So is Raja Bard a complete fail? I mean it seems that every bard in Achaea is a horkval and nothing else. Im guessing Raja would be an insanely fast version of bard, but would it do enough damage or be tanky enough to work? And shaman combat these days based solely on vodun? or does using curses work well? I figured that curses would be instantly cured by a good system, but i guess stacking the same thing while system is off balance could work 2. just askin for a little more advice because I think im going to swap to one of these classes rather then stay occultist. Also theres the possiblity of Apostate, but Occie would be way too boring upkeep wise. Thoughts, ideas, suggestions on one of those 3 classes im considering would be great.

thnx

Trans curses hide the affliction line, I think auralbless is the main problem with being a raja bard (somewhat negates the extra speed because you have to use prefarar to strip deafness, or jab slower than you need to).

ah ya thats right, voicecraft has its own balance right?

Bards have voice balance. Rajas are typically too fast for bard, hence why most everyone goes horkval(not just for the tankiness). From what I've seen, you want physical balance and voice balance to return about the same time.

Also, bards tend to go for damage/to-hit rather than speed in a rapier.

A constant 3 seconds, regardless of race.

Raja bard has great potential if used correctly though. You become an affliction class versus a damage class at that point though. You can jab twice in the time it takes to get voicecraft back if I remember correctly, so it gives an extra chance for a venom. This can open up significant opportunities for offensive creativity if you use it right.

The problem here being no auralbless and therefore the extra venom has to be prefarar, I think.

If you set up the first jab with prefarar, and then use voicecraft wisely to set up venoms, they won't ever have the chance to eat hawthorn again until you let them, especially with the harmonic that strips deafness (can't remember the name) The only classes I can think that this strategy would be ineffective with are monks and priests.

Raja bards have -amazing- potential that has not been close to tapped by anyone. The auralbless is not a problem - auralblessing once as a raja bard every time the person eats hawthorn. They won't be prioritizing hawthorn over other things, leaving them undeaf for quite some time, especially at the 1.2-1.5s you will be jabbing at.

thanks coop and khensu, that was really good input. I was kind of thinking that somewhat, because as a raja you could keep them off herb balance typically. and then when you can use voicecraft again it puts them behind the 8 ball. However there is the tankiness factor. Would the speed be enough to stop from being completely obliterated? With Avoidance and Bard skills id assume you'd be pretty hard to hit as a raja, but if they do hit would it be too devastating?

Against those that with always-hit attacks(Magi, for one), yes.

Ive pretty much decided on the bard class im gonna put in a lot of effort to make raja work. bashing might be a little bit crappy in prep to get high enough level to combat competently but hey who cares. Only thing i have left that I need answered is would it be imperative to trans weaponry? because im guessing as an affliction bard id be having to use behead?

Trans your Swashbuckling first. You can't behead with rapiers, for one. Second, you will be needing your skills in Swashbuckling first.

EDIT: Though, if you can spare some lessons, try to get at least Envenom in weaponry. This will also mean you get Parrying and Targetting, all of which are extremely useful.

In fact, spend your initial lessons to get Tune in Voicecraft, to provide you with extra protection, then spend the rest on Swashbuckling until you get Transcendent. This not only gives you more skills in Swashbuckling, this also gives you better damage and accuracy(correct me if I'm wrong) with your rapier attacks.

im buying 600 credits during this sale so it translates to 720, and im already gifted weaponry so no issue there. Ill be able to tri-trans, and trans survival im guessing. Then ill end up transing avoidance in the near future. But before avoidance most likely going to finish weaponry. Depends on how my ability is to kill without beheading.

Hi. As the original raja bard, buy a 239 speed rapier or faster if you want to jab at 1.5 seconds to double up between auralbless. Otherwise go another race.

raja bard can be pretty OP. I fought kakon and spire and i fought Athrax who was an artied Mhun bard and they can overwhelm you if they stop you eating hawthorn.

so its pretty much boiling down to the end of this thread for me. Buying credits later on today, but am still a little stuck on Raja Bard, or Raja Sham, with Apostate still kind of lingering.

Suggestions, thoughts, comments? Im a Raja, prolly won't change race for a while

A lot of people go apostate thinking it's easy mode but it really isn't. Same with shaman. Same with bard too really unless you want to try and go damage bard, up to you.

nah, I wont be going damage bard. i tend to not want to be the same thing as EVERYONE else in the classs.

So it basically boils down to survivability, and offensive capability. Bards have very good offense, and so do shamans. How would a bard do as a raja hunting as opposed to a Shaman of the same race, and anyone who are currently these classes id be up for any enlightenment.

And of course if im being jumped by 2 people, which one would help me splat less. And I know both are based around 1v1 combat, any ideas on which one has the edge over say something with an insane system, like Hath's? Now a days its all about beating systems, and which one of these classes has the best capability of doing with creative comboing?

Raja bard is better defensively than raja shaman, for both pvp and bashing. I don't have enough experience with bards or with combat in general to know which is better offensively in pvp, but I think shaman would be better offensively against denizens. Overall, for bashing, I think shaman would be better and kill things faster, but bard would stay alive more easily.

Sena

anyother input?

I don't have enough experience with pvp to offer much more than that. There's not much else to be said about bashing either. Without trans philosophy and maybe a willpower artefact, shamans run through willpower really quickly while bashing, but with the changes to meditating it's not much of a problem anymore.

whats the change to meditation? faster WP regain or something?

Around the end of April, willpower and endurance regen from sleeping/meditating was increased.

Old natural willpower regen: 10/4s (2.5 wp/s)
Old meditation regen: 6/4s+8/8s (2.5 wp/s)

huh?

The post I quoted had the bugged info, I made a mistake updating it to the correct info.
Fixed now.

Wut?

I'm the only damn Bard left in the game

aww poor entaro. Well im a bard now as you found out earlier. Speed tho, any little tips? I've pretty much come to realization I can shatter a limb pretty quickly, now im just going to go through some formulas to truelock people, which is probably my best bet. But then I need to figure out how to kill the person, possibly have to get behead. Until I figure out what that funeral skill does, which I don't have yet. but will next time i log on

Darby is (was?) a bard.

Mardosi is my favorite bard combatant.

It fails, that is what it does.

I'm a bard

Also, as a response to something mentioned earlier regarding jabbing twice w/o auralbless and starting out with prefarar... wouldn't it be better to open up with something like auralbless/aconite/limerick? If they cure deafness over the goldenseal afflictions (let alone what songbird throws at them), you can stick them with more auralbless/goldenseal stack combos. If not, you can lay on the prefarar to increase your damage by oodles. Does that sound about right?

Sounds reasonable. You can never really know unless you try it, since a lot of people deal with bards different.

Do you fight out of the arena?

Oh yeah, Darby but...meh..he copies what I do.

When did Darby go bard?

Bards afflict really fast, do alot of damage and have good passive defences

The idea was that tunesmithing be intelligence based so that races would have something of a balancing factor. Kind of annoying to know that after all the effort I put into trying to make speed viable for bards, still not many people are bothering with anything but Horkvals.

I wish you luck mastering Raja Bard, it should have a lot of potential with the harmonics to balance out the not so good defence!

I usually fight runed, rapier/armor/body. helps make up for any loss of tankiness with the adding regen, and obviously up'd leather armor, and algiz n jera. in harms im pretty damn tanky even as a raja

darby's a terrible bard.

This coming from someone whose only method of killing is by Percussia stacks.

I saw you Percussia stack Jinn, a non-com, who probably would have died to a huge number of things.

Embarrassing.

Ovid dont talk sh*t when you dont know sh*t. I killed jinn with a percussia stack when i was being attacked by 3 people. We then headed to the arena to do a 'to the death' match, where i killed her proper.

Leave your computer (and your parents basement) once in a while. There's a whole world out there.

says the guy arguing about achaea?

Achaea is srs business.

Raja bard is quite good, but you'll need to tritrans and trans avoidance.