Bards are semi's. Which means they have offensive and defensive spells to make up for their lack of purely physical combat prowess. Bards and rangers both do not have access to as many maneuvers because so.


~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er

Not only that but the kind of Cman's offered are pretty much bs.

I view our cmans as salt and pepper but not the main course. There are a couple that I think can be spun as RP tools, and several that are good for defense, but I think it's fair to say that bards aren't meant to be combat masters.

I've trained in spin attack, disarm, cunning defense (which is the one Shadowsongs mentioned), and 2 ranks of combat movement to get side-by-side. I use spin attack all the time, basically because I think it's funny to imagine a swirling rainbow of death and the small AS boost is nice enough. I'm hunting with the same partner virtually all the time, hence SbS. Outside of that, the others are pretty much for defensive purposes.

~Diana, Seomanthe's (much less colorful) keeper

Yeah, I know how you feel. I haven't maxed any of the ones I train in, and I worked out I'll need to be 1.2x in CM before I can... Post cap goooalll.... It hurts to spend 12 or 15 CM points on one skill when you think "Man, I could get 2 ranks in these other two or three instead." It's the same with any training choice though, and just comes down to a character choice. Do you want to be awesome at one or two CMan's, or passable at several?

On the plus side, I think SbS stacks when more party members are training in it? Ya'll can come hunt with me and Greg and we'll form a Roman-legion style shield wall ;)

~Diana, Seomanthe's (much less colorful) keeper

Many bards sort of ignore their cmans or get some fairly basic ones to protect themselves. Not sure if it's their method of hunting or what. A lot of bards hunt with a heavy use of 1105. While that's a very good spell for many things, I found it to be a mana drain for a more physical bard. I used sweep instead for years. That shifted to charge when I switched to polearms. Shield bash is not as good but almost...and entertaining if you have a nice shield with flares.

Side by side is nice, and very nice post cap. Since I hunt often with a militia (many members of which have side by side) it's a good skill to have for a nice AS bump. Two ranks of Cmovement isn't such a terrible requirement really.

I think almost any bard that's not a pure/archer should have one knockdown and/or stancing maneuver (Sweep/Charge, shield bash and feint). After that the next best stuff is going to be focus, side by side and disarm. Disarm is more important for archers and some pure builds than a knockdown maneuver. Both shield bash and charge will knockdown and stance critters...as well as stun or kill them. Sweep doesn't stance, so that's something to consider, but it is the most consistent at proning a critter. I never was one to get cheapshots or the one time I did I probably didn't give it enough of a chance to test. You could do a lot of things with it, assuming you knew or macro'd all of them, but it struck me that they weren't as successful as a more focused skill. Feint was a little too one dimensional to me. If you were going to get feint, I found dirt kick to be more fun.

~Galenok

I'm curious how many bards have and actively use the Dirtkick CMAN? Considering it is just as effective from defensive stance as it is from offensive stance it would seem that it would prove to be highly useful in the upper echelon of levels...or below. It also has a very low stamina cost.


~Aulis
Forums Manager
QC'er