Archer Bard advice, also an efficient mob/place to farm @115 provo

[MadNezz]

Ok finally decided to revisit my archer bard since I need to make some gold. He was raised to about 85ish provo naturally while I farmed for my first house a few months ago. Basically just Ogre Lords, so I didn't need resist. I decided to buy 5/10/15 provo PSs yesterday and after a few hours at the bard table he is now 115 provo.

Current template I need to tweak to put resist in.

100 archery
100 tactx
100 anat
100 heal
100 music
115 provo
72 magery
28 resist

That being said, I cannot really imagine having resist under 80 fighting casting mobs.

I liked being able to access Wind which is why my magery was locked at 72

If i drop anatomy and healing to 80 from GM, what difference will I notice besides not being able to resurrect players easily (I assume a lower amount healed on myself)? Will my heal times go up as well? Also I guess I can live without Wind, heh, so Ill be dropping magery as low as I *need* my resist to be high. I like having some magery for lower level utility spells or I'd just drop it for a small amount of hiding.

So I guess I would be

100 archery
100 tactx
100 music
115 provo
80 heal
80 anat
40 magery
100 resist (lower if i can get away with it and survive, for higher magery)

I am assuming I will be able to provo relatively strong casting mobs with the 115 provo..so my last questions would be what are some good mobs to start earning some gold for a +20 provo PS or just gold in general as i'm poor.

Also what do you think the lowest I could get away with my Resist being at said mobs? Id love to have 60 magery & 80 resist, but I am again going to assume that ill need closer to 90-gm resist.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

 

[Skreww]

When I play a bard its usually just for the money. I geuss alot depends on what you plan to kill and your playstyle. Personaly, on my gold farming provokers, i drop all magic resist and add hiding. the temp i run is: 7xgm

melee/archery skill ( personaly i like melee, throw macing instead of archery and your alot more viable in pvp)
tactics
anatomy
healing
provo
music
hide

This being said you can not enter wind so you may switch out hiding with magery . with provo you rarley go head to head with mobs so IMO resist is pretty useless on a provo gold farmer but to each there own. You can purchase one of those little trapped boxes that are blessed to help u with para. I kill everything from ballys , AW, dragons, to dungeon khaldun with just gm provo and music. What else do ya need to farm gold lol. The option to run a few steps away from a mob and hide without magery will keep you alive alot longer too. This template fits my playstyle WELL, and has made million ontop of millions

 

[Rikket_The_Rogue]

The draw-back of not GM'ing healing is you can fail a bandie without getting hit; not often but it will happen. You will also fail a bandie after fewer 'your fingers slip' msg's but honestly it won't be that big a deal.

For magic resist you can get away with 75 (high-ballin' it) or 50 (if the mobs use more mid-circle spells). Still since you're provo'ing anyways, and using a bow (or are you using a cross-bow?) you are making the mobs fight each other instead of casting at you, and a bow actually out-ranges magic by 2 tiles; 12 tiles (bow) vs. 10 tiles (magic) so you can kite assuming you have enough room.

You can, if you want, shave a few points off music itself.

Your chance to provo a mob is based on the provo skill itself, and then that check is run against music (which is basically a % chance of it working).

So, if you can have the skill to provo a creature 100% of the time, but your music is 80, than the final result is 80% of the time; not because you failed at provoing but you basically hit a 'sour note' in your song thus "ruining thy song". Just keep in mind that if you do that you -will- fail that song on occasion so have a 'plan B', cause two pissed of paragon titans will not sit around and wait for an encore.

 

[MadNezz]

Well I changed it drastically already from "old current" template to :

115 provo
100 music
100 archery
100 tactx
80 anat
80 heal
81.5 resist atm (in training, prob stop around 85 or 90 to test)
58.5 magery atm

Its so easy to change up skills, I really need to get my butt out there in the field to test. Im just trying to think of a good mob in a good provo area that drops at least 1k gold. With just gm provo/music/arch/tactx i could farm ogre lords all day long and those are 700ish gold but slow to spawn even moving around to the multiple areas... thanks all for suggestions. Now if someone could suggest a good test mob that drops around 1k and has a decent spawn rate...

 

[halv]

Bard is fun to play. I'm always changing and testing and actually playing this now:
120 Provo
100 Disco
100 Music
100 Archery
100 Tactics
90 Magic Resist
50 Meditation
60 Magery (shown 64 for 100% recall spell)

I can heal with magery, it's never an issue. Healing and Anatomy are good for defenser and zerker or healmages, but a good bard never gets hurt.
I miss 20% dmg bonus from Anatomy, but i got Discordiance skill to weaken specific ubermobs by 20% and boost firehorn damage to 90. I used to play 120 Peace, that's a fun template too, massiv firehorn damage. For dangerous moments you need invis scrolls. Changing resist for hiding is a possibility.
But i miss kind of leveling like meta talisman or meta pet. I'm thinking about getting the next talisman and try 50 Music and 120 Provo with a Zerker.

Until a bard talisman is coming.

 

[the_bubba]

Now if someone could suggest a good test mob that drops around 1k and has a decent spawn rate...

Destard is a great place because of dragons, greater dragons and the harder spawns in the lower levels. Make sure you use corresponding slayer bows and you'll be just fine. You can farm the same mobs/spawns as all the tamers do. May take a little practice but it's not hard at all. Destard is good, khaldun is good, shame 5 is good - all of the typical hot spots. Don't worry about hitting certain high end mobs all the time - just farm everything and you'll pull good gph. You kind of have to treat it like a tamer; recall into a spot, provo and kill all mobs then recall to the next.

I have 0 resist on both my bards and I find that I don't need it at all. Hiding is a better utility skill to have in my opinion.

 

[Ludwig]

If you need resist as a bard, you're doing it wrong. There is no need to put resist on a template with provo, let alone 115 provo. You can farm 98% of mobs effortlessly with GM provo.

 

[Sipus Maximus]

I 2nd Skreww's advice