Lost Ark: Bard Class Guide

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Class Overview

Best Bard Engravings

Best Bard Skills

The Bard class is one of Lost Ark's main supports - viable for both PvP and PvE. This is the class you pick if you want to almost guarantee a spot in endgame content.

This guide covers an overview of how the class works, including an overview, the best Engravings for the class, and a complete list of the skills and what they do.

Class Overview

The Bard is one of Lost Ark's dedicated support characters and is usually the top choice for a dedicated support in both PvE and PvP, although the Paladin (and in the future, the Artist) see play as well. This class provides all sorts of buffs to the party, including damage reduction, damage increases, and various other buffs.

The Bard's Identity Skill is Serenade. You earn Serenade Bars during combat for hitting attack abilities, and each activation of a Serenade consumes one bar. You can stack up to three bars at the same time.

There are two types of Serenade you can use:

Serenade of Courage - Boosts attack damage across the board for you and your allies.
Serenade of Salvation - Grants healing to your allies.

Knowing when to use your special Serenade songs is essential to mastering the Bard. Typically, the healing Serenade is more useful as it better suits your role as a support.

For information about the Bard and other classes in Lost Ark, please check out our Class Hub.

Pros

Dedicated Support class in the game
Can support your team in both PvE and PvP - a support role is required for some high-level/endgame content, you will be in high demand

Cons

Squishy
Low attack values, not the best option for someone who wants to get the most out of the game's heavy-hitting/satisfying combat mechanics

Best Bard Engravings

First up, we take a look at Bard's two Class Engravings. These are unique Engravings for the Bard and both impact your playstyle pretty significantly.

True Courage	Desperate Salvation
Level 3 - Serenade of Courage increases outgoing damage by 20% and increases crit rate by 10%	When your recovery effect ends, an additional effect is activated which recovers 24% of your max HP.

As you are mostly focusing on the support side of things with bard, The Song of Courage, then you want to go for the Desperate Salvation Engraving. This boosts your healing effect after the initial burst, as well as provides you with some of your own sustainability. Bards are squishy. Staying alive longer in the fighter will benefit you, and therefore benefit your team.

Other Recommended Engravings For The Bard

Here are the other recommended Engravings for the Bard. These do differ from other popular Engravings in the game.

Awakening	At level 3, Awakening reduces the cooldown of your Awakening skill by -50% and has +3 maximum uses. You want to use your Awakening skill frequently with the Bard.
Heavy Armor	At level 3, Heavy Armor Equipment increases all defense by 150%. This is pretty useful for the squishy Bard.
Spirit Absorption	Attack and Move Speed increased by 15%. Movement speed is great for the Bard to kite the boss/damage.
Increased Max MP	Max mana increased by 30%. Very useful on the Bard. You'll be spamming abilities pretty much off cooldown, so more MP the better.

Best Bard Skills

There are many ways to play the Bard, and you will find different skill setups and builds depending on whether players are dealing with endgame PvE content or PvP arena content.

As such, there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to how you play. For this list of skills, we've opted for a set that should be viable in both PvE and PvP.

Skill	Tripod One	Tripod Two	Tripod Three
Sound Shock Launches a sphere of light that explodes and deals AoE damage.	Quickly Prepare Cooldown is reduced.	Holy Shock Inflicts a debuff which causes enemies to take 10 percent more damage.	N/A
Wind Of Music Deals magical damage and knocks enemies back.	Quickly Prepare Cooldown is reduced.	Melody Increase Grants more chord energy - 150 percent (to allow you to Identity skill more often)	Wind Of Protection Provides a shield to you and your allies, lasts for 4 seconds
Sound Holic A laser-beam type attack that deals damage	Focus Sound Each hit with the beam will increase damage by 5 percent, all the way up to 30 percent	Enhanced Duration Increases how long the skill lasts for	Concentrated Fire Increases damage by a huge amount, but you can no longer move the beam and the duration is shortened
Overture Of Storm Deals damage and stuns enemies for 3 seconds	Quickly Prepare Cooldown is reduced.	Melody Increase Grants more chord energy - 150 percent (to allow you to Identity skill more often)	Powerful Overture Reduces stun duration but increases the damage of the ability
Heavenly Performance Deals damage to surrounding enemies and increases attack speed of allies, boosts mana regen as well	Quickly Prepare Cooldown is reduced.	Strong Performance Increases attack speed boost from this ability	Intense Performance Attack power is also increased when using this Tripod
Harp Of Rhythm Creates a harp that deals damage within a small radius around the Bard	Summoned Will Skill cooldown is reduced by 5 sec.	Melody Increase Grants more chord energy - 150 percent (to allow you to Identity skill more often)	Stigma Notes Inflicts a debuff which causes enemies to take 10 percent more damage.
Sound Wave Vibration Deals damage and knocks enemies into the air, when they fall down extra damage is dealt, also has a lasting AoE effect	Protective Vibration Creates a shield around the Bard which absorbs damage based on defeated enemies, scales up to 30 percent	Brilliant Soundwave If your allies are within the radius of the ability, they get extra attack speed for a short time	Wide Attack Increases the size of the abilities radius by 40 percent
Indomitable Performance	Tenacity Skill cooldown is reduced by 5 sec.	Endless Protection Forms a shield around the Bard and your allies, 15 percent of the Bard's health	N/A

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