Bard is one of the three supports in lost ark. Playing bard well can help you farm more in-game Lost Ark Gold and rewards, so I think this is the most important role in the lost ark party system. She has great buffs and shield skills to save her allies. And she can increase the DPS and survivability of the team and has good mechanical skills and strategic thoughts. Besides, she can adjust strategies and various rates to control the flow of the fight.
Engravings
Let's talk about engravings by importance.
First Engraving
You should aim for your class engraving and give your additional heal for the party. It is very important.
Second Engraving
You need heavy armor three because bard has the lowest vitality point. Bard needs to be in closer combat if they plan to provide shields for the team. If you're having raid issues, it is mostly because of not having heavy armor engraving.
Third Engraving
Awakening is an important engraving for support. It decreases cooldown and increases the number of times you can awaken.
Fourth Engraving and Beyond
They're selected in preference out of these engravings, and you can choose two. Expert provides even more Shield and Healing, and it's very efficient, and the Max Mp increases.
If you do not manage your mana and spam skills too much, you tend to run out of mana, so some people use this to cover it up. Vital Point increases stagger, and this is good on later rates where you require quick stagger mechanics, so I recommend this.
Additional Engravings
I don't personally recommend them, but people do use them.
Drops of Ether
It's a decent buff engraving to your party, but people do not walk over and grab them, so I don't recommend it.
Spirit Absorption
Spec combat stat bard uses his engraving, but I do not recommend spec bard at all.
Match Extreme
Bard needs to take hits for other players due to the shield mechanic. Recover tends to be less efficient than having a bigger mana pool, but this is a choice if you cannot get Max Mp to increase engraving.
Stats
As for combat stats, there are two builds, full swiftness, and full spec. Regardless of what it is, you need a good-quality swiftness and spec necklace. Swiftness tends to be a better combat stand for bard because it decreases the cooldown of your skills and increases movement speed. Supports need to be the most versatile team member; therefore, she needs to be fast. Utilizing skills more tends to be much better to keep your buffs on. If you wish to have a high spec bard, though, going spirit absorption is a must for covering the movement speed.
However, trying out both builds myself, swiftness is definitely more efficient in overall performance due to faster cooldowns and for more forgiving skill management. As for how much swiftness, I recommend at least 1281. Because in the future, all supports will have a Yearning Relic Set, and the set gives 18% movement speed, identity gauge gain, 10% attack movement speed, and 10% damage increase. Basically, they will be in Aura; if party members are inside the Aura, they will get the 10% damage and 10% attack speed and movement speed buff, which is very good.
Now the question is that in order to reach a maximum movement speed of 140%, you need at least 122% movement speed because you get 18% from the Yearning Set, which is 1281 swiftness. So I have a movement speed of 122%. If I activate my Yearning Set, it goes to 140%. So more swiftness is better, but even more kind of tends to get inefficient. So what I've done is I put a little bit on spec, so I have 713 specs and 1497 on swiftness, which is 32% cooldown. Compared to about 1800, this is a 38% cooldown. In comparison, 1281 is a 27% cooldown. I suggest you theory craft your own ratio as well based on your play style.
Skills and Tripods
Let's go over skills and tripods. First, you have an identity where you have a choice to give damage buff or heal. The more bubble it has, the stronger the effect. For example, three bubble attack buff is a 15% increase in damage while one is five.
Sound Shock is your marking skill. It debuffs your foe to take 10% additional damage. If you have it properly set up, you should be able to do this debuff consistently. Your party is losing 10% DPS if you do not focus, and then all of your sound shocks.
Tripods are maintained explosion for longer-lasting energy. Overwhelm, or Conviction Judgment Rune is equipped.
Harper Rhythm is another marking skill. The Harper will attack like a turret, giving mark as well. If landing your Sound Shock is troublesome, you can actually use the skill as well. Tripods are preference at the top. You have melody increase, and a Note Brand is a must for the marking. Conviction and Judgment skill or Welfare is equipped.
Wind of Music is an important shield mechanic skill that shields allies while the damage flows. Try to land them both for more bubble games, so you have a cooldown tripod, melody increase, and protection tripod is good. As for runes, Wealth Runes are recommended.
Prelude of Storm is the most bubble gaining skill. It has a cooldown tripod, and it can increase bubble gain. A tripod increases the number of hits. Legendary welsh room is usually equipped here.
Soundholic is your main stagger skill, and it also gains a lot of bubbles even without the gaining tripod, so you usually have a damaging tripod, longer sustain for more ticks and focus fire. Overwhelm runes are usually equipped here.
Heavenly Tune is the main buff skill. Make sure this is turned on every cooldown; it is very important. Tripods are cooldown-related, and Geowin Runes are usually often used.
Guardian Tune is a main defensive buff skill. You have the stagger armor here, and you have a tripod that gives an additional shield, and above where you can block one cc, but great bards of high experience and raids tend to know when enemy cc is coming. So they match those timings and provide buffs, which takes extreme skill, but it is used that way. Gio and runes are often used.
Sonic Vibration is your secondary buff skill if your Heavenly Tune is on cooldown and buffs have run out. You place this on top of your allies to give additional buff before your heavenly tune runs out. You have stagger shiel, the buff, and large AoE. Often it is good to place behind the boss because people tend to back attack a lot more than front attacks. Yell Wind or Conviction Judgment Rune is equipped.
Rhythm Buckshot is your main counter skill. Counters should be equipped with a tenacity tripod on your stagger shield, and the third tripod increases cap speed. With Galewind equipped, it's a really good counter to have.
Rhapsody of Light. You take this replacing either Soundholic or Rhythm Buckshot. You're in super armor state due to the second tripod. Shining protection gives huge defense to your party mate. If your teammates tend to fall or are about to take big hits, they will take less damage if you place rafter lights on them, thus avoiding sudden death. Great Barns use higher tier rates to save in grave situations; runes are personal preference.
Card Sets
You do not need to worry about cards for support; just equip Field Boss II or Farewell Weapon. The more HP you have, the more effective your shield and heals become. The We'll Meet Again and Forest of Giants is also a good choice if you do not have heavy armor engraving.
Gameplays
Gameplay is very simple; you make sure your Heavenly Tune is used on every cooldown. At the same time, you need to hit your Sound Shock every time. If you notice, the timing is very tight, but the more swiftness you have, the easier the process. If you're having problems landing your Sound Shock, a hard problem can be replaced with a Buckshot or Soundholic for a little help in marking. When your Heavenly Tune is on cooldown and buffs run out after 8 seconds, you need to use your Sound Wave Vibration to try to keep up the good buff to your party mates. It takes time and experience to know where to place the skill. Your Guardian Tune should be used on every cooldown as well, but if you happen to know when raids have dangerous moments, match those timings and provide them the buff, you'll be surprised how many people will survive death.
The same mechanism can be used in Rhapsody of Light as well. There are specific situations where your party mates could die; try using the Rhapsody of Light on top of them, they will not know now, but as people get more experienced in the game, they will thank you and appreciate your supporting skills.
As for Wind of Music, don't try to chase your teammates to provide them a shield. If you land your Wind of Music to the boss, DPS players tend to be around the area, so make sure you find a good spot to land both allies and enemies; Often DPS classes attack in the back, so you can be there to provide shield and damage to the boss for huge bubble games. Also, for ranged DPS, sometimes they will walk past you; you can use those timings to provide shields to them. At empty times, make sure to use Prelude of Storm or Sound Hallux to fill up your bubble as well.
Bubble Usage
There are a few tricks; bards can now save leftover bubbles, meaning when your bubble is at 1.9, heal or attack buff will be one bubble worth of cost; therefore, you have 0.9 bubbles left over. Heels are not that efficient at 2 or 3 bubbles, but attack damage is really efficient at the third bubble. Managing your bubbles effectively is very important. For example, if you're around 1.8 bubble, you need to determine if your party needs a heal or not for a long time. If you think the party is stable, you should try to go for the three bubble attack buff. If you don't hesitate to use the one bubble heal, make sure your Awakening Usage is deficient as well. When you're at two bubbles, you have a choice. You can use Awakening skill to receive a free bubble for three bubble attack buff or build it up to three. Use the three bubble attack buff, then proceed to use your Awakening with a follow-up one bubble heal. Make sure your Awakening is used in situations if you think the party mates require big support. That's all for the introduction to bards, and I hope it helps you.
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Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLI1JEQ9G8c
