Bard is one of the more unconventional classes in Dark and Darker, playing a purely support role that only excels at team play. Nevertheless, Bards can be a necessary addition to any party as their buffs and debuffs can be very powerful if played in the right hands.
Table of Contents
Bard Skills
- Bards have 5 Skills available for their class. Dissonance
- Creates a noise that disables all spell casting within a certain area and inflicts Silence on all enemies for 3 seconds
- Encore
- The next song you perform after a successful song will be automatically played 50% faster and will be a guaranteed success.
- Music Memory
- Can store up to 5 songs
- Music Memory 2
- Can store up to 5 more songs
- Party Maker
- Remove the drunk effect from all allies.
The best two Skills to take for Bards looking to be in combat more oftern are Music Memory and Encore. However, Music Memory I and II are suited for Bards who just want to be a pure support player. Party Maker is useless, and Dissonance is fairly niche in its uses.
Bard Perks
- Charismatic Performance
- Automatically turns “good” performances into a “perfect” performance
- Dancing Feet
- Gain +10 movement speed when carrying any instrument
- Fermata
- Gain +5 Resourcefulness
- Jolly Time
- Drinking Ale heals 5 Health and grants +10 movement speed while drunk.
- Lore Mastery
- Both Regular Interaction Speed and Magical Interaction Speed are increased by 25%
- Melodic Protection
- You gain 30% physical damage reduction while playing a song.
- Rapier Mastery
- While you have rapier equipped any buff to its weapon damage is further increased by +2 and Action Speed increases by an additional +5%.
- Reinforced Instruments
- Using an instrument to attack grants it a 50% damage bonus. This does not stack with other song buffs.
- Story Teller
- All party members within 4.5 meters of you gain +3 Will and Knowledge.
- Superior Dexterity
- Switching between different weapons or items is 50% quicker.
- Wanderer's Luck
- Increases the drop chance of high-quality items and gain +50 to Luck.
- War Song
- If the performance is successful, increase the weapon damage buff of yourself and allies within 4.5 meters by +3 for 6 seconds.
Some perks may depend on your preferred playstyle. If you wish to be purely support, take Story Teller, Charismatic Performance, Dancing Feet, and War Song. Story Teller grants a constant stat boost for teammates close to you. Charismatic Performance grants forgiveness for messing up a song while also letting you retain the best possible value of your buffs. Meanwhile, Dancing Feet helps you avoid fights with its extra movement and War Song will buff your entire team’s weapon damage by a slight amount.
If you are playing solo, then take Superior Dexterity, Rapier Mastery, Melodic Protection, and Fermata.
Bard Mechanics
Like all the other caster classes in Dark and Darker, Bards have their own “magic” system called Song Memory. What makes the Bard unique is that each song has a small rhythm minigame tied to it to measure the strength of the buffs granted. The better you play a song, the more value you gain with the buff. This is also one of the Bard’s biggest weaknesses as you are vulnerable while playing song. If you are in a safe space or have teammates covering you, taking the time to perfect a song will grant some highly potent buffs that will give everyone the best advantage.
A bard needs their instruments, which is directly tied to the songs you can play while in a dungeon. Each song can only be played with a specific instrument, either the Drum, Flute, Lyre and Lute. If you want the widest access to songs, you will need to bring more than one instrument in a raid.
Instruments and Available Songs
As mentioned earlier, songs can only be played with a certain instrument. Here are the songs, their effects, and the instruments required.
Drums
- Rousing Rhythms
- Increases your and nearby allies’ attributes by +2 by 30/60/90 seconds.
- Allegro
- Gradually grants extra Action Speed and Spell Casting Speed to you and nearby allies for 8 seconds.
- Accelerando
- Gradually increase your movement speed and that of nearby allies for 8 seconds.
- Beats of Alacrity
- Grants +5/+7/+9 extra movement speed for 30/60/120 seconds. The song does not stack on itself. This buff only applies to the caster.
- Din of Darkness
- Deals 1/3/5 Dark magic damage per beat hit to all enemies in an area around the performer.
Flute
- Unchained Harmony
- Automatically opens any locked door or chest in the vicinity of the caster. Does not work for doors that require a special key.
- Shriek of Weakness
- Debuffs the Physical Attack of all nearby enemies by -3/-4/-5 and Armor Rating by -10/-20/-30 for 6/12/18 seconds.
- Piercing Shrill
- Deals 15/20/25 Physical damage to a target.
- Banshee’s Howl
- Reduces all Attributes of all nearby enemies by -1/-2/-3 for 20 seconds. Bosses and mini bosses are not affected by this song.
Lute
- Song of Silence
- Enemies within the song’s radius are Silenced for 1/1.5/2 seconds. Bosses and mini bosses are not affected by this spell.
- Peacemaking
- All nearby players and monsters are unable to attack while the song is being played.
- Lament of Languor
- Reduces the movement of all nearby enemies by -10 for 6/12/18 seconds.
- Chaotic Discord
- Causes nearby monsters to attack the nearest target except the performer. Monsters killed by infighting are credited as the Bard’s kill.
- Aria of Alacrity
- Grants a bonus 4%/6%/8% to Action Speed for 30/60/120. The song does not stack on itself. This buff only applies to the caster.
Lyre
- Tranquility
- Gradually restores 1 Health per second for 10/20/30 seconds to nearby resting allies.
- Song of Shadow
- Turns you and all nearby allies invisible for 15/25/35 seconds. Invisibility breaks upon movement.
- Harmonic Shield
- Grants a +15 flat Armor Rating and +15 flat Magic Resistance buff to self and all nearby allies for 60/90/120 seconds.
- Chorale of Clarity
- Restores 8 Spell Points every 2 seconds to all nearby resting allies for a duration of 8/16/24 seconds.
- Ballad of Courage
- Grants 5/7/10 increased Physical Attack for 30/60/120 seconds. The song does not stack on itself. This buff only applies to the caster.
Best Songs
The best songs to bring with you whenever you're on a team are Aria of Alacrity, Beats of Alacrity, Harmonic Shield, Rousing Rhythms, Accelerando, and Allegro. If playing solo, then Lament of Languor, Shriek of Weakness, Unchained Harmony, Beats of Alacrity and Harmonic Shield will be good to run with, especially for chasing down and fighting other players in a dungeon.
Bard Gear and Affixes
Without a doubt, the only weapon that you should be looking for is the Rapier. It has a fast attack speed, a far reach and a reliable moveset to boot. While the Falchion does more damage, the Rapier better synergizes with the Bard’s perks. For gear affixes, look for +All Attributes, Knowledge, damage bonuses for your weapons and Dexterity.
PvE and PvP
As a Bard, you will want to maintain constant uptime on your songs, as these will be needed to give you and your team an edge in higher level dungeons, especially in High Roller mode.
While some songs do give the maximum amount when playing perfectly, it is generally accepted that you should at least play the song at “great” as you spend less time playing one song and can switch to another song faster for a larger volume of buffs. Don’t be afraid to deliberately mess up a song as long as it grants the “great” value.
Once you have all your buffs out, you can try and sneak in some hits with your Rapier or even throw some of your instruments for ranged damage. Despite the non-threatening look of your instruments, they can still deal a solid amount of damage when thrown at an enemy, though only do this when you’ve performed all the songs in your Memory slot.
