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In my endless rampage around starting new characters and getting them to 20 or so, just to flesh out my knowledge of low level guilds, what spells do people recommend a new bard take, in what order, and why? The (glaringly) obvious is caress, since it's free.
Caress is also awesome for training performance despite the weather, and pretty great for training as a low-level cyclic.
For a newb Bard, cyclics are basically a no-brainer. Get one for each magic skill and you can basically have all those skills between 30-34/34 until 10th circle with almost no effort. AEWO is the go-to Debilitation trainer, and my magics are on par with a 30th circle Bard and I can still lock it within a few minutes of getting into combat.
I can't recall what order I got my first spells in, but it was something like this:
CARE -> FAE -> BOS -> GJ -> AEWO -> HODI and then some other stuff but I totally can't remember the order, and it probably doesn't much matter at that point.
Once cyclics stop being quite so awesome for training, I got WOTM, and REPR, and AOT, so that I could script magics rather than just run cyclics.
I
"[A]ll PC necromancers are now redeemed good guys..." ~ GM Raesh
For a newb Bard, cyclics are basically a no-brainer. Get one for each magic skill and you can basically have all those skills between 30-34/34 until 10th circle with almost no effort. AEWO is the go-to Debilitation trainer, and my magics are on par with a 30th circle Bard and I can still lock it within a few minutes of getting into combat.
I can't recall what order I got my first spells in, but it was something like this:
CARE -> FAE -> BOS -> GJ -> AEWO -> HODI and then some other stuff but I totally can't remember the order, and it probably doesn't much matter at that point.
Once cyclics stop being quite so awesome for training, I got WOTM, and REPR, and AOT, so that I could script magics rather than just run cyclics.
I
"[A]ll PC necromancers are now redeemed good guys..." ~ GM Raesh
If I were doing this from 1, I'd go with something like this:
1: CARE + GJ (Warding + Utility)
3: AEWO (debil)
4: FAE (augmentation)
5: BOS (TOM)
6: WoTM (for crafting)
9: Misd (for stealth training) You'll learn debilitation so you can drop AOEW at this point if you need the slots.
10: REPR
12: RAGE
14: HODI
15: DRUM
16: RESO
20: BOTF + WORD + DALU scroll
You can move HODI up a little higher if you're concerned about fatigue and want to use the scroll slot for something else (like MISD).
Pick up DALU on a scroll. I'm not overly impressed with DMRS, but that's just me.
You shouldn't have a problem with performance, but you can bump up ECRY if you do.
1: CARE + GJ (Warding + Utility)
3: AEWO (debil)
4: FAE (augmentation)
5: BOS (TOM)
6: WoTM (for crafting)
9: Misd (for stealth training) You'll learn debilitation so you can drop AOEW at this point if you need the slots.
10: REPR
12: RAGE
14: HODI
15: DRUM
16: RESO
20: BOTF + WORD + DALU scroll
You can move HODI up a little higher if you're concerned about fatigue and want to use the scroll slot for something else (like MISD).
Pick up DALU on a scroll. I'm not overly impressed with DMRS, but that's just me.
You shouldn't have a problem with performance, but you can bump up ECRY if you do.
With the caveat that this is entirely armchair advice, I think the first question to ask is if you tend to have fatigue issues with starting characters. If so, I'd rush for HODI. Go via ECRY, since the buff will speed up your performance training. For that reason, I think ECRY is probably a good choice for an early augmentation spell regardless of whether or not you want HODI.
Then I see a couple options. You could go GJ->AEWO to cover Warding and Debilitation, although GJ will be pretty much useless for anything other than training. Alternatively, you could do MAF and DMRS. This has the advantage that MAF is actually useful, and you might prefer DMRS over AEWO since it's non-cyclic and AoE. On the other hand, it's more slots, and maybe you want a cyclic debilitation so you can turn it on and then ignore it.
An alternate path would be FAE, WOTM, MISD, REPR, RAGE. FAE covers your early augmentation, WOTM is handy if you want to craft, MISD is your debilitation and helps with early stealth training, REPR is useless but it gets you warding, and then RAGE is your first real combat buff.
Add in BoS at some point. You'll want it eventually as a prereq, but you can make do with STRA scrolls until then.
Then I see a couple options. You could go GJ->AEWO to cover Warding and Debilitation, although GJ will be pretty much useless for anything other than training. Alternatively, you could do MAF and DMRS. This has the advantage that MAF is actually useful, and you might prefer DMRS over AEWO since it's non-cyclic and AoE. On the other hand, it's more slots, and maybe you want a cyclic debilitation so you can turn it on and then ignore it.
An alternate path would be FAE, WOTM, MISD, REPR, RAGE. FAE covers your early augmentation, WOTM is handy if you want to craft, MISD is your debilitation and helps with early stealth training, REPR is useless but it gets you warding, and then RAGE is your first real combat buff.
Add in BoS at some point. You'll want it eventually as a prereq, but you can make do with STRA scrolls until then.
ILLIENA's advice is solid. If it were me personally, I'd do:
1. ECRY (Aug) -> HODI (Util) -- the early fatigue + vit was amazing when I did this. Getting performance done more quickly is a good bonus.
2. GJ (Ward) -> AEWO (Debil) -- cyclics are SO nice for easy training. Hodi might just be so good that you don't want to give it up in combat though, so keep that in mind. If that's the case, you could try DMRS instead.
3. STRA (TM) from scroll.
4. BOTF (Aug) for a cyclic Augmentation to make things easier. It also helps to have up while buffing (at least later on).
Beyond that, rush for HARM and then NAME as soon as you can get them, to get yourself some defensive help. You will probably want MAF in the mean time. If you can find Swirling Winds or Sure Footing on a scroll, don't hesitate to use those too.
If you want to do stealth, keep in mind that MISD will last you about one minute at first. It IS helpful, just beware.
1. ECRY (Aug) -> HODI (Util) -- the early fatigue + vit was amazing when I did this. Getting performance done more quickly is a good bonus.
2. GJ (Ward) -> AEWO (Debil) -- cyclics are SO nice for easy training. Hodi might just be so good that you don't want to give it up in combat though, so keep that in mind. If that's the case, you could try DMRS instead.
3. STRA (TM) from scroll.
4. BOTF (Aug) for a cyclic Augmentation to make things easier. It also helps to have up while buffing (at least later on).
Beyond that, rush for HARM and then NAME as soon as you can get them, to get yourself some defensive help. You will probably want MAF in the mean time. If you can find Swirling Winds or Sure Footing on a scroll, don't hesitate to use those too.
If you want to do stealth, keep in mind that MISD will last you about one minute at first. It IS helpful, just beware.
