Beginner Guide: Bard

Why play a Bard?

Music has charms to soothe the savage beast, so you don’t get yelled at by level 99 Sweat Lords.

Bards are versatile supports who excel at supplementing other classes through clever selection of their songs. The Siren’s Call songs allow the Bard to charm a human or beast, the Somniferous Serenade allows the Bard to mesmerize an enemy, Vellicosa’s Fanfare and Tantara cause damage-over-time to an enemy target. Additionally they also have access to Haste songs, both physical and magical, as well as a movement speed increasing song, and resistance songs. And many, many more.

Bards can maintain three songs at the same time during their early levels, increasing up to four when they reach level 30. Songs will overwrite each other if you cast more than you are able to maintain, starting with the oldest of the same type (beneficial/detrimental) first.

The strength of your songs is affected by both your Charisma statistic and the instrument’s level you are wielding. Different songs require different instruments, so it is important to maintain level parity between them.

While they are busy strumming along or banging on their drum, Bards can also use Shouts to damage enemies, send them running in fear, stun them or mesmerize them.

Bards only gain a single melee attack, Whistling Blade, which increases in strength as you level up, gradually adding more self-buffs.

When played solo, Bards perform decently. Whistling Blade and Shouts are quite strong and with Charm they can temporarily call in assistance.

In groups, Bards shine, bringing extreme levels of support to their group, assuming they tailored their songs to the group’s composition.

In closing, pick Bard if you’re looking to be the Swiss Army Knife of supports, complimenting your entire party or group of friends no matter what you they choose to play, and love the idea of making use of a variety of instruments.

Starter Quest: Night Harbor

Before we begin: You can always reference what NPCs have told you by accessing your journal (default key: J) and you can always ask follow up questions to them by simply targeting them and writing in Say chat, as if they were players. For instance: “Where can I find [key word]?”

Open your inventory and memorize any spells you might’ve started with, then read the Fanciful Note. Enter the city through the West Gate and continue straight until you see the sign for the Night Market on your right. Enter the market and turn right once again where you will see a small amphitheatre. Head up onto the stage and turn left to head behind stage and enter the building. Follow the diagonal hallway until you find Jamee Langris. Hand him your Fanciful Note and he will give you a Small Courier Bag, Jamee’s List of Names and six items to deliver to six people around town.

• Jiselle Heyley upstairs in the Wayfarer’s Hospital
• Assistant Researcher Farland near the entrance to the Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane
• Elrind Steele within the Steel Talons garrison’s library
• Harbour Master Daoud at Twilight’s Harbor
• Guard Jeskal guarding the North Gate
• Cordelius Hollmion in Spellbinder’s Spire

There is no specific order in which you have to make the deliveries, so you are free to take this as an opportunity to explore the city and look for these people yourself, if you so desire. Otherwise follow along below.

First is Elrind Steele.

Head outside the West Gate, turn left and head towards the large gate and portcullis. Click the portcullis to open it and head straight through the courtyard and through the open doorway with the two blue banners flanking it. Head through the room and into the hallway and take the second right turn to enter the library. Elrind is a small distance from the entrance, hand him the Tiny Leatherbound Book and he will give you another Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag and return to the West Gate.

Exit the garrison through the portcullis gate and turn slightly left, continuing forward and crossing the ruins on the other side of the cobblestone road until you find a small camp with several torches in front of a crevasse in the cliff face. Farland is within one of the tents. Hand him the Vial of Cloudy Liquid and he will give you a Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag and turn right back towards Night Harbor.

Enter the city through the smaller gate, then turn left once inside and go through the large open gate, this will take you to the Soujourner Camp. Then go left again, continuing forward facing slightly to the left until you hit the Wayfarer’s Hospice. Head inside and turn right into the room with Trey Fulton. Turn left and continue along, heading up two ramps before taking two quick left turns into a small room. Past the small room is the balcony above the main hall of the hospice where you can find Jiselle Heyley to the left. Hand her the Framed Pressed Flower and she will give you a Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag and head out the way you came.

Exiting the Sojourner Camp through the large gate, turn left and continue along this cobblestone road until you pass a small bridge and go through a keyhole shaped arch. Turn left and go up a large set of stairs with a gate at the top, above which is floating a large pink crystal. Pass through the gate and head halfway across the plaza until reach a well with a domed structure above it. Turn left and exit the North Gate, where you will find Guard Jeskal guarding it on the right side. Hand him the Perfumed Silken Sash and he will give you a Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag and head back inside the city.

Turn left and go up the large sets of stairs towards the pink-purple wizard’s tower. Step onto the glowing bright pink teleporter pad found on the stone platform. Once you have been teleported up to the teleportation hub platform, turn left and head towards the Spellbinder’s Spire teleporter. Once you arrive at Spellbinder’s Spire, continue straight through the doorway and then through the second doorway and straight into a small corridor. Take the first left and you will be in Cordellius’ room. Hand him the Small Eye-Shaped Mirror and he will give you a Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag and return the way you came, taking the teleporter at start of the large stone ramp once you return to the teleporter hub platform.

Once you are back down on the ground level, head down the large set of stairs towards the North Gate and turn slightly left, heading towards a large open arch with a pink glow. Here you will find another teleporter to take you straight to the docks. Once you are teleported to the docks, turn right and head through the arch and follow the cobblestone road along the river, taking the left path in the fork. You will arrive at the Customs House where you can find Harbormaster Daoud. Hand him the Pouch of Rare Tobaccond he will give you a Small Metal Parchment Vial. Place it within the Small Courier Bag along with the other five and press combine.

Now it is time to head back to Jamee Langris. Return to the fork which you passed through a short while ago and turn left, away from the river and docks teleporter. Continue along the cobblestone road until you go down a small ramp, then turn right to head up a large slope, passing under a bridge and ending at the entrance to Seabreeze Park. Turn left at the park’s entrance and continue along the cobblestone road towards the West Gate until you once again find the Night Market sign, this time on your left. Enter the Night Market and make your way back into the Bard guild hall and hand Jamee the Small Courier Bag and he will give Jamee’s Coin, which can be exchanged for a free drink at the bar across the amphitheatre.

TIP: Handing in Jamee’s Coin to the barkeep will get you a Twilight Bay Rum, which can be sold for 45 copper pieces. If you go to the bathhouse nearby and soak in the waters for a short time, you will gain a Charisma increasing buff which will allow you to sell items for more.

REQUIRED LEVEL: 5

Begin a conversation with Jamee Langris and reply “What kind of an adventure?” followed by “What kind of task?” once he finishes talking. He will then give you a Small Leather Pouch and asks you to find a ruby-inlaid gold ring and an amulet which allows communion with the dead.

The ring can be found, still on its finger, at the Smuggler’s camp in the Shaded Dunes. Head out the West Gate and turn slightly to the left, exiting the area through a gap in a low wall. Once in Shaded Dunes, head down to the shore and follow it along until you until you find a river. Expect to travel quite far. Cross the river and kill either Smugglers or Wererats until you find the Severed Ring Finger, then place the finger within the Small Leather Pouch and return to the West Gate. This final part will require a group.

Once you are ready, head towards the Tomb of the Last Wyrmsbane, the entrance to which was right next to here you first met Assistant Research Farland. Exit the West Gate and turn right, then cross the ruins diagonally until you reach a small camp with several burning torches outside. The dungeon is within the narrow passage in the cliff. Head inside and kill High Marshal Fionna for the amulet. Place it inside the Small Leather Pouch along with the finger and press combine.

Return to Jamee Langris and hand him the Small Leather Pouch and he will give you a Azure-Enameled Gold Bangle.

Congratulations! You are now done with the Bard starter quest-line for now.