Best Bard Armor?

[Valezra]

I am TRing my WF Fighter back into a Half-Orc Bard and would like to know what you guys think is the best Bard armor to get. Include anything, Epics, Raid loot, w/e. TYIA for the advice!

FYI he is going to be STR based and using Falchions. So think more hybrid or melee gear than caster gear.

PS - I am only aksing in Ghallanda fourm because I feel we are the smertest servar.

Val

[Darkrok]

I'd say Dragontouched armor with Destruction on it for the Sovereign would be really handy. Maybe +5 resist on the eldritch, a nice guard on the tempest, and destruction on the Sovereign would be nice. U7 is going to make DT'd easier to craft so you *should* be able to get a set close to that.

[Samadhi]

All 3 of my bards use DT; but then I was never as bothered by those quests as most folks; so in general more of my toons use DT than most other folks.

[Valezra]

I planned on making a decent DT armor. Just finished SoS last night in preparation of TRing but thought that maybe there was an Epic Light Armor better suited for Bards. I'll do some searching, but thanks for the info so far.

Val

[Chette]

My bard has a few nice dragontouched robes and I honestly haven't seen anything better. Epic Marlith Chain is probably the only other thing I'd consider wearing, if you want to free up your trinket slot for LotD or something, or an arrowhead so you can drop the improved critical feat.

[dkyle]

Epic Marlith Chain is probably the only other thing I'd consider wearing, if you want to free up your trinket slot for LotD or something

Unfortunately, Marilith Chain is medium armor, which means spell failure chance. I guess a Bard could theoretically use it, but it would be a major PITA. For any Rogue splash builds, it would block evasion.

or an arrowhead so you can drop the improved critical feat.

Do you mean the Shimmering Arrowhead? That gives a Seeker bonus to crit damage, same as Marilith Chain. It doesn't replace the improved critical feat, which doubles crit range.

[Valezra]

Unfortunately, Marilith Chain is medium armor, which means spell failure chance. I guess a Bard could theoretically use it, but it would be a major PITA. For any Rogue splash builds, it would block evasion.



Do you mean the Shimmering Arrowhead? That gives a Seeker bonus to crit damage, same as Marilith Chain. It doesn't replace the improved critical feat, which doubles crit range.

Marilith is definitely doable. I could put -15% ASF on it and I already have 7FG so that would be ok. I already wear Marilith on my Cleric and am looking for something a little different.

Val

[Chette]

Unfortunately, Marilith Chain is medium armor, which means spell failure chance. I guess a Bard could theoretically use it, but it would be a major PITA. For any Rogue splash builds, it would block evasion.

Well, he indicated he was going for melee not casting. I know my bard does all of her casting before the battle (i.e. GH, rage, etc) and then goes into madstone, so spell failure doesn't mean a lick.

Do you mean the Shimmering Arrowhead? That gives a Seeker bonus to crit damage, same as Marilith Chain. It doesn't replace the improved critical feat, which doubles crit range.

Ah my bad, I though the arrowhead put keen on everything...isn't there a trinket that does that? I'm not really planning on replacing my bloodstone, so I haven't really looked into it. Sorry for the error.

[sirgog]

Option 1: DT armor with Destruction rune
Option 2: Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers
Option 3: Epic Red Dragonscale Robe

1 and 2 help you hit in melee (the +4 on EVFL doesn't stack with Inspire Greatness, but that's only +2 to-hit, so it does give you an extra +2 overall). 3 adds melee DPS - a lot of it, and has two nice guards.

[Valezra]

Option 1: DT armor with Destruction rune
Option 2: Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers
Option 3: Epic Red Dragonscale Robe

1 and 2 help you hit in melee (the +4 on EVFL doesn't stack with Inspire Greatness, but that's only +2 to-hit, so it does give you an extra +2 overall). 3 adds melee DPS - a lot of it, and has two nice guards.

Good info. I'm going to make some DT armor for him, but most likely go the Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers route. I think I have most of the stuff to make it epic already and the two augments slots will eventually put it over and beyond any DT set I could make for myself.

Val

[Kintro]

Option 2: Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers

That's what I wear on my Bard. Aswell as the +2 to-hit the Sneak Attack (+3 hit, +5 damage) is handy if you don't have that on another item as are the two slots and constant fire resist.

[Raiderone]

Lower level I use Elemantal Mithral Breastplate armor on my lvl 15 Bard.

Slightly lower AC but 20% resist Cold and Fire.

20th Level: Epic Demon Scale Armor.

P.S. Val you spelled Smartest and Server wrong!

[NeutronStar]

Mithril Breastplate of Command with some sort of elemental prefix.

[travelnjones]

I have been using a mithral brestplate until my recent swap out to warchanter 2. Now i am using Twilight Mithral Plate. I am going to start running the titan to look for the 7 fingered soon. I don't really need them now but I would like the option of running spellsinger.

In theory you could do the epic tourney armor with the 15% armor insert and the 7 fingers and have 0% arcane spell failure for any class.

[Twerpp]

Warchanter- DT, Marilith Chain, Red Dragonsomething

CC- Raiment of Fervent, Blue Scalesomething, DT

[Isssssa]

Epic Marilith Chain or Epic Red

[Xenus_Paradox]

Marilith Chain for Warchanters.
Dragontouched Vestments for Spellsingers.
And if you rolled a Virtuoso, I recommend a Lesser Heart of Wood.

[Irinis]

I went for Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers but get arcane spell failure on scrolls despite the handy tip that bards "don't get spell failure in light armor" according to all sources. So I'm a bit concerned that Warchanters may still get arcane spell failure on scrolls in medium armor. It's difficult to reconstruct the tank when you fail 3x in a row.

That said...

Warchanter: Epic Marilith Chain
Spellsinger/Virtuoso with some melee: Epic Vulkoorim
Spellsinger without any melee: DT Robe or Vestments

[SteeK]

After a couple of spell failures I did some searching for an answer on this. I found that whilst you own spells have no chance of failure, anything used from a scroll is not inscribed by yourself and as such incurs a spell failure chance, which would be equal to that of the armour worn.

I'd say your concern is entirely valid!

[sirgog]

I went for Epic Vulkoorim Fighting Leathers but get arcane spell failure on scrolls despite the handy tip that bards "don't get spell failure in light armor" according to all sources. So I'm a bit concerned that Warchanters may still get arcane spell failure on scrolls in medium armor. It's difficult to reconstruct the tank when you fail 3x in a row.

That said...

Warchanter: Epic Marilith Chain
Spellsinger/Virtuoso with some melee: Epic Vulkoorim
Spellsinger without any melee: DT Robe or Vestments

Yeah, if you'll be spamming Reconstruct in a raid or something, take the epic leathers off.