What are the benefits of a bard/cleric?
A bard cleric is one of the most, if not the most wanted build in a party. The reason is because you are a versatile buffer. In parties, you can either restore mana, absorb damage, nuke monster, and increase damage as a bard or heal HP, resurrect party members, buff party members with Int and Str as well as physical and magical defense, and protect against harmful statuses. That’s a mouthful! No wonder a bard cleric is wanted in so many parties, especially 90+! You will shine as a bard in group pvp with your lightning fast nukes and players will always want you on their team!
What are the downsides?
Unfortunately there is no good without bad. Although they may shine while jobbing in groups, bard clerics are not much of 1vs1 pvpers. They may stand a chance against wizards, but against other builds it will be tough to win! Also, during the lower levels, not many players realize the benefit of having a bard in their party – many would rather another wizard or attacker.This build is also not much of a solo leveling build. Sure, you wont need any MP and only a few HP pots, but bards must 2-3 hit mobs their level.
Pure Int or Hybrid?
I would recommend going pure int. Mana orbit at level 90 requires around 15K MP to cast and that extra mana will sure come in handy when healing as a cleric when you are unable to switch back to bard. Pure int will also increase your damage from your nukes, which is vital if you plan to be a battle bard!
Although a Hybrid is not bad, this will severely limit your ability to heal and you wont be able to “buff” to your full potential. A little bit of Str won’t harm you that much, though. It will increase your survivability by a tiny bit, but it will decrease your damage. Every INT counts!
Armor
Light Armor! Wearing Light Armor will give you a good balance between physical and magical defense as well as give you a 10% moving speed boost (that’s 120% speed at 100) and 10% mana reduction! Also, the cleric passives for Light Armor give around 150 phys defense and 200 mag defense boost. They also increase the defense and and str and int on a buffed target!
Weapons:
Harp and Cleric Rod of course! You may think that since you are a buffer build, the magical damage on your weapon does not matter – but that is NOT TRUE! The amount of health and mana you can heal depends on your magical attack and reinforce on your weapon! So it is important to always have at least a +3 harp and Cleric rod with decent magical attack percents. At the cap, I would recommend to +5 each of your weapons.
Bard Skills:
Bard’s Dream:
These are the passives that make a good bard buffer. The first increases damage done by bard nukes, the second passive increases the range for which your tambours and moving march are effective, the third lowers the mana consumption of your tambours, and the fourth increases your resistance. Resistance is useful so if you do get attacked while using a tambour, it is most likely to stay up. This is key in parties with multiple bards buffing with dances.
Battle Chord:
These are your nukes. If you want to call yourself a battle bard, you need these. The first horror chord hits a single target, the second, booming chord, hits multiple targets without the need to target a specific one, skip the third skill, the fourth is the second version of horror chord but hits multiple targets, and the fifth is the higher version of booming wave.
Music Pleasure:
This line contains all of the bard’s core buffs. They consist of tambours (music protection that absorbs up to 40% phys and mag damage), movement buffs, and also tambours that increase the party’s hit rating. You must get all of these.
Skipping the Melody Series for now – only max patter clamor: It gives bind status!
Sound:
This series contains mainly your mana restoration skills. Tuning noise and Tuning sound are both absolute damage skills. These are great if your opponent has bless and screens on because they will always deliver the same damage no matter what. The infamous Noise skill, which prevents normal and party mobs from attacking you, is a must for an int bard. Mana Cycle restores MP to a single target while Mana Orbit restores mana to up to 8 players within range in a party. Skip Mana wind/breeze because it aggros (you already have mana cycle/orbit), and discordant wave can also end up bringing mobs onto you.
Beautiful Life:
These are your passives for your dances. They increase the range your dance is effective and also increase your resistance so the dances can stay up even under attack.
Dancing Concert:
Ohh how bards are beautiful! These skills are useable when there are 2+ bards in the party. The initial bard must do a tambour and then the second bard (in range of the tambour) can then do one of the above dances. In order, they increase phys damage, mag damage, effect of healing, reduce of mana consumption, and then the higher books of phys damage, mag damage, effect of healing, reduce of mana consumption. Take all that apply to what you would like to do in the party! Dancing of Wizardry is by far the most used, so take that for sure!
Cleric Skills:
Divine Creed:
Max this if you have the skill points – it increases your clerical attack damage . You may think, “why do I need to max this if the only cleric attacks I will be using are the absolute damage ones?” Well, you can’t pull off an offering without this skill. For those of you who don’t know, a cleric’s offering is the hardest hitting skill in the game and without that 100% damage increase at the cap, you will do petty damage. Right now at 90, I do not have this passive maxed and I do a measly 6k offering on level 100s. With this passive maxed, I guarantee I can pull around 12-15k on FF 100s with this skill. You will probably also be attacking with cleric a lot if you are healing in group pvp.
Cardinal Praise:
If you plan on attacking as cleric, be sure to max trial cross and justice cross (Justice hits multiple targets). Also be sure to max the last book, Integrity, of this skill line as well. It does not have any prerequisite skill either, yay! When used, it clears 2 bad statuses from the whole party in range. That’s great if someone in the party is burned or has zombie effect.
Mental Culture:
This passive requires the use of robes and a cleric rod and gives HP recovery 20% increase and MP 10% reduce. Yes, I know we are not wearing robes so this passive won’t help us that much, but we need to max it in order to get recovery division and healing orbit.
Mortal Recovery:
These are our main attacks as a cleric. We will use these on the target between heals in order to take him down faster. The great thing is, no matter if the target is fully buffed with bless or screens, these always do the same damage. At the max level, these puppies hit about 10k or so and can really pack a punch against int builds. Max them!
Recovery:
This skill line contains most of your heals. The first book, group healing, heals a decent amount of HP but takes some time to cast while the second book, healing division, casts almost instantly but only shares healing power with the 3 members with the lowest HP in the party. Both of these skills agro, and so do their 2nd tier books as well, group healing breath and healing favor, respectively. Max these skills if you plan to be healing large amounts of HP – stuff that healing orbit can’t handle. The third and sixth books of this series are a must to max. They are like mana cycle and mana orbit, except they heal a specific amount of HP every 2 seconds for 16 seconds. Healing cycle only applies to one target while orbit works on the whole party in range.
Blessed Recovery:
This is your second line of healing skills. The first book is bless spell and must be maxed. This increases the party’s physical and magical defense greatly for 45 sec. I personally have not found a use for books 2 and 5 yet, so they are not required. They heal the HP of a specific party member greatly. I find I can just cast healing orbit on the tank and he will be fine (occasionally mixed in with other healing skills from the line above). Books 3 and 6 are recovery division! This is the whole reason many people take cleric as a sub. This little skill heals HP every few seconds, and really helps make up for that nasty Euro pot delay. MAX ‘EM! Lastly, you have group recovery and holy group recovery. These healing skills are an instant cast and heal ALL (or atleast close to all) of the party’s HP. This is great in dire situations when the party is dying and needs a quick boost! Max it!
Resurrection:
At least the first 2 books of this series must be maxed for the 100 cap. These skills can revive targets up to 20 levels higher than you. Group reverse resurrects all party members within a range and reverse oblation revives a single target and for a time gives the target a 65% HP increase and 65% damage absorption. Even if you don’t want to give the target this buff, he can easily dismiss it by right clicking it on the top of his screen.
Glory:
These passives are the reason we are wearing light armor. The first book is as follows at level 90: When a target is blessed, Str 13 increase, Int 13 increase, Physical defense 62 increase, Magical defense 100 increase. That extra defense or Str/Int could be the difference between a win or loss! The second book gives you around 150 extra physical defense when in light armor and using a cleric rod, and the third gives you around 200 magical defense when in LA and using a cleric rod. Max them all!!
Sacrifice:
The highest hitting skill in the game at a whopping 967%! This skill combined with the clerical attack increase skill will be sure to drop some jaws over the damage output. Max this only if you have enough SP to max the attack increase skill.
Saint Prayer:
Max the third book, Holy Word only. This will prevent you and the party from getting bad statuses from mobs as well as players. It does not require the first book to max it. We don’t need heaven flash because we already have the bard skill that gives bind status.
Blessing:
Max all of these! They give extra STR, INT, physical defense, and magical defense to the target. At max they give around 40 extra Str/Int, which adds quite an advantage to whomever is being buffed.
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