Desperate Salvation Bard Skill Guide for Lost Ark

These skills make up a Bard's group utility, similar to other supports it will offer mediums of damage enhancement and group defensiveness. You will be alternating between buffs to increase attack speed and branding skills to debuff bosses. The more important nuance for a Bard is to receive significant meter regneration, and some of these skills will be crucial for that so you are able to heal and further increase the damage of your allies with your signature abilities. Additionally, you will have signficant abilities for damage reduction.

• Heavenly Tune: Main offensive party buff. It will provide additional attack power, attack speed, and mana regeneration. It will not stack with the buff from Sonic Vibration, so make sure it does not overlap. This should be used first in your buff cycle because its attack speed and other buffs make it the stronger option to synergize with openers, and because it will allow you to use your abilities more quickly. For instance you will be able to use Sound Shock or Harp of Rhythm to Brand a boss more quickly.
• Sonic Vibration: Secondary offensive buff. This will apply an attack power buff for all allies within its ground AoE. Be careful while using this and make sure that your allies can position to take advantage of its buff.
• Wind of Music: Significant source of meter generation. Prioritize hitting the boss with this ability. To do so, you have to be standing close to the enemy, so be cautious. It will also apply a small shield for additional defensive utility.
• Guardian Tune: This will act as your primary defensive buff. It is easy to use and will apply a damage reduction buff with additional shielding. It will also be able to provide a debuff blocking component depending on your tripod selection if you use Wind of Protection.
• Prelude of Storm: Primary meter generating ability. This is a Bard's most significant source of meter generation. It also has the potential to be used as a counter, but it should never be held to do so as the meter it generates on cooldown supersedes all else.

Sound Shock: This is your active, spammable Brand ability. It will have a low cooldown and can easily be weaved between the use of other abilities. It can generate a notable amount of meter as well. This will be almost always taken in Swiftness builds. It also acts as a good source of Stagger.

Harp of Rhythm: This is your passive Brand ability. This will be taken in both Swiftness and Specialization builds. It contributes significant meter generation and will apply Brand every time it hits. It is easy to use and is a "set and forget" sort of ability. In a Specialization build this will often be your only source of Brand.

Sonatina: Has high mana cost and cannot be a reliable solo Brand option. With that being said, it will be great for meter generation.

These abilities can be effective alternative options depending on what playstyle you pursue and the boss encounter you are in.

• Rhapsody of Light: This is a great defensive option that is generally taken in Swiftness and Specialization builds. It will be a consistent option for protecting allies from incoming damage. Note that you do not need to be standing in it to receive the damage reduction, but your allies do.
• Soundholic: Use this when your group requires more Stagger to meet checks. This is a Bard's largest Stagger contributor and should be taken only when it is needed.
• Stigma: Provides no group utility, but will be the best source of meter generation. This is important for Specialization builds to maximize Serenade of Courage usage.
• March: Similarly to Stigma there is no group utility that derives from this skill, but it can be a great medium for generating meter. It can be awkward to use in Swiftness builds because of short cooldown times, so it should typically be used in a Specialization build.

• Symphonia: This is your preferred Awakening skill for raids. It will apply a massive shield to your allies that is equivalent to 100% of your HP for 12 seconds. It will deal damage and generate 1 Bar. Additionally, it will reduce the attack power of the enemies it hits. This is a great way to save allies in a pinch, or quickly prepare a more potent Serenade of Courage or Serenade of Salvation.
• Oratorio: This will be used for damage-focused encounters, such as a Chaos Dungeon. It is a major source of AoE damage, and it does have some slight group utility by lowering the critical resistance of enemies it hits by 12% for 6 seconds. This ability will not generate a Bar when used, so it loses value while in a group.

While the builds have differences in overall playstyle, the primary skills they will use will be similar through all types of content.

Your tripods selections will change depending on whether or not you are playing Swiftness or Specialization Bard. Swiftness will tend to be more defensive with higher buff uptime, whereas Specialization will maximize group damage output.

Skill Name	Tripod 1	Tripod 2	Tripod 3
Heavenly Tune	Quick Prep (High)	Tough Tune (N/A)	Intense Tune (N/A)
Sonic Vibration	Tenacity (N/A)	Brilliant Wave (N/A)	Wide-Angle Attack (N/A)
Wind of Music	Quick Prep (High)	Melody Increase (High)	Wind of Protection (Medium)
Guardian Tune	Tenacity (N/A)	Endless Protection (Medium)	Agile Defense (N/A)
Prelude of Storm	Quick Prep (High)	Melody Increase (High)	Powerful Prelude(Low)
Sound Shock	Maintained Explosion (Low))	Sacred Shock (N/A)	Rapid Fire (N/A)
Rhapsody of Light	Quick Prep (High)	Stabilized Light (N/A)	Shining Protection (Medium)
Harp of Rhythm	Summoning Will (High)	Melody Increase (Low)	Note Brand (N/A)

Skill Name	Tripod 1	Tripod 2	Tripod 3
Heavenly Tune	Quick Prep (High)	Tough Tune (N/A)	Intense Tune (N/A)
Sonic Vibration	Tenacity (N/A)	Brilliant Wave (N/A)	Wide-Angle Attack (N/A)
Wind of Music	Quick Prep (High)	Melody Increase (High)	Wind of Protection (Medium)
Guardian Tune	Agile Cast (High)	Powerful Protection (Medium)	Wind of Protection (N/A)
Prelude of Storm	Quick Prep (High)	Melody Increase (High)	Powerful Prelude(Low)
Harp of Rhythm	Summoning Will (High)	Melody Increase (Low)	Note Brand (N/A)
Rhapsody of Light	Quick Prep (Medium))	Stabilized Light (N/A)	Shining Protection (Medium)
Stigma	Sustain Enhancement (N/A)	Storm Stigma (N/A)	Melody Increase (High)

Ability choices will be similar for both Swiftness and Specialization Bards, but they will take advantage of different Runes.

• Heavenly Tune: Focus
• Sonic Vibration: Conviction
• Wind of Music: Wealth
• Guardian Tune: Focus
• Prelude of Storm: Wealth
• Sound Shock: Judgment
• Rhapsody of Light: Protection
• Harp of Rhythm: Focus

• Heavenly Tune: Galewind
• Sonic Vibration: Galewind
• Wind of Music: Wealth
• Guardian Tune: Galewind
• Prelude of Storm: Wealth
• Harp of Rhythm: Galewind
• Rhapsody of Light: Protection
• Stigma: Wealth

Both builds will benefit from cooldown gems. While Swiftness Bard will obviously not be as cooldown intensive because of the passive cooldown reduction it has, it still benefits from these gems. For a Specialization Bard it will be incredibly important to have cooldown reduction gems because of having passively higher cooldowns. These gems will be needed to make Specialization Bard more playable and have an ideal level of power.

• Heavenly Tune
• Sonic Vibration
• Wind of Music
• Guardian Tune
• Prelude of Storm
• Sound Shock
• Rhapsody of Light
• Stigma
• Harp of Rhythm