Suggestions/Tips Wanted for Melee Bard Build

[axel15810]

Looking to put together a build for a melee bard. Something that is a melee DPS/buffer archetype. Planning to go Tiefling Iconic to start at level 15 and CHA to hit/damage from Feydark. I have a +4 CHA tome, will be a 34 point 2nd life character. I'm open to either doing swashbuckler or warchanter. Whichever is better DPS. Open to any of the 3 fighting styles. Will probably keep the character at cap and run raids, so ideally would like best buffs and such as well. So was thinking tier 5 fatesinger? I'm partial to staying pure bard but if splashing is just flat out better I'm all for it.

Any tips, suggestions? I don't know much about the current melee bard meta and what's good.

[unbongwah]

Feel free to adapt the Baron to Scoundrel and let me know how it goes. I haven't been playing much DDO since last summer so I need a guinea p- brave volunteer to find out if it's still viable.

[Tilomere]

11 bard, 7 wiz, 2 warlock w/ extend feat, int based, twf daggers, tiefling scoundrel is a good choice

Best buffs in game for raiding are:

LGS Dust (wiz death auras) -35 PRR
LGS Ooze (wiz death auras) -10 PRR/MRR
LGS Vacuum (main hand sentient weapon w/Fetters) = https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Pain,_the_Half_of_Whole (can't be on death auras) 20% vulnerability
LGS Ash (offhand, can't be on death auras) -21 MRR
Taint the Aura (Consume add-on) -10 PRR/MRR
Crusade (Divine Crusader) +9% physical damage
Bring Darkness (Shadow dancer) -9 PRR/MRR
Shadow Loss (Shadow dancer) (need int to hit/dmg/kta) -5 PRR/MRR
Shattered (Sentience on Pain) -10 PRR/MRR
Bard Misc 10% Damage

Total: -79 PRR, -65 MRR, +9% physical damage, +20% vulnerability, 10% damage = 1.2x true damage, 2.2x MRR damage, 2.6x prr damage

This means TWF, so have to use VKF to get crit range, which means daggers.

So points in 23 VKF (crit/offhand),38 warchanter (buffs), 7 SE (taint), 12 harper int to hit/dmg/kta

ED: divine crusader (crusade), SD bring darkness/shadow loss

[PrinceOfAsphodel]

11 bard, 7 wiz, 2 warlock w/ extend feat, int based, twf daggers, tiefling scoundrel is a good choice

Best buffs in game for raiding are:

LGS Dust (wiz death auras) -35 PRR
LGS Ooze (wiz death auras) -10 PRR/MRR
LGS Vacuum (main hand sentient weapon w/Fetters) = https://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Pain,_the_Half_of_Whole (can't be on death auras) 20% vulnerability
LGS Ash (offhand, can't be on death auras) -21 MRR
Taint the Aura (Consume add-on) -10 PRR/MRR
Crusade (Divine Crusader) +9% physical damage
Bring Darkness (Shadow dancer) -9 PRR/MRR
Shadow Loss (Shadow dancer) (need int to hit/dmg/kta) -5 PRR/MRR
Shattered (Sentience on Pain) -10 PRR/MRR
Bard Misc 10% Damage

Total: -79 PRR, -65 MRR, +9% physical damage, +20% vulnerability, 10% damage = 2.2x magical, 2.6x physical dps

This means TWF, so have to use VKF to get crit range, which means daggers.

So points in 23 VKF (crit/offhand),38 warchanter (buffs), 7 SE (taint), 12 harper int to hit/dmg/kta

ED: divine crusader (crusade), SD bring darkness/shadow loss

Why do you need to be int based? Shadowstrike states it uses the highest of int/wis/cha for the shadow loss debuff. Is it bugged?

[Tilomere]

Why do you need to be int based? Shadowstrike states it uses the highest of int/wis/cha for the shadow loss debuff. Is it bugged?

For SD evasion (w/ insightful reflexes) + trance.

Want to go dex or int based, but we can't get a same stat trance + hit/dmg off dex/cha/str/wis/con.

Single stat synergy will boost your divine crusader stun DC. Also because Int dagger assassin is a primary build, so gear exists for it, and of the two available iconics with classes that match, one is int based (DG).

[axel15810]

I threw this together tonight for a DPS 1st, buffing 2nd swashbuckler bard, please critique. Again, I don't know a lot about building bards so I imagine this can be improved.

Went 1 fighter for feat/haste boost and 1 cleric for divine might (wanted to go 1 FVS instead for more SP but don't own the class) and this won't be on my main server so I don't have it unlocked. I was thinking this would work better than pure bard but am very open to suggestions.

Planning to get CHA hit/damage from Feydark tree.

For skills I went Balance, UMD, Perform, Diplo, Jump, Haggle

Sorry for the late reply, my plan to start playing this character got delayed a few weeks.


Character name:
Classes: 18 Bard, 10 Epic, 1 Cleric, 1 Fighter
Race: Tiefling Scoundrel· ·Alignment: Neutral

· · ·Start Tome Final · · ·Incorp:· · ·0% · · ·Displacement:· · 0%
Str:· · ·8· · 0 · ·10 · · ·HP:· · · · 411 · · ·AC:· · 18
Dex:· · 14· · 0 · ·16 · · ·PRR: · · · · 3
Con:· · 16· · 0 · ·18 · · ·MRR: · · · · 0 · · ·+Healing Amp:· · 10
Int:· · 10· · 0 · ·12 · · ·Dodge: · ·5/25 · · ·-Healing Amp:· · ·0
Wis:· · ·8· · 0 · ·10 · · ·Fort:· · · ·0% · · ·Repair Amp:· · · 10
Cha:· · 20· · 0 · ·29 · · ·SR:· · · · · 0 · · ·BAB: · · · · · · 19
DR:
Immunities: Fear

Heroic Past Lives
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Past Life: Cleric



Class and Feat Selection
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level Class · · · · · ·Feats
1 · · Bard(1) · · · · ·Standard: Single Weapon Fighting
2 · · Fighter(1)· · · ·Fighter Bonus: Shield Mastery
3 · · Cleric(1) · · · ·Standard: Force of Personality
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Follower of Faith: Follower of Onatar
4 · · Bard(2) · · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
5 · · Bard(3) · · · · ·
6 · · Bard(4) · · · · ·Standard: Precision
7 · · Bard(5) · · · · ·
8 · · Bard(6) · · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
9 · · Bard(7) · · · · ·Standard: Improved Single Weapon Fighting
10· · Bard(8) · · · · ·
11· · Bard(9) · · · · ·
12· · Bard(10)· · · · ·Standard: Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
13· · Bard(11)· · · · ·
14· · Bard(12)· · · · ·
15· · Bard(13)· · · · ·Standard: Improved Shield Mastery
16· · Bard(14)· · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
17· · Bard(15)· · · · ·
18· · Bard(16)· · · · ·Standard: Greater Single Weapon Fighting
19· · Bard(17)· · · · ·
20· · Bard(18)· · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
21· · Epic(1) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Overwhelming Critical
22· · Epic(2) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
23· · Epic(3) · · · · ·
24· · Epic(4) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Quicken Spell
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
25· · Epic(5) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Doublestrike
26· · Epic(6) · · · · ·
27· · Epic(7) · · · · ·Epic Feat: Inspire Excellence
28· · Epic(8) · · · · ·Epic Destiny Feat: Crush Weakness
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Charisma: +1 Level up
29· · Epic(9) · · · · ·
30· · Epic(10)· · · · ·Epic Feat: Improved Bardic Music
· · · · · · · · · · · ·Legendary: Scion of Arborea

[jskinner937]

Just completed a bard melee WC scoundrel life. Not sure what diff you are doing, but biggest thing I can tell you is the amount of damage you take and lack of healing (less than I expected) you get in mid and high reapers. I went THF although for extra freeze procs and higher mob DPS. Fun life, but if I had to do over, I would drop fey for damage and spend the extra points in swashbuckler to get cha to damage. I only really used GCS on reapers while levelling as everything just freezes with a stunning item.

Also word of note, I really think Fatesinger is a fun destiny, but I am certain that other destinies would fair alot better on a melee bard. Shadowdancer for Meld and SA damage maybe, Divine Crusader worked well but would need to boost sunder/shatter a bit, LD Dire charge is good and obviously action hero. Maybe even Fury if THF.

Lastly I would say go handaxe over piercing (i assume rapier) at end game. The crit profile is crazy good and there are some killer Leg Handaxes.

[KoobTheProud]

For leveling a Bard in r1 it is hard to beat a Dex-based Swashbuckling Vistani Knife Fighter. There are only a few good daggers but once you get them the damage is silly. The defense in the build is ok too. Nothing special but you will likely be at a 65% defense chance with high Dodge and decent PRR/MRR for all 20 levels.

[zappy]

Best buffs in game for raiding are:

Timestop

[axel15810]

Any suggestions on endgame gearset? Guessing the usual 4 piece Feywild winter and 3 piece sharn PotF for a melee? Weapon and shield suggestions welcome - currently using piercing but can respec with Fred my improved critical feat to slashing or whatever if it's substantially better. Had this character on the shelf for a while but just returned to playing it.