really chew up mana fast, esp when ur throwing out heals (mage/mystic). Ive had friends run that temp and get scrolls from Exodus in zero luck, not sure how it would work in Blackthorns Basement tho.

 

[Mr. Smither1]

The provo buff that heals(can't remember which one it is called looks like a fist with barbed wire around it) and not casting even one spell gets me drops on most hunts. The only problem is healing everyone in a party draws a lot of aggo now and in fel if anyone in the party goes grey I go grey. I got drops on my bard doing invasions but the macer and the archer would switch to my bard when I was healing everyone and nuke me.

 

[startle]

I have a pure bard that I am gearing up to play a support role in group hunts. Here is my question: Is there any benefit of fitting luck in my bard's suit?

I'll use him for group fights with bosses and, if it actually works, in the invasion pods under Blackthorn's castle (not sure if I will get minax drops as a pure bard).
-OBSIDIAN-

If you were out soloing mobs, I'd say pile it on. Long story short: For party'd groups, on a "pure bard" wearing the Virtuoso Suit - I'd put everything into mana increase and mana regen, plus what you need in resists. If you plan on running both songs concurrently (which is why I assume you asked the question), and also be able to have some secondary skill that packs some sort of offensive punch (like the 1st poster alluded to) as in a Bard/Mystic - then there's not much room for luck, and you don't really need it nearly as much at Champs as if you were solo barding mobs...

 

[THP]

To my knowedge luck as been borked for many many a year.....and iam sure others will disagree ....but ksara!!!!....For definte Luck works in the new blackthorn [luck] dungeon...elsewere i would be very very sceptical!!

 

[Obsidian]

I plan to pack the suit with MR. I am debating whether it is worth it to get over 1000 luck on the suit for the invasions. On my invasion mystic, I've noticed a big difference between running with 0 luck and 2000 luck. Now a bard in the invasion pods doesn't do much of any direct damage but can buff and heal combatants. With luck, would this translate into a means to earn minax arties?

Also for completeness, this is my template:

120 Magery
120 Meditation
120 Musicianship
120 Discordance
120 Provocation
120 Peacemaking

I will run with a -15 mage weapon and stack +15 magery on the suit to negate the MW effect.

 

[virtualhabitat]

I plan to pack the suit with MR. I am debating whether it is worth it to get over 1000 luck on the suit for the invasions. On my invasion mystic, I've noticed a big difference between running with 0 luck and 2000 luck. Now a bard in the invasion pods doesn't do much of any direct damage but can buff and heal combatants. With luck, would this translate into a means to earn minax arties?

Also for completeness, this is my template:

120 Magery
120 Meditation
120 Musicianship
120 Discordance
120 Provocation
120 Peacemaking

I will run with a -15 mage weapon and stack +15 magery on the suit to negate the MW effect.

I would encourage you to run with the swords of prosperity. No mage penalty and has faster cast 1. Incidentally it has 200 luck.

 

[Obsidian]

I would encourage you to run with the swords of prosperity. No mage penalty and has faster cast 1. Incidentally it has 200 luck.

That brings up a good question. Should I run FC/FCR 0/6 in protection or 2/6 without prot? I like the Swords of Prosperity idea.

 

[Vexxed]

That brings up a good question. Should I run FC/FCR 0/6 in protection or 2/6 without prot? I like the Swords of Prosperity idea.

Well.. I've had the character your looking to build for over a year now...

4x120 Bard
All 70s / 28 DCI / 2-6 Casting w/ -20MW / 2044 Luck / 16 MR

It's a Nice setup and I personally like to combine it with 2 Boura's and the provo buffs which I can keep up indefinitely on them & myself along with a fair amount of mana for Healing. The Disco Buffs WILL exceed your mana regen bc both of them run over 3 Mana / sec BUT Tribulation with a group means such a bard can EASILY be the top damager bc he's getting a piece of EVERYONES pie heh. The 2 other things that I'd consider doing with it would be building an all purpose MANA pool / REGEN suit for non-luck applications and perhaps trying a SUPER skill increase version that could allow me to have 120 Resist at the same time.. but that's +120 skill points & I simply don't have the shame drops to support it yet.

 

[Obsidian]

Well.. I've had the character your looking to build for over a year now...

4x120 Bard
All 70s / 28 DCI / 2-6 Casting w/ -20MW / 2044 Luck / 16 MR

It's a Nice setup and I personally like to combine it with 2 Boura's and the provo buffs which I can keep up indefinitely on them & myself along with a fair amount of mana for Healing. The Disco Buffs WILL exceed your mana regen bc both of them run over 3 Mana / sec BUT Tribulation with a group means such a bard can EASILY be the top damager bc he's getting a piece of EVERYONES pie heh. The 2 other things that I'd consider doing with it would be building an all purpose MANA pool / REGEN suit for non-luck applications and perhaps trying a SUPER skill increase version that could allow me to have 120 Resist at the same time.. but that's +120 skill points & I simply don't have the shame drops to support it yet.

So you are recommending tribulation with some luck and as much MR as I can pack on. Correct?

My guy is a human. If I forgo active mana regen by using studded leather and running 55 LMC would that help with 20+ MR and 120 Med?

 

[Vexxed]

So you are recommending tribulation with some luck and as much MR as I can pack on. Correct?

My guy is a human. If I forgo active mana regen by using studded leather and running 55 LMC would that help with 20+ MR and 120 Med?

Well.... I'd have to get out a mana Calculator to figure out which is the better way to go when considering 55 LMC vs 40 LMC ... but remember with 55 LMC.. your not simply giving up ACTIVE meditation. If your not wearing all MED armor you might as well have ZERO Med skill... Tribulation if I remember correctly is 60% chance to trigger doing 60% of the Damage that triggered.. but I forgot that it only goes off like 1 / Second.. Anyway I've done well with that in the past. I'd personally probably not go the luck suit route unless you want to use it in the PODS and just build Crazy suits to allow your BARD to support the group with mana to spare etc.

 

[Obsidian]

Well.... I'd have to get out a mana Calculator to figure out which is the better way to go when considering 55 LMC vs 40 LMC ... but remember with 55 LMC.. your not simply giving up ACTIVE meditation. If your not wearing all MED armor you might as well have ZERO Med skill... Tribulation if I remember correctly is 60% chance to trigger doing 60% of the Damage that triggered.. but I forgot that it only goes off like 1 / Second.. Anyway I've done well with that in the past. I'd personally probably not go the luck suit route unless you want to use it in the PODS and just build Crazy suits to allow your BARD to support the group with mana to spare etc.

Ok thx. I appreciate your insight. You've given me plenty to think about.

 

[Acid Rain]

Vexxed said it all in that last post
My sentiments exactly.

 

[Lord Nabin]

Great job all!

I love all the good and positive feedback of this thread

*Raises a Glass of Good Old Moonglow Red in Salute and settles back to the chair by the fire*

*stokes Fire*

Thinks There is hope for this generation

 

[Thrakkar]

If I forgo active mana regen by using studded leather and running 55 LMC would that help with 20+ MR and 120 Med?

I'd not give up med by wearing non-med armor.

This page has two calculators, type in the values:
http://www.uoguide.com/Mana_regeneration

You'll see that your passive regen will be halved by wearing non-med armor. Besides LMC just affects the initial casting of the bard songs, not the tick cost. So LMC for bard songs is pretty much a waste.
If you cast a lot while running the bard songs, sure, LMC helps, but I'd still not waste 120 med over LMC.

 

[Obsidian]

I'd not give up med by wearing non-med armor.

This page has two calculators, type in the values:
http://www.uoguide.com/Mana_regeneration

You'll see that your passive regen will be halved by wearing non-med armor. Besides LMC just affects the initial casting of the bard songs, not the tick cost. So LMC for bard songs is pretty much a waste.
If you cast a lot while running the bard songs, sure, LMC helps, but I'd still not waste 120 med over LMC.

Ok thx. That saves me the materials and time to test it out.

Startle mentioned the Virtuoso suit above. I am of the opinion that I can make a far superior suit with reforged/imbued and/or Shame loot. The Virtuoso effect seems non-effective because of the long cool down period. Anyone disagree and think the effect is worth a second look?

 

[Gheed]

I run dual bards a lot with my mystic swellweaver in the basement giving full peacemaking and provocation buffs. I have nearly 30ish MR on them but I think that is way too high. I cant remember the exact number but I think with diminishing returns on MR now the max real benefit from MR is 33. The resilience song gives +22 to all regens at 4x 120 real skill. So I have too much MR piled on with the song active (22+30ish = 52ish MR).

Initially I think I have focused too much on MR, overloading MR on the suit and dumping all i can in focus/med. I am going to redo their suits based on +skill items like the crystalline ring, magery/eval mark of travesy, lost tome of knowledge and spellwoven britches. Maybe get magery to 120 and see what I can sacrifice in focus for eval. As the bards are support, I am not too concerned with luck or damage.

Running 3 accounts in the basement is a challenge. Captains initially flip aggro a lot and the bards are often targeted. I have enough magery on them for 100% invis success and find myself thumping the invis macro all the time in captain fights. With the spellsong active, invis is broken on the next tick so be ready to run a lot. But after the first 20% or so of the captains' HP are down the fight usually settles down and the captains stay fixed on the tank(s). I like these fights, it seems like they have a real enmity system built in.

My guild really likes the buffs as they also effect partied guild pets. The 30% damage reduction, resistance to most poison and 20ish hp/tick heals are very helpful keeping greaters healed to full. One of the provo bard spellsongs occasionally gives healing ticks. That bard gets maybe one drop in 10 or so captains. But I do not wish for the bards to get any drops at all in guild fights. Captains only give two drops per kill and I think it is unfair I get an extra chance at a drop, potentially giving no drops for other guild members. I get plenty of drops on my main and I think the distribution is fair for everyone as is. So no luck for me in the new suit build as all luck seems to do for minax drops is allow you to jump ahead in line for a drop from time to time. Just be sure to throw out elementals from your bard on the lighthouse fights as everyone gets a drop there.

 

[Acid Rain]

Guess I could have been more specific so....

I wouldn't worry abt luck. I'd keep my MR no lower then 18 (that may still be overboard). I'd keep HPR at least 10-12 for when u gotta beat feet w/ no chance to heal. I'd throw in at least 1 piece w/ SR so u don't get stuck walking when u want to be running. The rest of the suit I'd throw into hitting that 40%lmc cap, +mana bonus, and +hp bonus. Of course ur gonna need that dci cap as well. All medable armor is a must.

Virtuoso suits r a waste. You can and WILL build a far better suit Sir
Keep us posted on your results !

 

[Logrus]

Small note that may be useful to this thread.
Fc for spell songs is not subject to the fc2 magery cap like chiv is.
Buff effects also last for up to 2 seconds after the pulse stops.
This means that a bard can usually get his spells recast about as fast as a sec circle spell for magery.

Tribulation and despair do proc the wraith form mana leech efect.

 

[Thrakkar]

Tribulation and despair do proc the wraith form mana leech efect.

These two songs should be also subject to slayer damage multiplication, if I remember correctly.

 

[Logrus]

Yessir, they are also subject to slayer bonuses

 

[Obsidian]

Yessir, they are also subject to slayer bonuses

Does SDI also affect tribulation and despair?

 

[Vexxed]

Does SDI also affect tribulation and despair?

Nope...

 

[Thrakkar]

Max damage is archieved with:

• 4x 120 base skill (Prov, Peace, Disco, Music)
• Specific Slayer (3x)
• Damage type is set to the lowest resist of the target.
• Debuffs on target (i.e. discord, corpse skin, etc...)