Bard

*Is Seb the greatest bard in all the land? He would certainly tell you so. Who else has traveled so far and wide, entertaining kings and queens and common folk alike? Who else can captivate an audience with his ballads, and inspire such laughter and tears? Who else can compete as a lover of ladies like Seb?*

*Of course, all his bluster would not save him as he begged for his life before the Cult's minions.*

## Acquisition

Seb may be recruited in Act 3 via character recruitment nodes.

## Skills

### Skill Analysis

#### Inspirational, Master of Songs, and Support

Seb's support skills and passives mesh really well together. Inspirational, Master of Song, and Lute are all unique to Seb. The mana regeneration that Inspirational provides is invaluable to mages or other heroes with expensive skills. This is strong enough on its own; however, it's level 2 upgrade is phenomenal. The passive does not specify a damage type, but, according to the Battle Log, Inspirational's damage mimics the damage types of the skills it's being applied to. Therefore, skills that deal multiple damage types are more effective with Seb in comparison to skills that have only one damage type. Decreased turn delay is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Master of Songs makes Seb the quintessential Song user of the cast. Being able to stack songs is, similarly to Inspirational, good enough on its own; but, boosting his own technique by 25% for each song and decreasing his own turn delay means that buffs get very powerful, very quickly.

Icing on the cake, Support is Bard's single-target support skill, similar to Holy Shield, Blessing, or Bargain. 33% of his attributes is very good, especially when paired with other heroes that benefit from his high Technique. The one downside of Support as a skill is that enemies who move shift around the player's heroes randomly may cause issues.

#### Lute

Lute provides Seb with four Songs to play: Anthem, Ballad, Melody, and Healing Aria. Paired with Master of Songs, Seb, prior to accounting for Relics, can have 100% additional Technique. One important piece of information to note about Songs is that they are buffs, technically, but are functionally akin to auras. Their effects cannot be dispelled or stolen, and the only ways to end a Song's effect are to "cancel" it (intentionally or otherwise) or if the hero using the Song dies. There is no concrete "rotation" of which songs to use first. Ultimately, it will come down to what a player's team composition is and which relics they're using. For example, if the player already has a healer, then it may not be necessary to use Healing Aria first. If a player wants to put out more damage, it may be more beneficial to use Anthem instead of Melody, especially if their damage dealer is crit-based. It should be noted that: Seb and his allies cannot use Songs with the same name without cancelling each other out, unless that ally also has Master of Songs. Additionally, one other ally can use a Song at the same time as Seb without cancelling out under the following conditions: One, the ally must use their Song prior to Seb using his Songs, otherwise *all* of Seb's Songs will be cancelled; and two, the Song that the ally cannot not share a name with a Song Seb will use, otherwise the ally's song will cancel. As an example, Diva can use Healing Aria. but it will not stack with Seb's Healing Aria because they share the same name. If Seb uses Healing Aria after Diva, it will cancel hers. Alternatively, Hellbinder can use Strategize before Seb uses his Songs and they will stack; however, using Hellbinder's Strategize *after* Seb uses his Songs will cause all of Seb's songs to cancel.

A brief summary of these four songs is that, with the exception of Healing Aria, each buff two of the nine combat stats (Endurance, Wisdom, and Technique are excluded), in addition to providing solid utility. It would be difficult to summarize all the utility Seb has to offer in these songs, but some highlights are: Increased critical damage, double MP regeneration, +1 Resist per turn, 15% damage mitigation, 1 debuff dispel per Seb's turn, and an AoE heal that scales with Seb's Technique.

#### Bash, Coward, Hide, and Stumble

Hide is a typical defensive skill for support heroes to have. In a pinch, it allows the hero to mitigate damage for themselves and force other heroes to be targeted. It's best when the party's tank is dead or doesn't have taunt proc'ed on all enemies (or if they're taunt immune). In tandem with Coward, Hide helps Seb avoid becoming Downed prior to heroes establishing their mitigation and healing.

Bash and Stumble are Seb's primary skill and/or filler skills. Bash has a 1.35x Power scaling, which is pretty good on its own; however, Seb's Power is pretty abysmal. Fortunately, his Bash also benefits from Inspirational's bonus 0.25x Technique scaling, which helps, but still isn't that great. Alternatively, Stumble costs 45 MP to do, seemingly, nothing. In actuality, Stumble is a skill that allows Seb to proc his Healing Aria. It's even better than using Defend or Hide actions when at level 3, which reduces his turn delay by 35% after using it, as well as giving him the chance at a free turn. That being said, Seb can be used as a Stumble machine over and over again to heal allies back to full, potentially faster than other healers could. Overall, these abilities serve different roles for Seb and what the player decides is best for them will ultimately come down to their team composition and playstyle.

## Relic Strategy

Due to the nature of Seb's skills and unique passives, there are quite a few Relics that work well on him:

* Battle Plans (Hellbinder) and Slade's Guitar (Rocker) offer Seb two additional, uniquely named Songs for him to use: Strategize and Power Ballad. These increase the Technique boost from Master of Song by an additional 50%, for a total of 150%. Power Ballad is the same as Ballad, just named differently. Additionally, Strategize increases Speed and Technique of allies by 20% while reducing Sleep and Stun damage taken.
* Seb's Lute, Melodic Score, and Jed's Cap (Pioneer) increase Seb's Technique by large margins.
* Shattered Vanity and Sinner's Mask offer Seb even further Song setup due to how Mirror Image clones work, and how they don't work with Sinner's Mask skills. Seb's Mirror Image has all the passives and relics of Seb. This means that, with careful preparation, Seb and his Clone can have two songs with the same name playing at the same time, because they both have Master of Song. Unfortunately, if Seb's clone uses three skills, it will die. Fortunately, though, the player can circumvent the clone's death by using Sinner's Mask skills, which cannot be copied by the Clone. Therefore, in order to maintain double Song uptime, the player must use their two least wanted songs first; then, Mirror Image, Song, Song, and only use Support, Boast, Claim, or Show Off from this point forward. Note that the Clone still has HP and, therefore, can die to AoE damage. If this happens, you cannot double-Song, unless Seb's songs are cancelled by someone else.
* Eldar's Scroll (Devil) is an alternative Relic to grant Seb bonus actions. Each of the Dark Words are very useful debuffs that further improve Seb's utility.
* Sophia's Glass (Diva) provides Seb with an alternative damage skill than Bash. Screech's total scaling is 1x Focus and 0.75x Technique from Sophia's Glass and his Inspirational passive. Additionally, Screech benefits from the Musician's Space Inn Upgrades.

## Team Strategy

Seb is a Jack of all Trades, Master of... well, technically, Songs. He's an incredible support/utility hero who covers a lot of bases: Mitigation, damage buffs, healing, Resists, debuff cleansing, mana regeneration. He has two major drawbacks in that: He cannot tank due to his low base HP; and, being a dedicated damage dealer is difficult for him because his only offensive skills are Bash and, technically, Inspirational. That being said, all of his other positive attributes outweigh these negative ones.

## Quests

### We Merry Three

"Win 5 battles with Seb, Ralf the Jester, and Chuckles the Clown in the party." Reward: +2 Skill Points, Melodic Score Relic gains infinite uses.

### Fair Maidens

"Win an Extreme Danger or Boss battle with Seb and five female allies alive at the end of the battle." Reward: +2 Skill Points, Seb's Lute gains infinite uses.

### Facing Fear

"Defeat the Broodmother or Venom Queen Boss with Seb in the party, and kill 5 Spidering enemies with Seb in the party, in winning battles." Reward: +2 Skill Points.

## Trivia

* Seb's character design may be inspired in part by the D&D stereotype of Bards. In D&D, the stereotype is that Bards have a habit of trying to seduce enemies rather than fighting them due to their high Charisma modifiers. In comparison, Seb is characterized as a womanizer.
* Seb shares similarities to the Bard job in Final Fantasy 14 Online. Both provide songs that passively enhance their allies' abilities through auras.
* Seb also shares similarities to the League of Legends character Sona, Maven of the Strings. She also is musically themed and provides auras to her allies. Her ultimate stuns enemies, which is equivalent to Seb's Bash, though to a lesser extent.