Building my Bard

Madrax573

Hi all,

Ever since the early days of MMO's (UO and EQ etc) I have been a bard type character. I am often bards in TES games as well.

So seeing as ESO doesn't have a bard class I've been working on build one that play like a bard.
Pretty decent at most things and can fill a hole in a group etc but some of the main points would be:
Mainly melee range but not totally useless in ranged combat,
Buffs and debuffs is a mainstay,
A bit of healing but not loads,
Combinations of magic and physical abilities.

Now the class/skill/stat system in ESO is a fairly complicated thing at times and they way it's built does lead you down the specialisation route which is pretty much opposite to what the bard is about.
I have been working through the skill lines etc trying to make something that isn't very class dependant so it should make much difference what I pick for my final class and whatnot.

So I'm looking for thoughts and ideas on how to build a group focused buffbot, support toon that can handle himself solo if needed. Class and skill/weapons selections or any specific abilities that you think just 'fit' with the bardic concept.

I'll probably go Dunmer for race but open to others as well.

SquareSausage

/kick from group

Madrax573

SquareSausage wrote: »

/kick from group

LOL

Go away troll.

Kuwhar

I would say warden or templar is your best bet. Both can heal and buff, and have some up-close abilities you can use.

Grouping might be hard because people are so close minded (see above ^^) but if you want the support role i'd say carry a couple swords and a restoration staff on your back-bar for healing moments.

Trash mobs you can probably get in the fray no problem, just be ready to heal.

Boss fights will be tricky to try and be dps/support, not impossible but when I play healer I find I don't have much time to be worried about DPS on bosses outside of backlash (on templar)


So yeah, warden or templar seems right up your alley.

Madrax573

Warden I can get with (currently have a lv 30 nord ice shamam) as I can see how their abilities can help the team etc

I am also going though lvl'ing a dunmer DK that has a surprising number of group buffs as well.

I've never got with the templar as a group buff/support toon outside of healing tbh.

I'm also looking at the guild and other skill lines to see what abilities of theirs could be fit into the build.
My Dunmer DK uses the fighters guild Silver shards for an enemy group debuff/damage and works really well paired with the weapon/spell damage buff from the DK skills.

It's a bit of a pity that ESO went down the stock standard triumvirate of roles.

Drachenfier

RIFT had the best bard class I've ever played. ESO has the most boring classes I've ever played.

Jimmy_The_Fixer

Kuwhar wrote: »

I would say warden or templar is your best bet. Both can heal and buff, and have some up-close abilities you can use.

Grouping might be hard because people are so close minded (see above ^^) but if you want the support role i'd say carry a couple swords and a restoration staff on your back-bar for healing moments.

Trash mobs you can probably get in the fray no problem, just be ready to heal.

Boss fights will be tricky to try and be dps/support, not impossible but when I play healer I find I don't have much time to be worried about DPS on bosses outside of backlash (on templar)


So yeah, warden or templar seems right up your alley.

Close minded isn't quite the right word, more like "mechanically focused". While there's no need to be jerk about it (see above^^), there's some value in letting people know that certain styles of play won't be viable for all content.

There's nothing wrong with playing a build based around roleplay fantasy, but it's healthy to be realistic about whether or not such a build is optimal.

Back on topic, Warden is a clear choice for a bard-type character, since they have a lot of group buffs and can do healing and spell casting off of their physical attributes, making it easier to heal and use melee combat effectively.

Madrax573

@Jimmy_The_Fixer

I hear you about being realistic etc (I come from decades of online games with big focus on PvP) but one of the things i've found is that people get fixated on whats FOTM or BiS etc.
I've often outfitted by character/ship/car/whatever if non-FOTM ways and found that I can keep up with the best of them if I put my mind to it.
I'm more of a casual player now so doing normal and some vet content is my PvE aim and for PvP I've often found it's more about the player than setup unless the game systems are totally borked which from what I've seen in ESO isn't the case despite many people saying so (I'm sure there is a condition thats spreads amongst gamers about this!)

on a side note. Give the wardens general lack of damage dealing abilities I'm thinking of using the class abilities mainly as buff and go full weapon/guild/WW as my main offensive setup. This is basically a stamwarden setup then unless I work mages guild/staff skills in there yes?

Cheers for the inputs fellas o7

raj72616a

Madrax573 wrote: »

SquareSausage wrote: »

/kick from group

LOL

Go away troll.

he's not trolling.
trying to mix stamina and magicka is mechanically impossible (armor of trainee set used to make it not as bad, but then it was nerfed by half).
on top of that you try to mix dps and healer roles, which would be ok for a normal pure magicka build, but would be abysmal for a hybrid.

Madrax573

raj72616a wrote: »

Madrax573 wrote: »

SquareSausage wrote: »

/kick from group

LOL

Go away troll.

he's not trolling.
trying to mix stamina and magicka is mechanically impossible (armor of trainee set used to make it not as bad, but then it was nerfed by half).
on top of that you try to mix dps and healer roles, which would be ok for a normal pure magicka build, but would be abysmal for a hybrid.

No he's trolling.

Hybrid builds work fine for normal/casual PvE play. only come short when running optimised high end vet content.

Mechanically it works just fine, just not 'optimal' but feel free to keep believing what you get told blindly my friend

erlewine

There are only a few bard-ish buff/debuffs in the game really, and they're already pretty much covered by the tank and healer. Minor Vuln, minor maim, Orbs, bone shield, shadow silk spiders, War horn, etc. And the bard-ish idea of a hybrid build is even more daunting here, as they effectively removed the ability to make a viable hybrid build awhile back. So you'd have to go into it accepting that you are sacrificing a lot of your potential effectiveness and possibly running into ability overlap, assuming you plan to group as a dps.

That said, 95% of this game can be completed as a naked cp160 with 20 skill points.

raj72616a

i suggest stamina nightblade as the base
you get stealth, evasion, teleport strike, etc, and those could feel like the rogue skills of a dnd bard.
you can inflict debuffs such as major fracture, major breach, minor miam, snare on enemies. supposedly a decent tank would cover all that, but it's not a bad thing you do them too, especially when you sometimes solo.
and nightblade has a few group heal skills too (the heal amount is low if you're not specced to magicka but it's ok, more on that in a bit)

the thing with group buff is that, almost everyone handle the buffs they need by skills or potions, major brutality, major sorcery, major savagery, major prophecy. those buffs don't stack. so the only buffs they need are unique buffs not available from class skills and not feasible in their rotation.
ie,
1. Aggressive Warhorn
2. Combat Prayer
3. Spell Power Cure or Olorime
those above are usually covered by tanks and healers.
so on top of that, you can try two sets:
Powerful Assault and War Machine
Powerful Assault gives a weapon damage buff to the group whenever you use the Vigor skill to heal. Vigor is a good stamina heal in itself, adding a unique group buff to it could be useful.
War Machine gives 15% damage buff to the group whenever you use an ultimate skill, and nightblade has one of the lowest costed ultimate skill, and has passives for fast ultimate generation.

as for healing, you can use the monster set Earthgore.
it's a very strong emergency AoE heal that proc when you heal someone with <50% health. so it does not matter that your normal heal amount is low. Just give out heal over time to the group, the strong heal from the set will pop up when it's needed.

raj72616a

i suggest stamina nightblade as the base
you get stealth, evasion, teleport strike, etc, and those could feel like the rogue skills of a dnd bard.
you can inflict debuffs such as major fracture, major breach, minor miam, snare on enemies. supposedly a decent tank would cover all that, but it's not a bad thing you do them too, especially when you sometimes solo.
and nightblade has a few group heal skills too (the heal amount is low if you're not specced to magicka but it's ok, more on that in a bit)

the thing with group buff is that, almost everyone handle the buffs they need by skills or potions, major brutality, major sorcery, major savagery, major prophecy. those buffs don't stack. so the only buffs they need are unique buffs not available from class skills and not feasible in their rotation.
ie,
1. Aggressive Warhorn
2. Combat Prayer
3. Spell Power Cure or Olorime
those above are usually covered by tanks and healers.
so on top of that, you can try two sets:
Powerful Assault and War Machine
Powerful Assault gives a weapon damage buff to the group whenever you use the Vigor skill to heal. Vigor is a good stamina heal in itself, adding a unique group buff to it could be useful.
War Machine gives 15% damage buff to the group whenever you use an ultimate skill, and nightblade has one of the lowest costed ultimate skill, and has passives for fast ultimate generation.

as for healing, you can use the monster set Earthgore.
it's a very strong emergency AoE heal that proc when you heal someone with <50% health. so it does not matter that your normal heal amount is low. t

Madrax573 wrote: »

raj72616a wrote: »

Madrax573 wrote: »

SquareSausage wrote: »

/kick from group

LOL

Go away troll.

he's not trolling.
trying to mix stamina and magicka is mechanically impossible (armor of trainee set used to make it not as bad, but then it was nerfed by half).
on top of that you try to mix dps and healer roles, which would be ok for a normal pure magicka build, but would be abysmal for a hybrid.

No he's trolling.

Hybrid builds work fine for normal/casual PvE play. only come short when running optimised high end vet content.

Mechanically it works just fine, just not 'optimal' but feel free to keep believing what you get told blindly my friend

try vFG2 vCoA2 with a hybrid dps build, never minding the dlc dungeons.
i tried, hybrid dps build is very limited in the sort of content they can do.
feel free to believe blindly in what you will fail to achieve

Madrax573

raj72616a wrote: »

Cheers for the info on how the group buffs work/don't work etc and the stacking. Really does seem like they are trying to homogenize all the classes to me.

Madrax573 wrote: »

Hybrid builds work fine for normal/casual PvE play. only come short when running optimised high end vet content.

Mechanically it works just fine, just not 'optimal' but feel free to keep believing what you get told blindly my friend

try vFG2 vCoA2 with a hybrid dps build, never minding the dlc dungeons.
i tried, hybrid dps build is very limited in the sort of content they can do.
feel free to believe blindly in what you will fail to achieve

Like I said i'm not too worried about going for vet or DLC dungeons, raids, trials etc with this build but just for the fun of it. And given that you can do most normal stuff almost naked I'm happy that I'll be able to solo the normal content with my hybrid build. Which at the moment seems to be a pure magick build with some stamina skills thrown in without any issues so far.
The vet stuff and more intense content I'll refit or use a more optimised char set up for that content if I need to.