Bard RVR Spec - Phoenix Freeshard

So I feel like there's really only two options here, 47 Music 43 Songs 16 Reg, or 38 Music 43 Songs 33 Reg.

As a solo bard I feel like the first is the only real option in a group. If you're running two bards, the second one seems to make more sense. I'm not running an 8-man so I'm leaning towards the first option since I never know where I'll find myself.

Truly though how much are bards healing here? When I played Live I don't remember healing much at all...even if we won a blanket mezz I was still locking down that clump just to make sure no casts got off. Are Bards really finding time to be primary inturrupt and heal as well?

My playstyle is from 12 years ago so a lot has changed even though this patch is similar to old school SI. Help me make an informed decision.

Thu 28 Mar 2019 9:20 PM by Mura

I've always been a fan of 47 music for the bigger insta-mez.

Longer duration and a much larger area of effect.

Fri 29 Mar 2019 12:31 AM by Laston

ive heard people talk about the 10 blade snare being usefull for Bards but it feels very awkward speccing for it and most people seem to just say "its guud noob" in advice chat when talking about it and never explain what the actual spec is.

as far as i can tell the focus for bard spec is 37 or 47 Music for the insta mezz.

If you go for 47 music 10 Blade you get 12 Reg witch i supose aint a huge sacrifice as your healing is going to be bad at that point anyway.

If you go 37 Music 10 Blade you lose the 33 Reg Heal and you end up with a bunch of spec points im unsure where to put

Fri 29 Mar 2019 1:41 PM by Dagerin

I decided to go 47 music 43 nurt 16 regrowth.

I played a lot of bard back in the day and maybe I was just terrible but I never pulled out my weapon for a snare. Noone I ever heard of did either. Seems like fake news to me.

Not sure trading the bigger heal is worth one 10 min CD ability but having that land can be huge.

Sat 30 Mar 2019 6:01 AM by Laston

got to 50 on my Bard and still cant decide what to spec it. I was planning on going 37 music 33 reg as ive mostly played Druids/Healers or Wardens so im used to healing more than anything and it feels bad giving up heals just for a slightly better mezz

Im planning to mostly pug with my Bard and in a full group im not sure if i will get much of a chance to heal as i should be focusing on interupting/mezzing more than anything so 43 nurture 47 music 10 blade 12 Reg seems like a more "optimal" option for full groups but if i ever run duo/trios not having heals is gonna suck.

Sat 30 Mar 2019 6:56 AM by semadin

Laston wrote: ↑
Sat 30 Mar 2019 6:01 AM
got to 50 on my Bard and still cant decide what to spec it. I was planning on going 37 music 33 reg as ive mostly played Druids/Healers or Wardens so im used to healing more than anything and it feels bad giving up heals just for a slightly better mezz

Im planning to mostly pug with my Bard and in a full group im not sure if i will get much of a chance to heal as i should be focusing on interupting/mezzing more than anything so 43 nurture 47 music 10 blade 12 Reg seems like a more "optimal" option for full groups but if i ever run duo/trios not having heals is gonna suck.

Haven’t played bard myself but been lookin at the options. I have to wonder if sacrificing healing just for a few more seconds of mez is worth it. Even if you rarely heal in a group, what do you end up getting going 47 over 37 that’s valuable?

Sat 30 Mar 2019 3:09 PM by Laston

36 AE mezz Duration:1:01 vs 43 AE mezz Duration:1:10 /// so a 9s diffrence and higher lvl so less resists to
34 DD Dmg:89 vs 44 DD Dmg:114 /// about 24 dmg diffrence
37 Insta AE Mezz Duration:26s Radius:150 vs 47 Insta AE Mezz Duration:31s Radius:300 //// 150 increase in radius is huge the duration less so with a diffrence of only 7s

Heal wise its

Baseline Medium Heal 42p Value: 231 Cast:2.8s vs 24p Value:276 Cast:2.4s so you heal slightly faster and for more with less power cost. Im not sure how the spec heal value compares as you get variance on baseline heals with such a low regrowth spec whereas the spec heal doesnt have any variance.

stilll havent specced my Bard yet its only got 9 reg 43 nurture 37 music with 532 unspent points as i need to templated it first before deciding for reals what to go

Sat 30 Mar 2019 3:38 PM by semadin

Ah I missed the area increase on the instant.

Are resists an issue with +skills?

Mon 1 Apr 2019 8:03 AM by Giorgione88

If you like both small man and full group and don't want to buy lots of respec stones the best spec is:
43 buff ( for the speed )
37 music
27 heal
19 blades

Side peel is especially needed in duo cause it make the difference if a bard can self peel a tank or peel for him for the caster duo friend.

the 26 spec heal is fine it heal about 270-280 hp with no relics and passive ras but has really low mana cost and no variances. So less than 27 heal is a problem in small man .
If you are focused on 8man setup you can have less heal and more music but... more music = wasting more mana even just tu rupt so think well about it.
A nice spec you can do if you are considering double bards setup 8man is decreasing pts in buff spec and increasing heals .
42 heal ( the best single heal u can get)
37 music
33 buff ( yellow end and speed are not so bad for the grp)
10 blades ( for the peel)

Mon 1 Apr 2019 8:39 AM by dudis

10 blades is a must imo. The snare is too useful to give up for the very small investment required.

Tue 2 Apr 2019 12:27 PM by Chysil

semadin wrote: ↑
Sat 30 Mar 2019 3:38 PM
Ah I missed the area increase on the instant.

Are resists an issue with +skills?

+skill does not effect resist rates. Resist rates are solely the level of the spell vs the level of the target (there's an additional calc for level difference from you, but in rvr you are all the same level so it's not really needed).

That being said a few things:
1) The 10 blade snare is pretty nice, you might not use it much, but it's nice to have. Also, what is not readily known is that if you perform the style and reequip the harp prior to the song's tick ending, you won't have to restart the song. So it's great for being able to provide a rupt / snare without jeopardizing yours songs even when you are being rupted. However, I will admit that it takes some getting used too, so some people probably would prefer to get the 30% res or 33 major heal instead of the 10 blades... and if it fits the play style you are comfortable with, do it.

2) The bigger radius for the AE mezz is kind of nice, but the insta AE mezz is basically a speed breaker only. You shouldn't worry much about the duration of it regardless. There's times where the extra radius is awesome, and there's times where it's nice to have the smaller radius to not catch as many people in the crappy duration.

3) Unless you are doing lots of small manning, you probably won't be healing all that much. Usually the bard has better things to do. Sure it's nice to have the heavy heal just in case... and you could argue that the duration increase isn't that much (9 total seconds) on the casted mezz so it doesn't really matter. Some fights the lower power of the yellow AE mezz is very handy to have. You will want to run high MOF though to boost the spell level up to not get resisted as much though.

basically... it boils down to play what feels right to you. I've seen lots of great bards with both specs, and some of the people I play with just have play styles that lean more to one vs the others. Spec toward your play style, and you can make either spec work wonders.

Wed 3 Apr 2019 2:55 AM by Yzeron

Great post. Very informative.

Mon 9 Sep 2019 3:01 AM by gotwqqd

49 music
43 nurture
10 reg
??

Mon 9 Sep 2019 2:30 PM by Andwell

gotwqqd wrote: ↑
Mon 9 Sep 2019 3:01 AM
49 music
43 nurture
10 reg
??

I don't see the appeal of 49 music, as matter damage is pretty scarce here. Maybe 48 for the slightly better cold resist, but even that's pretty hard to justify, as iirc the songs don't stack with druid resists. Plus, weaving them in with your main songs is pretty darn clunky, especially in combat. Meanwhile you're giving up your side snare, or going completely unspecced in reg.

I've been running 43n/38m/27r/17b and have been pretty happy with it. I miss the larger insta mez sometimes but I feel it's been worth it overall for the flexibility I get. I'm not exclusively 8 manning on this server and the heals are nice to have for smallman and keep fight situations.

Tue 10 Sep 2019 12:31 PM by bigne88

I mainly play bard in 8v8 or small men and I can tell you that 37 music, 10 blades rest heals is your best bang.

Side snare is amazing (u can side snare and swapping instantly back to instrument to dont loose any song running).
33 in heals is great cause you can heal really well in smallman and duo, where you can be short on druids and wardens. In 8v8 setups, witch are mostly caster's heavy, you will find yourself kiting hard and not very often in melee range to rupt, so throwing a heal here and there is great.

Get MoC1 to demez.

If you are running only with BGs any spec is fine

Tue 17 Sep 2019 1:08 AM by Nefcait

Having Sidesnare is extremely beneficial when the bard is played well, these two are what I consider the only viable specs

43 Nurture
44 Music
20 Regrowth
10 Blades

Or

43 Nurture
37 Music
26 Regrowth
20 Blades

1st one is red aoe mezz, 2nd one is better major heal and more weaponskill for the sidesnare.

Sat 21 Sep 2019 12:20 PM by chewchew

Nefcait wrote: ↑
Tue 17 Sep 2019 1:08 AM
Having Sidesnare is extremely beneficial when the bard is played well, these two are what I consider the only viable specs

43 Nurture
44 Music
20 Regrowth
10 Blades

Or

43 Nurture
37 Music
26 Regrowth
20 Blades

1st one is red aoe mezz, 2nd one is better major heal and more weaponskill for the sidesnare.

I would change the 2nd one to:
43 Nurture
37 Music
27 Regrowth
19 Blades
for the spec grp heal at 27 regrowth.

Sat 21 Sep 2019 1:28 PM by ExcretusMaximus

43 Nurture
43 Music
16 Regrowth
10 Blades

Sat 21 Sep 2019 2:16 PM by Cadebrennus

Chysil wrote: ↑
Tue 2 Apr 2019 12:27 PM
semadin wrote: ↑
Sat 30 Mar 2019 3:38 PM
Ah I missed the area increase on the instant.

Are resists an issue with +skills?

+skill does not effect resist rates. Resist rates are solely the level of the spell vs the level of the target (there's an additional calc for level difference from you, but in rvr you are all the same level so it's not really needed).

That being said a few things:
1) The 10 blade snare is pretty nice, you might not use it much, but it's nice to have. Also, what is not readily known is that if you perform the style and reequip the harp prior to the song's tick ending, you won't have to restart the song. So it's great for being able to provide a rupt / snare without jeopardizing yours songs even when you are being rupted. However, I will admit that it takes some getting used too, so some people probably would prefer to get the 30% res or 33 major heal instead of the 10 blades... and if it fits the play style you are comfortable with, do it.

2) The bigger radius for the AE mezz is kind of nice, but the insta AE mezz is basically a speed breaker only. You shouldn't worry much about the duration of it regardless. There's times where the extra radius is awesome, and there's times where it's nice to have the smaller radius to not catch as many people in the crappy duration.

3) Unless you are doing lots of small manning, you probably won't be healing all that much. Usually the bard has better things to do. Sure it's nice to have the heavy heal just in case... and you could argue that the duration increase isn't that much (9 total seconds) on the casted mezz so it doesn't really matter. Some fights the lower power of the yellow AE mezz is very handy to have. You will want to run high MOF though to boost the spell level up to not get resisted as much though.

basically... it boils down to play what feels right to you. I've seen lots of great bards with both specs, and some of the people I play with just have play styles that lean more to one vs the others. Spec toward your play style, and you can make either spec work wonders.

The Drunken Ranger approves!