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Well I had 0 knowledge in bard support so I watched Penance 8.1 PVE support guide (don't take his build, it has some mistakes), after getting a proper understanding on what the bard should do I came with those few thoughts and a build (I discussed it with a good bard player and he has it as his pve support build now), "just keep in mind that heals are nerved in this patch".

So, in PVE, your job is to:
-You should be the last man to fall, if you die you will become useless.
-Keep the acceleration ( using any other offensive support skill will cause you not being able to use offensive support all the time, you will have to use the racial ability that gives the temporal acceleration in order to make it non-stop).
-Helping your party to stay a live:
a.timing the defensive support that gives extra healing after a nuke will help the healer get your party back to full hp.
b.use shield to make them take less damage (and it heals them as well, tested it on Mercenary tank and he healed instead of taking damage from mobs.)
c.purify any negative effect (use it wisely it has a huge cool-down).
d.use the dance of shadow when needed (70%dodge chance super op !).
e. stunning caster NPCs (your stun also has a huge cool-down, use it wisely or just invest too many rubies).
-priorities resurrecting the tank and/or the healer.
-any dps is welcome.
List above are my personal thoughts on how supports should be in PVE.

And now to the rotations, pretty much the same as penance video, but the thing is you don't need the bloodlust buff that much:
-pre-cast your offensive support buff, ( you may use the defensive buff as well but I think saving it to when someone's hp fall has more value)
-dissorance,disharmony: tempo regen.
-dancing blade: your dps spamming ability ( regenerates the offensive support buff ).
-solo: for single target, and requiem for AOE (they both regenerates your defensive support buff +432 bl= +5% lifesteal useless xD).
-dance of shadow when needed, you can also spam the resonance barrier all the time permanent -30% to damage revived and also heals the same amount.
-expression and crushing throw are your cast-disabling skills, use them wisely ( you can also add one point to the lullaby but you need to have it pre-casted all the time).
-march: your healing ability which sucks at this patch ( still deals good heals when used with the healing buff that the defensive support gives).

The build that I'm using on my bard is this one don't take the build it has some mistakes
-If you are missing some rubies you can remove the deadly notes, and one ruby from skald song this will lead to a fall in your dps but IMO your main job isn't dps so...
-I don't think you will run out of talent points, if you have extra ones you can put them on the disharmony to get more damage, crushing throw entree lullaby cooldown .. whatever you feel comfortable doing.


-What about PVP ?
hell if I know, but I think you focus on overtune debuffing and courage defensive support, valiance for huge nuke, or just the acceleration.


-What about stats?
-Offensive: you should have at least 300 critical damage, rest is deter and brut (use MBR stat for optimum ratio).
-Defensive: concentration maybe?, vitality is useful, survivability is good, bloodlust sucks, some tell that caution is useful in astral but not me.

Base Defensive stats for Dps for ANY PvE is 250 caution 250 conc But if u go with a Defensive Bard build U just go 250 caution 250 surv and rest Vita. Also IF u are gona do endgame shit u need Overture, and also Offensive stats for Dps Sup is 300 crit dmg 250 DA as a Base. In the build u sent id recommend other stuff so with same rubies/talents this is what I´d go for - https://alloder.pro/calc-en#b$eg7ko0e00c…2kt1a70::13ydj3

Thanks for sharing your thoughts,
In the build that I posted here I forgot to put the tempo regen but I have it on my build(miss-click maybe xD), and I do agree that the march is useless after testing "heals like 1.7k with the support buff", also not putting the Dynamic preformance rubies because its only one skill and has high CD.
what I didn't get that putting the dissonance on level 1 and keeping the omen of death rubies (although it deals like 10_20% of the bard's DPS), and for overtune I thought it doesn't work on blue and red mobs, same goes for the tunes of war, Right ?

Also after a few tests 100 swiftness seemed very decent actually, I guess the "omitting swiftness" thingy is a hoax maybe ?

I mean Dynamic performance r1 sure so u can move a little while doing dance of shadows, and dissonance is supposed to be r3, About the dispel certain mobs for example heroics can rage/buff eachother and dispelling them is a nice way to prevent whipes, also some raid bosses require dispelling, for example 2nd boss Obs (Clockwork boss u need to dispel him when spear phase is up), 3rd Boss Obs (Nihil u need dispel turrets) and some Bosses in Heroics/Astral too

If we speak about end-game PvE then you can skip virtually every damage-increasing ruby/talent, because bard's damage is gonna be very low anyway.

You'd even want to use addon like this one: https://alloder.pro/files/file/388-dancingswordstopcasting/ to interrupt your Dancing Blade immediately after activation (so the only thing it does is renewing the attacking buff, and you are ready sooner to dispel/CC).

In the endgame you start with 250 CD, 250 DA, 250 Swift stats and then just increase CD while you progress with the gear. The goal is too keep two buffs up all the time (off and deff). For some groups Power is better than TA (and with 250 Swift you can keep it up non-stop), good to have both in your build, because on some bosses you'd want to normally buff TA and then switch to Power for burst damage. You need to keep Bloodthirst all the time, despite the nerf it's still good. With 250 Swift you don't really need Solo/Requiem to keep it up, Reso Barrier alone should suffice.

So your rotation will be: Diss for tempo when needed, Reso Barrier, Dancing Blade. You'll focus mostly on dispelling enemies (in both PvE and PvP) and CCing them in the right moment. You also need to help your tank with Dance of Shadows when needed and buff your strongest DPS with Tunes of War.

So end-game PvE bard's build will look more like this than what's suggested above. And yes, there's at least one pack of mobs in the endgame PvE that highly demands Burial Elegy and there are some mob packs where you'd like to use Courage for Encouraging surge buff.

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If we speak about low tier PvE like Obs easy or S2, then you can make a different build with more damage in it. However I'd suggest not doing so because
1. if you're new to the game then your damage will naturally be lower so it's better if you focus on something more important and appropriate for your role from the start
2. if you progress to end-game you'll need to switch to something you're not used to
3. bard's gameplay as PvP support is more similar to end-game PvE than to low tier PvE, so you improve your expertise in that aspect as well without even going into it.

those swiftness rotation were really superb. I was able to maintain 3 buffs all the time now,


a side thought: why people use dancing blade instead of flying blade, its much easier to excute, and the effect for the party will by +90% instead of +110% but does it matter with high swiftnes? I think not.

Quoted from "PunisherSy"

a side thought: why people use dancing blade instead of flying blade, its much easier to excute, and the effect for the party will by +90% instead of +110% but does it matter with high swiftnes? I think not.

If you fully cast dancing blade it's not much of an advantage. However if you interrupt the casting, the % difference on the buff duration ends up being enough to use an extra skill before having to reapply TA. Sometimes that makes a difference.

Hello, I would like to revive this thread and make it up to date for 9.1 patch so:

-After reading through what everyone else said above me, I have some questions mainly about builds.
-Is any of the build above still usable in the new 9.1 patch, because i see some differences in the ruby's between here and the actual game now?
-I just started playing bard because it seems awesome, I have some previous experience with the game but I am not up to date with the new meta and such.
-What I mainly need is a PVE build, it might be on Assault or Support spec I do no mind, but I wish for it to let me kill mobs solo in the new Al-Rihat map.
-The second thing I wish is for a viable support build for mainly Astrals so I can be useful in party (I wouldn't mind if you say what stats are required for each build)
-And the third thing I would like to put in question would be a PVP build not for me but other new or old players that just started playing or came back to play.

I ask here because it seemed pointless to start a new thread. And i think it would be awesome if we could provide a place on the forum where people can get their answers.
I await with interest to your responses dear people.
P.S. Answer fast because my vial of water of death expires in 1 or 2 days).

Basicly everything is the same, except TA is a defensive rythm now and u buff Power perma ;P and a few rotations =P

uhm Dragagon the Pve Support link has courage rubies and for Pve Dps u forgot Singing blade

I am amazed, wow, your the man Dragagon!
Such on point response you deserve the best. Well I hope other players who will have trouble find this also.

One more thing I need to ask: I installed the Addon you provided but... I frankly have no idea what it does, could you give me some pointers?

You have to go into script folder and change inside the "akmokaooanoajnon" to "Dancing Blade" for it to work, and it cancels dancing blade after 1 tick, which refreshes Power for u. Its like flying blade just that when u refresh with dancing its 1 second longer buff and its only usefull for support build made specificly for defensive, not offensive

idk either

Wow, thanks for the help user_1129018, exactly the info I was looking for.