Class Guide
Bard Guide
Complete guide to Bard including Desperate Salvation and True Courage builds with Ark Grid variants.
Identity
Serenade Gauge
Desperate Salvation Bard generates Serenade Gauge with normal skills. Serenade of Courage (Z) is a 5/10/15% party damage buff for 8/12/16 seconds. Serenade of Salvation (X) places an AoE on the ground that heals any party member within the AoE by 4/6/8% max HP a total of 8/12/16 ticks, lasting up to 14/18/24 seconds. 1 tick is consumed for each party member standing in the AoE on every pulse. When all ticks are consumed or the duration ends, heal an additional 8/16/24% max HP.
Synergy
Attack Power Buff
Atk. Power Bonus +10%.
Variant Overview
Buckshot Acceleration
Ark Grid Cores
Seraphic Accent Seraphic Pulse Buckshot Acceleration |
Core Priority
Prioritize Seraphic Pulse > Seraphic Accent > Buckshot Acceleration
Minimum Sun 14 Moon 14 Star 10, but you really want Sun/Moon at 17 and Star at 14.
Every combination of Sun/More core is viable, however Seraphic Pulse/Seraphic Accent (AP core) will have the most consistent performance. Brave Pulse/Brave Accent (identity core) is comparable, but it depends on your Serenade of Courage uptime. Any mix of Seraphic + Brave will suffice. Aria Accent/Aria Pulse (T core) is the weakest and will scale poorly with increased specialization, as you decrease your cooldown reduction, directly decreasing your Aria uptime.
Seraphic and Brave ancients will always outperform the relic variants. Aria ancient will only outperform based on uptime.
Priorities
- Upkeep main damage buffs and debuffs, including Attack Power Buff (Heavenly Tune, Sonic Vibration), Brand (Sonatina/Sound Shock), Identity Buff (Serenade of Courage), and T-Skill buff (Aria).
- Generate Serenade Gauge by cycling meter generation skills as often as possible (Wind of Music, Prelude of Storm, Rhythm Buckshot, Soundholic), as well as meter gained from buffs and debuffs (Sonatina, Aria).
- Protect your party via Shields and Damage Reduction (Wind of Music, Rhapsody of Light, Guardian Tune).
- Go for counters with Rhythm Buckshot as it will reset your counter cooldown and refund all stacks, further increasing your meter generation.
Skills
Heavenly Tune
No description available
Sonic Vibration
No description available
Guardian Tune
No description available
Wind of Music
No description available
Rhapsody of Light
No description available
Rhythm Buckshot
No description available
Sonatina
No description available
Soundholic
No description available
Aria
Symphonia / Symphony Melody
Engravings
Ark Passives
- With higher level cooldown gems, you can opt for less swiftness and more specialization. The swiftness recommendation listed is enough to hit 140% attack speed with 5% speed feast from the stronghold (1514). From level 9 gems and higher, you are able to build 30 spec. This grants higher identity buffing power (both efficiency and uptime) at the cost of longer cooldowns on utility skills (shields, damage reduction, MP recovery), lower uptime on Aria, and a tigher AP Buff cycle. While is is theoretically the ideal way to play, it is only recommended if you have high level gems and are extremely efficient at upkeeping AP Buff and Brand already (near 100% uptime).
- 30/30 Specialization will also require the engraving Spirit Absorption, which usually replaces Expert.
Evolution
Enlightenment
Leap
Rotation
Buff Priorities
Meter Generation Priorities
Defensive Priorities