[Naiya]

I love my bard and she is level 19 atm. Working on 20. I approach her with the same mentality I have approached bards in the past "Do not fear me for what I am capable of. Fear me for what I can inspire others to do." It seems to work.

Niaya teams with her Pally buddy McTaggard. Together the two of them are a force. As long as they pull intelligently they can take on +4 two dots. I composed a healing song that has two different heals per pulse (one is the melody and the other a refrain - sorry I can't remember the exact term at the moment) and buffs damage and weapon speed. He heals when one of us gets low, using his lay on hands for me and his castable heal on himself. Only using Lay on hands on himself when needed.

I flank - always - without exception. If you are a light fighter that teams with a tank (esp a pally) I cannot tell you the importance of flanking - you provide them with bonus damage (they have abilities that require flankers to get dot's or bonus damage - love your tanks - flank with them). My specials seem to pop a LOT more often when I flank - could be coincidence - but that is my experience.

I run Humming blades, it never seems to make a difference to my energy base. Depending on your needs flipping between your dances can be essential. Know what to use when. I used the accuracy dance when both Taggy and I switched weapons (me to Longsword from daggers and he to a two handed axe) once our skills go up there I moved back to the damage dance. I've never used the dodge dance, but I'm sure I will later.

If you are a Thestran human, your racial abilities are STELLAR as a bard. It's yet another team buff.

Niaya's particular build is strength based. Every level I pop 5 points into strength and 5 into dex. The remaining 4 go into vit. Every piece of armor (and both weapons) add to either STR or DEX and sometimes to both. Most will add HP to compensate for not pumping the con. She pulls with throwing daggers rather than other weapons. This was a flavor choice. There are min/maxing reasons to go with bows, I simply could not justify it (RP wise) for this toon.

I'm a little concerned that eventually I will regret not adding to my con, but the recharge I get to my Energy due to a high Vit has actually kept Taggy and I alive in times my song might have dropped (with the one spell that bards have at level 19 that requires energy, sometimes you end up getting low on blue juice in combat if your song is high on cost)

this team is pretty offensive. We are built on dropping whatever we can as fast as we can. We can deal with adds as long as we get no more than 3 and they are no more than +1.

This is getting pretty long so I'll close with - this is just ONE build possibility and it is built with the idea that she will NEVER solo. She will ALWAYS team with her tank. There are so many other wonderful possibilities out there for Bards

I hope your love for this class continues to grow as mine has! Best of luck with your bard!