Lost Ark – Bard Build Guide

The Bard is the magical musician of the Mage class in Lost Ark. They focus on healing and buffing their allies in battle. To get the most out of the Bard advanced class, you will want to make sure you are running the right build. Here is our Lost Ark Bard Build Guide.

Bard Class overview

The Bard is Lost Ark's ultimate support class. They wield a harp to execute a variety of ranged damage and support skills like healing, buffs, and shields. The drawback of the Bard is that they are pretty squishy and can't do much damage, so they are best used with a party. Luckily, Bard's Identity Skill can help maximize its support.

The Bard's Identity Skill is called Serenade. You earn Serenade Bars during combat for hitting attack abilities, and each activation of a Serenade consumes one bar. You can stack up to three bars at the same time. There are two types of Serenade you can choose to use—one being a damage buff for you and your allies, and the other providing healing.

Related: Lost Ark – Berserker Build Guide

Best Bard build

The Bard will perform best when your build focuses on maximizing the class's overall support capabilities. Players will receive skill points each time they level up and should work toward the below build as they level up to max level. It is recommended that you first max out skills that you use most often or are the most powerful, then fill in the rest of the skills from there. You shouldn't worry about what skills you level first, though, as you can reset your skill points at any time.

Bard Engravings

Once you’ve reached level 50, you can start taking advantage of Engravings. Each class has two Class Engravings that slightly alter the way your class functions. For Bard, these are True Courage and Desperate Salvation. This build focuses on maximizing your support and increasing your survivability. Therefore, you will want to use the Desperate Salvation Engraving.

• True Courage - Serenade of Courage increases outgoing damage by 20 percent and increases crit rate by 10 percent.
• Desperate Salvation - When your recovery effect ends, an additional effect is activated that recovers 24 percent of your max HP.

You will also have access to some general Engravings that can further increase the Bards utility. These can be leveled up a maximum of three times and activated using Engraving points on rings, necklaces, and earrings. Below are a few great Engraving options for Bard.

• Awakening - Reduces the cooldown of your Awakening Skill by 50 percent and has plus-3 maximum uses.
• Spirit Absorption - Attack and movement speed increased by 15 percent.
• Heavy Armor - Heavy Armor Equipment increases all defense by 150 percent.
• Increased Max MP - Max mana increased by 30 percent.

Related: Lost Ark – Shadowhunter Build Guide

Bard Awakening Skills

Awakening Skills are extremely powerful abilities that have longer cooldowns. You will unlock these by following Beatrice’s post-level-50 questlines. Each class has two unique Awakening Skills. However, only one can be equipped at a time. The Awakening Skill you should choose for Bard ties directly to the Engraving that you are using. In the case of this build, you should choose Symphonia.

• Symphonia - Rise into the air and play in an ensemble with angels, granting a shield for every ally within 12 meters that absorbs Damage equal to 100 percent of your Max HP for 10 seconds. Inflict damage to foes, lower Foe's attack power by 30 percent, their attack speed by 20 percent, and their movement speed by 40 percent for 10 seconds. You will also gain a Bubble.
• Oratorio - Play the giant harp and sing with angels, causing an explosion. The explosion causes damage and lowers enemy crit resistance by 12 percent against attacks from all party members for six seconds.

So there you have it, that is our Lost Ark Bard Build Guide. This is an all-around Bard build, but keep in mind that there are builds more focused on specific types of content. Builds are somewhat subjective, so feel free to tweak this build to fit your playstyle as needed.

For more Lost Ark guides, check out All Mokoko Seed locations in Yudia in Lost Ark or How to make gold fast in Lost Ark? right here on Pro Game Guides.