Rift-Bards

[Lyonheart]

First of all, heres a link to a very detailed Bard 101 post. read that http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?47666-With-a-beat-you-can-dance-to!-The-Support-Bard-Guide Read that if you want to know the fine details of the spec. i will go over what i think will be an excellent class to box.

The last beta i spent the last day playing a bard, i had played one in beta 5, but had tried so many class combos I forgot what was fun about the bard.

First, they do not have a super speed run buff like bards in other MMOs, its only 15% group speed, that will be useless after you get a mount. However, you can increase it to 20% with points spent, and also make it usable in combat. So a 20% in combat run speed is very useful, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Bards are a rogue class soul. There are many topics on what other rogue souls go well with the bard soul. Ill talk about that later. bards are a support class. In this way, they are much like other bards in other MMOs. They buff and heal, and dps. They need to twist songs to keep all buffs up..FUN!

Ok so just read that linked post to find out the details. The reason i made this post is because i think multi bards will be awesome to box. If you have 5 Bards, you can have every buff up, both the long durations types ( Fanfares and Anthems )
And the short songs called Motifs. One bard can keep all motifs up, but they only last 15 seconds each and 30 seconds with soul points spent. But in a group you can only have one of each type of buff up from bards. So Boxers could have all the motifs up by simply doing one per bard, maybe two with the lead guy. that will make it a lot easier to keep them all up while in combat.

Bards get some nice heals later on. As they spend points they get a few emergency heals on 1-3 minute timers. They heal two ways..DPSing with an ability called cadence http://rift.zam.com/en/ability/1487673667/Cadence. And through finishers called Codas. So multi bards DPSing with Cadence will do 100% of that damage as heals on the entire group OR up to10 raid members( you have to spend soul points to make this happen., and if your a bard. you will ) Cadence is the point builder ability for the bard. when you get 5 combo points you use a Coda. Codas can DPS, buff, debuff or heal.

Bards also get other abilities that are just cool downs and such, depending on how many points you spend in the tree.
They have an PBAoE mez, a single target mez.. a group heal..power source regin.etc. Also, depending on what partner souls you choose. you will have other abilities.

I will choose the abilities that buff what i do as a bard, IE, heal though my DPS ( cadence ) While questing I would use cadence and a DPS finisher ( coda) but in a raid or dungon i would use the buff/heal finishers of course.

I am not 100% sure if this will be viable for dungons, you can duel spec one of the bards to tank ( yes bards have a tanking soul ) And i "think" 4 bards healing via cadence and round robin the other heals could beat bosses in dungons.. only testing will tell. They don't have any targeted heals.. its all group. So it might not work. But this next beta phase is 6 days long!

If you read the thread I linked, the main post and the discussion after, you will know everything you need to know. Like what souls to pick as partner souls.

[defactoman]

Do you know if the anthems stacks? Something tells me 5 boxing for 200+ magic resistance could go a long way to increasing survivability. The ability says "one anthem per rogue" so id imagine that mean it could be technically possible if they didn't just build in the fact it doesn't stack.

[defactoman]

did a little Google on the forums, apparently no similar buffs stack (like wow). Sadface :(

[Lyonheart]

Right, a group can only have one each of the various buffs up, so a solo bard can only use what buff best fits the situation or group make up. 5x Cadence+ all Anthems, fanfares and Motifs always up is what makes multi bards powerful. The Cadence heals the group for 100% of the DPS it does, ie 5 bards cadence dps= 5 bards healing as they dps. Then they all would have the other big group heals they could use on a round robin for bigger heals, if thats even needed. Or they could just DPS as finishers, when healing was not needed. A single bard, speced right, does pretty damn good passive healing solo. As well as CCs and such. They can also do AE dps.

[jinkobi]

Going to be in the next open beta phase myself. Look forward to finally checking it out! Have to wait until tuesday though :(

[defactoman]

what about for the 2nd soul, ranger for pets or maybe sabo?

[Lyonheart]

what about for the 2nd soul, ranger for pets or maybe sabo?

If you read that post in the link i put up there, it explains in detail what other souls go great with Bard. But the short and sweet version would be something like this for a pure PvE support build >> http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0MciT.EIdqiqskqz.Vhb.V

The points in Nightblade are things that buff your cadence damage. More cadence damage=more healing. the 3rd soul can be a number of things, ranger is popular for the pet. Ranger pets only level up to 30, so after 30 it might be better to spec into one of the other trees. I would probably have at least one of my bards have saboteur for the baseline ability Adhesive Bomb ( AE 70% snare ) and 15% dex helps our dps as well. All Bard abilities are dex/attack power based.

There are a number of other souls that would work. Also, for questing, you could pick a more mixed spec for more dps and less healing. Read that post in my first post. lots of great info and discussion there.

[Mokoi]

I have 5 bards already, and they do rock. I think they do a lot of passive healing, but their range is only 20 yards, unlike the other ranged classes which can talent up to 40y, which is a huge difference.

I think a marksman or ranger main soul with a Bard off-soul could work. The aoe heal would be really good, since you can ranged DPS from 40y and then if targets get within the 20y of cadence, you can channel that spell away until they are dead, and use your combo points to heal the group up.

[Ualaa]

Have the developers said anything regarding boxing?

[defactoman]

Don't think so, and i wouldn't hold out much hope for an early reply :(

[Ualaa]

That sucks.

Rift looks like it might be a decent alternative to Warcraft.
But there's zero chance I'll buy five copies, if I won't be able to box it.
Personally, if its not boxable, I won't be buying one copy.

[Vociferate]

That sucks.

Rift looks like it might be a decent alternative to Warcraft.
But there's zero chance I'll buy five copies, if I won't be able to box it.
Personally, if its not boxable, I won't be buying one copy.

I am feeling the exact same way, really. I have been looking on and off at it, and it seems like a fun game. But I financially couldn't stomach 5 copies of the game and some gametime only to find out boxing isn't legit 6 months down the road and either get banned or have to stop playing.

Ever since I have started boxing, playing one game seems... Mundane. >.>

[Mokoi]

Ever since I have started boxing, playing one game seems... Mundane. >.>

This. We are all ruined lol.

[Meeo]

That sucks.

Rift looks like it might be a decent alternative to Warcraft.
But there's zero chance I'll buy five copies, if I won't be able to box it.
Personally, if its not boxable, I won't be buying one copy.

Rift is definitely a decent alternative, i am going out on the limb and pre-ordered 4 accounts. After doing beta since Beta 1, i have noticed that the Boss fights within the Instances aren't really multiboxing friend, but then again, i know multiboxers will eventually overcome and adapt like we always do. I just don't think ill would be ready to multi-box an entire 5 man, so ill just be running 4 and having another friend come along to help out.

I went exploring around on the last day of the Beta 6, and i must say the environment of the game in my opinion is much better then WoW. Only time will tell, i will be blogging/podcasting/webcasting my experience starting within the week, so hopefully if may be some insight to those who are still on the fence.

But then there is always still the lack of a response from Trion at this time regarding boxing in general. :mad:

[Lyonheart]

I'm starting out with two. If i get banned, ill be sure to let everyone know. I does bother me that they seem to refuse to comment on boxing openly. WTF are they being silent for? Is it silent approval? Or are they waiting to see what kind of sales they get when it launches, and make a decision later? If the game does well, they might be of a non supporting position and "think it will be better for the game if they do not allow boxing ( based on the mass amounts of QQing about boxing) I don't know, it makes no sense!

[Lokked]

I've also only Pre-ordered 2, but playing 5 is so much fun that I'm not sure 2 will cut it.

I may just risk it and spend the other $150-180 on 3 more pre-orders. Already spent $100, might as well spend a little more to get the enjoyment I'm looking for.

5 Bards does sound fun. I used a main of Bard, Marksmen, Ranger (?? The 3rd ranged class). Cadence gives 3 combos, Marksmen get a med damage, 3sec Cooldown ability which gives 2, then you can use a bard finisher which can either AE Heal, Debuff, or Damage! Sounds exciting!

So many options! Even if none of them turn out to be viable, it still sounds like fun trying them out.

[Lyonheart]

Its allowed, get your copies! http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?66313-Trion!-Your-stance-on-Multiboxing-Thousands-of-potential-customers-need-to-know!/page10 ( POST #96 )

Quat from Abigale "We have never implied that we would not allow multi-boxing. As long as the accounts are being run manually, we do not have a problem with it.

That being said, remember that you are responsible for all actions on each of your accounts. Harassment/griefing rules still apply. So, if a person is going to harrass someone with 5 characters at a time, that will be dealt with accordingly.

As of now, there are no restrictions or rules against multi-boxing. http://www.dual-boxing.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Lyonheart]

I wanted to give some input about playing 4 bards ( playing 5 was too laggy for me, 4 just cuts it). The damage is more than enough for questing and rift slaying. With Cadence healing the party ( or up to 10 raid members) or 100% of its DPS, i never needed a heal. In Rifts its hard to tell if i am keeping the whole raid up or if there are other healer types doing a lot of healing as well. What i do know, is there have been several rifts i cleared by myself or with one or two other dps, and my cadence healing was more than enough.

I was also able to take on a few equal level elite invaders and their thugs, by myself(s), bards dps on elites is slow, but its healing as well, so it works out great! I am going to drop to 3 next session and see how i do.

pro bard tip : i made a follow macro and added one motif per bard. i am always hitting follow ( habit from WoW ) so it made it easy to remember to do motifs ( they last 15 seconds with no talents ) Now one bard can "twist" every motif, i think there are 7ish at end game. So if you were 5 boxing you could bind one of the most useful motifs to your follow key per bard, and just twist the last few ( if necessary ) with your leader. macro>

/target "leadersname"
/follow
/cast Motif of Suchandsuch

[Lokked]

I just finished 2 PvP games with 5 bards.

Lvl 16 - 12 Bard, 9 Nightblade, 0 Ranger

My team died once (Main died and I didn't have FTL set up).

Each of my 5 did more damage than anyone else, and healed for roughly 8 times what the second place (behind the 5 healed for), and we STILL LOST! I guess no one on our side was concerned with getting the Fang of Regulos.

5x Bard is extremely OP at these levels, although they are really squishy. A Level 20 Rogue + some mage class killed my main once, and almost killed him a second time. I'm stacked with Cloth gear, for the Int bonuses.

Spamming Cadence with Coda of Wrath when they get to ~30%. I don't have any snares yet, but people were kind enough to run straight for my main and not strafe around at all.

[Wadis]

I've been running 4 bards also currently lvl 14.

went full bard and found while its great to have SO much healing, the anthem heal along with cand is amazing but stuff doesn't die fast enough for my liking (great for PvE however)

x4 Sab is definitely where it is at for pvp. the slow bomb on a round robin while spamming the AOE bombs is really insane. VERY mobile spec

[Lyonheart]

I've been running 4 bards also currently lvl 14.

went full bard and found while its great to have SO much healing, the anthem heal along with cand is amazing but stuff doesn't die fast enough for my liking (great for PvE however)

x4 Sab is definitely where it is at for pvp. the slow bomb on a round robin while spamming the AOE bombs is really insane. VERY mobile spec

once you have coda of fury, bards have a great ae dps. If speced right, they are very hard to kill. I speced my bards for PvE and 2nd role for PvP. At 25, the only way they died was if a full group of high dps focus fired on my bards. I was living through CCs, AE etc, I used bard, riftstalker ( for the endurance buff and talents, ranger for the health talent and pet. ) And if i had help, they stayed alive do to my insane healing. I take down major rifts by myself (equal level+ a level or two higher). And I'm only 3 boxing bards atm

All that being said, if you have any build that depends on Cadence for DPS ( so you can heal ) You killing will a tad slower than a pure dps build, BUT you will live! And you will kill the shit. In PvP, you will have every buff represented and keep your raid alive!

[Wadis]

once you have coda of fury, bards have a great ae dps. If speced right, they are very hard to kill. I speced my bards for PvE and 2nd role for PvP. At 25, the only way they died was if a full group of high dps focus fired on my bards. I was living through CCs, AE etc, I used bard, riftstalker ( for the endurance buff and talents, ranger for the health talent and pet. ) And if i had help, they stayed alive do to my insane healing. I take down major rifts by myself (equal level+ a level or two higher). And I'm only 3 boxing bards atm

All that being said, if you have any build that depends on Cadence for DPS ( so you can heal ) You killing will a tad slower than a pure dps build, BUT you will live! And you will kill the shit. In PvP, you will have every buff represented and keep your raid alive!

yes stuck with this until lvl 18 (i think) for the Bard aoe finisher, awesome stuff!!
I had sab for 3rd soul, picked up riftstalker thanks for the tip.

[Lyonheart]

A few tips. I found that my pets would cause me to engage targets while running through zones. I hated having to recast them ( long cast time) so I leave them on passive. I put /petattack in my dps macros and i use a repeater region over my pet bars to control pets. Works great for pet control!

[ZooljinX]

Good advice Lyon that really pissed me off some times haha!