OMG I'm SO lost!

[BellaofCats]

Hello, I have been away for about three years; back for a week now. I learn of so many new things everyday that my brain is shutting down!

I have read through 5 pages of what I believed would help me get a handle on the new bard abilities but (blond that I am) I can't seem to understand it so I can make sense of it and appy it to my bard. I am hoping someone here can help me make some sense of it all. My bard template currently is:

120 Music
111 Discord
113 Provo
120 Peacing
108 Magery
80 Meditation
90 Evaluation

I am working all my bard skills up to 120.

With all the changes I'm not sure what to do and what would be a good template to play with. I totally enjoy discord and prov, peacing is good when I get in a tight spot. I use barding more than I use magery - which I only use for healing. I depend alot on my barding skills to get me through the game rarely using, if at all, EV's or other defensive spells. It sounds like if I take the bard quests to use the new abilities I will not have enough mana to support them.

If someone can clear this up for me that'd be great. I'd also love to know if I can learn all three songs or if it's a one-at-a-time kinda deal and I'd need to complete the quest each time I want to change one out for the other. I do apologize if all this is answered in another thread - I really did look through alot of the posts here but nothing seems to fully explain what it is I seek - which is by no means meant to be insulting to any of you. It's me, I've just been away too long and can't seem to find my footing.

Thanks so much!

Bella

 

[Poo]

hey there.

good to see ya back.
good to see another returning bard.

the new masteries are actually pretty simple once ya get into them.
but lets look at what ya got step by step here and see if we can clear up the muddied waters a bit for ya.

first off your template is sound.
i assume your trianing your skills as you play, yes?
which is the way people really should train their first bard.
powergaming, i think, training wise should be left for after youve made a couple toons through playing.
makes the game more enjoyable i think.

anyways, what you got going is good.
i think your pointed in the right direction with your template too.
you got the makings of the good old reliable 4x120 bard, which with the new masteries is the best cause you get a lot of extra perks for being 4x120.

you get lower mana cost and higher damage and mods added.

at any rate ill give the 'Poo's quick and fast bard mastery talk" so pull up a chair.

once you get over, what is it 90? then you can start to use the masteries.
and all the masteries are are a add on. they do nothing to the existing bard skills.
your disco is still the same old disco, your provo is still the same old provo.
nothing has changed with them.
so you dont even have to use the new masteries if you dont want too.

now the masteries.
what they are is they added 2 spells to each of the 3 bard skills.
disco got 2
provo got 2
peace got 2

simple.
what ya need to do is look at the spells, youll notice they are more or less kinda grouped together.
the 2 disco spells are very simpular and do kinda the same thing.
same with the provo ones, very simpula, kinda the same, and the same with the peace ones.
so you need to look at them and decided which 'set' of spells will help you better IF you even want to use them.

the disco ones are offensive spells, so they will flag you on the critters and the will do active damage to the critters.

the provo ones add buffs to your pets and summons and also adds the buffs to anyone who you are partied with.

the peace ones are straight buffs to you and anyone you are partied with (like mana regen and HP increases and the such)

now those are very broad stroke simplifications, but those are what they are in a nut shell.

and thankfully you dont have to do just one.
you can only have one set of masteries at one time, but you can switch back and forth between the 3 sets as much as you like.

so like me, 90% of the time i run with the disco mastery.
but if i know im going out with the guild i quicklly run in and do the other quest for either the peace on or the provo one.

and thankfully the quest are fast and simple.
they take like under a minute to do.

so thats the quick and dirty.

if i where you, id continue with what your doing.
keep the template and keep going like you are.
pick a mastery, try it out, then pick up another, try it, then pick up the third.
your not gonna know which one you like till you activlly try them.

and if ya need a hand with a suit drop me a PM.
i have a imbuer on pretty much every shard and i can help ya out a little with a suit if i have stuff on that shard.

hope that helped some.

poo

 

[BellaofCats]

Poo, thank you so much for taking the time to put all of this into perspective. After reading your reply I feel more confident in not only my barding skills but in where I am heading with those skills.

Yes I am training as I play and have been enjoying time in Twisted Weald. I have gotten a few welcomed gains to my discording while there. However, I think I read somewhere that by activating the song books gains can be gotten a bit easier, so I am off to do the barding quest(s) and will see how it goes!

Thanks again for helping me out, I hope I can return the favor some time!

Bella