Bard

Bards are jack-of-all-trades adventurers who use music to create a wide variety of magical effects. Though they often use melee weapons, bards are primarily a magic-using class, with the ability to wear plate armor and wield many different types of weapons and instruments. Bards can do a little bit of everything. Their songs can regenerate health and mana, increase attack speed and accuracy, momentarily charm angry enemies, help friends resist many types of damage and even directly damage enemies. Bards are perhaps best known, however, for their ability to greatly increase the foot speed of their group. Bards have the unique ability to create multiple effects at once. By weaving different songs together, a bard can customize effects to any situation. This makes nimble fingers and quick thinking a must for those who want to play a bard. Bards do well both alone and in groups. With the right combination of songs, they can adapt to many different challenges. The bard is a great class for players who enjoy a wide variety of play options but are quick to adapt to a changing situation.

In EverQuest Legends every character combines three classes — Bard can be your primary (locked at level 11) or one of two swappable companion classes.

Skills by level (from the game client)

Level	Skill	Cap
1	1H Blunt	250
1	1H Piercing	250
1	1H Slashing	250
1	Athletics	250
1	Brass Instruments	250
1	Defense	225
1	Dual Wield	210
1	Hand to Hand	195
1	Offense	200
1	Percussion Instruments	250
1	Singing	250
1	Strategy	250
1	Stringed Instruments	250
1	Throwing	250
1	Wind Instruments	250
10	Dodge	205
10	Meditate	1
10	Pick Lock	210
12	Forage	55
15	Sense Traps	120
15	Tracking	100
16	Intimidation	175
17	Kick	225
17	Sneak	75
20	Disarm Traps	120
20	Safe Fall	240
25	Hide	50
25	Parry	130
30	Riposte	105

General & tradeskills (15)

1	Alcohol Tolerance	275
1	Begging	250
1	Bind Wound	275
1	Fishing	200
1	Sense Heading	200
1	Swimming	250
1	Alchemy	300
1	Baking	300
1	Blacksmithing	300
1	Brewing	300
1	Fletching	300
1	Jewelry Making	300
1	Pottery	300
1	Tailoring	300
16	Tinkering	300

Alternate Advancement (browse all)

Bard-specific

Archetype

Stances

Balanced stance

All incoming damage is reduced by 10% and your chance to hit is increased by 10%. Endurance regen excluding out of combat bonus regen is doubled. There is no endurance cost to upkeep this stance.

💬 You probably won't use this until you get a weapon with high base damage and then you'll see the offense and striking stances drain stamina fast. This is a good stance to sit in when you need to regain stamina during a long fight.
Offensive stance

Outgoing melee damage is increased by 100% and your chance to hit is increased by 25%. Every point of bonus damage dealt consumes an equal amount of endurance, with a reduction based on your Strategy skill.
When below 25% endurance, the chance to hit bonus is reduced based on the remaining percent of endurance.
Bonus damage from critical hits and similar effects do not cost endurance.

💬 The best stance for most cases when you're in melee. The 25% bonus to hit really helps you fight higher level mobs and double damage keeps you moving through all levels.
Evasive stance

You have a 95% chance to evade all incoming attacks. Every point of damage evaded consumes 2 endurance, with a reduction based on your Strategy skill. Evasion will fail if you have insufficient endurance, or while playing dead.

💬 This is your 'oh shit!' button when fights get too heavy for offensive stance. Just watch that stamina though. Once it runs out, so does your fun.
Recovery invocation

You regenerate mana twice as fast and spells have a 5% reduced mana cost.
Out of combat regen bonus is not affected.
While out of combat, the regeneration modifier of this invocation is active even if this invocation is not.

💬 You don't need to switch to this invocation to get the regen when you're not in combat! It's just free passive regen!
Inversion invocation

Shifts two-thirds of spell cast time into the global recovery time and 20% of the mana cost into half as much in endurance cost.

💬 The go-to for spellblade setup. You'll have less downtime if you kill enemies faster and spend more time with out of combat regen, so chain nuke them with inversion on!
Overchannel invocation

Cast spells have a -150 resist adjust plus another -15 for every non-hybrid caster class at a cost of 10% of the mana cost in endurance.

💬 Nice if you're hitting a wisp or a higher level mob that's resisting your nukes and dots.
Inviolable invocation

Cast spells are uninterruptible at the cost of 100% more mana and the same amount as endurance.

💬 With channeler stance active, this probably isn't helpful but your experience might be different.