### **Intro**

Bard is one of the few support classes of the game and one of the best classes in PvP.  
Her numerous team buffs (shield, attack, speed, damage reduction) make her a threat.

Her mechanics are simple but will require good positioning. As a squishy character, saving your HP while supporting your team is your main objective.

### **Glossary**

- SA = Super armor = immunity
- T1 SA= stagger(stiffness effect) immunity
- T2 SA= push(knock) immunity
- T3 SA= hard cc immunity 
- CC= crowd control
- AOE= Area of effect, a skill which affects an area
- HP= Health Points
- CD= Cooldown

### **Skills**

- :skill[Rhythm Buckshot] : is a protected (**T2 SA**) defensive skill which knocks down. He is often used to counter engage.
- :skill[March] : is an anti stagger( **T1 SA**) skill which slows the opponents. He is really good to zone your opponents and reposition yourself.
- :skill[Rhapsody of Light] : is a protected(**T2 SA**) and defensive supporting skill. It gives in **AOE** a damage reduction and shield in zone. 
- :skill[Sonic Vibration] : is a protected (**T2 SA**) zoning skill which knocks up then knocks down in **AOE**.
- :skill[Heavenly Tune] : is an offensive supporting skill which gives to the team an attack damage and speed buff.
- :skill[Guardian Tune] : is a protected(**T2 SA**) and defensive supporting skill. It gives to the team a **T3 SA** buff and a shield.
- :skill[Prelude of Storm] : inflicts a stun (Hard **CC**). This versatile skill is used to engage and peel your mates.
- :skill[Soundholic] : is your only damaging skill.

### **Identity**

- Left one : is a protected (**T2 SA**) offensive supporting skill which gives to the team an attack buff.
- Right one : is a protected (**T2 SA**) defensive supporting skill which heal in **AOE**.

You can charge your identity up to 3 stacks which will increase the effect of the attack buff and healing zone. 

### **Awakening**
- :skill[Symphonia] : is the most used one, it gives a huge shield in zone and do some damage. In the last 30 seconds of a match, everyone gets an attack and crit buff.
Be careful, the casting time is slow, if you are low in HP and try to use it you might die  while casting it and lose your ultimate.

### **Stats**
- Common distribution : 750 **Swiftness**, 249 **Endurance**, 1**Critical**
- To charge identity gauge faster : 750 **Swiftness**, 200 **Endurance**, 49 **Specialization**, 1 **Critical**
- For more damage : 750 **Swiftness**, 249 **Domination**, 1**Critical**

### **Combo**

Main one :

1. :skill[Prelude of Storm]
2. :skill[Soundholic]

Variation :

1. :skill[Sonic Vibration]
2. :skill[Prelude of Storm]
3. :skill[Soundholic]

Stagger combo : is a defensive combo which will surprise your opponent
1. :skill[Rhapsody of Light]
2. :skill[Soundholic]


Defensive **SA** combo
1. :skill[Sonic Vibration]
2. :skill[Rhythm Buckshot]
3. :skill[Rhapsody of Light]

### **Gameplay**
Using your spacebar and super armor properly will make the difference.
- Start of the game :
Stay behind your mates and look to anticipate an engagement of your team or your opponents to use :  :skill[Guardian Tune] then :skill[Heavenly Tune].
- You have to time your buffs well to use them when a move is incoming and not during a temporization phase where your teammates are waiting for their **CD**.
- Try to position yourself well by using the field of view at your advantage to peel for your teammates and zone out your opponents.
- Staying near the middle of the map will give you more options to dodge and support your team but it will be harder to anticipate and engage.
- To reposition yourself and retreat, use :skill[March] but be careful it only gives you a **T1 SA**. Don't use it right in front of your opponents else you might get **CC** to death. You can also use it to cover for your teammates.
- :skill[Soundholic] is your damaging skill which will charge your identity the quickest, use it after an hard **CC** like :skill[Prelude of Storm]  or on a knocked down opponent without their roll.
- You will probably get focused, be ready to use your numerous **T2 SA** to resist, especially :skill[Rhythm Buckshot] which has a fast animation and a low **CD**.

### **Summary**

- A lot of **SA** and buffs.
- 1 mobility skill, you are vulnerable without your spacebar.
- Save your **HP** as much as you can.
- Your role isn't to do damage but to position well and to peel for your team.





Bard

Quick Prep

Wide-Angle Attack

Lightning Concentration

Raid

Sustain Enhancement

Focus Fire

Shock Enhancement

Tenacity

Agile Cast

Tough Tune

Intense Tune

Chain Vibration

Endless Protection

Wind of Protection

Stabilized Light

Shining Protection

Cheerful March

Impaired Mobility

Bard - Support PvP 3v3

Pre-emptive strike focused Chaos Dungeon build for bard.  You can sub in Prelude of Death if you really like it but it doesn't work as well with Pre-emptive strike.

I have looked at and tried out many builds but finally I have found my favorite after lots of tuning and experimenting as well as knowledge transferring some stuff I learned about Sorceress builds to Bard.

There's 3 main reasons I like this build and I'm surprised I don't see it anywhere.

1) It's much faster in my experience.
2) It can be used for mob clear anywhere, not just Chaos.
3) It still has a few support abilities in it.

The crux of this build is one Engraving:
Pre-emptive Strike.

"When attacking challenge or lower monsters with 100% HP your attacks are guaranteed to crit and do 160% damage".

Our goal is to use bards few abilities that do big initial hits to clear out massive waves quickly and nuke bosses in one hit.

**Prelude Of Storm** and **Heavenly Tune** (Yes Heavenly Tune.. I was double taking too) are your two best abilities for this with Heavenly Tune being better at wave clear and Prelude being better at bosses.

Currently in NA Pre-emptive strike is very cheap to get through the purple/epic level.  That means you can dual equip it for level 3 before you head into your Chaos dungeons and need zero custom gear.  I've out DPS'd same ilvl gunslinger with this build.  It's good you'll just have to trust me.

The Tripods for Heavenly Tune: Quick Prep, Forte and Tune for Me.  Yes you get to use Tune for Me.  What it does is increase the damage on Heavenly's first hit 100%, which works great with Pre-emptive strike.  You'll be doing 160k to everything on the screen thanks the range it gets with Forte.  The only thing you'll wish is the cooldown was shorter (Gems can help with this and are great for raid anyway).  Make sure you apply bleed rune to Heavenly in this build as well.  It will finish off anyone that wasn't quite nuked by it.

For Tripods on Prelude of Storm: Jungle's Law, Lightning Enhancement and Powerful Prelude.  The AoE left by Prelude will one shot creatures who wander into it and it will finish off bosses often times as they are stunned.  This is on a shorter cooldown and while it has less range you won't mind it much cuz you can just run in the middle of stuff and it's dead in a flash.

The rest of your skills you will be familiar with.  You can sub in Prelude of Death if you really want but I don't feel it works as well with Pre-emptive as many other things.

Even you Dissonance and Stigma will benefit from the first chunky hit by the way but they are more supporting abilities here than the main bread and butter.

Conviction Core is still meh and the extra damage Guardian Tune can give you is pretty meh most the time too but they let you be a bit more survivable as you run into the thick of things to use Prelude of Storm.

Use your Z on your ult to keep up the self buff otherwise just us your healing.  Swiftness spec def works wonders with this as do cooldown reduction gems.

Take your Symphonia instead of Oratio for awakening skills.  With Pre-emptive maxed you will one shot all but the mega boss with Symphonia because it's not a lot of hits but one big one which is exactly what we want.  Currently it does about 1.9 million to the entire screen for me pretty great :)  My ilvl is currently 1355 btw.

Hope this helps some bards.  This is much faster for me than grouping up and also much faster than any non Pre-emptive strike builds I have found.  The best part it's cheap to setup as Pre-emptive is still super cheap even for the purple engravings and you don't need special gear for it.

My current time for the first room is about 45 seconds, and the next room about 1.5 mins.  The last room takes me about 1.5 mins to 2 mins depending on how dumb I am that day.

Look forward to any comments feedback and hope it helps someone :slight_smile: 

Preemptive Strike

Enhanced Core

Law of the Jungle

Harmony Enhancement

Jungle's Law

Lightning Enhancement

Powerful Prelude

Frozen Stigma

Pain Brand

Sound Concentration

Forte

Tune for Me

Frozen Core

Spreading Vibration

Punishment of Protection

Bard Chaos Dungeon Pre-emptive Strike Variation

1445 Bard

Run Rhapsody instead of Harp if you don't need the extra meter gain

Tarsila

Maneth

Brealeos

Kagros

Aporas

Sol Grande

Adrinne

Field Boss II

Desperate Salvation

Awakening

Heavy Armor

Expert

Maintained Explosion

Sacred Shock

Rapid Fire

Has 40% chance to remove 'Conviction' from self and increase Combat Resource Recovery and reduce Skill Cooldown for 6s

Judgment

Melody Increase

Wealth

Overwhelm

Focus

Brilliant Wave

On skill hit, has 40% chance to imbue 'Conviction' to self for 3s. When in that state, 'Judgment' can be activated to gain additional effect

Conviction

Summoning Will

Note Brand

On skill hit, inflicts 'Bleeding' on your foe for 6s.

Bleed

Mind Enhancement

396 bard build

Crit/Swift 
75/25 split

Oratorio awakening skill

Adrenaline

True Courage

Keen Blunt Weapon

On skill hit, inflicts 'Bleeding' on your foe for 5s.

Brilliant Stigma

On skill hit, has 10% chance to imbue 'Conviction' on self for 3s. When in that state, 'Judgment' can be activated to gain additional effect

Galewind

Protective Vibration

Has 10% chance to remove 'Conviction' from self and increase Combat Resource Recovery and reduce Skill Cooldown for 6s

Death Amplification

Aria of Death

Chance of all Cooldown times -12% when skill is used

Quick Recharge

Bard carry/solo 312sp

Drops of Ether

Bard PVE Raid Support Build

Concentrated Core

Core Increase

Bard-Open world mob with Preemptive Strike

https://youtu.be/joqBinwNaEU

Oratorio Awakening

You can play around with the runes but thats just what i run, seems easy and reasonable, also, you can choose between both Awakenings, Oratorio does more "burst" dmg but Symphonia fills up your Identity Gauge for more heal or more dmg boost :)

No need of Pre-Emptive

Storm Stigma

Gain 12% of Max HP as a shield while casting skill

Protection

Explosion

Giant Harp

 Healerswrath Bard 1512  Chaos Dungeon

Enhanced Cast

Repeat Sign

Crescendo

Ruthless Release

Shot Concentration

Chance of Atk./Move Speed +12% for 6s when skill is used.

Rage

- Test build with Preemptive strike -

70% chance to remove a debuff when skill is used

Purify

Lost Ark | Ultimate Bard Guide | From Beginner to Endgame (NA/EU): https://youtu.be/rmp3J_DPOGg
1. Dissonance
2. Soundholic
3. Stigma
4. Heavenly Tune
5. Wind of Music
6. Sonic Vibration
7. Sound Wave
8. Sound Shock

Excellent Mobility

Courageous Tune

Bard - Mobbing build

Lost Ark | Ultimate Bard Guide | From Beginner to Endgame (NA/EU): https://youtu.be/rmp3J_DPOGg
1. Wind of Music
2. Heavenly Tune
3. Sonic Vibration
4. Soundholic
5. Dissonance
6. Guardian Tune
7. Rhythm Buckshot
8. Rhapsody of Light OR Harp of Rythm

Bard - Support build

Wide Explosion

Superspeed Cast

Shot Enhancement

Agile Rapid Fire

bard build In test 

Lethargic Harmony

Bard DMG wip

I use this build mainly on every content, I like how :skill[Harp of Rhythm] keep the dmg debuff ont he boss so I can use any other skills w/o spammin :skill[Sound Shock] 

There are some changes for different bosses, like Valtan needs more counter so I usually change :skill[Harp of Rhythm] to :skill[Rhythm Buckshot] and you can easily hold all the counters at last phase with :skill[Prelude of Storm] espec with :tripod[Prelude of Storm, Lightning Concentration] this tripod makes this skill a very long range counter.

At Vykas, my advice is to change your :engraving[Drops of Ether] to :engraving[Vital Point Hit] they are both cheap to make it legendary as engravings so you only need 1 more cheap accessory for easy lvl 3 to lvl 3 change.

I usually just skip :skill[Rhapsody of Light] of my build because I focus on more dmg buff and smoother gameplay. 
You should place this skill into your build if your full team is on item level on a new boss and your feel they are die on a specific patterns where you can save them. Othervise it can be useful in some situations, like its a very long push immunity at Valtan

With high enough swiftness and if you have at least lvl7 cooldown gems on :skill[Heavenly Tune] and :skill[Sonic Vibration], basically you can permanent keep up the dmg buff on your party (more easy with melee dps in your group). Always start with :skill[Heavenly Tune] since the mana regen helps you and your party a lot!

Use your :engraving[Serenade of Salvation] skill at LVL 1 GAUGE!
And focus on using :engraving[Serenade of Courage] at LVL 2-3 Gauge at the right moment, like after a stagger or counter!

Happy hunting!

On skill hit, has 30% chance to imbue 'Conviction' to self for 3s. When in that state, 'Judgment' can be activated to gain additional effect

Bard

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