Hello all. Youngish bard here back from a very long hiatus. Just wanted to see if any of you masters wanted to help me feel like I am on the right path to survival with any new changes made in the last few years.

Race: Sylvankind Profession: Bard (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 64 Expr: 1810702 Level: 41
Normal	(Bonus)	...	Enhanced	(Bonus)
Strength (STR): 100	(25)	...	100	(25)
Constitution (CON): 65	(7)	...	63	(6)
Dexterity (DEX): 90	(30)	...	90	(30)
Agility (AGI): 93	(26)	...	93	(26)
Discipline (DIS): 66	(3)	...	66	(3)
Aura (AUR): 100	(30)	...	100	(30)
Logic (LOG): 50	(0)	...	50	(0)
Intuition (INT): 48	(-1)	...	48	(-1)
Wisdom (WIS): 73	(11)	...	73	(11)
Influence (INF): 100	(25)	...	100	(25)
Mana: 135

Securain (at level 41), your current skill bonuses and ranks (including all modifiers) are:
Skill Name	Current	Current
	Bonus	Ranks
Armor Use..........................	140	40
Shield Use.........................	149	49
Combat Maneuvers...................	145	45
Edged Weapons......................	188	88
Multi Opponent Combat..............	50	10
Physical Fitness...................	142	42
Dodging............................	142	42
Arcane Symbols.....................	90	20
Harness Power......................	142	42
Elemental Mana Control.............	102	24
Elemental Lore - Air...............	102	24
Mental Lore - Telepathy............	50	10
Perception.........................	90	20
Climbing...........................	93	21
Swimming...........................	93	21
Spell Lists
Minor Elemental....................		21
Spell Lists
Bard...............................		20

I am currently doing some migration as I had done some overtraining in areas but read here that I would be better off with some lores. I am migrating Armor use down to 35 ranks (wearing brig and not changing for quite some time). Also migrating CM down to 1x and Shield use up to 1x. Using these points to gain my missing spell (going 425/430 then back to Bard) and get up to 18 ranks ML-Tel. Sitting on 24 EL-Air for now. I play with a wizard a lot so that was the reason for the EMC training, but it can be migrated if there is a glaring hole. I sing the standard (1003/1006/1007/1010/1019) at all times. I just recently started singing 1012 as well and tried 1014 but could not handle the renewals. 1012 keeps me on my toes with its renewal added. I plan on staying sword/board forever. As you can see, I tanked Logic a while back. Is this bad in today's world? Not sure how I could fix it really right now though. This character did come from the original mangler. Hunting Monastary right now (CoL memeber) and enjoying it, but it is slowing down as I have gained some levels. (any recommendations for hunting not on Teras?) Anyways, thanks for any tips and please feel free to ask questions if needed. Thanks!!!

I certainly intend to get more air lore as I can. If I get mental to 18 ranks, that will make me 1x total in lores. I want to get the renewal times extended for sure as I usually take a while hunting. Not much about hunting above my head so it tends to take a little longer to fry. Guess I was just looking for validation and you certainly gave it to me. So where is this loot you speak of at 42 trainings? I'd prefer not to go to Teras but nothing is out of the realm of possibilities.

Thanks,

I guess you were gone longer than I thought, or I am just getting old, as I thought you were a lot higher level than you are.

As for your training regime, overall I think it looks good, but there are a few tweaks you can make. First off, as a Sword and Board Bard, you do not need to be 1x in Dodge. 0.75x will do just fine and get you to cap. I personally didn't go up to 1x until post cap. This should help free up some TPs for you (which you could use for Lores). The other comment is that 20 ranks of Arcane Symbols is a lot for level 41. If you are using a ton of scrolls right now, then it would make sense, but if you are not, then you could cut back here as well. You said you were migrating armour down to 35 ranks for brigandine. While you may stick with brigandine armor for a while, I would keep training 1x in armor, as you are going to want to get into chain armor eventually. Armor is just 5 PTPs, and bards are never hurting in those, so it's not difficult to keep at it. You also said you were taking Shield up to 1x, but right now you are at 49 ranks, which would be beyond 1x.

Overall this is my standard suggestion for a sword and board bard: 2x OHE, 1x Armor, Shield, CM, Spells, PF, HP, 0.75x Dodge. Those should be your core skills. After that I would focus on your Lores. My suggestion would be to split Air Lore and Mental Lore: Telepathy so you alternate training in one each level (0.5x in both basically). As you gain more TPs you can increase this, as you definitely will want to up your Air Lore the more you use your sonic weapon, and even more so when you start using Song of Tonis at later levels. As was also suggested I would work on increasing your MoC. Getting that to 30 ranks will let you do a focused Mstrike on a single target, which is really useful, especially as a sword and board bard. Our weapons do less damage, so hitting faster and more often is key. Mstrike is one way to get there. Song of Tonis will be the other way.

Regarding song renewals, if you are having issues with the mana load, take a look at what you are singing. If you are not facing anything using Combat Manuevers, then you can drop Lucksong. If you have a higher enchanted weapon/shield/armor, then use those instead of sonics for now. Another trick bards do as they start singing more songs is to start/stop Fortitude Song, and not have it renew. Since it costs 3 mana to start, and its renewal is only 1 mana, it doesn't hurt to do this. As for hunting grounds, you could switch over to Shan down in Solhaven. They are 41/42, and will be a bit more of a challenge than the Monestary. After that there would be Bonespear, but only if you want to deal with undead. Beyond those two I am a bit rusty on good things to hunt around level 40.

-Kilthal



"He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone."

"For all that this may cause Hell to freeze over, I agree with Kilthal." -Siwas

Arcane Symbols to get into the Broken Lands was precisely why I got a bunch at around the same level.

I will note for the record that the Sheruvian Monastery is a Song of Disruption/1030 user's dream hunting ground, if you've got good ranks of Mana Control: Mental; both the initiates and the monks have a chewy mana center and wear no spells. Which means you can just keep sucking them dry of mana to fuel your mass-cast Disruption and sweeping up the loot.

"I 1005 EVERYTHING. It helps keep things under control, even when they swarm. High manipulation lore helps me blow up weapons and shields fairly easily" -- VSCarter

You said 1005 (Lullabye) but you describe Vibration Chant/1002. Did you mean to have two different paragraphs there, or were you in fact changing subjects?

(When I was hunting with a weapon, I tended to vibchant once, look at it during RT, decide to cast again if it had a shield or switch to lullabye to lay it down, and then move on to the next critter if I was in a swarming area. Once they were more or less under control, I'd start in on whacking them.)

I have been playing with Shan the last few nights. A ranger got me with his thorns or weeds or whatever they are but I survived because I have good crit padding luckily. Then a Cleric cast something on me that wiped out my mana and effectively ended the hunt. Outside of that, they haven't caused me any problems. I have been 1005'ing everything though. I haven't really thought about Vibe chanting anything. I might look into that. As for the spectral miners and such, I keep forgetting that sonic weapons hit undead. Still new at the sonic blades. Back to the Monastary, even though I am lvl 42, it is going to be some time before I get 1030. I have 1020 and stopped so that I could get 425/430. That's 18 more levels before I get 1030. I think by then, I will have outgrown the monks and initiates. I might however go back in and pay some overdue respects to a few harbingers.

Thanks again for the assistance!

Securain

>One perk often overlooked about the lower asg armors is that you can ranger pad them. Nature resistance on fgb would minimize the danger of spike thorn dramatically. Only downside, you need a ranger who has invested serious training to be able to add resistances to heavy crit padded armor.

Also can add puncture resistance if you find a warrior that trains in that particular armor skill.

-Richard/Fjalar.