In Lost Ark, players can create their characters from one of the five available Job Classes - Warrior, Martial Artist, Gunner, Mage, and Assassin.
Each of these Job Classes has its own set of subclasses with unique skillsets and playstyles.
Among them is the Bard subclass that is under the Mage Job Class.
According to a short description on the game's website, it can evoke soothing serenades to heal and provide support for their team while unleashing damaging spells on their enemies.
Skill Build
At the start of their journey in Lost Ark as Bards, according to PCGamesN, players will first rely on low-level spells to make them understand its crowd control and Area of Effect (AoE) capabilities.
These include Oratorio, which can inflict holy damage and decreases the enemies' crit resistance and attacks for a while, and Stigma, which can deal damage in an area.
It also has Rhythm Buckshot that can knock a target away aside from damaging them, Heavenly Tune can boost their party members, and Prelude of Storm, which can stun foes.
Once they reach certain levels, they will learn new skills that they can mix and match to create a Skill Build that they can use in situations such as Player-versus-Environment (PvE) and Player-versus-Player (PvP) matches.
According to Rock Paper Shotgun, when they reach Level 50 and have at least 250 Skill Points, they can now create a more balanced Skill Build to take their Bards into the endgame.
Among the best Skills that they can pick for this Build is Harp of Rhythm, which can summon a Harp that can shoot musical notes at enemies within a 14-meter radius.
To boost this skill, they need to put Summoning Will (increasing its duration by up to 4.5 seconds) in Tripod 1.
They can also add in Melody Increase (mana increases for every second that it is on the field) in Tripod 2, and Note Brand (enemies that are hit will receive a debuff that lets them +10% damage from attacks for 2 seconds) in Tripod 3.
Another skill they can include in the build is Sonic Vibration, which can launch any foes in the target location and then slams them to the ground.
Protective Vibration (generates a shield every time the skill hits the enemy) can boost the skill if it is added in Tripod 1.
Brilliant Wave (converts the skill's attack element to Holy) and Wide-Range Attack (lingering aftermath AoE is increased), on the other hand, can do the same once they are added in Tripod 2 and 3, respectively.
Best Engravings
Once their Bard character reaches Level 50, players can apply Engravings to boost their stats or buff their abilities.
There are two kinds of Engravings that they can use - Class Engravings exclusive to a Job Class and Generic Engravings available for all Job Classes.
For the Bard, according to WePC, the best Class Engravings that they can use are Desperate Salvation and True Courage, especially when they want to focus more on healing allies.
Desperate Salvation can provide a buff that can recover the wielder's maximum Health by an additional 24%, while True Courage increases the outgoing damage of its Serenade of Courage by 20% and its crit rate by 10%.
As for the Generic Engravings, Heavy Armor is one of the best choices as it can increase its defense by up to 150%, along with Spirit Absorption (increases its attack and movement speed by 15%).
Increased Max MP (increases its mana by an additional 30%) and Awakening (reduces the cooldown time of its awakening skill by 50%) are also good choices for their Bard characters' Generic Engravings.
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