The Ultimate PvE Bard Guide for Ashes of Creation

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The Mana Support Bard is one of the most vital builds in any PvE group. While it doesn’t shine through raw damage, its importance lies in enabling the party to keep going without interruption. By maintaining the group’s mana pool, this bard playstyle ensures that every party member can continuously use their abilities without needing to pause or ration.

The image to the right showcases the skill selection for a Mana Support Bard up to level 25. The key abilities of this build are the following.

• Pensive Melody gives a small but steady stream of mana to the party.
• Resonant Weapon when used in combination with Pensive Melody, your weapon combo finishers can give a large chunk of mana to the party member with the lowest mana.
• Hymn of the Mind is picked as the AoE version, which gives a decent amount of mana to 4 allies in a cone in front of you.
• Saga The Silent Pantheon, is the most important tool, it allows 8 members closest to you to recieve mana based on damage dealt from weapon auto-attacks.

Overall, as a Mana Support Bard, you will probably be switching between Pensive Melody for mana sustain and occasionally using Menacing Melody for damage when the group is full on mana. It is also important to always be using abilites like Jest/Mock, Shielding Dance, Gambit, Mesmerizing Dance and the rest of the tools in your kit to keep enemies stunned, allies healed, and buffing DPS. While just using the tools list above can generally fullfill your core objective, using your entire kit will keep the party alive and allow more people to focus on killing the mobs faster.

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The following Scepter weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, whether it's single target or AoE. There is room for personal preference after selecting the mandatory chance increase perks.

Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following Wand weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, whether it's single target or AoE. As a special Extended Finisher, Perfect Timing is best for reducing Jest and Mock cd to faster stack Resonance.

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The most effective way to level up as a Bard is in a group. A group allows you to have multiple bards, and this bard build generally fills the seconds bards role. You specialize in enabling your group with insane buffs, good heals, CC, and surprisingly, a ton of DPS. The best way to level up in a group is, by far, AoE farming and with melee swings you can mow down enemies.

Now, there are many roles a Bard can fill in an AOE group farm, and many factors that change depending on how good or bad your group is, as well as the location you're farming. However, we are going to focus on a damage support build, which is usually considered to be the most fun Bard PVE build. While most groups will ask you to be a Mana Battery for them (and at least one bard in the group should be), this is the best option for the second bard in a party.

The image to the right showcases the skill prioritization as you progress your character up to level 25. It is not crucial that you follow the skills 1 to 1, but as you level up, it is recommended to take all of them.

Let's discuss rotation and how to maximize your value as a DPS/AoE Bard. First off, you and should always use melee weapons when AoE farming. They do the highest damage, due to cleave, and it's a big reason why groups that use this tactic level up significantly faster.

Next, here's a step-by-step on what to do as a Bard when a pull is made:

• Before Pull
  • Have Menacing Melody active (10% damage to you and your group, increased further by Music Mastery: Crescendo).
  • Have 10 Resonant Weapon stacks pre-stacked (by casting random abilities while the tank is pulling).
  • Have 3 Tragedy pre-buffed for a total of 15% damage bonus.
• After Pull
  • Cast Chaos (6% critical chance for 60 seconds.)
  • Cast Shielding Dance (This will allow you to gain stacks from Mighty Step as shields break.)
  • Cast Fortissimo (This doubles the effectiveness of Menacing Melody for the entire team.)
  • Cast Anthem of Alacrity (Solo version, to yourself: 25% casting and attack speed).
  • Cast Saga The Apocalypse – This adds a huge boost to your entire parties auto-attacks.
  • Start AOE auto-attacking the mobs with your melee weapon until your Resonant Weapon stacks drop to 0. (You will consume 2x3 stacks on your Deadly Finisher proc, doing insane AOE damage each time.)
  • You are now left with 0 Resonant Weapon stacks.
  • Cast Mock or Jest x2 (Endless Jest passive enables two uses. We cast 2x Mock because it's instant and we get two stacks quickly.)
  • Cast Lovely Serenade (This procs Song Mastery: Dissonance and gives two stacks of Resonance if fully casted.)
  • Cast Discordance (not that big AOE damage, but we need the instant abilities out first for fast stacks.)
  • Cast Dark Lullaby (AOE) (This will do insane AOE damage since mobs have a lot of debuffs by now.)
  • Cast Chilling Lament (AOE) (This will do decent damage and slow mobs.)
  • Cast Maddening Dance (Important to fully cast it because it because you gain a second stack of Resonance at the end.)
  • You are now back at full stacks. Start AOE auto-attacking the mobs until you proc two Deadly Finishers and consume all stacks.

This is the main AoE rotation to maximize damage. However, if the pulls are big, you will often need to cast a variety of other skills to help your group survive, without losing a lot of your DPS, since each of those skills will still give you a Resonant Weapon stack. Just make sure to never sit on 10 stacks. Here's a description of the defensive abilities you should use when pulling bigger pulls or when the group is in trouble:

• Nimble Dance – Best-in-slot (BiS) defensive ability. Use when the group is in trouble, as it gives 50% evasion to everyone, which can help you save a wipe.
• Cast Flourish before using Shielding Dance and Nimble Dance to give them double the range.
• Mesmerizing Dance – AOE CC, instant cast. Very good ability to use often.
• Clever Retort – Great silence CC. Caster mobs in this game do a lot of damage, so keep them silenced.
• Hymn of the Mind – Solo version mana recovery. Use if the pull is lasting too long and someone needs it.
• Gambit – You can save a wipe just with this ability if you are paying attention. Use it on the tank if they are about to die.
• Get Off The Stage – Is a great tool to push mobs not stacked up into position to get cleaved by melees and AOE abilities.

The goal for this build is to maximize the group's damage by playing Menacing Melody and Chaos, utilizing the Resonant Weapon stacks properly to deal huge personal damage (which is only possible with Menacing Melody active).

Please note: If you are playing this build without a group, it's still possible to AoE solo; however, it's much less efficient, and you'll need to target lower-level mobs. The general rotation stays the same, but it will be harder to get melee AoE since you'll be tanking the mobs. You will also need to drop a few spells to pick up Cheerful Melody and Pensive Melody, these will need to be swapped in as you need health and mana during pulls. Fortissimo is also skipped while solo as it is much less effective.

Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following Scepter weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, whether it's single target or AoE. Other than that, Critical Damage perks are very fitting for Bard because of our high critical chance, so they are a great secondary addition.

Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following Wand weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, wand finisher is great for bursting down priority targets and perfect timing lets us stack Resonance procs quickly to continuously dump into a target.

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The Healer Support Bard is a strong option for adding healing to group farm, I would suggest this build if you are the third bard in a party or lacking clerics. Bard healers lack consistant AoE healing cooldowns, but we are strong at buffing healing effectiveness, applying healing over time effects, and have the strongest healing cooldown in the game.

The image to the right showcases the skill selection for a Healer Support Bard up to level 25. The key abilities of this build are the following.

• Cheerful Melody gives a small but steady stream of mana to the party.
• Resonant Weapon when used in combination with Pensive Melody, your weapon combo finishers can give a large chunk of mana to the party member with the lowest mana.
• Lovely Serenade is picked as the single target version, which gives a large chunk of healing, you can also switch targets mid cast to swap the healing to another member if the first target reaches full health.
• Saga The Return to Verra, is the largest healing cooldown we have, paired with Fortissimo, Cheerful Melody, and Nimble Dance you can apply a large amount of direct healing and healing over time to the party.
• Shielding Dance is a great pre-casted ability as your tank rounds up mobs, or even mid pull to give a nice shield to protect health pulls.
• Nimble Dance is a great way to prevent damage by giving your entire team 50% base evasion.
• Gambit is a great emergency button to life-swap with another player on your team, this is a great way to get a tank back to full health. It also gives a 40% healing bonus to the player (generally yourself), allowing small heals like jest and glee to top you off.

As mentioned above Saga: The Return to Verra is an extremely powerful healing cooldown, to properly use this cd I suggest first make sure your Cheerful Melody is up and running, cast Nimble Dance applying pep on the entire party, then use Fortissimo to buff up the healing bonus from 15% to 30% from Cheerful and finally cast Saga, which will apply glee to everyone who already has the pep buff from nimble, along with a strong direct heal.

Overall, as a Healer Support Bard, you will probably be switching between Cheerful Melody for smart healing and occasionally using Menacing Melody for damage when the group is full on Health. It is also important to always be using abilites like Jest/Mock, Maddening Dance, Mesmerizing Dance and the rest of the tools in your kit to keep enemies stunned, allies healed, and buffing DPS. While just using the tools list above can generally fullfill your core objective, using your entire kit will keep the party alive and allow more people to focus on killing the mobs faster.

Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following Scepter weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, whether it's single target or AoE. There is room for personal preference after selecting the mandatory chance increase perks.

Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!

The following Wand weapon tree passive selection is ideal for the Bard archetype. The main focus is on maximizing the percentage for Deadly Finishers and Extended Deadly Finishers, so we can proc our Resonant Weapon stacks on command, whether it's single target or AoE. As a special Extended Finisher, Perfect Timing is best for reducing Jest and Mock cd to faster stack Resonance.