Silkroad Online Forums

Update Jan. 18th, 2008- *Added Section III *Fixed some mistakes (left some mistakes also)

I will continue to work on this when I am free.

SECTION I- Introduction

Why did I do this?
Due to my newfound love for Bard and utter confusion as to how some of the skills actually worked, here we are.

What is a Bard?
In SRO, a Bard is a buffing class that contains speed+, atk+, def+, and heals mana.

SECTION II- Skills
Lets Explain the skills before we go deeper into the bard itself.
Note: The following skills are only from iSRO, not from kSRO and is for the 80cap.

The Skills are as follows:

Bard's Dream


1. Vibration
This is a passive that increases your MAG atk permanently by a fixed %. Simple

2. Echo
A passive skill that extends the effect range for skills belonging to the "Music Pleasure" Line.

3. Music Life
Passive that reduces MP consumption per skill used.

4. Prism
This is another passive that only works for the skills in the "Music Pleasure" Line. For the "Tambor" Skills inside that line, when a monster attacks you, there is a chance that the buff will debuff. This passive will increase the chance of you not debuffing.


Battle Chord


1. Horror Chord
Basically a MAG-Based attack. Similar to a nuke.

2. Booming Chord
An AOE (Area-of-Effect) nuke. This nuke is a bit different. This does not require you to select a target to cast. Instead, the nuke uses your character as the center and hits everything around you.

3. Mana Switch
You select up to 2 party members and cast this on them. Whenever they deal damage, you receive MP for their hits.

4. Weird Chord
Another nuke like Horror Chord. Hits 3.

5.Booming Wave
Next book of Booming Chord


Music Pleasure


1. Moving March
This is the Euro Grasswalk. It increases movement speed of you and your party members.

2. Guard Tambour
This is a buff that increases your party member's phys defense. It lasts as long as you have MP.

3. Mana Tambour
Same as Guard Tambour but is for mag defense.

4. Hit March
This increases the ATK rating of your party members.

5. Swing MarchSame as Moving March, but faster.

Melody


1. Holding Clamor
This casts "Bind" on a target. In other words, it stops their motions BUT not their attacks.

2. Cure Melody
Basically a Pill

3. Temptation
Causes monsters to attack each other. Does not work on giants/champs

4. Rave Melody
Converts some of your already low HP in MP.

5. Patter Clamor
Same as Holding Clamor, but a higher status level.


Sound


1. Tuning Noise
This deals absolute damage, meaning, whatever the defense of the opponent, it will always deal the listed damage (but against higher leveled mobs/players, it is evident that the damage goes down >.>) The amount of damage you deal with this attack will recovery the same amount to your MP.

Example:
Damage=100
MP Restore=100

but if you do this...

Damage=100
Monster HP=80
MP Restore= 80

Understood?

2. Mana Cycle
This heals MP over 16 seconds. Every second, it will heal the listed MP Recovery amount.

3. Noise
This prevents aggressive monsters from attacking you. Only works on yourself and moves with you.

4. Mana Wind
Recovers MP for 2 party members.

5. Discord Wave
This causes a monster that is charging at your Cleric to stop dead. Cast at a party member or yourself to lower their arrgo rating.

6. Tuning Sound
Next book of "Tuning Noise"

7. Mana Breeze
Heals MP of the party in one move.


Beautiful Life


1. Tripping
This passive increases the effective range of the "Dancing Concert" Line

2. Screen Dance
Similar to "Prism" but only works for the "Dancing Concert" Line


Dancing Concert


Note: All of the following skills ONLY works with another Bard in range. The second bard MUST use a skill from the "Music Pleasure" Line before you activate one of the "Dancing" skills.

All of these skills move with the caster and works for the whole party.

1. Dancing of Valor
Phys Dmg+

2. Dancing of Magic
Mag Dmg+

3. Dancing of Healing
Increases the amount of HP healed by a Cleric

4. Dancing of Mana
Increases the amount of MP healed by a Bard

5. Dancing of Fight
Phys Dmg++

6. Dancing of Wizardry
Mag Dmg++

SECTION III- Nuts and Bolts

Skills to Take

Bard's Dream- I suggest taking everything within this line. It can all be useful.

Battle Chord- Take everything in this line also. This is your may way to deal damage. In addition, "Mana Switch" is a valuable skill to have. You probaly won't have to heal your own MP after getting this skill in a party

Music Pleasure- I took everything but the "Hit March". From a grinding/PVP point of view, having more defense is better than getting more attack rating. And of course, take the Marches. ZOOOOMMM

Melody- This is where some of the useless skills shows up. "Holding Clamor" can be useful, but the time you used to cast it, you could have shot off another attack.
Rave melody imo is not useful either since your MP should be full most of the time.
Temptation is a fun skill. But mobs attack so slow, it makes it sort of useless.
Cure melody is the only must get in this line. It acts as a pill. Now you only need to carry one stack of emergency pills to grind. This saves space XD

Sound- "Tuning Noise" is nice for the first few levels, but the damage is so low, it isn't of much use. Every other skill should be in your arsenal. You might not need to MAX everything (except Noise-MAX IT!!) but your job as a Bard would be easier if you maxed the Mana healings in here. And Discord Wave is nice to have to help keep your cleric alive when the Warriors are ont doing their job.

Beautiful Life/Dancing Concert- If you have a mate who is also a Bard to grind with steadily, add these skills. Dance of Healing/Mana is optional.

Build

A person playing a Bard as their main should stick with pure INT.

Reason:
You might think that bards are like clerics in that they will attract mobs when they heal others with mana. This is not true when you use "Mana Cycle" on your party members. "Mana Wind" will arrgo mobs to you like cleric's "Group Heal". However, "Mana Cycle" is better than "Mana Wind" in my experience in terms of MP healed. It is more demanding on the player to use "Mana Cycle" as the main MP recovery move since it is only a single target, but survival rate is MUCH higher. Hence there is no need to turn hybrid for more HP at all.

PS: All your attacks are MAG based, so PURE INT!!!


Taking a Sub-Mastery

The possible combinations of Masteries are:

Bard/Warrior
Bard/Rogue
Bard/Wizard
Bard/Warlock
Bard/Cleric

As a bard main, taking subs as a Warrior or Rogue is USELESS! End of story.

Bard/Wizard- This is not a bad mix. You can switch from solo grinding to supporter relatively. Also, both mastery does not use a shield, making weapon switching less of an hassle. Only downside to this build is the HUGE amount of SP needed for all the neccessary skills.

Bard/Warlock- Also not bad imo. Weapon switching can be hassle since Warlocks use a shield. The beauty of this combination is that you can cast your dots on like 4 mobs, and when they get close, they should either be dead or use "Booming Chord". If you do this, you should constantly be running around casting Warlock DoTs. This only works well because you have "Moving March"

Bard/Cleric- The FULL support character. It is nice, but it gets relatively boring if you don't have active guild members to grind with.

Equipment

Not much to choose from. You're only allowed to use a Harp and your gear is locked to Garments.
Of course, every +INT +STR +HP +MP helps, so try to get as much as you can within your budget.

Bard as a Sub
These are the sklls that will remain on when you switch weapons:

Moving March
Mana Cycle
Noise

Not much.


What's to come:
Whatever I cook up (or pm a request as to what might be useful)

thx bro helps

Good start

Lmao?? Bard Guide? Any one plays that anyway?
Lol ... good job anyway

Nitrozz wrote:Lmao?? Bard Guide? Any one plays that anyway?
Lol ... good job anyway

lol, i've only seen ONE person play as pure bard so far, he was lvl 42

Sound



1. Tuning Noise
This deals absolute damage, meaning, whatever the defense of the opponent, it will always deal the listed damage (but against higher leveled mobs/players, it is evident that the damage goes down >.>) The amount of damage you deal with this attack will recovery the same amount to your MP.

Example:
Damage=100
MP Restore=100

but if you do this...

Damage=100
Monster HP=80
MP Restore= 80

Understood?

2. Mana Cycle
This heals MP over 16 seconds. Every second, it will heal the listed MP Recovery amount.

3. Noise
This prevents aggressive monsters from attacking you. Only works on yourself and moves with you.

4. Mana Wind
Recovers MP for 2 party members.

5. Discord Wave
This causes a monster that is charging at your Cleric to stop dead.

6. Tuning Sound
Next book of "Tuning Noise"

7. Mana Breeze
Heals MP of the party in one move.

2 = Noise :\

Vuur wrote:

Sound



1. Tuning Noise
This deals absolute damage, meaning, whatever the defense of the opponent, it will always deal the listed damage (but against higher leveled mobs/players, it is evident that the damage goes down >.>) The amount of damage you deal with this attack will recovery the same amount to your MP.

Example:
Damage=100
MP Restore=100

but if you do this...

Damage=100
Monster HP=80
MP Restore= 80

Understood?

2. Mana Cycle
This heals MP over 16 seconds. Every second, it will heal the listed MP Recovery amount.

3. Noise
This prevents aggressive monsters from attacking you. Only works on yourself and moves with you.

4. Mana Wind
Recovers MP for 2 party members.

5. Discord Wave
This causes a monster that is charging at your Cleric to stop dead.

6. Tuning Sound
Next book of "Tuning Noise"

7. Mana Breeze
Heals MP of the party in one move.

2 = Noise :\

oh yea xD I took the picture from the euro skill thread. and they didn't have mana cycle, but iSRO does. I'll fix it, thx

I like bards. But the bad thing is. A bard has like 6 different tambours and things to buff his party members.
But he can only use one at the same time. I don't like that.

My guild leader is a full 67 bard, he seems to level pretty quickly (though i dont know how he levels honestly). I know that he destroys lots of shit when he Plevels me but thats to be assumed... Bard looks really fun though. You should make a pvp video, that is if they can kill with their given skills.

Boontang wrote:My guild leader is a full 67 bard, he seems to level pretty quickly (though i dont know how he levels honestly). I know that he destroys lots of shit when he Plevels me but thats to be assumed... Bard looks really fun though. You should make a pvp video, that is if they can kill with their given skills.

they can kill. if you have 2 bards leveling together, one with tambour on and one with the Dancing of Mag and you will level like lightning.

Good guide. I am thinking about making a Bard as my secondary char on cSRO. Thanks

You should put what build a bard should be. Pure INT is what I believe is the best for bard.

darkmaster21 wrote:Good guide. I am thinking about making a Bard as my secondary char on cSRO. Thanks

You should put what build a bard should be. Pure INT is what I believe is the best for bard.

yep, bard has only magical attacks

added to the big sticky <3

hm...

bards do as much damage as chinese nukers... no reason they would lvl any slower lol

I actually just made my bard, so I will use your guide now

Really cool that u made a bard guide...might make one later ^^
Seem like fun being a bard too bad I didn't pick it in the first place, not that I regret being cleric ^^

just adding this to noise, it works on transports/pet too

good for trading in places you dont want to be mobbed

tuning noise isnt total damage dealt = mp you get back, there is a limit to how much mp you can do back (varies depending on lvl of skill)

Good guide...just a couple fixes.

Under Battle Chord, you have Mana Switch and Weird Chord swapped. Also, you can cast Mana Switch on more than 2 people.

can u plz put if the skills stays when u switch weapons i need to know i am making rouge/bard for solo so plz THX

jay0303 wrote:can u plz put if the skills stays when u switch weapons i need to know i am making rouge/bard for solo so plz THX

U only need noise and moving march for rogue+bard build.

nice guide... havent seen many that play pure bard..

maybe lets try it..

nice to find that
wanna see what you can tell more

Mana Wind heals three people, actually. Gives MP to your target, then it bounces towards two more party members.

To describe Discord Wave more, it's the exact opposite of the Warrior's Taunt in effect and in function; you target the player, and all nearby mobs "decrease/lose/reset" any aggro towards him, unlike how the warrior targets a monster and attracts any ones near.

It's good to use both Mana Wind and Mana Cycle actively. Sometime's it's too dangerous to use Mana Wind; it causes Aggro like the Cleric's Group healing. Use it if you notice your Warrior hasn't Taunted the pile of beasts surrounding him. You wouldn't want them to turn around and gank you.

Rave Melody is a fun, fast, cheap fix for MP. You have low Health, but a skilled bard should be near-invisible to any surrounding monsters. Pure INT, ungeared, can expect a third of their HP to disappear; more than easily remedied by an auto-pot, Recovery Division from a partied Cleric, or simply STR gears and buffs to make it less noticeable.

Thx to all those for making the corrections of my mistakes im only human

But due to the sudden surge in paper's due and upcoming finals , I will have to delay any updates to this guide. I will correct all of the mistakes at a later time, hope u guys (and gals) understand

Thank you so much for clearing that up. honestly, I don't know why the game makers couldn't have explained it the way you did, it would lead to much less confusion.

What I find strange is people don't seem to use bards as a main class. I always figured because they were designed for supports, and as a pure int bard I can say I don't exactly tank, but my damage isn't that bad, not to mention the buffs I'll be getting soon enough.

Finally did some updates on this guide. Check it out and proofread

Very nice guide.

I'll try to do my best as a Bard.

Thank you good guide i hera opens i am thinking to make cleric/bard if find a good guild and lots of teammates btw if you can add some pvp video it would be better

hey thnx man...i started a bard a few weeks ago...lol...just bard skills n a lil cleric stuff...hate changing weaps though...><...

i play on poseidon...my bard's name is BUFFalo...lol...yea i no its dry...lol...thnx again 4 da guide...keep it up...^^...

I think bards will become more popular as party targets; they'll be the clerics of the 90+ cap. With the higher HP/MP and no new pot sizes, clerics and bards will start to be needed by Chinese characters in the future as well. The bard buffs are getting to be incredible at higher levels (since they are % based), their damage is quite reasonable as well, and at the 90 cap they'll get a 16 second party wide mana recycle spell (mana orbit) and I believe sooner or later they will also get a party wide noise spell (scream; can't find the starting level anymore).

Solo grinding on my bard/cleric is actually fun. I don't have to worry about aggressive monsters attacking me, and I can grind for hours on 1 stack of pots (using recovery division and mana cycle). The spells do not cause huge damage, but they are cast very quickly, which makes damage/second quite reasonable. It feels like grinding with a splashless nuker (I try not to attract too many mobs at this level; bard does have/get some nice splash based nukes as well).