Bard

== Overview ==
After a life of plucking their bows, many Archers feel the itch to strum strings of a different kind. The Bards of Ragnarok Online are the right choice for the idealists among Archers who wish to change the world with their poetry.
The voice of a Bard is laden with magical harmonies, singing hymns that invoke the ancient Gods of Asgard to instill fear in the hearts of his enemies and inspire his comrades to victory with songs of eternal youth and glorious charges. Where their female counterparts, the Dancers, are more bent on disruption, Bards specialize in support, which make them central in all defensive strategies during the War of Emperium.
Supporting with a Bard or Dancer requires a different approach than other classes. Music-based buffs are mostly percentual values, as opposed to the absolute values of Priest buffs, and require careful strategy and positioning, but playing as an Archer should already provide some experience in this respect. Despite their supportive role, one should not forget that Bards are also capable of dealing good quantities of damage, one of their main advantages over Hunters is their immense SP pool which allows them to continually use Double Strafe instead of normal attacks, ensuring a very nice damage output.
In general, there are 2 types of skills for both Dancers and a Bards; skills which can be sung or danced without a partner of the opposite gender and those where the player needs another Bard or Dancer respectively. 
As a Bard, only Instruments, Daggers, and Bows are available for weapons, whereas Dancers can use Whips instead of Instruments.
* When armed with an Instrument:
** Bow skills (Double Strafe, Arrow Shower, Arrow Repel) cannot be used
** Performance Skills, as well as Amp and Encore are available
** Instrument skills (Melody Strike) can be used 
Unbarring Octave and Pang Voice are usable regardless of weapons.
== Job Change Guide ==
See Bard Job Change Guide for detailed information.
In order to become a Bard, one must go to Comodo and look for the Roaming Bard. The applicant has to perform various tasks:
* Item Collection
* Making friends with Mr. Snowman in Lutie
* Singing Test
 
Once these have been completed, the applicant will be made a bard by the Roaming Bard.
== Builds ==
Standard Archer build:
*Owls Eye 10
*Vulture 10
*Improved Concentration 10
*Arrow Shower 9
*Double Strafe 10
Bards are an interesting class due to having two "modes", support and battle. Support mode uses an Instrument to play songs with (and usually a Shield with Racial Reduction Cards for defense, while battle usually involves using a Bow. Because of this, it is generally recommended to put the primary Instrument, a Dagger (for song flashing), the primary Shield (equipping the Bow will remove the Shield), and a Bow all into easily accessible hotkeys.
=== Magic Strings Build ===
* STR: 1
* AGI: 1+
* VIT: 60-80
* INT: 70-90
* DEX: 70-90
* LUK: 1
Magic Strings is the defining skill of Bards, or even is still the defining skill of a Maestro, their third class form. Magic Strings is extremely useful and no other skill or equipment in this game can replace its uses; it is used very frequently for endgame purposes even on Maestros at max level. Players choosing this build will level using Double Strafe and Arrow Shower (unless they choose to level with Melody Strike).
DEX lowers the variable cast time of other players' skills while under the effect of Magic Strings, and also improves damage for any offensive skills a Bard may use. INT reduces players' cast time delay while under the effect and is also helpful for upkeeping SP. VIT is necessary for survivability / HP pool, and also provides bonuses for Song of Lutie, another useful Bard skill. AGI is optional, but does provide bonuses for Impressive Riff if a Bard chooses to acquire this skill (only affects classes using a melee weapon). Some Bards may also already have AGI from leveling as an Archer for the ASPD / FLEE.
Skill Build:
 1/1
 1/1
 10/10
 10/10 This improves walking speed while performing and also improves song bonuses.
 10/10 Good HP buff for raising party HP (does not raise the hp of the caster unless Soul Linked).
 5/5 (optional) This is the only attack that works while performing a song, so it can be useful for aiding party members with additional DPS. Some players may choose to level using this skill and an instrument/shield combo, however it is much slower than just leveling with Double Strafe and Arrow Shower.
 (optional) Awesome skill for doubling incoming exp, however it is very rare to find a partner to cast this with, so unless the player is planning on leveling with a Dancer frequently, this skill is fairly pointless to get.
=== Arrow Shower Build ===
* STR: 1
* AGI: 1+
* VIT: 60-80
* INT: 40-60
* DEX: 80-99
* LUK: 20-40
The Archer skill Arrow Shower is only AoE accessible to a Bard, but still offers good damage even up to level 99. With HP Healing Items, this build can AoE level very effectively and quickly. This build can actually have similar or identical stats with a Magic Strings oriented build, and it is simply the equipment that differs. Double Strafe still offers very high single target damage output.
=== AGI Build ===
* STR: 1
* AGI: 80-99
* VIT: 40-60
* INT: 30-50
* DEX: 80-99
* LUK: 20-40
This build is generally recommended for newer players with less funds. This Bard build is specialized on single target ctrl-click killing, which uses minimal HP / SP Healing Items. Note that Double Strafe can be spammed quicker with higher AGI (and ASPD as a result) as well. Players can also use Arrow Shower to mob level if they carefully run the mobs in circles and avoid taking dmg as much as possible. In pre-renewal this was a popular melee build with weapon, but due to flee nerfs in Renewal, it is not recommended to try this.
== Tactics ==
Dagger switching / Dagger Amping
A popular technique used among Bards to stop a song. By switching to a dagger while performing a song, the song is immediately interrupted. While this has the same effect as Amp, switching weapons can be done at any time, whereas Amp requires SP and can only be used 5 seconds after the song has started. Although it is also possible to cancel a song by equipping a Bow, changing to a Dagger has the advantage of keeping the Bard's shield equipped. Do note though, that switching to a dagger will unequip any Arrows. This does not occur when switching to a Bow.
Flashing 
A tactic used to make full use of the Bard. The Bard casts a song for an instant, then dagger or bow switches to a damage or status dealing configuration to participate in combat. This works because a song's effect stays on players for about 20 seconds after a person leaves the song's AoE. One can also flash by moving around a large formation of players with a single song up.
Song flashing is somewhat complicated and can be confusing however. If a song is replayed before the 20 seconds is over, the buff does not restart. If another person receives a song buff, then the Bard cancels it at 19 seconds, the effect will only last for one more second, instead of an additional 20 seconds (to total 39 seconds). The effect will only be refreshed 20 seconds after the other person initially touches the song area of effect. So if the Bard plays the song with the person being buffed within it, then immediately cancels it, the other person will stay buffed for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds or more (21+ seconds to be safe), the Bard can play the song again to give the buff to the other person again. This is extremely hard to keep track of without external timers / resources, so sometimes Bards just permanently keep the song on. If the Bard does wish to use offensive skills while not playing the song, they can do it by feel and play the song for a couple seconds each time, and replay it when it feels about 20 seconds or more since the last time the song was played.
== Equipment ==
=== Eden Group Equipments Quests ===
:Main article: Eden Group Equipments Quests
Eden Group Equipment is free and a great place to start for gear to use. The Bow is a good weapon and generally a good choice for a Bard due to the high ATK. A Bard does require an instrument to play songs, but any regular instrument will work for this.
=== General Equipment Recommendations ===
:Main article: Equipment
The Equipment article lists some general all purpose equipment that is useful through the PVM phase and also for endgame use as well.
=== Third Class Compatible Equipment ===
:Main article: Maestro Equipment
It is recommended to look at the Equipment recommendations for the Third Class job to see what equipment to strive for, rather than to spend a lot of money on a piece of equipment that will not be used in the future as a third class. However, some equipment may have a high level requirement, or are transcendent only.
=== Weapons ===
After considering what requirement skills have (some skills can only be used with certain weapon types), the Weapon Search tool within the iRO Wiki DB site is very helpful. Generally, for physical classes (both melee and ranged), something with high ATK is best. For magic classes, something with high MATK is best.
Link to the iRO Wiki DB Weapon Search: http://db.irowiki.org/db/weapon-search/
There are 3 types of weapons that bards can use. Daggers, Bows and Instruments. Daggers serve a limited usefulness, a common Knife is usually carried for its use in the dagger-stopping method to cancel songs. Instruments are needed to perform the songs and duets that the bard class can do. Bows are used for killing / leveling purposes.
== Class Data ==
Note: The iRO Bard Skill Section is very outdated. Do not be surprised if some of the skill descriptions differ from the website contents (i.e. Acoustic Rhythm), they have been contrasted with the ingame descriptions and the more up-to-date Korean website.
=== Skills ===
See Archer Skills for first class skills.
====Solo Skills====
Skill	Description 	Levels	Type
 	Reduces SP cost of performances, ensembles, and dances by 20% for 3 minutes. Can be used in conjunction with Encore.	1 	Active
 	Recast the last Performance Skill that was cast at half of the SP cost. 	1 	Active
 	Provides a buff that Increases ASPD 	10 	Active
 	Provides a buff that reduces Cast Time and Cast Delay of skills 	10 	Active
 	Use an instrument-class weapon to do ranged damage to a single target. 	5 	Offensive
 	Increases damage and ASPD with Instruments. Increases Movement Speed while singing. Also increases Max SP. 	10 	Passive
 	Provides a buff that increases Flee Rate and Perfect Dodge 	10 	Active
 	Provides a buff that increases the Max HP and incoming recovery rate 	10 	Active
 	Freeze monsters and party members within caster's view by chance. 	5 	Active
 	Deals Neutral property magic damage to all enemies within 9x9 cells around the user. (PVP only Skill) 	5 	Offensive
==== Ensemble Skills ====
Ensemble skills can only be performed when a Bard and Dancer are in the same party and standing beside each other. When an Ensemble skill is performed by a Bard and Dancer, the lower level of Acoustic Rhythm is performed. (i.e. when a Bard that has learned Acoustic Rhythm Lv.5 performs the skill with a Dancer that has only learned Acoustic Rhythm Lv.3, the Bard and Dancer will perform Acoutic Rhythm Lv.3)
Skill	Description 	Levels	Type
 	Increases resistance against some Elements (Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth) and some Status Effects 	5 	Active
 	Provides a buff that increases ATK and DEF 	5 	Active
 	Casts a 9x9 area around the caster that will inflict confusion and disables all skills (PVP only Skill) 	1 	Active
 	Performs an ensemble that will reduces defense of enemies within 9x9 cells around the user to 0 (PVP only Skill)	1 	Active
 	Performs an ensemble that will grants random buff to the user and nearby party members 	5 	Supportive
 	Sing a dreamy song to put enemies in a 9x9 area to sleep 	1 	Active
 	Provides a buff that increases the EXP earned from monsters killed 	5 	Active
 	Provides a buff that nullifies item costs for most skills 	1 	Active
====Quest Skills====
Skill	Description 	Levels	Type 	Job LevelRequirement	Quest
 	The Bard screams out at a single target, attempting to inflict Chaos status effect.	1 	Active	40 	Pang Voice Quest
==== Soul Link ====
See Bard and Dancer Spirits.
Description 	Skill	Levels	Type
If level 10 Impressive Riff is learned enables the use of Slow Grace for the Soul Link duration 	 	10 	Active
If level 10 Magic Strings is learned enables the use of Lady Luck for the Soul Link duration 	 	10 	Active
If level 10 Perfect Tablature is learned enables the use of Focus Ballet for the Soul Link duration	 	10 	Active
If level 10 Song of Lutie is learned enables the use of Gypsy's Kiss for the Soul Link duration 	 	10 	Active
==== Unimplemented Skills ====
Skill	Description 	Levels 	Type
 	Randomly casts spells in the area of effect for 60 seconds.	Unknown	Offensive
=== Job Bonuses ===
Stat\Amount	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8
STR 	3 	28	 	 	 	 	 	
AGI 	2 	10	11	24	30	35	48	
VIT 	17	33	43	 	 	 	 	
INT 	5 	13	21	40	47	 	 	
DEX 	7 	15	16	19	32	38	46	50
LUK 	6 	9 	20	41	 	 	 	
=== ASPD ===
{| class="wikitablec"	Equip	Attack Speed	From Archer
Bare Handed	156 	0 	
Shield 	-7 	+2 	
Dagger 	-13 	+2 	
Bow 	-8 	+2 	
Instrument 	-5 	N/A 	
== External Links ==
* Skill Simulator
* General Stat Calculator