the Raiding Bard

[sophrana]

So you want to sing, dance, and act.. be a triple threat?
Welcome to the raiding bard. A full Bard (51 point) guide (begged, borrowed and sometimes outright stolen from other sources).

What stat should I care about as a raiding bard? Attack Power (AP). Why? the damage you deal is a direct relationship with your Attack Power. Increasing your Attack Power increases your damage, which ultimately increases your healing. Currently, Attack Power is calculated by your Dexterity and your Strength. Cadence is based off weapon DPS and Attack Power, so keep this in mind.

But But But Soph?! What about hit?! There is much debate among bards as to be hit capped or not, since.. All your stuff hits (this whatever cannot be blocked parried or dodged, you will see that a lot on your abilities help tips).. I do not worry about hit and have not had any issues thus far..

With the above in mind, the build:
rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?riftstc=1Mcip.EIdqiqskqz.Vh.Vb

We use all 51 points in the Bard Tree. Let's talk about this, rotation, macros and how to win in raids with the bard..

First thing is first, if you are going to play a Bard, you will need some type of gaming pad. I use and suggest the Logitech G13 www.logitech.com/keyboards/keyboard/devices/5123

Soph, you lost me at game pad, what the what?!
Ok, in Rift you cannot trigger more than one ability per macro. This matters to you because one of your sole reasons for existence
is to keep all of your Motif Buffs running all the time except Motif of Encouragement (more on that specific Motif below)

The G13 allows me to create a macro for the game pad itself, "pressing" keys via a one button push on the pad. Thus you, the aspiring bard, can keep up all your motif buffs all the time which does make a difference.

note you may move (middle-outer-middle-inner-middle,etc) and play your motifs

You can now one click your motifs (vastly easier then twisting songs in EQ) the next thing you will do is debuff all the time.

Coda of Distress and Coda of Cowardice should start any boss fight (as long as your motifs are already ticking away):

Coda of Distress - Plays a Coda that uses Combo Points to harm the enemy and enemies around it, increasing the damage taken from non-physical attacks by 7%. Duration is increased with more Combo Points. Energy Cost is reduced with more Combo Points.
1 Point: 6 seconds
2 Points: 12 seconds
3 Points: 18 seconds
4 Points: 24 seconds
5 Points: 30 seconds

Coda of Cowardice - Plays a Coda that uses Combo Points to harm the enemy and enemies around it, increasing damage taken from physical attacks by 5%. Duration is increased with more Combo Points. Energy Cost is reduced with more Combo Points.
1 Point: 6 seconds
2 Points: 12 seconds
3 Points: 18 seconds
4 Points: 24 seconds
5 Points: 30 seconds

My strategy:
Motifs are ticking, hit the boss right at the pull with Riff (I do this with Domm all the time and have never pulled agro) giving you 5 combo points instantly, Coda of Distress, 2 Cadence (gets the buff from Coda of Distress) *note* you can interrupt your own Cadence so as soon as 5 combo points are stacked fire Coda of Cowardice.

you have specked into Nightblade so Blazing Fury and Unstable State indirectly help Cadence, and Cadence is feeding back health via Invigorated Soul. Also the 15% more AP in Riftstalker from Unseen Fury and +4% healinge from Boosted Recovery is helping your Cadence Healing.

Cadence is based off weapon DPS and Attack Power

You now have 15 seconds to rest and spam cadence with Coda of Restoration at 5 combo points.

refresh your Motifs.

You are going to keep cycling your Motifs and Codas with Cadence and watch your raid group bars. Is there an overall drooping health or do you know health will take a nose dive in a phase mechanic? That is the time to use your instant verse of vitality to give healers some help:
Plays a Verse that heals party and raid members for 483 to 489 health.

How long has this combat gone on? Mana for everyone else might be running low, you can help with that! Verse of Joy plays a Verse that rejoices party and raid members, restoring 50 Mana per second, 5 Power per second, 5 Energy per second, and 5 Charge per second. Lasts 15 seconds.

Note the above are base, not including any benefits your other souls/other buffs might be giving you.

Those two verses are used very judiciously dependent on group make up and a bunch of other factors.

Your oh S^!t people are taking a ton of damage play:
You will Cadence and Power Chord to stack 5 combo points, trigger Virtuoso, and mash coda of restoration until your finger hurts. One might accidentally drop motifs here. I try not to but it happens as you only have 15 seconds while virtuoso is up and my motifs take I believe 3 to 4 seconds to play through all of em.

Generally you will have Anthem of Fervor up, as people LOVE ability time reduction buffs.

*If people are compliant/paying attention/ not a spaz, you will be able to split casters in one area and melee/dps in another putting the appropriate Fanfares on them. You will always be using Fanfare of Power.

Other things you do, given the opportunity:
You can Ress, over and over again!
You can kite mobs with Motif of Encouragement
You can single and mass charm mobs
Some AOE damage with Coda of Fury
You can make people move fast

So there you go.. you are actually more than a triple threat, the full Bard Tree greatly enhance your motifs,anthems, and codas as well as increasing attributes of all of your group,you can do a lot.. Keep pressing buttons. Read about Macros, Play well!

* This is slated to change in 1.6, where all Fanfares can be cast on players at the same time.

? will a gaming mouse work? I believe Rift does support gaming mice, however I find it too easy to hit the wrong button on them and having a physical control on my other had gives me a cognitive check ensuring that I am pressing the correct key..

[Domm]

I knew you were an exceptional bard, and now I know that you are also an exceptional teacher, well done. One of my blind spots in this game is that I haven't yet taken the time to roll a toon for each class, to learn their abilities and strengths. In past games I've done that, to be a better tank. Your post has prompted me to study your trees and skills, and while I still don't fully understand yet, I'm getting there. Thank you.

[adorna]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the time you took to write this. I'm going to print it off and change what I've been doing.

[sophrana]

To get a little more in depth for Adorna she asked me about gaming pads and macros. It is well worth the read to, well, read Domms' post on his build where he talks about macros.

To use a gamepad with Rift you will need 2 pieces of knowledge. Information on how to make a macro from your gamepad, and in Rift how to do key bindings.

Adorna has a nostromo, ah, memories.. I used a nostromo as a Bard in EQ 1.. good times.. good times. Here is a link for the old n52 which gives step by step instructions for how to make macros:
www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.belkin.com%2Fsupport%2Fdownload%2Ffiles%2FNostromoArrayProgsoftware.pdf&ei=dJ68Tuq5NKrX0QHPnPzyBA&usg=AFQjCNFkylIOAH4b_VawdkXkeKNaGDzwFw

Let's look at Rift key binding:
Ok, hit ESC in Rift and select Key Bindings
You will see a big list of what keys on the keyboard are bound to what abilities/stuff.

Scroll down to your action bars. I forget of 0 is the far left, or the far right.. I always get those mixed up.. but all you need to do is right click and press a key.. that thing on that action bar position is now mapped to whichever key you pressed.

One can, and I recommend using modifiers when you choose a key to bind to.. By this I mean shift, control, alt and a key.. If it is a valid modifier it will say "Alt k" etc..

Tie things into a pretty bow:
Now back in your gamepad macro, you just instruct the macro to "press" the key binding you just made in Rift.

Those are the basics.. Usually these gamepad things have profiles so you can do multiple sets of gamepad macros per game, for each different game etc..

Currently I just have things set up for my Bard.. I move with the thumbstick, steer with the mouse, key vent (though no one can hear me.. I hate vent..) where my pinky rests on the pad, etc..

I am leveling a healer which will use a combination of gamepad and actuall in game rift macros much like I had my cleric in EQ, and Priest in WoW set up

[adorna]

As I said YOU are my Heroine! Now I have to go find my game pad. *peers under stuff*

[sophrana]

How to be Charming and Captivate your audience:
Sometimes things like to hit you, oh gentle Bard, just singing away in the middle of the mobs, minding your own business.. What are you to do?

Noting in a dungeon last night (I really havent done any dungeons.. I tried the fae one at a low level and was put off, ended up completing it once) that some mobs just had to get an autograph and I was in no mood, I fell back to my trusty Verse of Fascination.

Verse of Fascination
20 Energy
Casting Time: 1.5 Second
Cooldown: 30.00 Seconds
Plays a Verse that mesmerizes surrounding enemies for 8 seconds. Any damage on affected enemies removes the effect.

I noticed that Domm was very quickly able to pick aggro back up and I just needed to straighten my blouse and keep strumming..

Note the heafty cool down, but you are mitigating that with your anthem as well as anthem enhancing soul abilities..

while we are on a subject lets look at
Verse of Captivation
20 Meter Range
25 Energy
Instant
Plays a Verse that mesmerizes an enemy for 8 seconds. Any damage on the affected enemy removes the effect. Only 1 enemy can be mesmerized at a time.

This is very under used. Even with (DR) Diminishing Returns, there is evidence that a second to two second pause between casts allows for 70%+ chance to land and sort of "permalock" a mob..

[adorna]

Nov 11, 2011 11:15:11 GMT -5 sophrana said:

This is very under used. Even with (DR) Diminishing Returns, there is evidence that a second to two second pause between casts allows for 70%+ chance to land and sort of "permalock" a mob..

What to you mean by permalock, and how is it beneficial?
~Adorna

[sophrana]

"permalock" is the state in which a mob is "locked" up "permantly" from doing anything.. Effectively taking it out of the encounter.

So, say for instance in the last boss encounter in DH where there are 2 casters that really need to be silenced/stopped from, well, casting.. If you lacked 2 ranged DPS (I have a Marksman soul, they have a silencing shot) to silence each of the casters, one could ranged silence while a Bard could use single target charm to lock up the other caster from doing anything until the rest of the group was ready..

note, a bunch of time this is all theory, because any damage to anything you have charmed breaks the charm, and in Rift damage is spilling all over the place

[adorna]

So, it's a slim chance you will permalock a mob?

OH... I found my Nostromo! Now... I have to figure out how to use it. Yah, I bought the thing and never used it so it's kinda like brand new, in an old way.

Well, it took me all night, but I've got ONE very important macro made.

It cycles my motif's and repeats them forever, until I tell it to quit... and it WORKS! That one macro alone is worth it all I think.

So, what else should I macro? I'm sorta stuck at that right now.

ok I made two more. One that set up my Cadence, Power Chord, Virtuoso. Then another to spam Coda of Restoration till I shut it off.

I've tested them on the practice dummy, just have to test them in battle now. YAY!