Bard shield questions

1. Tank shields have some effect that procs a heal. IIRC this proc comes off of a bash. IIRC bards cannot bash. Does this mean the proc heal does not apply to bards?

2. What is an achievable shield augment that I can get with a TOV raid geared magician/mostly TOV raid geared box auto attack & melody bard? And don't say new anniversary augment, that will be worn on the bard.

3. Is there ever a time when you use a shield as a bard? When I run 4 dots the bard will sometimes pull aggro off the pet. I was thinking the loss of the second weapon DPS would be outweighed by the survivability a shield could provide. Is this poor logic?

1. correct. this factor also makes those procs wayyyy better for knights than for warriors since knights bash-on-riposte where warriors kick-on-riposte

2. Velium Threaded Gem of Vigor

3. no.

I’m not a Bard, I’m a Ranger. So I cannot answer everything, but I will answer what I can.

1 : Lacking access to tank shields with such procs, I do not know. I would suspect, however, that if they are proc’d on a Bash, and you cannot Bash, then you cannot proc it.

2 : You want the highest AC augs that you can find. You won’t find any Slot 3 AC augs but that leaves both Slot 5 and Slot 7, 8.

You want the 35 AC raid LDoN aug for the slot 5, I want to say it drops from (one of?) the Everfrost Raid.

Raidloot.com has 3 good augs for the slot 7, 8 on your shield. One is a mob drop, Ry’Gorr Glass Gem, at 65 AC. The other two are 70 AC, Velium Threaded Gem of Vigor and Velium Threaded Gem of Adroitness. Ideally, you would use one of those latter two, depending on which Heroics you want on your shield. The first one, the mob drop, would be a decent alternative if neither of the Velium Threaded are available due to being in use elsewhere or Lore Grouped out of consideration.

3 : Not a Bard. As a Ranger I use a shield only when I have to, usually when I’m trying to tank some named mob that would kill me without the shield. For going turtle like that, I have both my shield and a Honed Invested Wurmslayer. For you ... I’d only use a shield when absolutely necessary to avoid death, when the mob would kill you without the shield. Especially if it is a bard box for your Magician main.

I was forced by friends to get the bridgekeeper's memory in.. EOK. I never used it, I stuffed it in my bank,.. and I think it sits there still. I never use a shield. but you are talking a bard box... so.. one MIGHT help you..

I use one super rarely for pulling, but I rely on DA more for that situation. However, when boxing I often do things that are discouraged on other classes (cutting corners) and I wouldn't judge someone for using a shield on a bard if that's what they needed to do to get the job done. I think it might be more simple to use 3 DoTs to manage the aggro though, or something like that.

So I currently do not use insults because of a lack of synergy AA. My goal is once I reach 13/13 synergy to then bring in insults so both bard and magician get the benefit and take away a DOT at that point.

Off topic question, does synergy also work on the mage pet? I assume not swarm pets, but on earth/water...

About the only time I ever use a shield is during a really sketchy pull. Does it help? Probably not. But it's like a safety blanket; it makes me feel safer.

Yes, Synergy works on pets, just not swarm pets (as you pointed out).

Just because no one has mentioned it, I figured I might as well just share with those that don’t know this: [unless this had been changed] while Bards cannot bash, they can slam while under the effects of a large race illusion and that while slam will virtually never hit, it will proc the heal quite regularly.

at the cost of Kicks+Selo'sKicks ? ehhhh

And your offhand weapon damage.
Might be useful though if youre trying to tank instead of dps.

I just want to clarify that I’m not recommending this. I’m just sharing that it works.

As far as having a shield for me it is very situational. I do have a sword and board Bando. There are times when tanks get rolled and I do end up with the agro in the raid. I will hit my deft dance, and then hit my sword and board bando, just as deft dance is running out I will throw out my swarms, then hit shield of notes and last stand. By this time the clerics are on me until a tank is in place. Our tanks are good at knowing they can hit breather get their buffs and take over the mob with some endurance and defensives rolling. If I am still alive when the tanks take over I hit my normal melee dps bando, hit fade a couple times and return to the back of the mob