The Ultimate PvP Bard Guide for Ashes of Creation

If you enjoy supporting and controlling the pace of the fight on the battlefield, then the Bard archetype is for you. Bard in Ashes of Creation is by far the most fun support to play and, to the opinion of many, the most impactful. Bard has the tools to deal with everything and anything, whether it's a 1v1 fight, a small 8v8 skirmish, or a gigantic 50v50. You will never feel out of place with the Bard; rather, you'll be the one holding all the cards.

Although the Bard has the tools to deal with everything, using those tools correctly can get complicated. This comprehensive guide will cover everything you need to know about the Bard archetype, from understanding its strengths and weaknesses to mastering key skills, passives, and gear choices. We'll dive into the best talent trees, consumables, and strategies for maximizing your Bard's PvP potential.

In the event you were looking for the PvE-focused portion of the guide, it is linked below.

Strengths

• Unlimited playstyle options.
• Unparalleled crowd control capabilities.
• Raid wide AoE utility.
• Self sustain and best mobility in the game.

Weaknesses

• Very squishy and prone to dying quickly in large battles.
• Complex combos and abilities make it challenging to master.
• Requires careful judgment to know when to prioritize DPS or healing.

As a Bard, your role in PvP changes depending on the scale of the fight, the composition of your group, whether you are outnumbered or outnumber your enemies, and, last but not least, your preferred playstyle. For starters, we will go through the basics of each scenario.

In a general 1v1, you are favored to win in almost all cases. Why? Because, currently in Ashes of Creation, the damage of every single class is quite high due to how scaling works. Therefore, if everyone has high damage, the class with the highest utility wins – and that is the Bard.

Standout abilities that change the tide of almost all 1v1s for the Bard are:

• Clever Retort – The strongest crowd control tool in your arsenal, a hard silence that's instant to cast.
• Marionette – Long-range 2s cast incapacitate that lets you reset any fight or set up your combos. Cannot be dodged.
• Mesmerizing Dance – AoE incapacitate that can be combo'd with Dark Lullaby.
• Dark Lullaby – Free damage on mesmerized targets and a free stun on top of it.
• Trip Combo – Get Off The Stage → Discordance → Mock = Target tripped.

In a mid-scale fight, such as an 8v8, the Support-Focused Bard is starting to stand out.

Support-Focused Bard – Your job revolves around peeling for your team, shielding, healing, buffing, and nimble dancing at the perfect moment while CC'ing enemies that get too close to your backline. For this playstyle, you should be running Joy and using the Saga "The Return to Verra".

Standout abilities for Support Bard:

• Gambit – Swap your HP for a teammate's HP. A high-value clutch ability that saves lives.
• Nimble Dance – AoE cleanse that removes one crowd control per second and gives 50% evasion to everyone around you. A battle-changing ability.
• Cheerful Melody – Huge healing percentage increase for you and your clerics, making the group survive a lot longer.

Aside from those abilities, everything else in your toolkit is perfect for peeling, including all the abilities mentioned in the 1v1 scenario. You are the silent king of the battlefield as a Support Bard and dictate the pace of the fight.

When it comes to mass PvP (50v50+), the Bard truly shines, and there is one big reason for it; you are able to shield and Nimble Dance as many people as you want, as long as they are within your AoE range. With a well-timed Shielding Dance and Nimble Dance, you alone can have an insanely huge impact.

You should always get Dance Mastery: Power in large fights to increase the range of your dances.

As for your position in these types of fights, you should stay at a safe range until the enemy dives your group or your group dives the enemy. In both scenarios, you want to focus on getting into the action, shielding and dancing. After that, you are free to start DPSing.

There is a lot of detail that can go into all of the scenarios above, which we will touch on at a later date. In this introductory guide, we will focus on a generalalized PvP Bard build.

For a full list of all Bard abilities and passives visit the Bard Skill Glossary

Since there is no stat such as Resilience in Ashes of Creation, the best Bard PvE stats and gear remain the best for PvP as well. Therefore, no matter what you decide to do with the Bard, there is one stat that stands above all, and that is Intelligence. Intelligence scales perfectly with everything the Bard does, from auto attack and ability damage to shielding, healing, and mana regeneration. Absolutely everything you do scales off Magic Power, which you get the most of from Intelligence. That means when you are gear farming, you have one goal only; get as much Intelligence as possible.

Do not worry too much about the type of armor, whether it's heavy, light, medium, etc, as long as it has Intelligence. Currently, defensive values are almost irrelevant, as they scale very poorly, which allows us to simply focus on gathering as much Intelligence as possible without worrying about anything else.

Now, when it comes to min-maxing, we want gear pieces that have Intelligence alongside other stats. In the list below, you will see the starting order from the best secondary stats to the worst to look for.

• Wisdom
• Magical Power Rating
• Magical Casting Speed
• Magical Critical Chance
• Magical Critical Power
• Anything else

As you probably noticed, everything listed is offensive. That's because, currently in the game, defenses scale terribly while offensive stats scale insanely well, so you want to take advantage of that.

Please note: When it comes to weapons, the most important stats are raw Magic Power and Casting Speed. Stats such as Intelligence come second. You always want to use the highest Magic Power weapons available to you while leveling, preferably a scepter with a focus, a spellbook, or a spell shortbow. There is a lot of depth when it comes to which weapon to choose and why, but that will be explained later in detail. Personally, I use a Scepter and Spellbook, but that is by no means the only viable weapon choice for Bard in PvP. For now, know that all weapons are viable.

Here is a list of some very strong items for Bards with proper stats that are not very hard to obtain.

• Sephillion Shard Scepter (which can be farmed at the Remnants of Sephillion).
• Blood Cursed Spellbook (which can be farmed at the Tower of Carphin).
• Spider Silk Gloves (which can be farmed at Gemspring).
• Woeful Slippers (insane boots that drop from a named NPC called Wailing Widow in the Tower of Carphin).
• Hoodwinx's Wooden Earring (which drop from a named NPC called Hoodwinx on an island south of the Tower of Carphin).
• Hornhexer's Headband (which drops from a named NPC called Hornhexer, south of Ursine Caves).

Consumables in Ashes of Creation are extremely important and will definitely give you an edge in PvP. Below is a list of the best consumables you need as a Bard and their effects:

• Rations - Provides health regeneration over a period of 20 seconds. Currently a bit overtuned, so you will never need high-quality rations. These can be bought at vendors.
• Scroll of Intellect - Increases Intelligence for 3 hours. You can buy it at the laboratory northeast of Samia's Hope.
• Fruit Salad - Provides additional magical power rating for 60 minutes. Higher-quality salads give you a bigger boost, but you need cooking to make them. You can buy them at the Cookhouse northeast of Samia's Hope.
• Health Potions - Restores a set amount of health based on the quality of the potion. There is a 2-second cooldown for potion usage. (Low-level potions can be bought at vendors, but they are not very impactful.)
• Mana Potions - Restores a set amount of mana based on the quality of the potion. There is a 2-second cooldown for potion usage. Same as health potions, they can be bought at vendors, but are not very impactful for Bards.

Overall You need to have Intellect scrolls and Fruit salad as they will increase your magic power by a lot and help you in PvP.

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