Rift Bards Builds - A Guide For Consistent Rift Play

The first thing you need to know about the Bard soul is its strengths. Simply told, the Bard provides the perfect combination of buffs, debuffs and healing especially in group scenarios. The Bard distinguishes itself from other souls by its long duration group raid buffs which are called Fanfares. To complement this, Bards also have Anthems which are spped or armor boost to allies and can last indefinitely for a certain radius around the character. The last of the generic Bard skills is the Motif which is a short duration buff lasting between 15 to 30 seconds and can be continually casted enhancing tolerance to damage and attacks for the group overall. There are Bard specializations at end-game scenarios that can provide buffs for almost all of the major stat categories as well as mana, health, energy, power and charge. Codas, on the other hand, work opposite of the Motifs providing debuffs for enemies and PvP groups. Unfortunately, Bards can only have one Anthem, one Motif, and one Fanfare at any given time which means at least two Bard specialization in the group is necessary for a more effective support system.

In the same way, the Bard also has inherent weaknesses https://chaosknightzhao.webs.com/apps/blog/show/7233127-rift-leveling-guide-easy-to-follow-rift-leveling-guide  that make it susceptible to issues while in battle. First off, Bards only provide supplementary healing so you will still need a primary healer when in a group. Defense of the Bard is also suspect. The true strength of Bard souls only come out when properly paired with other soul systems to enhance damage and healing as well as limit defensive defenciencies.

In addition to basic Bard skills already discussed - Fanfares, Anthems, Motifs, and Codas - Bards also have Verses and Chords. Chords are offensive moves that generate combination points. The standard Power Chord attack cannot be blocked, parried, or dodged and provides plus 11 to 14 damage on enemy health. It has a fast cooldown at 3 seconds and requires 10 points for activation. Verses on the other hand are only available at end-game scenarios and can be split to Branch and Root verses. Rift Bard builds can call upon the Branch verse "Verse of Fascination" to mesmerize and stun enemies for 8 seconds while root verses "Verse of Vitality" and "Verse of Joy" heals allies up to 492 in health or restores 50 mana per second, 5 power, 5 energy, and 5 charge per second for 15 seconds respectively.

As you can see, Rift Bard builds are extremely useful in group settings and provides enumerable advantages for the group. Tab on a Bard to boost your group's buffs in raid, dungeon or PvP scenarios and you will more than enjoy a significant advantage on the battlefield that is the Planes of Telara.