Everything You Need to Know About Bard | Bard Skill, Perk, and Song Guide | Dark and Darker

[@ryanbdavison]

Finally a current Bard guide. Great work!

[@Deltsong]

Thank you! I hope it helped

[@ryanbdavison]

@@Deltsong as you mentioned, there isn't a ton of Bard content out there so you've definitely filled a gap. Nice to know my build choices are justified.

[@ShadowTroll09]

Amazing video, super useful and great info

[@Deltsong]

Thank you! Happy to help :)

[@TheAlexanderVl]

Hi, I'm taking Charismatic Performance, Rapier Mastery, Superior Dexterity and War Song because I want to quickly play songs and get into battle with my friends. But after watching it, I thought about Story Teller to expand my memory.

[@Deltsong]

Both are definitely good options! I swap around between both of those builds :)

[@lacuevadexavier]

Story teller is good to bring untill you get the stats on your gear to use all your songs, but you should replace it asap. You can easily get the memory by having +all on your gear, or some random knowledge/memory rolls on gear. Currently Bardic pants with +2 All are selling for like 100g so you can get them cheap

[@TheAlexanderVl]

@@lacuevadexavier Thank you for the tip.

[@Ubagreg]

Exactly what I was looking for. I must be dumb as well cause you mention being able to get a survival bow off the squire at 13:44 and I have no idea how to accomplish that. Anything to do with the quests?

[@Deltsong]

I didn’t realize until after making this video, it has to do with the quests. I “think” when you finish the campfire quest you can add it after that :) Glad the video helped!

[@SinOfWrath0822]

Thanks Delt! I didn't realize you responded so quickly haha. This was very informative and helpful.

[@Deltsong]

No problem! Haha I try to do comment requests within the next week or so if possible, and I’m glad this helped.

[@broadd001]

Great vid thanks is the arming sword viable at all? I really like it but it seems rapier is the way. Thanks for the tips and video!

[@Deltsong]

Thank you! Glad you liked it :) Honestly, all three of bards melee weapons are good picks. I don’t, personally, like the arming sword. But it’s viable. The rapier is great because you can stack rapier mastery and war song, and it’s the fastest swinging and less restrictive move speed wise out of the three. The falchion is good because it has high damage, and since we’re typically getting some dexterity and/or using allegro, it swings fast too. But it’s the slowest option when it comes to move speed. I like this with drums because after throwing them it’s usually only 1-2 hits to to win the fight. The arming sword is more of a duelist, kind of weapon. It has slightly less range than both, but if you know how to use it well, then it can definitely work since it’s the middle of the road between damage and how much movement you lose. The reason I don’t like it is mostly just because of the long delay before the third swing.

[@broadd001]

@@Deltsong I see thank you for the reply !

[@mal3diction]

Mostly for the algorithm, but what changes would you make in the current patch? I noticed Languor only reduces movespeed by 10 instead of 20 and I assume there were other changes too. Do you still recommend the same builds just with reduced power or does this change anything about songs/perks?

[@Deltsong]

I was thinking about making an updated guide soon. The two biggest changes are what you said about lament, and that resourcefulness doesn’t affect allegro/accelerando so it’s not as useful as a stat as it used to be in both solos and duos. The same builds work basically other than that!

[@blank4142]

Hi, I was wondering if you could share Bard’s matchups? If you had to rank the worst matchups, the even/skill-based ones, and the favorable ones please.

[@blank4142]

Matchups against classes in a 1v1 setting that is.

[@Deltsong]

Yeah, I could but it’ll definitely just be opinion-based. Norms: you can fight everyone, PDR fighters and clerics are rough though. High Roller: Bad Matchups: PDR Fighters (if you can kite you’re fine) Warlocks (Dark Reflection) Skill Matchups: Rangers (Who is the better FPS player? Or can you close the distance?) Slayer fighters (Basically a slightly stronger bard without a shield) Bard (makes sense😅) Good matchups: Rogues (if you hear them, you shouldn’t ever really die to them unless they’re insane, especially if you’re running health or armor) Clerics (will never catch you, unless you let them, every time you hear them put their weapon away turn around smack them a few times) Wizard (Melee Range, they’re just dead, longer range survival now also wins) I hope this helps! I was trying to keep it fairly concise while also explaining why I thought that. All in all even the bad matchups aren’t bad and good matchups aren’t necessarily always going to be in your favor either. My biggest recommendation with the class is to remember that you’re a “jack of all trades” and figure out someone else want you to do, and then do the opposite haha

[@blank4142]

@@Deltsong Yeah, that helps. I'm still stuck to do doing norms atm because i'm new to the game, but the rest will be great in the future assuming no major balancing occurs. I appreciate the response.

[@Deltsong]

@@blank4142 of course! I hope you have a great time with the game going forward :)

[@xodo3623]

rapier mastery is now only +2 weapon damage. is it still just as good or would you change it for something else in solo?

[@Deltsong]

It’s still really good imo. You could swap it for war song if you’re not using that already and wanted to try something else, but rapier mastery doesn’t have any downsides and you’re still getting 5% action speed as well. (Downside of war song being that it’s only for 6 seconds after playing a song)

[@EoF104]

Do you think lament is still worth taking after the nerf?

[@Deltsong]

I think so. 10 move speed is still pretty beneficial if you’re needing to kite/catch up to them.

[@cptnfool]

am dumb - does allegro etc saying 'stacks three times' mean i need to play it thrice or just once with a perfect rating?

[@Deltsong]

Nope :) After you play the buff, if you watch it on the bottom of the screen above your name, every few seconds you’ll see a number go up on it. It’s just stacking over-time, until it gets to the highest point.

[@Lolyougotzaped]

So taking rapier over falchion is a choice you made but it’s not like either one is better than the other? I played so much falchion and can’t really get into rapier. It also frees one more perk slot. Is this suboptimal or what do you think? I play solos the most.

[@ram1234holecek]

Rapier is -13 movespeed, falchion is -25 or -30 (not sure). With rapier and buckler out and fully buffed you can still run down classes with your weapon out. It also helps with kiting with the rapier stab

[@Deltsong]

@lolyougotzaped yes, that’s a choice that I typically make. With rapier mastery/warsong together, a rapier is definitely better than a falchion. But if you’re wanting to take another perk, then that’s completely fine and they’re probably roughly equal then. I didn’t mention this in the video, but I would usually run a falchion with a reinforced instruments build, and I used to run it all the time until I realized how good the rapier could be with both perks. :)

[@spore928]

Does resourcefulness increase buff length? Or does will?

[@Deltsong]

Both! Resourcefulness affects everyone (you and teammates) and will affects yourself.

[@MrKeyalis]

This did not need to be a 21 minute fucking video bro

[@Deltsong]

There was genuinely more that I could’ve talked about, but left out.

[@VoltagesLegion]

you should put your guitar skills last; if you find a better lute, they have scaling knowledge

[@Deltsong]

I do that if I get a higher quality lute. But they’re important to have even if you don’t get one😅

[@guest0046]

For the algorithm

[@Deltsong]

🙌🏼

[@CaseyBlockMB]

People tend to miss explaining this concept with shriek as well, although I expect most experienced bards know this: Like you said, casting vs one mob usually isn't worth unless it will live for more than a few hits in solo (or if you have limited time to close the gap and be in strike range), but the value of it goes up for every mob you can hit with it that you intend to damage as well (within the timeframe of course). I assume two mobs or more makes it worth every time, but maybe it's 3+, in general it always takes one less hit to kill a shrieked monster, but it takes at least a hit's worth of time to cast the song. At least that's what I've found trying to get into bard. I'm still really bad though >

[@Deltsong]

That’s true, if there’s a bunch of mobs, for sure use Shriek. I tend to use it for every mob when I have war song on. I’ve noticed that when I don’t, there’s times that it doesn’t actually lower ttk on skeletons or goblins by even just one swing… So I was just wanting to say that so people didn’t feel like it was “needed” to cast shriek EVERY single time. It felt annoying to me as a new bard to do that, but I’ve gotten over it at this point haha

[@lacuevadexavier]

I do it to secure an easy clear, since it lowers mobs physical damage reduction to -70%, even if it just speeds up the kill by one hit.

[@CaseyBlockMB]

@@lacuevadexavierThere are definitely certain dangerous mobs (ie. nightmare axes) that you should probably do it on every time, lol.

[@halftimex25]

Thanks for the info. was confused about music that did damage. Couldn't tell what perks were that good. I went in with the default spells and was trying to use peacemaking on a player.

[@Deltsong]

Glad I could help :) Bard is definitely one of the more confusing classes at first for sure 😅

[@darklotus6595]

Good luck man! May the wipe grant you good luck! I've been getting spawn rushed hella it's been hard. Also I didn't see the survival bow on the squire?? Maybe I missed it tho. Thanks my guy always love the content.

[@Deltsong]

Same to you! Sadly, the 3 by 3 map is really easy to spawn rush on… Everyone basically just has their own square lol I didn’t either until yesterday! Maybe it’s not until certain quests are done? I’ll double check on another bard later or tomorrow :)

[@Nervots]

I don't see surv bow too :(@@Deltsong

[@jaeaeaeae]

You need to finish the woodsman campfire quest to get survival bows from squire!

[@Deltsong]

Thanks for clearing that up! I was about to start questing on a second bard to figure that out haha

[@darklotus6595]

@jaeaeaeae Thank you my guy. May you get blessed loot for providing knowledge!

[@spikedavis4867]

thanks for the great guide. if you stack lute song at the end, so you can play all of your drum songs. the lute has knowledge as a static stat this can put you over the memory cap

[@Deltsong]

That’s true! I didn’t mention that because I only ever do that when I find a lute in game, so I probably just forgot haha

[@Judawi]

Maybe i missed when you mention it but, in the case you equip a +2 or more knowledge lute, you can get lament of languor as last song for " free "

[@Deltsong]

I did miss saying that, thanks!

[@rivertonrock]

Great video! Wish there was one of these for every class. 👌

[@Deltsong]

Thank you! I can try to make them in the future for some of the other classes that I play. I’ve mot been trying to stick to bard content since there’s less of that on KZbin :)

[@Metavirtify]

You can't get a survival bow from a squire or am I blind?

[@Deltsong]

You can’t at first. But when you complete quests it unlocks more. I’m not exactly sure which one, but someone told me it was the campfire quest. :)

[@DDubs730]

am i schizo or is there like a microwave sound going off the whole video. i thought this was my microwave at first.

[@Deltsong]

If you’re listening to it fairly quietly, there’s music playing in the background? Other than that I just skipped through and didn’t hear anything..😅

[@diego6237]

Can you play bard with just 5 songs??

[@Deltsong]

You “can.” Outside of norms it’s not the best though 😬

[@TumaLaDelBarrio]

i play bard and i know how to use it but this videos give me some interesting tips, great video! and a new sub, thanks man!

[@TumaLaDelBarrio]

another think you didn´t talk about the race, I think the elf is still the best

[@Deltsong]

I’m glad I could help, and thank you! :) And in imo, the elf or orc are probably “best.” But it’s also just one stat, or 10 armor (if using one of the skeletons). That is so minimal compared to the rest of the gear, that I feel like anyone could just use whatever they like the best at that point. Lizards weird though because losing stats on your headpiece will always just be bad, sadly…

[@TumaLaDelBarrio]

yeah, it was just a small observation, but you're right, it doesn't affect too much

[@shinylegion980]

First like too

[@Deltsong]

Haha you’re crushing it!

[@TheArcticBearboss]

Hey I don't know if I just missed you say this or if it wasn't included in the video, but the lute has knowledge as a roll on it. If you load your songs you play with the lute last, you gain the benefit of +2 all to your knowledge, and the added knowledge of your lute. So if you have a blue lute with the plus 2 all buff and the lute out that's +6 knowledge right there. Always load your lute songs last to squeeze out more knowledge! Also I think superior dexterity increases your weapon and item switch time independently, not when you're just switching between weapons and instruments and vice versa. *I think*

[@Deltsong]

I didn’t talk about that, but that’s definitely a good thing to note! I was trying to not make the video go 30 minutes so I left out a few things here and there. And I’m pretty sure Sup Dex works both ways.

[@colezeller4861]

There are no correct choices for anything. Play HOWEVER you want

[@Deltsong]

Yepp! Bard is definitely a class that suits doing that too. That’s why I was trying to give different options of different ways that I play it in every part of the game. Then hopefully people will be able to expand on that themselves after they get different ideas too :) (The thumbnail was just the normal YT clickbait 😅🙃)