The build: 61 Bard / 10 Marksman / 5 Riftstalker
Alternative build: 61 Bard / 10 Marksman / 5 Nightblade
If you choose to use the alternative build, you will lose Planebound Resilience which is an endurance buff and Shadow Shift. This is a pretty big loss due to the more survivability you will get with more endurance and Bard’s are great support so you want to stay alive especially if you are lose on endurance and for specific raid fights such as Regulos or Crucia.
This is a pretty decent quick walkthrough to Bard to the few or none out there or as detailed. I may update this overtime with even much more information such as more details on what buffs or buffs do not stack then already mentioned or of course, if anything changes from patches and what not else. I also on rare occasion bard, so I almost never do.
I recommend finding out, some of what I have actually listed below as far as Coda’s go, on what buffs and debuffs do not stack with others if you are new to bard or your guild wants you to learn how to better or become a better bard. It is actually pretty easy, a lot easier than it use to be in vanilla Rift too.
Cadence
Cadenza
Cadence is of course your healing, you are going to use this to build your combo points. It is also okay to clip a cast of this.
When you do not need to do any healing, you will use Cadenza to deal damage instead.
You are not going to use Power Chord, it is a HPS and DPS loss. However with that said, the only time you will want to use it and I recommend is to generate 2 quick combo points to put up a debuff or anything else either it be in PVE or PVP situation.
Coda of Distress
Coda of Cowardice
Coda of Jeopardy
Coda of Restoration
Coda of Fury
Coda of Wrath
Coda of Distress increases non-physical damage taken by 7% for 30 seconds when used with 5 combo points.
Coda of Cowardice increases physical damage taken by 5% for 30 seconds when used with 5 combo points.
Coda of Jeopardy causes the enemy to take additional physical damage for 30 seconds when used with 5 combo points.
Coda of Restoration restores health up to 5 party or raid members.
Coda of Fury deals life damage per combo point for a single enemy.
Coda of Wrath deals life damage per combo point up to 5 enemies.
Coda of Distress
Coda of Cowardice
Coda of Jeopardy
These should have 100% uptime. However, you might have an Archon putting up these debuffs instead so figure it out with your Archon or someone else from another class and spec.
Coda of Cowardice overwrites Ashen Defense from an Archon.
Coda of Distress overwrites Crumbling Resistance from an Archon or Spiritual Deficiency from an Inquisitor.
Coda of Jeopardy overwrites Illuminate from an Archon, Spotter’s Call from a Beastmaster or Thorns of Ire from a Druid.
Motif of Bravery
Motif of Tenacity
Motif of Regeneration
These should have 100% uptime after you manually apply them since you are specced into Bardic Inspiration which your Coda’s have 20% chance per combo point to refresh existing Motifs.
Verse of Joy
This restores mana, charge, energy and power to everyone in the raid each second for 15 seconds.
If you want to put this into a macro and informing your raid that it is up, feel free too. I personally am not a fan of those.
You will want to use it when Flaring Power is put up, then use it on every cooldown after that unless you are informed or think otherwise.
#show Virtuoso
cast Riff
cast Virtuoso
Virtuoso will cause combo points to persist when using Codas for 15 seconds. While this is up, you are likely going to spam Coda of Restoration while you have Virtuoso up. This would be to help with healing.
If you do not need to do any healing, you will spam either Coda of Fury for a single target enemy or Coda of Wrath for AOE on up to 5 enemies.
Orchestra of the Planes
This places an aura at the Rogue’s feet that increases the damage of the raid members by 15%, healing them and dealing life damage up to 5 enemies over 15 seconds. Everyone must stack on the Rogue for them to get this as the radius is not extremely far. This has a 2 minute cooldown.
#show Harmonic Distortion
cast @focus Harmonic Distortion
#show Harmonic Distortion
cast @mouseoverui Harmonic Distortion
You can use both of these macros or just the focus macro to make things easier for you, and also depending on what you will be doing.
Everytime that you use a Coda, you get a 20% chance per combo point to gain Harmonic Energy. This increases damage by 5% and stacks up to 5 times. This ability will consume 1 stack of Harmonic Energy and heal a single target for certain amount of health.
Verse of Occlusion
This places a shield on all raid members and absorbing up to 1586 damage for 30 seconds. This has a 2 minute cooldown.
Verse of Vitality
This is a instant heal that restores health up to 5 party or raid members and it has a cooldown of 20 seconds.
On The Double
Shadow Shift
Verse of Captivation - Mesmerizes for 8 seconds or until damage on a single enemy.
Motif of Encouragement - Forces up to 5 nearby critters to follow the Rogue for 20 seconds.
These abilities you may never, ever use and might more so in the open world and against mobs rather than actually ever using them in a raid or dungeon.
Fanfare of Power
Fanfare of Vigor
Anthem of Competence or Anthem of Fervor
Only 1 Anthem can be active at a time, you will more than likely be using or told to use Competence for the run speed buff and a Chloro will put up Living Energy. You also have Anthem of Glory but would also unlikely be using it.
Planebound Resilience
This is your endurance buff.
You also have a buff that you can toggle, when wanting to deal damage up to 3 enemies called Multiple Oscillations but when active it does cause Cadence, Cadenza and Power Chord to deal 50% less damage.
