Introduction Hey there. My name is Poni, I m a lvl 51 incarnation elven Bard of the scout named Poniter, and I m a member of AstralRiders guild. I have been playing Allods since the beta and this is by far the best patch I have seen. The Game of Gods has brought us a lot of new stuffs as you all know, one of them is a new class Bard. Late one night after I dinged 51 with my scout I decided to try a Bard to see what it was like. I rushed thou the tutorial (4 firsts lvls) so I cod try the power of the sound on more mobs. I went to the first group of mobs and started to pull, after 10 mobs I stopped used the barrier skill and all mobs died. This can t be true the mobs is killed by a passive + protection skill. This was true and fun, when you come from a scout which is single target class. To a class that just keeps running around and pulling mobs, which just die behind you without doing anything you simply can t stop playing. I stopped at lvl 7 went to bed with a plan. Next day I longed on my main char Poniter deleted my lvl 30 incarnation summoner made a Bard, and I have not been playing my scout that much since. Basic info about the Bard class Bard is a support class which is using the power of the sound, mainly to give some good and useful stuffs to all friendly people and make the opponents weak. The Bard has many options when it comes to giving something to the friendly people. FX +damaged, help with the healing, block control spells and many more. Making the opponents weak can also be done in many ways by talents or ruby s FX dibuffing, blinding, fearing, and dispelling the target is just some of the options. We will have a closer look at this later. The best way to define a Bard is to say it s a mix for all other classes. It have physical and magical damage, single and aoe damage, it can heal party members and itself, it can make all the buffs from all the other classes, and take a lot of damage. Basically a little of everything.

Choosing your race Bards can be played by 4 different races, 2 on each side all with different racial skills. League got: Elven Ministrel Steel Luster - Inflicts damage on enemy and blinds them for 6 seconds. My bard is an elven because of this blind. Blind is the best overall racial skill you can get in my opinion. Blind the target and you just keep killing it. Empire got: Kanian Skald Treacherous Strike - inflicts damage and immobilizes the target for 6 seconds. Immobilize target really nice but, it will break if the target is being attacked so I only see the use of this in pve / 1vs1 pvp Orcish Balladeer Foul Blow - inflicts damage and stuns target for 4 seconds A stun really nice but, the stun will break if the target is being attacked so I only see the use of this in pve / 1vs1 pvp Xadaganian Agitator Strength of Word - Inflicts damage and silences enemy for 6 seconds If I was playing on the Empire side I will take this one. Silences can be good in pve and pvp cause you can keep killing the target while the effect is on. Changes Bard is a new class so nothing changes in this patch, but I still think there is some imported stuff that we need to take a look at. The basic stats have been changed or in another way, we can now see all the information about what the stats are doing. I cod write it all but it will be a lot off text so here are some pictures from in game that will tell the same.

As you can see there is a lot more information on the stat now, this is a nice and useful thing. Let s take a closer look and the strength simply because it has the smallest text. Before the strength stats say increases your physical damage x times In the Game of Gods patch have there been added Increases effectiveness of your healing and offensive spells x times. We will never know if the stats were giving all this before the patch or not but useful information I will say.

Stats First I want to add a little comment to the big rune talk there have been on the forums and in game after the merge. Many people say that it s all about the runes and you have no change without them. I will say it s 50/50. Of cause runes have something to say but lvl 6 runes offensives and defensives and perfected balanced stats, are as good as lvl 10 runes and no balanced stats. I know that I m not the only one looking at it, this way just ask around in your guild. But like in all other mmorpg games are the stat points the hardest thing to balance, here is what I always aim for. Offensive stats Strength : Do not put any plus points in Strength before all the other stats are at the % you aim for. Finesse : Aim for 25-30% this will give you the best overall result Expertise : Aim for 10% this will give you the best overall result Luck : Aim for 70-80% this will give you the best overall result Defensive stats Agility : Aim for 450-500 to decrease incoming magic damage Stamina : This is the same as strength basics endurance and agility before stamina. Endurance : Aim for 500-550 to hold your chance to receive a critical hit under 5% Rest of the stats Perception, Wisdom, Intelligence & Faith : Completely useless stats for us, does nothing at all. Rage : Pure PvP stat, more rage means less healing receive for your enemies. Conviction : Increases you re the durations of your control effects. Willpower : Increase your chance to resist control abilities from enemies. There is no need to try balance Conviction, Rage, and Willpower you will get enough of it as your gear.

A little tip : I use Permanent Water of Life to make my stats totally balance, so useful when you get good items (Get it as soon as possible you will love it). I must say my stats are way out of control right now because I am still gearing up. My Current Build I have tried to make a build that I can play with in pve and pvp, with most points in pve since this is what I do the most. This build needs lvl 51. 62 talent points and 50 ruby points. Link to my build: What's great about this build? I have good single and aoe damage I have almost no down time, because of self-heal I can buff party members in a4 / pvp I can solo a lot of stuff even OF last boss when I was lower lvl. I would recommend you to try my build, but you should look at others as well to get inspiration how to make your own build, that fit you and your play style. That s what I do and have been doing for years.

Talents & Rubies from my build Basic talents and the rubies on them Dissonace: Magic damage spell that hit nearest enemy. Max this skill cause Solo skill is using this and it also the main skill if all others are on cooldown. Resonance rank 3 : Adds a dibuff to the target that give you 15% more physical damage Sharp Chord Rank 2 : +50% crit change Elegy : Passive skill that give magic damage to all that hit you in 20 yards radius. This skill is a Song you activate this and it stay on all the time and gives nice damage. OBS! You can max have 2 songs activated at the time Modulation rank 3 : +18% damage Acoustic Barrier : A shield that have 50% to absorbs damage and give damage to the attackers. This is a nice and useful skill to have maxed up to lvl 30 after that it gets more and more useless. Solo : Makes 6 Dissonace fast only deference is that it hit random and not nearest target + it only have 10 yards radius. Master solo rank 3 : - 30% cooldown Long solo rank 3 : Makes 3 more Dissonace Portective tune: A passive skill that automatically turns on when you get under 50% and give all incoming attack a 50% to miss. Protective Rhythm rank 3 : Minus the energy cost but 100% and 45% of all incoming aoe damage.

Nouturne : A passive healing skill that heals you and your party members within 20 yards every 6 sec(if you don t take any damage). This skill is a Song you activate this and it stay on all the time and gives nice heal. OBS! You can max have 2 songs activated at the time. Modulation rank 3 : +18% Healing Consonance rank 3 : Give Noyturne a 60% change to heal you even if it get dispelled because to get damage Power chord : Give nice damage and heal but can only be used on targets over 50% hp and it hit nearest enemy Resonance rank 3 : Adds a dibuff to the target that give you 15% more physical damage Sharp Chord Rank 2 : +50% crit change Octave Doubling rank 3 : +100% damage Musical Notation: This is the must have of all must have skills. Give you all buffs you know from the other classes. Astral power, Ferocity. Energy Surge and Robust Health. You can only use one at the time and it party members need to but okay close to you to get the buff. (I don t know the yard of the skill). One plus is that our Astral power and Ferocity don t give us the fx -30% armor on the ferocity as scout and warriors get. Timpani : Use this and right after your Dissonace skill and your Dissonace skill will be aoe and hit all within 10 yards but your Dissonace will cost 30% more. The 30% is also why you need to max this skill or don t take it at all. 2 points will give you +60% so not nice. Dancing Blade : Single target damage skill that hit 5 times within 6 sec, Max this to get Raving blade max

Ballade : The pvp skill over all pvp skills. Passive skill that give a buff to you and your party members that block the next incoming control spell. This skill is a Song you activate this and it stay on all the time and gives nice heal. OBS! You can max have 2 songs activated at the time. Raving Blade : The same as Dancing Blade just more damage. Combat tune rank 3 : - 45% cooldown and -20% energy cost Grand finale rank 3 : If you complete a Raving Blade you give +20k damage after it finish World Mystery and rubies skill that I use. Rhapsody : This is the most powerful world mystery skill in the game from all classes. +100% hp to the target. Raverberation rank 3 : Use your Rhapsody skill on someone else and you give get +100% hp as well + 3% damage Flying Blade : Really high single target damage skill that have a cooldown from 10 to 30 sec I will say the is a most have damage skill. Extra Rubies bonuses Rock and Roll rank 3 : + 150% change to parry Temperament rank 3: Decreases energy consumption when you perform several songs by 3 energy. Also a must have you can have 2 songs active at the time and every song you have active 2.5 energy regeneration per sec. You always want to have 2 songs active and that means 50% of your energy regeneration (NOT GOOD). That s why this ruby is so useful, it makes you have 8 energy regeneration.

Protective overtone rank 1 : + 3% armor per song you have active only use to get the 3ed rank of Consonce Sixth sense rank 3 : +15% Endurance and if a enemy make a critical hit on you will you get a buff that +30% healing receive for 10 sec. Perfect Ear rank 2 : +6% Finesse but are use you get to other useful rubies Virtuoso rank 1 : +3% Expertise but are use you get to other useful rubies Rotations Player versus environment Standard rotation : The 2 songs I have active here is and plus I am using for more physical damage that this is my main damage in the rotation. Start out with 1x to use some energy and get the buff that give you 15% physical damage after that comes the rotation 1x 1x 1x keep using this skill asap as cooldown is gone. If you are close to full energy and your target is over 50% hp use 1x if it s under 50% hp use 1x to hold up the buff at all times.

Aoe rotation : The 2 songs I have active here is and plus I am using for more magic damage that this is my main damage in the rotation. Start out with 1x 1x 1x until finish. Then just spam 1x and within 3 sec 1x and keep doing this until your target is dead. Player versus Player 1vs1 : The 2 songs I have active here is and plus I am using for more physical damage that this is my main damage in the rotation. Start out with 1x 1x to and get the buff that give you 15% physical damage 1x 1x keep using this skill asap as cooldown is gone. If you are close to full energy and your target is over 50% hp use 1x if it s under 50% hp use 1x to hold up the buff at all times. Mass pvp : The 2 songs I have active here is and plus I am using to buff my party if the is an seal in the party already I use Start out with 1x 1x 1x until finish. Then just spam 1x and within 3 sec 1x and keep doing this until your target is dead. If you get under 40% in hp start spamming under 50% hp. until you can t fire it this means all enemy s have the buff from the skill or they are