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I am trying to make a good one... and I am so lost..... anyone know what to stay away from? Not many guides on bards...

Thanks, have been reading up on it a bit. Is there anything anyone can say is truly useless? or just not worth the points?

That's partly a matter of opinion. Face it, bards weren't designed for doing massive damage, they were designed for support. If you're going a bard build, you might as well focus on MP regeneration and buffs. I've noticed Holding clamour is useless, and here's why: You should be able to handle any monster besides giants easily. Since clamour only lasts 10 seconds, you'll probably use it to stop a giant to get away, but by the time you use the skill, turn around, and run, the skill's worn off. Dances might not be of much use unless you have a second bard to help you, so you might want to think about that. Oh, and it depends on what you are going to have as a second build.

This is just based on my opinion. feel free to disagree or agree.

Mana wind - simply because you have mana cycle which heals more mp and over a period of 12 seconds. Mana wind also causes aggro even though you have noise on.

Temptation - I dont use it often. Not worth the skill points in my opinion. Id rather just kill the mob myself. Works differently in parties as well. And your party members usually attack the confused monster anyways.

Tuning noise - there are better ways to recover your own mp

Kitchen, although you're allowed to have an opinion, here's one reason why people bother with mana wind- mana breeze. It heals MP for the whole party, which could be easier than handclicking each person, and could even save lives if it came to that. As long as your party is big enough, the aggro you pull with it doesn't matter- the monster would die before they get to you. buff characters should have top protection priority in a party, for obvious reasons.

Also, even though temptation doesn't seem that great, it does bring heat off of you in big mobs. I've died countless times to a giant or a champ only because a normal was hit with booming chord and attacked me. Using temptation on one of those regs would make them attack whatever, keeping them from killing me. :/

And, yeah, tuning noise is pointless. A bard should be watching their mana supply.

There is a big chance that i might get Mana breeze. But for now im choosing not to max mana wind. The only ones that really require healing mp in parties are warlocks and clerics. They consume the most mp. There are maybe 2-3 (on average) in every party i find. Thats enough time to handclick them.
Id rather spend my skill points on cleric buffs, resses, and a party heal. I believe that skill points are well spent that way. Rather than topping the party off with full mp (yes i do recognize its advatages). But i feel my skill points will be better spent in some skills in cleric tree.
I have farming btw. If im only going to use mana wind rarely, id rather spend the points on something id use frequently such as the skills in the cleric line.)

maybe when i lvl up to lvl 70 (when we get mana breeze) ill max wind to get it.

well, then again, I'm a pure bard build, so obviously having a second skill tree makes all the difference. :/

Right. Im a lvl 80 pure INT bard on Mercury. There are so many myths out there about bards that are plain wrong so I thought It was time to clear at least the most important ones up.

Dance and Tambour skills:

with 1 bard you can use 1 tambour (Mana tambour, guard tambour, or hit march) and NO dance.

with 2 bards you can use 2 tambours and 1 dance (yes that's right, 2 tambours).

with 3 bards you can use 3 tambours and 2 dance.

How does this work?
Bard no. 1 must turn on tambour only (lets say guard tambour).
Bard no. 2 can then turn on Dance.
AFTER bard 2 has activated dance he can then turn on a different tambour (such as mana tambour).

So lets say you have 2 lvl 80 bards. Working together they will both have +38% physical protection, +38% magic protection, and +38% magic attack damage.

This makes them very strong indeed.

The other thing that no one mentions about bards is how fast their skills are. Not just the cool down time but also the actual launch time .
If a bard and a wizard both attack each other at the same time the bard will win, even tho the wizards attacks are stronger.
Why? Because the bard attacks are instantaneous. In the time it takes for the wizard to waive his hands around in the air a bard can have fired off 2 nukes. Either Horror Chord and Weird Chord, or preferably Horror Chord and Booming Chord/wave. This also works rather well against chinese nukers.

More bard questions? Just ask =)

U can also have 3 dances with 4 bards. We did it in hotan coz we're bored. :p

Here are the simple way to do it.

Bard-1 : Guard Tambour
Bard-2 : Dance of Valor
Bard-2 : Mana Tambour
Bard-3 : Dance of Magic
Bard-3 : Hit March
Bard-4 : Dance of Healing / MP Dance

So u have 3 dances to make Hotan more lag then it is. Lolz.. And the Shining buffs will make noobs think GM is there or something. :p



I'm farming with 8 gaps now and maxing mana wind to get mana breeze. And i can say mana wind is important when u're in a pt with 4 high lvl wizz and a cleric. With all 4 wizz doing constant AOE's and cleric spamming heal like there's no tomorrow, u'll be needing mana wind. Trust me, i'm always in the super active pt at Generals.

Another thing to add.. As a Bard, u will always be the last one to have buffs from warrior/cleric. Coz u wont be needing that as much. Dont cry for INT/STR/Fence/Quota. U will die less than wizz / cleric if u know how to play. Having a wizz sub is a good thing too as u will have teleport skill to run from mobs that are after u.

can one of them still cast Moving March?

And out of those bards casting tambours/March and Dances, none can attack?
Can they regen MP of theirself and pt members?

And one last while i'm at it, you can't have 2 bards cast the same tambour or the same dance?

edit: just wondering, what's the best skill to regen its own MP?

Yes, moving march sticks for a while to all party members once it is cast regardless or death, weapon swaps etc etc


All the bards can attack. Playing tambour or dance doesn't stop you from attacking BUT you cannot switch weapon or the dance and tambour buffs will turn off. So you need to stick to bard attacks. Keep in mind that these are quite strong, especially combined with dance. The Booming Wave skill combined with Dance of Magic (at lvl 80) is a 500% magic attack. This is stronger than any wizard attack (not including attacks with life control), with an instant launch and a bigger radius (although it's not ranged).


Yes all bards can regenerate mp. With Mana breeze they dont even have to target anyone, just press the botton and BOOM everyone has mana.


That's right. The buffs do not stack. If someone in your party has already switched on Guard Tambour then you cannot switch on another Guard Tambour (but you CAN turn on a different tambour such as Mana orHit March)


Mana cycle will refill your MP quite fast. It can be cast on yourself or on other people as a buff.

As a lvl 80 bard on mercury there are some skills that I've just never used - here they are:

Mana Switch: Completely useless. No-one needs this. You can regen enough mana with mana cycle and breeze etc, this is just overkill

Rave Melody: As a bard your biggest problem will always be HP not MP - so why on earth would you want to sacrifice HP for MP?

Temptation: Someone's already talked about this one. Neat party trick. Occasionally good for getting Giants off you IF the mob you target decides to attack the giantand no some random other mob. There is a rumor that at lvl 90 you can actually capture a mob as a pet - only if that happens will this skill actually be worthwhile.

Cure Melody: Usually pills will clear these things for you. The only time you might need it is if you're pvping a warlock, but since it's not a buff you're scarificing an attack every time you use it. And honestly how many high lvl warlocks are there out there? I know of only one on Mercury

Holding Clamor/Patter Clamor: Again neat party tricks BUT these turn off as soon as the target is hit with any kind of magic attack (ie any bard, wizard, warlock, cleric, or chinese char attack), and they can still fire ranged attacks at you... So unless you're working very closely with a pure STR rogue and have great communication skills this is essentially useless. Only good for binding mobs you want to run away from.

Dischord Wave: Possibly good for big parties. But your party MUST know to stop attacking the mobs the instant u fire this off - otherwise it does nothing. 1 tiny hit from one person a split second after you fire this and the mob is aggro again...

Dance of Mana: No-one uses this much mana that they need 2 bards and a dance buff just to keep it up.

BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH BARD: finding a second bard to use your dance skills!!! This honestly drives me nuts at times.... Dance skills are so powerful and so good but i so rarely get to use them in anything but job fights outside town.