Rift Bard Strategy Guide

Bard Soul's Skills, Specs, Macros and Builds in Rift

Bards are an excellent Support class to bring along for dungeon runs, and any form of raiding. They can increase the power of every member of the party and also make monsters more susceptible to damage. When people ask about how many points to invest in Bard, the answer is almost always 51. Nightblade goes well as a secondary soul to give some additional damage.

Bards can bless the party with one anthem (usually the great Anthem of Fervor), and also give three fanfares that boost all five primary stats. Playing a Bard in a long battle will usually go like this: 1. Play all five motifs before combat. 2. Build combo points on enemy quickly and lay down all three debuffs 3. Repeat Motifs. Depending on the situation, you may use Coda of Restoration a lot to help heal widespread small damage on your raid. Bards get abilities that can restore energy and allow them to spam their useful finishers. Save these for boss fights and your party will love you.

PVP is actually a fun place to play the Bard soul. They can play in the back lines and try to spam healing to keep team members alive. The wide area of healing will keep people fresh over long fights. Motifs go even further when there are ten to twenty players benefiting.

Something to know about the Bard is that their damage is based on whatever weapons are currently being used. For this reason, it's wise to take Marksman or Ranger as a third soul so that you gain the ranged weapon auto attack ability. This will improve the damage of your Cadence and Finishers, assuming your bow/gun is stronger than your main hand. You should have no trouble finding a bow more powerful dps-wise than even a Deathbringer Dagger. Another reason to go with a ranged soul as your third is so that you can auto attack at range! Without a dedicated ranged soul, your Bard will simply stand around instead of taking occasional shots at the enemy.

Bard Skills and Special Abilities

Cadence - Points Required: 0
Ability Info: This is the Bard's basic combo builder. It will give three combo points over two seconds. While it does really low damage, that is not its primary purpose. It serves to fuel the Bard's finishers and, with the Invigorated Soul talent, will heal up to 5 raid members for 100% of the damage done.

Motif of Bravery - Points Required: 0
Ability Info: Increases attack and spell power for all party/raid members. Lasts 15 seconds default, 30 with maximized Bardic Inspiration talent.

Coda of Wrath - Points Required: 2
Ability Info: This is your basic Bard finisher, which will often take a back seat to debuffs or a healing finisher in dungeon play. It can be pretty damaging when you spam this with Virtuoso and max combo points.

Fanfare of Vigor - Points Required: 4
Ability Info: Increases all party/raid members' endurance for an hour. This skill, along with the Good Health talent and Motif of Bravery may lead a Riftstalker to take Bard for some bonus durability.

Motif of Renewal - Points Required: 6
Ability Info: Heals the Bard for some moderate healing over 15 seconds (30 with talent). Early on, it can be helpful but not many people will even play a bard at this level. It is later replaced by Motif of Regeneration which affects all party members.

Motif of Focus - Points Required: 8
Ability Info: Increases physical and spell critical hit for the party/raid for 15 seconds. Stacked along with Motif of Bravery and Motif of Tenacity it will give up to 5% bonus stats for 30 seconds with the Resonance talent.

Anthem of Competence - Points Required: 10
Ability Info: If you're active, you can switch this on and off in dungeons to help the party get around. Boosts movement speed 15% while out of combat. The 20-point improvement talent will make this work in combat, which can be very handy to your team mates in PVP. Since you can only have one anthem active at a time, this one will often go unused.

Motif of Tenacity - Points Required: 12
Ability Info: Reduces damage taken by the raid, both spell and physical, by 5%. Another one of those Motifs you'll be playing constantly in long battles, but your mates will love you.

Coda of Cowardice - Points Required: 14
Ability Info: This is the first cool finisher the Bard receives. This will increase the damge taken by physical attacks for enemies near the target by 5% for up to 60 seconds (with Extended Grief Talent).

Coda of Jeopardy - Points Required: 14
Ability Info: Keep this up along with 'Cowardice on long fights. This debuff causes attackers to deal extra damage every three seconds. The extra damage is greater the more combo points used. In either parties or raids, it will cause a big leap in damage done.

Fanfare of Power - Points Required: 16
Ability Info: Increases Str/Dex of all raid members for 1 hour.

Anthem of Defiance - Points Required: 18
Ability Info: Increases magical resistance of all party and raid members, in turn reducing damage taken. This is great for fights that have a lot of area damage, requiring players to be mobile and taking inevitable damage. It's a good safe choice most of the time.

Coda of Distress - Points Required: 20
Ability Info: If you have casters in your party, use this to increase their spell damage vs the target and other nearby enemies. Lasts up to 60 seconds with talents, just long enough to polish off the enemy.

Motif of Regeneration - Points Required: 24
Ability Info: You'll keep this motif active in combat to mitigate damage done to raid members. It is part of the Bard raid healing package. It really does make a noticable difference in survivability when combined with the Bard's other buffs such as Motif of Tenacity.

Motif of Grandeur - Points Required: 28
Ability Info: Increases healing taken by 5% for all party and raid members. This makes the main healer's heals stronger, along with the Bard and anyone else doing off healing. A not so obvious effect of this is to conserve a little mana for Clerics and Chloromancers. This is a great buff that you must keep active in the long fight.

Anthem of Fervor - Points Required: 32
Ability Info: Reduces energy and mana costs for all player abilities. This is the most popular Anthem for a reason. It will let healers and dps casters stay in the fight longer while improving the damage output of rogues and warriors who will fatigue less easily.

Verse of Captivation - Points Required: 34
Ability Info: A little crowd control that people will often break. It can be used to interrupt casters and rescue a healer getting pounded on, but you've got to be quick on the trigger.

Motif of Encouragement - Points Required: 36
Ability Info: A rather pointless motif that will make critters follow the Bard. Pied Piper anyone?

Verse of Rebirth - Points Required: 36
Ability Info: The Bard's resurrection ability. Can't be used in combat. Most Rogues should be responsible and take a Bard role just so they can switch to res fallen allies. Really, don't be lazy.

Fanfare of Knowledge - Points Required: 40
Ability Info: Buffs intelligence and wisdom for the raid for one hour. Casters will love you for this.

Verse of Vitality - Points Required: 44
Ability Info: Instantly heals all nearby party and raid members for a medium amount of health. Great for saving the party after they are hit by a big aoe. This ability has a one minute cooldown, so use it tactfully.

Verse of Joy - Points Required: 51
Ability Info: This is the last prize for sinking 51 points into the Bard soul. This skill regenerates mana, energy, and charge very rapidly for the entire party. This will help the party to recover during a long fight. Rogues and warriors will be rejuvenated and have their DPS kicked up with more energy to spend. It's a great ability to use during every tough fight, which is quite doable thanks to the 2-minute cooldown.

Bard Soul Talents - Where to Spend Your Points

0-Point Soul Talents

Bardic Inspiration
Soul Talent Description:: This talent is a requirement if you want to take Bard seriously. It will double the duration of your Motifs. Without it, you'd spend so much time strumming to keep the party buffed you wouldn't be able to do anything else in between!

Good Health
Soul Talent Description:: Gives up to 10% health to the bard. This is a great talent for Riftstalkers to take to improve their durability. It will help a regular Bard to survive a bit. More health is good, especially with all those nasty AoEs and boss specials out there.

5-Point Soul Talents

Invigorated Soul
Soul Talent Description:: One of the core abilities that makes Bards good for raid heals. While they're building combo points, they're also healing up to 5 party or raid members for the full amount of damage done. Bards do little damage but can really tip the balance of power because of abilities like this.

Street Smart
Soul Talent Description:: Reduces the likelihood the bard will be hit or critical hit by 3%. Another good talent for Tanks to take, and possibly PVPers. The Bard player shouldn't get a lot of use out of this if the tank is doing their job.

Anthem of Glory
Soul Talent Description:: Increases armor by a good amount. This should always take a back seat to Anthem of Fervor, however a Riftstalker will get a lot of use out of this ability.

Talented Composer
Soul Talent Description:: Increases the raidus of Bard buffs. It's good for raids, which are often spread out. It'll make sure you buff players on the edge of the area of effect.

10-Point Soul Talents

Stage Presence
Soul Talent Description:: Increases the effectiveness of your Bard's fanfares by up to 30%. This may not seem like much, given the base bonuses aren't amazing, but this effect is amplified the more people in your raid.

Power Chord
Soul Talent Description:: Instant attack that awards 2 combo points. This should go at the top of your Bard's basic damage Macro to use it as often as possible. While you won't get the healing of Cadence, you can more quickly pull off a debuff or Coda of Restoration.

Street Performer
Soul Talent Description:: Increases the effectiveness of anthems by 30% at max. Not nearly as useful as Stage Presence, since only one anthem may be used. Still, it'll give some extra energy/mana cost reduction to Anthem of Fervor and more movement speed to Competence.

15-Point Soul Talents

Extended Grief
Soul Talent Description:: At maximum, it will double the duration of your three Codas (debuffs). Jeopardy, Cowardice, and Distress will all last a full minute. That means you actually have time to get all three debuffs down while maintaining your motifs.

Deafening Music
Soul Talent Description:: This talent is not great. It takes all of five points to increase the damage of coda of wrath/fury by 15%. The base damage of those skills isn't great to begin with. I take this only because I have to in order to get the 51-point skill.

Coda of Fury
Soul Talent Description:: The Bard AOE finisher. The only time this really shines is when used with Virtuoso. You can deliver a huge amount of aoe damage in a short amount of time. As a Bard, most of the time doing damage isn't your thing. Regardless, it's nice to have options and this is a good use of a lone point.

20-Point Soul Talents

Triumphant Spirit
Soul Talent Description:: This increases the healing done by all the Bard's healing abilities but Cadence. The boost is up to 15% for only 3 points, which isn't a bad value. You will use Coda of Restoration and Verse of Vitality a LOT so you will be grateful for this talent.

Coda of Restoration
Soul Talent Description:: Bard aoe healing finisher. I love this skill. With Virtuoso, it can keep the whole party alive through a ton of damage. Overall, it will help keep party members topped off while the healer focuses on your tank.

Riff
Soul Talent Description:: An instant five combo points. I use this to quickly start debuffing the enemy, or cast an emergency Coda of Restoration. It's also helpful to instantly get 5 combo points for spamming abilities with Virtuoso.

Improved Anthem of Competence
Soul Talent Description:: This makes the Anthem of Competence work in combat. It's helpful when the party needs to be able to maneuver during boss fights, and gives your team an edge in PVP where maneuverability is very important.

25-Point Soul Talents

Resonance
Soul Talent Description:: This wonderful talent will give you more bang for your buck when buffing the party with motifs. If they are affected by Motif of Bravery, Focus, and Tenacity at the same time, they'll get a 5% (1% per talent point) increase to all attributes for 30 seconds.

Verse of Fascination
Soul Talent Description:: This will confuse enemies and make them stop attacking for 8 seconds. This affects an area around the Bard. It's a good defensive maneuver to pull to buy the tank time to gather adds, protect an ally, or stop an unattended enemy from dealing damage for a few seconds. More often than not the enemy will get hit with an aoe or someone will absentmindedly tag it. Still, Verse of Fascination can have its moments. You've just got to be ready to put it to use at the right time.

30-Point Soul Talents

Virtuoso
Soul Talent Description:: Virtuoso has a 3 minute cooldown, for good reason. This ability is very powerful, giving you unlimited combo points for a time. That means you can spam any of the Bard's useful finishers. Stack up all three of your debuffs. Spam AOE. Spam Coda of Wrath for some direct damage, or heal like a cleric by spamming Coda of Restoration. You'll get just a little more mileage out of this skill if you wait until you have 5 combo points to execute the ability.