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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 4:26AM
#601
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One good reason is that MCing Swordmage is very easy for most Bards and you get a free skill out of it. You can use light/heavy blade enchantments instead of ki focus ones. A Farbond Spellblade, for instance, lets you poach the occasional ranged power if you were so inclined.
On the other hand, nearly all of the best powers are implement powers and a bard could spend their entire career using solely their implement of choice. Without melee training or some equivalent, it's not like a bard will threaten much with their MBA.
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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 4:41AM
#602
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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My point is that it's all about investing resources that could've gone elsewhere. The best heroic bard powers according to the handbook are a mix of ranged weapon and implement powers. But heroic is exactly the part of your career where you don't want to invest a feat into MC Swordmage, or another way to get à weapliment.
You could fix this with a Songblade or bow, but that means sacrificing your weapon enchantment. While you may just as well only 'sacrifice' your theme choice (and it's a good one even outside of the ki focus prof), don't lose a feat and your implement enchantment, AND gain access to Accurate ki focus for your implement attacks. Ki foci seem full of win here.
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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 4:44AM
#603
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Date Joined:
Feb 26, 2011
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EI is decent, but Spellscarred, Order Adept, Knight Hospitaler, Ironwrought, and more are above it.
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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 5:22AM
#604
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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There are even some very interesting ki foci out there for bards. Everyone loves Cascading Strikes for a daily reroll and Rain of Hammers for a daily minor action Staggering Note. Shadow Master is for stealth builds, Abduction grants free slides for Skalds, and melee tieflings love Blazing Arc (Hellfire Blood, Stirring Song of Baator).
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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 8:12AM
#605
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Since the Flaming Weapon nerf, is there anything that applies the Fire keyword to implement attacks? I overlooked Blazing Arc ki focus for melee; I might swap out Guardian for EI to pick it up on my Tiefling valbard mc paladin. I'd lose a little defender action but would get Hellfire Blood on OAs and Guiding Strike. Hm...
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11 months ago ::
Aug 14, 2012 - 6:56PM
#606
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Weapon of Summer is a top choice.
"Invokers are probably better round after round but Wizard dailies are devastating. Actually, devastating is too light a word. Wizard daily powers are soul crushing, encounter ending, havoc causing pieces of awesome." -AirPower25 Sear the Flesh, Purify the Soul; Harden the Heart, and Improve the Mind; Born of Blood, but Forged by Fire; The MECH warrior reaches perfection. My Guides
Show
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11 months ago ::
Aug 15, 2012 - 8:48AM
#607
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Alcestis pointed that one out too, will definitely pick it up once mid paragon rolls around. So much for earlier in the game though!
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11 months ago ::
Aug 20, 2012 - 8:23PM
#608
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I'm tampering with the idea of an Hybrid Monk/Bard, to be somekind of Monk playing Shizen, like Shinto Monks of Japan.
Could this hybridation work?, i allready begun to work on it in the CB, but i have more experience with Big strikers genre(Blackguard and co), so with someone more of a lightweight, im a bit at a loss.
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11 months ago ::
Aug 20, 2012 - 11:58PM
#609
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I'm tampering with the idea of an Hybrid Monk/Bard, to be somekind of Monk playing Shizen, like Shinto Monks of Japan.
Could this hybridation work?, i allready begun to work on it in the CB, but i have more experience with Big strikers genre(Blackguard and co), so with someone more of a lightweight, im a bit at a loss.
First rule of hybriding applies here. Ask yourself, specifically and in detail, what you want out of Monk, and then ask yourself, specifically and in detail, what you want out of Bard.
So . . . what are you hoping to get out of this? What is Monk bringing to the table for this character, and what is Bard bringing to the table for them, and why do you need both?
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11 months ago ::
Aug 21, 2012 - 1:05AM
#610
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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Let's see... Dex/Cha, which implies you're going to play a Desert Wind Monk (which the Builder isn't going to let you take as a hybrid, by the way. If that's a dealbreaker for you, forget about this hybrid right now). So Blistering Flourish ensures you'll at least do decent damage.
They're both implement-using classes, and you get to use a wide range of implements (ki foci, wands, all simple melee & ranged, all military ranged and a bunch of military melee weapons). So it's safe to say you can fight in melee as well as at range. This is good, because it opens up a lot of good Bard powers (Rhyme of the Blood-Seeking Blade, for example).
Your CON, INT and WIS are going to suck, so don't bother with a Bardic Virtue. The best Hybrid Talent would be either Bard Armor Proficiency or Unarmored Defense (first one gives you hide armor + light shield prof for +4 AC, second gives you +2 AC and opens up Unarmored Agility for another +2 AC). Either way, your AC is going to be fine.
Since your CON sucks, War Chanter as a paragon path is out, unfortunately. What paragon path you should take depends on your playstyle, I think. If you're primarily a striker, find a good striker PP (maybe multiclass for one, or Voice of Thunder if you can focus on thunder damage. The encounter power is pretty good for a striker). If you're primarily a leader, the Bard has some nice PPs available.
My gut says this is a striker that minors in leader powers to boost itself (Echoing Weapon is awesome for a striker to have) and the party. The combination is far from powerful, but I wouldn't say it sucks.
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