Diary of an untwinked bard

[Algulcz]

Level 18:

Notes:
Again I will go into more details about L17 quests, all of them deserve a few words.
Monastery of the Scorpion: Good quest. Great exp and not too difficult. I haven't ran it with char with trap skills in a long time so I was a bit lost trying to find all the trap boxes, but it did get better on 2nd and 3rd run.

Enter the Kobold: Horrible quest. Up to the boss battle it was ok, but then...I was a bit over confident on my 1st run thinking resist fire potion+evasion will be enough. I was wrong. Fireballs were non issue as I almost always evaded them, but scorching ray(not evadable) was enormous pain. I didn't have enough dps to quickly kill the kobold and I couldn't bring my hireling into the arena(he dies there almost instantly) so I had to resort for different tactic. Keep hire at the back of the tunnel and run there every time I needed heal(self healing was insufficient). But it was taking too long. I got to the point where I wanted to quit, I stopped recording and clicked recall. But then I said to myself, @#$@ it I'm going to see this through. It took me ~60min to finish this run.
For the 2nd run I stocked on some fire shield scrolls and with experience from 1st run I went in again. I even bought gold seal hireling to stand at the shrine. And it was even worse. A lot worse in fact, because I forgot to restock on fire resist potions. With only ~5potions I knew I can't go slow, so my only option was to try kobold as fast as I can and hope that he will not reset every time I ran back to heal myself. Well when he was at ~15% he reset. Then I ran out of resist potions and started dying. This run took about 75min to complete.
For the 3rd run I restocked everything. I decided to do it completely differently and bought some ice storm+acid rain scrolls. When the fire elementals spawned I switched to my new tactic, using ice storm+acid rain scrolls I very slowly killed all 3 fire elementals. It took some time but it was safe. Then it was fairly straight forward. Kobold hopping around made it very annoying but I managed to kill him and then the effreti and then I successfully completed.

Prey on the Hunter: Not too difficult. Giants are pretty tough though. Massive HP+the way they push me around=patience is required.

Stealer of Souls: Horrible even on casual.
Earth part: Giants again, massive hp(even on casual)+the way they push me around was very annoying. But not too difficult.
Ice part: Same thing about giants. Plus I fell of few times on my way to the boss and when I got there I learned that Song of Freedom doesn't work the way I thought it was. I was hopping to use it to clear all the fogs, but that didn't worked out. Boss fight was therefore very long and very annoying.
Fire part: Horrible but with a little patience it was doable.
Air part: Worst of them all. Giant+some air elementals=I fell of few times. Boss that likes to dispel my buffs and cast a lot of fogs=very hard.
And all that hard work for only ~9k exp...

I also ran The Druid's Deep at this level. This was my first run, right after it was released so I was a little sight seeing and exploring. First thing that caught me by surprise was "red musk pollen" in Outbreak, before I realized what was going on I was helpless and had to recall and rest. But then it was ok, not too hard and I like them visually. The end fight in The Druid's Curse was more difficult than I expected so I had to tactically retreat, but overall nice chain.

Class:
Bard

Skills:
Balance +1
Concentration +1
Disable Device +1
Jump +1
Perform +1
Search +1
Use Magic Device +1

Feats:
Mental Toughness

Enhancements:
Racial Toughness II
Human Greater Adaptability Constitution

Cash:
209.266 plat, 16 gold, 10 silver, 9 copper
-5000 +4 icy burst greatsword
-3000 +3 icy burst lognbow
-50.000 +2 icy burst greateaxwe of greater giant bane
-4000 +2 holy bastardsword of greater elemental bane
-8415 small ingredients bag
+17725 Corruption of nature ... it sold almost instantly on ah, should have set higher buyout, but at the same time I hope someone didn't buy it thinking it was L24
-2400 19x scroll of teleport
-4000 50x scrolld of fireshield
+35128 +4 Pandemonioum Longbow of Lacerating
-3778 3x wand of cure serious
-4000 resist potions
-4000 50x scroll of ice storm
-4000 50x scroll of acid rain
-4300 50x potion of pretection from energy
-2150 25x potion of protection from acid

Quests:
Monastery of the Scorpion - 3xN
Enter the Kobold - 3xN
Prey on the Hunter - N
Stealer of Souls - C
Outbreak - N
Overgrowth - N
Thorn and Paw - N
The Druid's Curse - N

~7h

Loot:
+1 CHA tome
Dragontouched Leather Armor ,resistance+5,protection+5(later con+6)

Quest Breakdown:
Monastery of the Scorpion(video)
22:58 - Finish Quest

21746 EXP
946 EXP per Minute

Enter the Kobold(video)
54:22 - Finish Quest

20958 EXP
385 EXP per Minute

Prey on the Hunter(video)
20:53 - Finish Quest

12581 EXP
602 EXP per Minute

Stealer of Souls(video)
49:00 - Finish Quest

8881 EXP
181 EXP per Minute

Outbreak(video)
11:17 - Finish Quest

3918 EXP
347 EXP per Minute

Overgrowth(video)
10:51 - Finish Quest

6009 EXP
553 EXP per Minute

Thorn and Paw(video)
18:39 - Finish Quest

5426 EXP
290 EXP per Minute

The Druid's Curse(video)
24:22 - Finish Quest

8173 EXP
335 EXP per Minute

[Algulcz]

Level 19:

Notes:
One thing that is very apparent at this level is how long it takes to kill anything. Even trash mobs have so many hp that it take a good beating to kill them. And red names are several levels above that...
IQ and DD quests are ok, one exceptions is The Dreaming Dark end fight. That one is brutal. I did it just on casual difficulty and it was still very hard battle.
Amrath quests are doable. I was playing it safe in Sins of Attrition so the completion time can be much lower than what I got. Genesis Point is just very long. A New Invasion is easy up to the end fight. End fight gave me some troubles though. I tried to go in alone and do the "standard" melee tactic of going between edges of 2 tiles, but I was unable to out-heal incoming dmg. Then I tried running in circle with hireling, fighting on one tile for few sec and then moving on the next. And it was going good until my hireling ran out of sp. This one time his automatic curse/disease/poison removal wasn't appreciated. So I grabbed FvS hire and went in again, this time his sp was enough. And Bastion of Power...well it's hard.

Class:
Bard

Skills:
Balance +1
Concentration +1
Disable Device +1
Jump +1
Perform +1
Search +1
Use Magic Device +1

Cash:
187.897 plat, 8 gold, 11 silver, 9 copper
-3500 +5 acid greatsword of pure good
-1500 12x Scroll of teleport
-1890 10x scroll of ts
-109000 +5 Holy silver falchion of lesser lawful outsider bane

Quests:
In the Demon's Den - N
Dream Conspiracy - N
Finding the Path - N
I Dream of Jeets - N
The Mindsunder - N
Eye of the Titan - N
The Shipwrecked Spy - N
Reclaiming Memories - N
Raiding the Giants' Vault - S
Mining for Ancient Secrets - N
The Dreaming Dark - C
Murder by Night - N
The Riddle - N
Sins of Attrition - N
Genesis Point - N
A New Invasion - N
Bastion of Power - N
Wrath of the Flame - N
The Weapons Shipment - N

~8h

Loot:
+2 CHA tome
Vornes Belt

Deaths:
A New Invasion 2x - end fight, wrong tactic
Bastion of Power - sudden red dungeon alert, swarm of green devils completely surrounded me

Quest Breakdown:
In the Demon's Den(video)
24:17 - Finish Quest

8509 EXP
350 EXP per Minute

Dream Conspiracy(video)
17:35 - Finish Quest

8992 EXP
511 EXP per Minute

Finding the Path(video)
12:23 - Finish Quest

7228 EXP
583 EXP per Minute

I Dream of Jeets(video)
22:14 - Finish Quest

10891 EXP
489 EXP per Minute

The Mindsunder(video)
19:05 - Finish Quest

7951 EXP
416 EXP per Minute

Eye of the Titan(video)
15:01 - Finish Quest

8126 EXP
541 EXP per Minute

The Shipwrecked Spy(video)
13:32 - Finish Quest

9365 EXP
691 EXP per Minute

Reclaiming Memories(video)
10:51 - Finish Quest

8028 EXP
739 EXP per Minute

Raiding the Giants' Vault(video)
11:05 - Finish Quest

8341 EXP
752 EXP per Minute

Mining for Ancient Secrets(video)
11:22 - Finish Quest

7281 EXP
640 EXP per Minute

The Dreaming Dark(video)
19:09 - Finish Quest

4929 EXP
257 EXP per Minute

Murder by Night(video)
12:26 - Finish Quest

7351 EXP
591 EXP per Minute

The Riddle(video)
11:06 - Finish Quest

7609 EXP
685 EXP per Minute

Sins of Attrition(video)
25:10 - Finish Quest

12396 EXP
492 EXP per Minute

Genesis Point(video)
52:27 - Finish Quest

19880 EXP
379 EXP per Minute

A New Invasion(video)
22:29 - Finish Quest

16081 EXP
715 EXP per Minute

Bastion of Power(video)
35:24 - Finish Quest

8905 EXP
251 EXP per Minute

Wrath of the Flame(video)
9:44 - Finish Quest

4020 EXP
413 EXP per Minute

The Weapons Shipment(video)
17:03 - Finish Quest

6539 EXP
383 EXP per Minute

[Algulcz]

Conclusion(heroic):

From this journey I have to say that untwinked bard is soloable ok, but it's very weak. It's the very definition of "jack of all trades, master of none". IC just barely makes DPS usable. CC and healing are unreliable, and to make them more useful I would have to sacrifice something else(item slots, feats, ability points). UMD is nice, but nothing great. Even at lev20 I still don't have enough for no fail heal scrolls. But potential to grow is definitely there, with a bit better gear(cha skill conc opp GS for example) it can be great support for groups.

Prelude+Conclusion(epic):

I tried it, got to lev21 in ~4h without any troubles, but I'm officially throwing in the towel. Epic mobs HP are just so high, and every single red name takes several minutes to kill. All the time I just activate autoattack and watch it. For example Marut in VON3 took 5minutes to kill. So all that Epic Normal is challenging is my patience. Epic quest are also not so different in tactic from heroic, they just take longer(much longer).

[Algulcz]

Bonus top 5:
All based on the quests that I have ran as bard.

Top 5 hardest quests
Quests that are hard from start to end.
5 Siegebreaker
4 Acid Wit
3 Bastion of Power
2 Chains of Flame
1 Stealer of Souls

Top 5 hardest boss fights
Quests with exceptionally hard boss fights or with boss fight way harder than rest of the quest.
5 Against the Demon Queen
4 Ghosts of Perdition
3 The Dreaming Dark
2 Flesh Maker's Laboratory
1 Enter the Kobold

Top 5 hardest monsters to fight
Mobs that are more dangerous or annoying that the rest.
5 Rust Monsters
4 Beholders
3 Anything that can hide(scorpions, phase spiders, umbra worgs, wraiths,...)
2 Any Archer type
1 Air elementals

Top 5 best quests
Quests with good exp/min+difficulty ratio.
5 Sins of Attrition
4 Trial by Fire
3 The Shadow Crypt
2 The Chamber of Raiyum
1 Monastery of the Scorpion

Top 5 most fun quests
Quests that I just enjoyed doing.
5 Frame Work
4 Song of Druid's Deep(it was new and fresh)
3 Sins of Attrition
2 Monastery of the Scorpion
1 The Pit

Top 5 least fun quests
Quests that I didn't enjoyed doing.
5 Let Sleeping Dust Lie
4 The Bookbinder Rescue
3 Chains of Flame
2 Stealer of Souls
1 Tomb of the Tormented