Bards are the most sought-aftersupport classinLost Ark, providing buffs, shields, and heals to their party members. Many players struggle with them in solo content, such as Chaos Dungeons, due to their perceived lower damage output. But did you know they canabsolutely SLAPwith the right build? You won’t have to wait and queue with other players and hope they do a good job damaging while you support. This build will make you rethink your go-to class to use forfarming Chaos Dungeons. If you’re new to Bard don’t stress! We did all the hard work and figured it all out for you!
We’ve tested multiple skills and builds in order to make this guide, and one big contributing factor in this build relies on a lesser-known engraving. It is often overlooked in other forms of content, but thePreemptive Strike Combat Engravingis one of the best choices to make inChaos Dungeons. (A more detailed explanation can be found here)
Bard Utilizing Preemptive Strike in a Chaos Dungeon
Skills To Use In Chaos Dungeons As A Bard
In the first zone, you can simply group up enemies and rotate usage of these skills:Heavenly Tune,Prelude of Storm,Rhythm Buckshot,Sonic Vibration, orSoundholic. All of these skills should be able to one-hit kill normal enemies,
In the second zone, there is a simple rotation that willentirely clear the screendue to the chain reaction effect of the third tripod:Aria of DeathforPrelude of Death.
Death’s End Debuff from Prelude of Death, monsters also glow red.
Grouping up all 3 Named monsters and using this rotation should reset all the skill’s cooldown so that you can repeat this again when the next three Named monsters spawn. This canalso be used to eliminate the Challenge monsterat the end of this zone; just be sure that the enemies marked with the debuff from Prelude of Death are very close to the boss so that it becomes the target of the debuff.
Finally, theAwakening Skill:Oratorio, can also be used on thesecond roomsChallengetype enemy, as it should kill it in one hit. For even more damage, use the Identity Skill:Serenade of Courageas soon as you may. Or if you’ve taken too much damage useSerenade of Salvationfor a heal.
Here’s a table detailing which Bard skills to choose as well as a brief description of the purpose of that skill. The skills below are sorted by which target they perform well against. (in order of lowest to highest HP: Normal, Named, Challenge, Boss).
Description
Wind of Music
Quick Prep
Enhanced Cast
Wind of Protection
Quick Recharge
Provides Shield;LowDamage
Prelude of Death
Death Amplification
Aria of Death
Applies debuff to many targets; upon death,Aria of Deathcausesmassive damageto a nearby target.
Soundholic
Sound Concentration
Sound Barrier
Focus Fire
MediumDamage, ClearsNormalenemies well.
Sonic Vibration
Agile Cast
Frozen Core
Wide-Angle Attack
MediumDamage, ClearsNormalenemies really well.
Rhythm Buckshot
Melody Increase
Shot Concentration
HighDamage, ClearsNormalenemies really well.
Heavenly Tune
Tune for Me
Prelude of Storm
Jungle’s Law
Lightning Enhancement
Lightning Concentration
HighDamage; ClearsNamedenemies well.
Guardian Tune
Powerful Protection
High Damage; ClearsNamedenemies well.
Quick Rechargecan be used on all skills to potentially allow for more usage ofPrelude to Death
Engravings Priority For Chaos Dungeons
For the Bard, here are theEngravingsyou can prioritize for Chaos Dungeons using thePreemptive Strike build:
Here are the engravings that aresupplementaryto the Bard class in general.
Bard Gem Priority In Chaos Dungeons
It would be more economical to only prioritize cooldown gems as a support for group content as your damage is not as important. However, if you simply want tomaximizeyour Chaos Dungeon experience follow this order.
Stat Allocation
Stat allocation comes from the Accessories (Necklace, Earring, and Rings). It can be very expensive to have a different set of Accessories for Chaos Dungeons so you should choose those stats based on the class engraving you’ve chosen to play. Generally speaking, you will only ever find Bards utilizing theDesperate SalvationClass Engraving and not theTrue CourageClass Engraving due to the Bard’s very low damage output.
Tripod Skill Tree Effects
AtTransfer Skill Tree NPC, you should transfer tripod skill tree effects from looted gear to your equipped gear. (don’t forget to save them in the Tripod inventory tab too for multiple builds!) Not every Tripod can be leveled up so here are the Tripods that can be affected by Skill Tree Effects that are used in this Chaos Dungeon build:
