Bard Skill Set and Engraving suggestions?

[The Cheesecake Enigma]

So I main a Bard, but getting a little frustrated with It, obviously I don't expect much DPS from It, I went In knowing It was the worst class In terms of DPS, but...It feels lacking In every other aspect. So here's my setup so far and I'm hoping for some Input on what everyone else has going with their bards and maybe some tips or pointers.

Sound Shock
Prelude of Storm
Heavenly Tune
Sonic Vibration
Guardian Tune
Sound Wave
Rhythm Buckshot
[A] Symphonia

Currently using Desperate Salvation and Divine Shield as my main engravings.

[76561199243173746]

try engravings on damage

[Alcion]

I use prelude of storm, stigma, sonic vibration, wind of music, guardian tune, heavenly tune, harp of rhythm, rhythm buckshot.
Desperate salvation and expert for engraving.

[(ノ°□°)ノ]

Solo: Dissonance, Prelude of Death, Prelude of storm, Sonic Vibration, Stigma, Heavenly Tune, Wind of Music & Soundholic.
Engravings: True Courage, Preemptive strike

Group: Sound Shock, Guardian Tune, Heavenly Tune, Wind of Music, Sonic Vibration, Harp, Prelude of Storm & Soundholic/Rhythm/Rhapsody.
Engravings: Desperate, Awakening, HA

[Turih]

I dont think I understand the main point of your question. Could you please elaborate a bit more on "lacking In every other aspect?"

What exactly do you want to be improved? DPS? Gauge meter? Survivability? Shielding? Healing? Movement?

Dunno how simple list of skills and engravings I use would help you.

[Kenuty]

Originally posted by Sgt Phantomizer☭:

So I main a Bard, but getting a little frustrated with It, obviously I don't expect much DPS from It, I went In knowing It was the worst class In terms of DPS, but...It feels lacking In every other aspect. So here's my setup so far and I'm hoping for some Input on what everyone else has going with their bards and maybe some tips or pointers.

Sound Shock
Prelude of Storm
Heavenly Tune
Sonic Vibration
Guardian Tune
Sound Wave
Rhythm Buckshot
[A] Symphonia

Currently using Desperate Salvation and Divine Shield as my main engravings.

basically you have no idea what you are doing with your bard is what you are saying

its a support class in end game raids, your job is to support not deal dps but instead do it to build the meter to heal here is what can help you, your main 3 engravings are simple which is pretty much desperate prayer, Expert and more mp, the heal comes from your total HP so you want cards to play that, just read below and become a bard pro.
At the end it pays off because you will get into good parties as long as you are competent support player and doing your job.

https://lost-ark.maxroll.gg/build-guides/support-bard-raid-guide

if you are asking about leveling, then use this
https://lost-ark.maxroll.gg/build-guides/bard-leveling-guide


Yes bard has hardships while leveling which is why I used knowledge transfer and made my bard an alt, I play a paladin and bard. I find support class amazing because I can get in organized parties easily unlike my DPS.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2801230216

[Wake'n'Bake]

on my Bards im using always awakenings 3, desperate salvation 3 and expert 3 or awakenings 3, desperate salvation 3 and heavy armor 3+ spirit absorption 1 for mobility. for actual content expert is not necessary.

gems mostly for cooldowns. tripods mainly for raid build. cards field boss II u need more hp because ur healing and shield are based on ur HP pool.

dps is only needed for solo content like chaos...and tbh on 1400+ you just destroing chaos sun 3.

[Bacharge]

Welcome to bard life :)

I have 8 bards sitting in 1400 (main) and 1340/1360 for all the other one.
I'm gonna try to give you some insight on engravings, skills, tripods, when to use them etc, so it'll be a little bit on the long side, sorry.

Let's start with your solo build for tower, chaos dungeon and solo content, if you feel like you're way to slow.

Solo build
Engravings

For chaos dungeon and solo content (except boss) you should go for preemtive strike with both engravings in your slot to acces the legendary tier on it. This will give you garanted crit and 180% more dmg on ennemy with full health, wich is amazing on small hp mobs and will let you one shot almost anything.

For tower or certain boss, you should aim for lightning fury. Lightning fury have 60% chance to spawn an orb each time you deal dmg (so it's amazing with stigmate or dissonnance, coupled with bleed rune) and at 5 orb will deal massive dmg (for a bard) around you. That's my go to engraving for dps, nothing else.

Spells and tripods

You're just looking at big AoE spells most of the time, so it will be :

Dissonnance with melody increase, law of the jungle and harmony enhanchement + bleed rune.
Wind of music with quick prep, enhanced cast, wind of protection + whatever rune
Prelude of storm with jungle's law, lightning enhancement, powerful prelud + whatever rune
Stigma with sustain enhancement, frozen stigma, pain brand + bleed rune
Sonic vibration with protective vibration, frozen core, wide-angle, + whatever rune
Prelude of death (not for some boss in tower) with quick prep, death amplification and aria of death + whatever rune.

You can also take soundholic if you feel like it.

This set aims to DoT as much as possible to farm lightning fury if you're doing tower or bosses, or to be able to kill easily pack of mobs with preemtive strike.

Spell rotation

You should always try to gather mob around you and either :

- Use prelude of death followed by dissonance or stigmate to chain kill them.
- Use your shield, let them stack around you and then use prelude of storm to oneshot everyone.
- Use oratorio to kill all of them when you're out of CD in chaos dungeon.


Raid build

There's not a "single" raid build, but that's the one i'm using on all my bards.

Engravings

Awakening 3
DS 3
Heavy Armor 2 or 3, depends on your investment

If you dont want to pay a lot of gold, go for awakening x9 and DSx9, with a awakening stone.

My main is playing awakening 3, DS 3, HA3 and expert 3. My alts usually have ds 3, HA3 and awakening 2.

Spells and tripods

In raid build, you focus on debuffing and buffing, not on dmg (but you had that right on your spells list !)

I usually go for, on every bard :

- Sound chock, maintained explosion, sacred shock, lv.7 - whatever rune.
- Prelude of storm, quick prep, melody increase, powerful prelude, lv.10 - wealth rune.
- Wind of music , quick prep, melody increase, wind of protection, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- Soundholic, sound concentration, sustain enhancement, focus fire, lv.10 - wealth rune.
- Sonic vibration, tenacity, brilliant wave, wide-angle attack, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- (If you don't have enough skill point, go for stigma) Harp of rhytm, summoning will, melody increase, note brand, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- Guardian tune, tenacity or mind enhancement, endless protection , lv.7 - whatever rune (can go to level 10, depends on your skill points).
- Heavenly Tune, quick prep, tough time, intense tune, lv.10 - whatever rune

Spell rotation

You want to always keep the debuff on the boss you're fighting, so you'll use sound chock first then after 2/3 sec, spawn the harp and boost your mates with heavenly tune. When heavenly tune is out, sound shock and sonic vibration on top of your mates to boost them. Don't forget to hit times to times to boost your serenade meter and use DS on 1 bard to maximise your DS engravings.

If you have any other question, feel free to pm me !

[Dragonmaster]

General Bard Engravings:
Desperate Salvation - Key to healing for a LOT.
Awakening - More Symphonia's mean more bubbles for your signature (heal/dps).
Expert - Makes your shields AND Heals stronger, a must have.
Heavy Armor - Bards are squishy, this helps mitigate it

Crisis Evasion - Cheat death option.

[The Cheesecake Enigma]

Originally posted by Whorrey Potter:

Welcome to bard life :)

I have 8 bards sitting in 1400 (main) and 1340/1360 for all the other one.
I'm gonna try to give you some insight on engravings, skills, tripods, when to use them etc, so it'll be a little bit on the long side, sorry.

Let's start with your solo build for tower, chaos dungeon and solo content, if you feel like you're way to slow.

Solo build
Engravings

For chaos dungeon and solo content (except boss) you should go for preemtive strike with both engravings in your slot to acces the legendary tier on it. This will give you garanted crit and 180% more dmg on ennemy with full health, wich is amazing on small hp mobs and will let you one shot almost anything.

For tower or certain boss, you should aim for lightning fury. Lightning fury have 60% chance to spawn an orb each time you deal dmg (so it's amazing with stigmate or dissonnance, coupled with bleed rune) and at 5 orb will deal massive dmg (for a bard) around you. That's my go to engraving for dps, nothing else.

Spells and tripods

You're just looking at big AoE spells most of the time, so it will be :

Dissonnance with melody increase, law of the jungle and harmony enhanchement + bleed rune.
Wind of music with quick prep, enhanced cast, wind of protection + whatever rune
Prelude of storm with jungle's law, lightning enhancement, powerful prelud + whatever rune
Stigma with sustain enhancement, frozen stigma, pain brand + bleed rune
Sonic vibration with protective vibration, frozen core, wide-angle, + whatever rune
Prelude of death (not for some boss in tower) with quick prep, death amplification and aria of death + whatever rune.

You can also take soundholic if you feel like it.

This set aims to DoT as much as possible to farm lightning fury if you're doing tower or bosses, or to be able to kill easily pack of mobs with preemtive strike.

Spell rotation

You should always try to gather mob around you and either :

- Use prelude of death followed by dissonance or stigmate to chain kill them.
- Use your shield, let them stack around you and then use prelude of storm to oneshot everyone.
- Use oratorio to kill all of them when you're out of CD in chaos dungeon.


Raid build

There's not a "single" raid build, but that's the one i'm using on all my bards.

Engravings

Awakening 3
DS 3
Heavy Armor 2 or 3, depends on your investment

If you dont want to pay a lot of gold, go for awakening x9 and DSx9, with a awakening stone.

My main is playing awakening 3, DS 3, HA3 and expert 3. My alts usually have ds 3, HA3 and awakening 2.

Spells and tripods

In raid build, you focus on debuffing and buffing, not on dmg (but you had that right on your spells list !)

I usually go for, on every bard :

- Sound chock, maintained explosion, sacred shock, lv.7 - whatever rune.
- Prelude of storm, quick prep, melody increase, powerful prelude, lv.10 - wealth rune.
- Wind of music , quick prep, melody increase, wind of protection, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- Soundholic, sound concentration, sustain enhancement, focus fire, lv.10 - wealth rune.
- Sonic vibration, tenacity, brilliant wave, wide-angle attack, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- (If you don't have enough skill point, go for stigma) Harp of rhytm, summoning will, melody increase, note brand, lv.10 - whatever rune.
- Guardian tune, tenacity or mind enhancement, endless protection , lv.7 - whatever rune (can go to level 10, depends on your skill points).
- Heavenly Tune, quick prep, tough time, intense tune, lv.10 - whatever rune

Spell rotation

You want to always keep the debuff on the boss you're fighting, so you'll use sound chock first then after 2/3 sec, spawn the harp and boost your mates with heavenly tune. When heavenly tune is out, sound shock and sonic vibration on top of your mates to boost them. Don't forget to hit times to times to boost your serenade meter and use DS on 1 bard to maximise your DS engravings.

If you have any other question, feel free to pm me !

This Is pretty much what I was looking for, I appreciate the time and effort on the response. Definitely got a little bit of tweaking to do, but shouldn't be horribly hard!

[sintri]

How do you not run prelude of death for dps? It's got the potential to one shot bosses with enough trash mobs. Won't do ♥♥♥♥ for story boss fights, but works wonders for chaos dungeons.

[The Cheesecake Enigma]

Originally posted by sintri:

How do you not run prelude of death for dps? It's got the potential to one shot bosses with enough trash mobs. Won't do ♥♥♥♥ for story boss fights, but works wonders for chaos dungeons.

If It's the skill I'm thinking of, I disliked being a sitting duck while It went off, lol

[Dragonmaster]

Originally posted by Sgt Phantomizer☭:

Originally posted by sintri:

How do you not run prelude of death for dps? It's got the potential to one shot bosses with enough trash mobs. Won't do ♥♥♥♥ for story boss fights, but works wonders for chaos dungeons.

If It's the skill I'm thinking of, I disliked being a sitting duck while It went off, lol

It does a knock back so even if your standing still, the trash mobs are knocked back thus wont hit you. Prelude of death is a must use in Chaos Dungeons for clearing. When you can take 3 elites, gather them with a group of mobs and essentially 1 shot the entire group with corpse explosion, it speeds up clears. the only slow part of clearing Chaos's is the 2nd rooms boss and the dreaded red portal's boss.