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Bard Leveling Build Guide

Last Updated: September 28th 2023

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Introduction

The Bard is purely a support class for groups and is a highly requested role for endgame content. She levels slower than pure damage classes, but an experienced player can still finish 1-50 in under 11 hours.

While her huge AoE clearing skills are up to par with other classes, she lacks high single target damage. She struggles to kill bosses quickly until you max out Soundholic at Level 30.

During the leveling process, focus on equipping the highest Item Level gear while prioritizing the Crit and Swiftness Combat Stats to increase your damage and clear speed. To level quickly, focus on doing Main Story Quest with some exceptions.

For a walk-through of the leveling quests, check out the Leveling Guide.

Skill Point Allocation

Allocate Skill Points to gain Tripods for your most powerful Skills. Below are the notable Character Levels to obtain the most important Skill Tripods. Left over points can be spent on secondary Skills of your choice. Make sure you reallocate those points into the main Skills when needed.

Check the Skill Point Guide for more details.

Level 12: Dissonance and Stigma (4 points each) to increase the damage dealt.

Level 13: Sound Shock to break obstacles.

Level 16-22: Dissonance to amplify the damage against normal mobs. Max at lv 22.

Level 25-31: Soundholic big DPS.

Level 34-37: Stigma to help with AoE and singe-target.

Level 38-41: Stigma max.

Level 42: Sonic Vibration Push Immunity skill.

Level 40-45: Sound Shock for Note Brand debuff, 10% more damage on foes.

Level 45-50: Prelude of Death for more damage.

Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression

Level 50

  • Once you first set your Song of Return to Luterra Castle, it is important not to change it. This is because the Bard's Awakening quest requires you to return to East Luterra, so you can save time and silver traveling back with Song of Return.
  • Follow the Main Story Quest to Vern Castle until Beatrice notifies you to visit her in Trixion. Completing her questline rewards Guardian Tune and Symphonia Awakening Skill. Check your mailbox and consume the items to unlock the skills.
  • You can save the Chaos Dungeon Build to your first preset and the Raid Build for your second preset.

Gameplay

  • When trash clearing, you are mostly limited by the Cooldown of your skills. Group up enemies before using AoE skills to kill them all at once.
  • Against bosses, most of your damage comes from hitting a well-placed Soundholic. This ability is a Back Attack, which means it gains 10% more damage and Critical Strike Chance when hitting an enemy from the back. If possible, wait to dodge a boss attack and cast Soundholic from behind while it is still in the recovery animation. 
  • Since missing Soundholic is such a huge DPS loss, you should prioritize hitting the boss over trying to get the perfect Back Attack. Delay using it if the boss is about to be Staggered (purple bar under its HP) for a guaranteed hit.
  • Combat Items like Grenades can help provide much needed single target damage against bosses. They are also useful in the endgame since they scale with character level, so you are “wasting” some gold. However, they make a big difference in your boss clear times if you don't mind the cost. Use Flame Grenade (Bound) for damage, Whirlwind Grenade or Clay Grenade to help Stagger bosses and Destruction Bomb for fights that require it (Valtan in Luterra Castle).

Endgame

Once you reach Level 50, the following guides will guide you through the end game content and activities:

Summary

  • Use Dissonance and Stigma to clear obstacles and trash mobs.
  • Soundholic is big single target damage. Try your hardest not to miss.
  • Throwing Grenades can help with bosses, at the cost of gold.

Credits

Written by Aiyulol
Incorporated by Perciculum
Reviewed by Lexyu

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