EQDiva

Hi all, Rolling up a bard tomorrow and I need some advice as far as equipment goes. I have about 55k to spend, and a pretty cheap server economy (not-couting inflated dupe prices), so I shouldn't have ANY problems getting gear that will last awhile. My main concern is on weapons, instruments, haste and HP. Stats and AC come secondary. Was considering a Troubador's Mace and a Blackened Acrylia Blade depending on if I can get a good deal on the blade and what the mace actually goes for (dunno). If you had bout 55k to spend what would you get?

That's a tall order to call. I think it really depends on why you want to play the bard in the first place. Do you want to group or do you want to solo? If you want to group, I'd suggest standard HP gear and the weapons you mentioned aren't bad. If you want to solo, buy a TDK and go to town. Gear won't matter once you start kiting, but you'll need some to start off with. I'd guess you'd probably want to get some decent HP gear since you'll need to do some work before kiting (again, if that's your goal for leveling) and work up your melee/defensive skills. Good thing about ldon is it makes for a lot more gear at cheaper prices since it seems to be dropping a lot. Surf the bazaar and you'll most likely find what you're looking for and be sure to stay up with instrument skills (takes hours and hours of playing).

Really I want to be able to solo or group depending on my mood and if I can get a group or not. That's my main reason for going back to bard is they seem to be one of the classes that is able to do that nowadays. I'm really sick of having such 1-dimensional characters, and bards have always been the jacks-of-all-trades in Norrath. I mean naturally I was planning on some AC/HP rings, silver chitin handwraps, and I can pretty much figure out the weapon situation for bards, just like any other melee. But there's gotta be that gear that just MAKES a bard, you know what i'm saying? Ever class has some.. And I don't have a clue what the bard stuff that is. Like your monk's fungi tunic and t-staff. Like a warriors BoC or (for the NON-rich warriors), ChoS+SotBS. I really don't want to just end up slapping some crusty or lambent on this guy and being just another cookie-cutter twink bard. Plus I have the cash to move ahead of cheap stuff like lambent.

I really don't want to just end up slapping some crusty or lambent on this guy and being just another cookie-cutter twink bard. Plus I have the cash to move ahead of cheap stuff like lambent.

:) Being a warrior is a lot about HP and weapons. The same can be said for most DPS classes and those without healing capability prefer a fungi. If we have a class defining item it's probably our epic. One question: Do you intend to powerlevel this new bard and if so, how far? What equipment you can reasonably use after level 35 and what is helpful prior to that can be very different.

Instruments are the gear that makes the Bard, the real thing that makes a Bard is the players skills. That's the tough part, there's no sit-stand-nuke-sit or auto attack and mash the taunt key on a timer.

All too true, I have heard many stories of bards just going afk at raids or groups and leaving the mana playing. I'm not sure why this would either be wanted (by the bard) or allowed by the group/raid. Fully agree that skills for a bard (and any class for that matter) are the true sign of a good bard. You could have 10k HP as a bard and 500 resists, but if all you're capable of doing is being a mana battery, then what good are you really. I'm not against twinking, powering, etc etc of new characters, but I just wish that most that do this sort of thing would take pride in their class and the abilities of such. Anyone can twist 3 or 4 songs, but to know which to twist at which time is the art. Heck, most of us aren't "the best" we could be. If we were, we wouldn't be here searching for advice and sharing points in order to make bards, as a whole, better. /jumps off soapbox Good luck finding some good gear, and better luck on mastering your class ;)

If it was me, I would look for gear that had stats in the following order of precedence: HP, Sta, AC, Agi, Dex, Str, Cha, Int, Wis. HP is god Sta = HP, so its demigodlike AC helps you keep HP heh Agi turns into AC Dex helps with procs and I believe missed notes (could be wrong here though, I seem to see more missed notes from having low int) Until you get higher levels, Cha over 120 isn't gonna do much for ya. Same with int and FT, dont need it till you start using Fading memories really. Wisdom... Bwwahhhahaahah

Umm,, FT= Flowing Thought, right? I'm still new so I don't always catch the abbrviations :D

Sure is Pemo

CHA is my favorite bard stat. It directly affects missed note rates (check out the description of the stat on the character creation screen!) and helps with critical failure rates on lulls. Both are very good reasons to get that stat up.

2x Velium Fire Wedding Ring 1x Velium Black Sapphire Necklace 2x Electrum Black Sapphire Earring 1x Thunderous Drum of Karana 1x Combine Lute (or Lute of the Howler) For the rest, I agree with the above, get HP, but don't go too nuts. When I twinked my bard I wouldn't put more than 1-2K per slot, I just found the best HP I could under those conditions. He's 2537hp now at 56 with TDoK & Epic equipped. Could be doing worse for an alt. The drum is the most important item if you solo. If you group a LOT, and have your epic, then consider the Lute of the Howler as you can use it with your epic. Otherwise the Combine Lute/Mandolin will be fine. Replace one of your ears with the Earring of Solstice when you start using mana (2nd charm), especially if you swarm kite a lot.

if ya wanna save some of your cash, and not look like a total twink, get ya some ldon player made armor. vendor surf the vendors by the forges in POK, gothic is decent,Bp has ac of about 27, some +3 stats and sv magic and cost about 92p. an advantage to LDoN armor is they have 2 aug slots on almost everything, so ya can slap a ton of save vs ... augs on them, if you a puller, the sv really help. a full set of ldon armor will do you good easily to the low 50's. If you play a vah shir, you'll have to commission someone to make it for ya. since the normal size and small size molds are sold close to the forge, you'll find those 2 sizes on the vendors, large will be very rare to find on the vendors. you could probably equip your toon in all ldon player made armor found on vendors for about 600-700p, and that's generously overestimating. spend that plat on your drum and other stuff.

Im kinda a newbie with bards, what is a TDK or TDoK? :D Thuderous Drum of Karana maybe? :D

TDoK = Thuderous Drums of Karana = Best Droppable Percussion you can get.