Bard
| |
| Type | Support |
| Armor | Cloth |
| Weapon | Mallets |
| Equipment | Instruments |
The Bard is a support class focused around conducting your own personal mini-orchestra of musical orbs. By keeping them in-sync and choosing the right instrument at the right time, you can support your party members, heal your allies, weaken your enemies, and even deal a little damage of your own!
Weapon Interface
Abilities
Mallet Throw (Stun)
Throwing your mallet at an enemy will stun them for a short amount of time and can interrupt certain abilities.
- The mallet will respawn in your hand after a short time.
Playing Notes
When at least one instrument is active, notes with the same colors of the active instruments will start to get closer to your marimba. Hitting the keys of the marimba at the same time the notes are on top of them will charge the blue ability bar, increasing the passive effects and active effects ("Crescendos") of your active instruments.
- Playing notes will charge the crescendo of the corresponding instrument.
- Hitting a note with both mallets at the same time can make it count double towards the crescendo of that instrument. Combine with Encore to make a note count for four.
Instruments
Up to six instruments can be equipped at once, but only three of them (or four, when using the Symphony talent) can be active.
- To activate an instrument, tap the empty globe with one mallet
- To deactivate an instrument, tap the active instrument with both mallets.
Every instrument has a constant passive effect that is placed on all allies or enemies within range as long as the blue ability bar is at least partially full, and an active effect ("Crescendo") that needs to be charged by playing notes of the same color as the instrument. An available crescendo is indicated by a glow around the instrument. It takes 12 notes to charge a crescendo.
| Icon | Name | Passive effect | Crescendo |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Instrument of Harm | Damage pulse. Only works while in combat. | Sends out a bolt in a straight line, dealing damage and interrupting the first enemy it hits. |
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Instrument of Justice | Periodically sends out a bolt that damages a single enemy. | Sends out a powerful blast of five projectiles which fly forwards in a wavy line, dealing damage and interrupting the first enemy they hit. In PvP, also applies anti-heal debuffs. |
 |
Instrument of Defense | Places a debuff on enemies, weakening their projectile attacks by 10%. In PvP, decreases damage done by enemy player's projectiles by 5%. |
Removes a buff from enemies within a short range. |
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Instrument of Protection | Places a buff on allies that blocks a bit of incoming damage. | Cleanse allies nearby of one harmful effect. |
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Instrument of Speed | Increases stamina recovery. Movement speed is unaffected. | Instantly refills stamina of nearby allies. |
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Instrument of Inspiration | Increases Wisdom by 300, causing the Super to charge faster. | Greatly increases the duration of any currently-active Super abilities. |
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Instrument of Gentle Healing | Heal pulse | Sends up to 3 healing projectiles to nearby allies, prioritizing players with the lowest health. |
 |
Instrument of Cure Wounds | Boosts incoming healing from all sources. | Single bolt that greatly heals a nearby ally with the lowest health. |
Abilities that initiate combat are:
- Harm Crescendo
- Passive Justice and Justice Crescendo
- Cure Wounds and Gentle Healing Crescendo, if a player that is in combat is healed
Super Ability
Boosts damage of all allies by 20% and increases healing from all sources by 20%. A status effect is placed on a person after they receive the boost, making it impossible to gain the effect from the Bard super again for 5 minutes.
The Super charges when hitting crescendos, and will be ready after about 13 (12 if using Instrument of Inspiration).
Using any crescendo while the super is active will increase the super duration by a little.
Talents
| Level | Active Heal | Passive Buff |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Acoustic Power: Increases the range of your smart heals by 10 meters. | Reverberate: Increases the range of your passive beneficial effects by 5 meters. |
| 10 | Chorus: Your Instrument of Cure Wounds increases healing done from all sources by a additional 5% (10% total). | Encouraging Note: Any ally affected by a pulse effect from your instrument deals 5% more damage. |
| 15 | Solo: Increases the healing of your healing effects by 20%. | Song Sword: Your smart heals grant a 10% damage boost to nearby allies. |
| 20 | Upbeat: Notes from your songs will play 30% more quickly. | Sheet Music: Once every 10 seconds, you will receive credit for a note that you missed. |
| 30 | Encore: Gives a 15% chance for notes to become empowered and count double towards their crescendo. | Symphony: You can activate an additional instrument, but the notes play at the same time as your existing instruments. |
- Song Sword is active inside the Bard's passive field.
End-Game Builds and Gear Enhancements
→ Main Page: Bard/Tilesets
The Bard has two major builds, but hybrid versions exist that sacrifice a bit of healing potential to give the party an increase in damage. The talents for these hybrid builds can be picked by preference.
Active Healing
The full healing build of the Bard class, to act as the main healer in smaller parties (5 or less).
Talents:
- Reverberate
- Chorus
- Solo
- Upbeat
- Encore
Main Instruments:
Passive Utility
This build focuses on boosting the damage output of large parties (10 or more), but does not do any damage or heal much on their own.
Talents:
- Reverberate
- Encouraging Note
- Song Sword
- Upbeat
- Symphony
Main Instruments:
Active Damage
The solo build of the Bard class. Able to dish out some damage, while also being able to keep themselves and teammates alive.
Tipps and Tricks
- The bard has access to a lot of interrupts:
- Throw a mallet at enemies
- Crescendo of Instrument of Harm
- Crescendo of Instrument of Justice (one stun for each of the five projectiles)
- A bard does not need to be in combat to apply buffs and passive heals to their party - but using healing Crescendos will put you in combat.
- Hitting notes with both mallets at once can make them count double.
- When acting as the main healer, stay near the tank to be able to react quickly, as the healing projectiles travel relatively slowly.
- The crescendo of Instrument of Defense can remove buffs from the Pot Tank boss in the Guild City raid.
Gallery
Datalus as a Bard.
