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Bard stats

Sqrlking

Adventurer
Hello Bards!

I'm building a pure bard with the 4 bard skills + magery/meditation. I started with a full LRC suit, and I'm trying to increase spell damage and resists as I collect loot. Is this the right choice? I quit UO around the time it became item-centric, and am a tad bit overwhelmed by the options when building a suit.

Here are my stats
http://oi67.***********/125hpch.jpg

Here are my skills (planning on upping bard skills to 120 when I have the funds)
http://oi65.***********/ng3tco.jpg

Also, and this is probably a different topic, but I'm a little bored with magery and considering something else. I've never used Bushido, spellweaving, or mysticism. Would any of those make good companion skills for my Bard?
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
I'm building a pure bard with the 4 bard skills + magery/meditation. I started with a full LRC suit, and I'm trying to increase spell damage and resists as I collect loot. Is this the right choice? I quit UO around the time it became item-centric, and am a tad bit overwhelmed by the options when building a suit.

Also, and this is probably a different topic, but I'm a little bored with magery and considering something else. I've never used Bushido, spellweaving, or mysticism. Would any of those make good companion skills for my Bard?
Hi.

In short, no, to both questions.

Spell Damage Increase (SDI) the item property has no effect on any of the spells/spellsongs you have on this template. However, that's not to say that a pure Bard plus Mage/Med doesn't work, it does, in fact it's my main 6x120 and it works very well.

The reason you want Magery/Med is because it's really the only viable option for melee defense with the points you have remaining. Read my post in this thread for an explanation of melee defense:

weapon defense

On a suit for this template your aiming for a minimum of all 70's resists, 100 LRC, 40 LMC, 10 MR, 45 DCI, 2/6 casting, with a Mage Weapon. Ideally you would have 30 MR, 4/6 casting, 25 HP Increase, and Str increase is also nice. You want Str as your highest stat followed by Int. You need no Dex.

In no particular order here is a list of pros to this template:
-120 Magery provides you with; melee defense (for your Mage Weapon go with something slow with a high base damage with a ton of regens on it - I personally use a Heavy Crossbow and even with 0 in all combat related attributes can hit an extra 30+ damage on Discorded targets), summons for different situations (basically 2 Energy Vortex's are your staple go to summon, if you're fighting something that dispels frequently/easily then you use 2 Earth Elementals which have a better chance of resisting the Dispel attempt, if you're fighting something that hits hard and/or target switches then you can use 2 Air Elementals these guys basically play keep away while dumping spells on the target, if something is particularly weak to fire damage then there's the Fire Elemental, I rarely if ever use Water Elementals or the Demon), Mindblast cold damage (is not based on Eval or SDI), Poison, Poison Field, Energy Field, Teleport, Invis (very useful because of Provoke attempt faillures), the ability to Dispel your summons/fields, Gate/Recall/Ressurection, Heal/Greater Heal/Cure/Arch Cure/cross healing. For 120 skill points that is a ton of goodies.

-Bard masteries; these are really why you play a 4x120 Bard, and having all Bard skills at 120 real skill boosts all their effects. You can switch between them every 10 minutes by using the context menu on the mastery book (single click it), you also use the same menu to set Discord's damage type. The main mastery people use on this template is the Discord one, it's very powerful when used right. Firstly have a set of slayer instruments (it doesn't matter if they're super slayers or singles) it's pretty easy to cover, just get Gwenno's Harp, Iolo's Lute, the Arachnid/Elemental Flute Of Renewals', the Fey one from Brit cleanup, and also carry an Exceptional. The damage you do with Despair is set by the context menu on the mastery book. It should be fairly obvious but for example if you're fighting a cold monster like a White Wyrm or Arctic Ogre Lord you set the book to fire for most damage and use the slayer type, on most of these things at 4x120 it's a 2 hit kill. Sometimes 1 if you put Tribulation p first and it procs. The mana upkeep for the spellsongs is why you want Med and as much MR as possible 30 is the max.

-Epic number scroll one man gank *see pic below*. One of the best things to do with such a template is get the big monster Discorded, Provoke everything else on to it, while having Tribulation/Despair running (as above with the right slayer/damage type set), plus damage from your summons, plus Mage Weapon if you can.

-Fire Horns. Stockpile some sulphorous ash and you'll find you can destroy most level 1-2 spawns. Handy for things like gorillas on the Dragon Turtle champ spawn as it one hit kills them there's no counter damage.

-On a rare occasion Discord's masteries are redundant (the Devs HATE Bards and have done for years, there are many things in the game that for no good reason can't be Provoked, or have weakened Discord effects, and some now prevent masteries too) if you're in such a situation and it looks like it's going to be a relatively long fight (and one where you're not likely to need Despair/Tribulation before the 10 minute switch timer is up) then change to the Prov or Peace masteries, you can easily keep both running. I would tend to only use the Peace one for situations where you need to reduce incoming damage or Cure a lot. I otherwise wouldn't use the Peace skill at all. To the extent that it's a perfectly viable option to swap it out for Spellweaving. (Giving you Word Of Death/Essence Of Wind and lots more healing/defense options.)

-If you're still feeling it's a little light offensively, acquire and bond a pair of Vollems and train them up, they are basically the same as Nightmares. Two of them on a Discorded/Tribulation/Despair'd target... need I say more.

-If for whatever reason you don't know what resist a monster is weakest to, then trial and error it by toggling Despair on/off and changing through them all until you find the best one, it's not always obvious but can be a big difference in the time it takes to kill whatever it is. For example Demons weakest to poison, Balrons weakest to energy. For example it's a pretty easy way to farm the Blackthorn dungeon Balron, energy/Demon slayer instrument 2 EV's (partly for distraction), Discord it as soon as it spawns follow up immediately with Despair and if there's time Tribulation (though it's usually dead by then anyway).



Minion TribDespWOD2.jpg
 
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Sqrlking

Adventurer
Thank you for your incredibly helpful response, which was immediately added to my bookmarks.Your response was eye opening.

I'll continue down the road I'm on and follow your advice.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
There is also the option of Mysticism/Focus, one of the Mysticism masteries is Mystic Weapon, it works in the same sense as Mage Weapon but with a -5 Mysticism penalty. The problem with this is that you can only use one mastery at a time, and if you're using this, you can't use Despair/Tribulation, well you can but you have to have no melee defense for 10 minutes while you do it. The only other way to have a pure-ish Bard is to not have Peace, so you can fit wep/Tactics/Chivalry. There's obvious drawbacks to both like not being able to Invis or Dispel, having less MR with Focus instead of Med, having to need all 3 stats high. The dexxer based Bard hybrids aren't too bad an idea as you can leech mana. A Discord sampire probably being one of the best.
 

Gb8719

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
I would go the route of having Mysticism/Focus as supporting skills to a bard. The downside of this is that you would either have to lose one of your bard abilities or you would need to have a lot of +magery stats on your items. You'll gain some nice offense/defensive spells with Mysticism and most importantly the Rising Collosus. He's great to provoke onto and handy for finishing off the mob who loses the 1v1 battle.

You might want to consider going with this build when you can afford the 120 powerscrolls:
120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
120 Myst
120 Focus
120 Magery [use a mage weapon as discussed above]
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
I think in relation to Gb8719's post, this is where you have to think about the key difference in playstyle of the character. To me, one is a summoner (a sub-class of casters in general) the other is a Bard, (this isn't a case of one being right or wrong both have pros/cons but play very differently). As a Bard, using Spellsongs you are using all the Bard skills to boost the Spellsong effects/damage, you also need enough mana regen from skill/items to sustain them as long as possible, while if necessary healing and summoning. Compared to with Focus I don't think they could be sustained as long (though you could then go non-med armour and get 55 LMC), they're less effective from having less Bard skill points used, but you get all the masses of defensive options from being a Mystic, plus the Colossus.

I'm not saying that the Mystic above is invalid at all, but if I was going to be more of a summoner character than a Bard, I would probably not go 120 real skill in the Bard skills (instead go to 90) and jewel up for a potential 90 skill points free (taking 30 off of Music/Disc/Prov) to use in something else (maybe Peace - I don't know how effective 4x90 is for Spellsongs but wouldn't take much to find out just hop on Test Center). Crystalline Ring is great for Mystics, otherwise 45 skill points each jewel or a Mark Of Travesty might be worth building around. If that sounds cramped on the jewels, you don't necessarily need to have casting on there, you could play in Protection/Stone Form permanently. I'd even consider tanking while your summons kill to make them last longer.
 

Logrus

UO Legend
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One thing that I do run
is a 3x Bard
Disco/Provo/Music
Med/Chiv/Wrestling

I dont do the summons, but since the FC cap for bards and chiv is 4, which I get on my equipment, I get the benefit of rapid heals cure and curse removal, in addition to the stam boos whenever i need it. Along with holy light spam for damage if stuff gets close.
I've also run that template dropping wrestling for peace when I'm in full on support mode.
 

Sqrlking

Adventurer
Thanks for all the options!

After improving my armor slightly and using the ev summons, I'm having a lot of fun doing some PVE. Peace is proving useful for looting my kills and getting back to my corpse. I may drop peace later; after I finish this Mage/Bard build I'll get some soulstones and try the chiv build.
 

Sqrlking

Adventurer
One thing that I do run
is a 3x Bard
Disco/Provo/Music
Med/Chiv/Wrestling

I dont do the summons, but since the FC cap for bards and chiv is 4, which I get on my equipment, I get the benefit of rapid heals cure and curse removal, in addition to the stam boos whenever i need it. Along with holy light spam for damage if stuff gets close.
I've also run that template dropping wrestling for peace when I'm in full on support mode.
Is there a benefit to wrestle? I'm a little foggy on the changes to wrestle since last I played.
 

Logrus

UO Legend
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I use the wrestle for defense to be hit less in PvM/PvP, and in PvP for the specials.
 

Merlin

The Enchanter
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I don't find peacemaking that useful. You can drop that and replace with Spellweaving, which complements well with Magery.

Bring your musicianship up to 120. This assists with mana cost and will ensure you don't fail when playing songs or using provo & disco.

You could also drop magery and peacemaking and replace with Mysticism and Focus. Mysticism will give you some different spell casting to do (and allow you to use Rising Collossus as a tank) and Focus will not only benefit Mysticism, but also assist with mana regen.

I suggest going for the disco mastery.

Good luck!
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
One thing that I do run
is a 3x Bard
Disco/Provo/Music
Med/Chiv/Wrestling

I dont do the summons, but since the FC cap for bards and chiv is 4, which I get on my equipment, I get the benefit of rapid heals cure and curse removal, in addition to the stam boos whenever i need it. Along with holy light spam for damage if stuff gets close.
I've also run that template dropping wrestling for peace when I'm in full on support mode.
You seriously play that? Against monsters AND players?

Really not seeing it.
 

Logrus

UO Legend
VIP
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Oh hell yeah.
For monsters if I'm out hunting then its usually provo/disco and despair.
For PvP I bounce between disco and peace making on the skill set. Depends on if we are doing champs or raiding , or just some random gate pvp.

As a bard its strictly a support template.
wrestling 4/6 chiv provides fast enough healing and enough defense that I'm not a paper target. I tried the 4x bard thing, but the moment I got focused by other players I was down.

The chiv and wrestle allow me to survive long enough for my guild to "discourage" my attackers. Against warriors I'm just running up and disarming them over and over again. For mages its disarm, para blow and holy light to interrupt. In any situation where I'm the one being attacked its a straight survival effort, not damage dealing. If I have disco mastery active I might also drop a tribulation on the attacker to lower their hit chance, though most are over capped sometimes it helps

While the guild is fighting I'm typically running around supporting with heals, and spell songs. Occasionally I'll drop a tribulation, and even more rare a despair on someone we are attacking because I can keep the damage on while running them down. (Not to mention tribulation triggering on a flame strike is pretty sweet.).
Most of the spell songs are just pretty awesome for the group in PvP. The stats and heals from invigorate give healing and extra hp and inspire increase damage past pvp caps.
The peace masteries are also pretty crazy as well since the whole group gets the damage reduction and the poison resist combined with regen allows you to ignore poison fields like nobody's business.
 

Logrus

UO Legend
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Follow up, if I just want to use my bards accounts as buff bots, I'l stick the 4x bards in house or guard zone (HAVE TO BE FREAKING Careful in gzone) and have one run provo masteries and the other run peace masteries. Makes for tanky party.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
PvP fights are typically chaotic, I can't see how anyone would ever stay in range during a field fight for spellsongs, every AI would stop them, plus Mana Vamp. Cross-healing with Chivalry rather than Magery again, no range and can't res without leaving them and you open. Can't see Holy Light killing anything/anyone other than first level spawn, it's hard enough to do it on a dexxer while doing proper damage.

On a lot of monsters Tribulation/Despair isn't enough or does't work at all. On most of those fights there's nothing to Provoke either.

There's no reason for Divine as you're not a dexxer, it's just dropping your DCI when you could just use a refresh pot.

...really can't see it.
 

Logrus

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Its not a killing template or a 1v1 template.
Spell songs only stop on damage to the bard, not the rest of the party.
They also linger for a few seconds after interruption or leaving range, so if I'm too slow to keep up or people separate I only need to choose who to stick with. Solo guys can run in and out of range as they please and the effects pop right back on.
Divine Fury helps me regain stamina without having to carry potions. My bard runs with his suit and thats it. @120 chiv divine fury only results in a small amount of DCI loss.
Holy light is ok to deal damage to low level spawn, but better for interrupting mages since my only defense against them is wrestling and holy light interruption.

For xhealing, the only distance restriction for xheal on chiv is for close wounds. Cleanse by fire and remove curse don't have that problem. That means if you have invigorate active you can still be at max distance curing and remove curse while invigorate pulses for healing. Which is about 20 healing every 4 seconds. With the peace songs dont really need to do as much of that with both running.
 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Its not a killing template or a 1v1 template.
Spell songs only stop on damage to the bard, not the rest of the party.
They also linger for a few seconds after interruption or leaving range, so if I'm too slow to keep up or people separate I only need to choose who to stick with. Solo guys can run in and out of range as they please and the effects pop right back on.
Divine Fury helps me regain stamina without having to carry potions. My bard runs with his suit and thats it. @120 chiv divine fury only results in a small amount of DCI loss.
Holy light is ok to deal damage to low level spawn, but better for interrupting mages since my only defense against them is wrestling and holy light interruption.

For xhealing, the only distance restriction for xheal on chiv is for close wounds. Cleanse by fire and remove curse don't have that problem. That means if you have invigorate active you can still be at max distance curing and remove curse while invigorate pulses for healing. Which is about 20 healing every 4 seconds. With the peace songs dont really need to do as much of that with both running.
Yes, on damage to the Bard, so you get AI'd and anyone who was relying on anything from Spellsongs like the curing is now not getting them.
They also take a few seconds to come back on once re entering range, considering people running back to you are likely to be people about to die, it's a less than useful tactic.
On such a defensively weak template any DCI loss is too much. When you're casting Divine you're not casting anything else.
I can't imagine you ever hitting a Mage as most these days are running some sort of Parry hybrid.

For cross healing, 20 hp every 4s, compared to 50+ every 2s with Magery, plus the ability to field...
It's either or, there's a 10 minute switch between mastery's and the Peace one isn't saving anyone, it's about 2 hp per second, and cure on tick.

Mana Vamp and your template is 120 Defensive Wrestling (sitting duck)
 

Odin of Europa

Slightly Crazed
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I don't use my bard mystic often, but I have fun when I do .. usually in a group though.

Disco 120
Focus 82 (120)
Magery 76 (107)
Music 120
Mystic 82 (120)
Peace 120
Provo 120

I swap between a scrappers (9 Magery) and Fallen Mystic's Spellbook (10 Mystic) depending on what I'm casting.

Studded suit for the 55 LMC.
 

Finley Grant

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One question.

I saw studded suit.

Compared to mediable 40lmc.
Is the mana regn better with 55lmc and focus?

So the 55lmc cuts also the upkeep cost Down?
 

Odin of Europa

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One question.

I saw studded suit.

Compared to mediable 40lmc.
Is the mana regn better with 55lmc and focus?

So the 55lmc cuts also the upkeep cost Down?
I've done zero testing so I don't know.

Before making the char I read up on the forums and I saw suggestions that if you don't have meditation, go for the extra LMC from studded.
 

Sqrlking

Adventurer
Just wanted to update this post.

I'm now well on my way to 6x120, although I still need a med scroll. not enough gold yet. In the meantime I'm keeping eval at 34 so I get a little more oomph from my spells.
I'm also continuing to build my suit as I find gear. I've begun training dragons at miasma with another character, so hopefully I'll get some better equipment soon.
At this level I feel pretty useful at spawns but I'm still working out solo mechanics.

One question: I have a +25 stat scroll. Are increased stats a necessity for this template? I'm a little hesitant to use it on this character because at 120 peace I can "peace out" of most situations where I'm low on mana/health

Stats/skills in the image.

 

Lord GOD(GOD)

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Just wanted to update this post.

I'm now well on my way to 6x120, although I still need a med scroll. not enough gold yet. In the meantime I'm keeping eval at 34 so I get a little more oomph from my spells.
I'm also continuing to build my suit as I find gear. I've begun training dragons at miasma with another character, so hopefully I'll get some better equipment soon.
At this level I feel pretty useful at spawns but I'm still working out solo mechanics.

One question: I have a +25 stat scroll. Are increased stats a necessity for this template? I'm a little hesitant to use it on this character because at 120 peace I can "peace out" of most situations where I'm low on mana/health

Stats/skills in the image.
You can probably Imbue a better suit quicker than you can get it from loot.

Having high stats is good on any character, your HP is very low, and you don't really want to be relying on Peace for anything. It doesn't stop spells/breath that have already been fired and is (or should be) rarely the active mastery.
 

Sqrlking

Adventurer
You can probably Imbue a better suit quicker than you can get it from loot.

Having high stats is good on any character, your HP is very low, and you don't really want to be relying on Peace for anything. It doesn't stop spells/breath that have already been fired and is (or should be) rarely the active mastery.
I'm working imbuing, but crafting isn't my favorite thing so it doesn't get much attention. I'll use the stat scroll, your point is a good one and tipped me in that direction.
 

Merlin

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Just wanted to update this post.

I'm now well on my way to 6x120, although I still need a med scroll. not enough gold yet. In the meantime I'm keeping eval at 34 so I get a little more oomph from my spells.
I'm also continuing to build my suit as I find gear. I've begun training dragons at miasma with another character, so hopefully I'll get some better equipment soon.
At this level I feel pretty useful at spawns but I'm still working out solo mechanics.

One question: I have a +25 stat scroll. Are increased stats a necessity for this template? I'm a little hesitant to use it on this character because at 120 peace I can "peace out" of most situations where I'm low on mana/health

Stats/skills in the image.

1) if you need a med scroll, (120 im assuming), let me know and I can get something to you (assuming you're on ATL).

2) It's my belief that all toons should use a +25 stat scroll. If you're at max intelligence already, put the rest of your points in Strength. Can't ever have enough hit points.
 

Finley Grant

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Did someone in the meantime did some Test with mediable 40 lmc vs no med 55? I dont find time to. :(
 

Sqrlking

Adventurer
1) if you need a med scroll, (120 im assuming), let me know and I can get something to you (assuming you're on ATL).

2) It's my belief that all toons should use a +25 stat scroll. If you're at max intelligence already, put the rest of your points in Strength. Can't ever have enough hit points.
Thanks for the offer! I found a med scroll for 600k, and consumed the +25 scroll. :)
 
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