Returning bard

[Curastan]

Hello ladies and gents.
I just returned to ddo a few weeks ago after a few years off. Shroud was the end game at the time I would like to say. Anyways my bards built is oh rather outdated one could say just got him to 20 so I can do a tr. while I really enjoy playing bards I don't have lots of play time. Going to tr him into a better build thinking a swashbuckler of some kind (have seen lots of great builds on the forums) and looking for some help with build/gear.
Goals of this build are to help play catch up with some things. Favor, unlocking arti and fvs, and I would really like to be able to farm Demon Queen on a constistant basis. I know there is better loot or options out there but would like to get some payback on her is all.
Any advice and or help would be greatly appreciated.
Vip status on account no iconics yet.

[Eryhn]

going with count of monte christo is a very solid option for getting into the swash imho.

as for gear its possible to get by fine with lootgen on heroic okish. generally speaking, other than maxing cha, con, dex stat items,
perform, resonance,
heal ampilification, devotion,
heavy fort, sheltering (PRR/MRR), resistance, dodge
speed, doublestrike, deadly, seeker, deception

items are probably the main things to try always have.

true seing will be helpful from around gianthold onwards, too, though it can also be scrolled ...

natural armor, protection, balance, heal, jump, spellcraft, wizardry are helpful but not as important.

there is an abundance of light armors around that have nice effects in the lvl8-20 range, to name a few that arent too hard to get...

http://ddowiki.com/page/Nightforge_Mesh ML8
http://ddowiki.com/page/Crimson_Chain ML12
http://ddowiki.com/page/Black_Dragonhide_Armor ML14
http://ddowiki.com/page/Rakshasa_Hide ML 16

as for named bucklers, thats a bit harder to come by, but by and large, once there is the next crystal cove event, grinding it some and making at least the buckler for ML 12, 16, 20 is a good investment of playtime. that is so as it has this nice little guardbreak parry feature that basically constantly stuns mobs around you and has great synergy with swash. until then, any lootgen with something marginally useful will have to do.

as for weapons, again, lootgen rapiers will do nice if find a decent effect combo, but these here in the lost by ellisdee have higher crit profile that stacks with the swash crit and is hence tasty: http://ddowiki.com/page/List_of_Swashbuckler_weapons_with_improved_crit_pr ofile
while there are some nice sickles and light axes etc, piercing weapons aka rapiers, short swords and daggers are the most easily obtainable choice

going for tier5 in swashbuckler as early as possible to pick up coup the grace is very helpful in mid levels.
get used to always use the low blow/instakill combo as soon as its of timer ...

you will get decent umd on bard, so scrolls like greater heroism, heal, tensers, fire shield cold/hot, stoneskin, restoration, greater restoration, raise dead, ressurect etc are from a certain level on easily obtainable situational help ...

when using the perform on larger mobs, start singing some 10 meters before actually running into the mob, practice that a bit so you get down the distance to hit them with the song *just* when you run into them ...

always keep up blur and displacement in fights once you get them. IF you get hit it will hurt some, thus, the key to survival lies in good crows control management, movement, as well as maintinaing your layered defense which are mainly: dodge/concealement (blur displace)/ghostly if can get (old mabar cloak i.e) /PRR/MRR to reduce what you do get hit for, only then AC, though keeping AC up with protection and natural armor items or augments if there is room to slot those also helps.

the sonic blast as well as hypnotism offer very effective short time stuns on multiple mobs at early levels. these may require slotting an evocation or enchantment focus item eventually for harder difficulties (can be found on lootgen goggles and necklace) at the very least by the time you get otto's dance ball you should try to slot an enchantment focus item of +2 or +3

mh. im sure there is many more helpful things to mention, but there you go, here is some :D

edit: you currently can get ONE named item freebie from the http://ddowiki.com/page/10th_Anniversary#Freebie

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Marilith_Chain
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Gauntlets_of_Eternity
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Litany_of_the_Dead
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Ring_of_Lies

are all in one way or another useful items for heroic bard levels

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Celestia,_Brightest_Star_of_Day
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Balizarde,_Protector_of_the_King

are both a very solid investment into the epic future ...

likewise, the anniversary challenge event in house phiarlan has a swashable sickle on the reward list, as well as gloves with insightful charisma

speaking of challenges:

http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Ring_of_the_Stalker and
http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Blasting_Chime
are both very nice for bards from the list of house cannith challenge turn ins ...

edit2: upon reading op again, i think you meant to lesser TR into a different lvl20 bard?
in that case a good way to get level 20 gear is to run heroic highroad or epic king's forest slayers in eveningstar and get ML20 commendation gear
http://ddowiki.com/page/Category:Eveningstar_reward_items

of specific interest are PDK gloves with heal amp, cleric and villager items for CHA, insight CHA, heal lore, CON, insight CON, maybe the warwizard bracers for spellpen, stacking SP/HP as well as druids light armor, boots and the star of day shortsword from cleric for decent swash weapon ML20

[unbongwah]

Welcome back, OP. :)

You'll find plenty of bard builds here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/470423?p=5759354&viewfull=1#post5759355

[Curastan]

Thanks for all the information guys was what I was looking for. All of the different builds look great just wish I had more time to try them all.
Thanks again guys I'm sure more questions will be coming hope you don't mind