Multipurpose bard

[Gusten]

Hi,

I'm looking to make a multi-purpose bard. I'm fairly sure that the template I have in mind really won't do much good in any area, but I'll mainly be playing with a friend, or with guild, so I don't have to be able to solo. Here's my reasoning...

I love bard skill. I want at least one. So there we have Musicianship + Sumfin.

In all MMOs I play, I've always been a fan of stealth. So I want to try and work in stealth in the mix as well. And then, why not get steal/snoop as well? For champ spawns, for "daily rares", and for stealing off of monsters. Would add a new, fun dimension to this char that I hope to use for most things to come (except for soloing, can't beat my tamer there).

Not many skill points left now, so I guess I'll take magery/eval int as well, and rely on items for MR and LMC.

This adds up to the following build, with modified and (real) skill. The +skill comes from shadow dancer, burglar's, and the new nifty +10 stealth robe. 100 magery is too low, but I'm thinking that a Crystalline ring would take care of that. Just have to ensure that I get 2/6 casting. With just 30 hide, I will rely on casting invis.

120 (90) Stealing
100 (90) Snooping
80 (40) Stealth
30 Hiding
120 Musicianship
120 Discordance/Provocation/Peacemaking
120 Eval Int
100 Magery
790 (710) Total (Oh right, 710 is my max)

Any thoughts? Which of the music skills do you think would suit best for a multipurpose character? Is working in steal/snoop just a bad idea, so I should drop them for 60 med and go for a second bard skill or maybe spellweaving? (I have 115 available to transfer.)

Any input would be much appreciated. I know that I will not be the most rump-kicking player around, but I'm prepared to live with that. I'm a bit worried that I won't add much to a group though, but... Magery is always helpful, and either disco or provo should be welcome in most situations. Heck, even peace is pretty comfortable at times.

Thankful for your thoughts!

 

[Gusten]

I'm bored studying for an exame, so of course I started planning a different build. Less all-round than the previous one, but a bit more focused build might make it more useful.

I really want a bard char (other than tamer), and started thinking of what would work with music/disco/provo and figured I'd try archery. I'd love some input on how this seems:

120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
120 Archery
100 Tactics
80 Chivalry
50 Bushido
710 Total

I'd have to rely on Chiv for healing. Tactics for damage, and 50 bushido to be able to honor my opponents. I only have one bushido char, and didn't start honoring until around 100 skill, so don't know if there's a penalty to Honor at just 50 skill. Less bonus from it? Less chance to actually start honoring?

Any input on either of the templates?
Oh well, back to my studies!

 

[cheerful]

Well, I know you changed your mind but here's mine

Hide 100
Stealth 75
Music 120
Provo 120
Mage 120 (105 +ToLK)
Medi 100
E.I 100

Far from not being good in any area I can solo all peerless keys and with high magery can switch from dealing damage to bosses to helping out with heals and stuff to guildies.
Thee most versatile char I have and cant wait to let him lose on SA.

 

[Gusten]

I definately haven't changed my mind, just... expanded it! For some reason I feel that magery (with eval int, and preferably med really but there are some nifty items out there to partially compensate for lack of med) suit very well with bard skills. I tried to think outside of the box (the box being my brain) and combine it with archery instead. I'm thinking that if I go around and provoke monsters one each other, I can safely fire at them from a distance (and with pretty good damage with those skills in the second template), and use disco for... Well, I'm just a big fan of disco.

If you're bored one day and just want to walk around and kill stuff, explore areas you haven't visited in a while... Would you say your stealthy provo magician can do that? Thanks alot for sharing your template, and some experiences with it. Glad to hear that people succesfully combine stealth, barding AND hunting!

 

[Poo]

can honestlly say ive never had nor thought of that template.

very unique.

that archer bard i have a couple of, so i can help ya with a couple answers for that template.
the 50 bushido works ok.
not as good as GM bushido, but its enough to let you honor and you get back a nice amount of the mana you waste killing the mob.
not as much as GM bushido, but its enough and better then nothing.

i have this mental image of you skeaking up behind a shadow wyrm and BAMN you pop out of hiding and hit him with a provo onto the other shadow wyrm.
that makes me laugh thinking about that.
hehe.

 

[Gusten]

Heh, sounds like a 21st century assassin, that mental image of yours. Completely unseen sneak up on someone, and appear to whisper "Oi! That guy said sumfin 'bout your mum!" and then watch them brawl away.

Seriously though, even if you've never thought of such a build - do you think it could accomplish anything? Cheerful's template and experience with it was very reasuring, but the big difference is that I'd lack meditate. Wonder if 15 MR and 40 LMC could work...

 

[cheerful]

If you're bored one day and just want to walk around and kill stuff, explore areas you haven't visited in a while... Would you say your stealthy provo magician can do that? Thanks alot for sharing your template, and some experiences with it. Glad to hear that people succesfully combine stealth, barding AND hunting!

100 % made for the job, infact I made a mirror image of him in the open beta and stealthed the whole length of the Abyss, took about 3 hours but was a great evening of sightseeing and murder

 

[Vertigo]

I use my fisher / tamer / bard to do white nets

Music 120
Disco 120
Tame 115
Lore 115
Fishing 100
Vet 90
Mage 110

This temp is very +skills dependent. Works very well for killing Leviathans and the surrounding spawn.
He's also a great supporting character with his Disco.

 

[Micaman]

What kind of pet do you bring? The greater dragon? I am making a fisher now and I'm wondering what to put on him. I was thinking archery, but I love making bards!

 

[Gusten]

Cheerful, that really does sound like a very versatile bard. Very tempting!

At the moment, I'm leaning more towards a bard/mage, with provo/disco/music/magery/eval/med. I've, after two years of playing UO, finally started to see how useful paralyze can be, so I'm going for eval instead of peacemaking. Main reason is that it doesn't interfere with bard skill timer.

I think I'll keep the option to stone one of the skills and switch for hide/stealth. I really do enjoy stealth, and want to switch for it when needed (or "wanted").

That fisher, bard, tamer of yours sounds solid, Vertigo. I've already toyed around with bard/tamer enough, and want the freedom/challenge of going more bard-oriented. No matter how strong a tamer can be, I always feel limited when depending on a pet. I'd rather perform worse, but do so on my own.

Thanks for your input and experiences guys!

 

[gramarye]

Well, I know you changed your mind but here's mine

Hide 100
Stealth 75
Music 120
Provo 120
Mage 120 (105 +ToLK)
Medi 100
E.I 100

Far from not being good in any area I can solo all peerless keys and with high magery can switch from dealing damage to bosses to helping out with heals and stuff to guildies.
Thee most versatile char I have and cant wait to let him lose on SA.

Lol, that IS a fun template! I made a copy of this on test and it's a template that had never occurred to me tbh, but so much fun that I finally have a reason to buy that 7th char slot. I'm in the process of making this char now. Thanks, cheerful, loads of fun

 

[Gusten]

Just figured I'd post my process of this char, even if it really doesn't matter...

I decided to skip the whole stealth-aspect, and went for the pure bard. I enjoy concept chars before really powerful ones (hence the thief bard originally suggested, and now a pure bard), so it's 4xLegendary on this one.

I posted on the spellcaster part of the forum for some advice, but here's what I'm rolling for:

120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
120 Peace
120 Magery
120 Spellweaving

As I only have 710 max, it's actually 115 mag/sw, but that's the idea. Anyone have any experience with such a char? I haven't really decided if I should go SW or Eval Int. I think SW is a very nice additional skill, but I'm lacking a bit in the single target damage appartment.

I'm currently at
100 Music (locked for training)
120 Disco
115 Provo
120 Peace
110 Magery
116 SW
and I've been left out of loot on several raids because I was too busy healing etc. and didn't have enough single target power to do enough damage. WoD in the end is nice, but not always enough.

(I wear 40 lmc, 14 MR suit to make up for lack of meditation, which seems to work pretty well.)

 

[Poo]

ok.

so my oridginal Disco Archer is on ATL

but a couple months ago i changed around a dead toon on Sonoma and went with this.

Archery 95 (115 with hunters headress on)
tactics 115
music 120
disco 120
bushido 100
chiv 70
med 70

his suit has the hunters (of course) and the stormgrips for the DI, also the tali is the conjer's trinket for the HCI and the DI, also has the runebeetle carpace on.

in total the suit is pure 70 accross the board.
with 40 LMC and like 7 or 8 MR.

what i did was i picked him up some cheap balanced bows.
not the top end pvp ones, but kinda a midrange pvp ones, which are nice PVM ones.
so i use pots A LOT on him and then back that up with the bushido heal and as a last defence i use the chiv heal and cure.

between the three of them i keep him alive very nicelly and dealing out some good damage.

i put a set of flutes of renewal on him so he can shoot discos off under any circumstance.

i must admit, the more i use him the more fun im having with him.

but wow do i chew through the ammo with him!!!!!!!!!

oh, and IMBUING is nice eh.
i made him a ring and watch set that is heavenlly.

if a fella was so inclined you could probablly make up some nice bard baubles.

 

[Gusten]

Another update on my progress!

This has really taken a different path than my original template. Just maxed out provo (took longer than disco since I couldn't make a nice macro in the enhanced client so had to be more active while training), and skills are now:

120 Provo
120 Disco
120 Peace
100.1 Music (like I said, I _just_ maxed out my last skill)
110 Magery
116.7 Spellweaving

Experiences so far? I keep getting shuned on boss loot for not doing enough damage. Other than that, I'm having a blast. The usefullness of Peace in my playstyle can be questioned though, and I'm likely to go for 120 spellweaving and get 115 Eval Int instead. That way, I could just switch between peace and SW.

This is really a pretty useless post, but I post for two reasons. One is that I just felt really good about finally hitting 120 in all three bard skills (I can't imagine music will take very long if just clicking an instrument), and had to pat myself on the shoulder. The other reason is to highlight what Poo (who else?) already said in a different post - vollems kick ass. I can wreck so much havoc to a group of foes with two vollems, provo and disco. They're still in training, but they seem to have a lot of fun against ogre lords.

 

[Black Majick]

ok.

so my oridginal Disco Archer is on ATL

but a couple months ago i changed around a dead toon on Sonoma and went with this.

Archery 95 (115 with hunters headress on)
tactics 115
music 120
disco 120
bushido 100
chiv 70
med 70

his suit has the hunters (of course) and the stormgrips for the DI, also the tali is the conjer's trinket for the HCI and the DI, also has the runebeetle carpace on.

in total the suit is pure 70 accross the board.
with 40 LMC and like 7 or 8 MR.

what i did was i picked him up some cheap balanced bows.
not the top end pvp ones, but kinda a midrange pvp ones, which are nice PVM ones.
so i use pots A LOT on him and then back that up with the bushido heal and as a last defence i use the chiv heal and cure.

between the three of them i keep him alive very nicelly and dealing out some good damage.

i put a set of flutes of renewal on him so he can shoot discos off under any circumstance.

i must admit, the more i use him the more fun im having with him.

but wow do i chew through the ammo with him!!!!!!!!!

oh, and IMBUING is nice eh.
i made him a ring and watch set that is heavenlly.

if a fella was so inclined you could probablly make up some nice bard baubles.

I saw this thread reggie and actually thinking about making a bard. Hence reason I came too forum. I like the idea of yours. I was thinking something maybe along these lines...

120 Music
120 Disco
120 Provo
120 Archery (20 From Hunters)
100 Tactics
90 Chivalry
70 Med

Tossing around idea of 2/4 or 3/4 on the char casting. Then doing good HCI/DCI with EP on the jewerly. If course would imbue jewels.

Then get some decent armor peices too fit in some MR/LMC into the suit. Idea behind it though is too have decent enough casting too use chiv as a form of healing. Then have 50 EP for enhanced stats and then enhanced GH and GC. Use balanced magical shorts. Of course have a good general all purpose bow, but also a good set of slayer bows for the guy. Dunno. I personally think with the med and the MR in the suit the guy who have no trouble with mana. Idea is too put out damage fast with the bows (better damage over time) and then let the monsters beat each other up. The disco just a helper. All the weps would more than likely be imbued weapons.

Hows sounding? Any improvements you think that are absolutely nessecary???

 

[Poo]

sounds interesting.

i just picked the bushy over the provo so i could get the honor bonus for damage and also for the replenishment of the mana and HP and stramina when ya drop the critter.

thats allways a nice bonus to have.
specially if your dropping a lot of specials.

but the provo would be nice if you where wallowing into romms packed with critters.