Shattered Kingdoms

I know that this subject has been talked about at length in another thread but I am curious to just a detail on the subject.

If you do decide to invest into art for your bard... how many trains are sufficent? I have not as yet mastered the skill but I fail more that I hit on NPCs so I have not even started trying to get the PCs yet.

I've seen mentioning of a class that only needs 6 art and read elsewhere of others that need more but what is this limit for bards?

Either max it (6) or don't train it at all. 3 trains to art isn't really worth the effort.

I generally agree with Benzo, although, I did find my songs do better even with 3 art trains. Which is the amount Caladian had before I deleted

Obviously max art on a bard. No question about it.

I disagree with the other callers.

Given the bard's hybrid function and how few of his skills are affected by art, those points that you would put into ART would do a lot more for your character if they were dumped into HP & stats. If you reach a point that your stats are as high as you need/want them to be and you have maxed out your HP trains, and then you want to train ART or mana, then by all means do so. But I personally think it's a waste of stat trains before then.

This opinion could change if the bard were a member of a cabal that has ART-affected spells.

Since Art does affect the Bard's most powerful songs, it is recommended that a bard does at least get some art trains. Although, one can wait quite a while before it is truly useful.

You have to be a pretty big newb to not train art on a bard, and it has nothing to do with the effectiveness of songs.

Why people who are awful at pk/have little experience in it insist on writing about things that relate to pk and acting as if they have authority on the subject is hilarious to me.

art for bards are useless until they can recite scrolls which is Mentor I believe. If not at that level. You can do songs of dancing but it is an rp song at best but can be one of the most powerful songs if it is combined with another song. Otherwise, it is still useless til scrolls

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but you really aren't the shining beacon of SK magnificence that you think you are.
Yeah, sorry, I know that's a hard pill for you to swallow, and the thought probably hurts your feelings, but it's really time to accept reality.


There are some characters who are created and exist purely for PK. They will be plevelled and once attaining a certain level, they will do nothing but PK until deletion.
There are other characters who are created and exist purely for RP.
And yet there are other characters who are created and their players have a very full playing experience, running the gamut from experimenting and learning their characters, exploring new areas, roleplaying their character, and some lesser amount of PK.

Then there is the concept of PK itself. Some people consider their PK experiences "successful" if they simply survive the vast majority of PK they enter into. Some people consider it success if they score more kills than their own deaths. And yet others consider it success only if they kill large numbers of people, regardless of method, sportsmanship, etc.

There are different ways to play, different ways to PK, and different ways to guage character "success". And Gilgon's simply are not representative of the entire MUD, nor do they need to be. Why people who have a long history of rules violations, questionable ethical behavior & tactics, and run-ins with the immstaff insist on taking a haughty air, as if they have authority on anything or the right to talk down to anybody is hilarious to me.



Personally, I have only played 2 bards. The first never passed journeyman, the second reached master. There is a lot I want to still test with a bard that I haven't had a chance to do. It is possible that I may change my mind after seeing more evidence, but at this point, I have seen bards fare quite well with 0 ART who focused more on maximizing HP & stats and leaving EQ slots available for optimum protection.

I thought this thread was "the art of slaughter". Seems I came to the wrong place to input my opinion.

I dunno what the big fuss about persuade is. People tried that against my scout and were promptly wtfpwned by the game telling them that Destrivai didn't want to do that. And then he killed them.

Songs in my opinion are far more devastating to groups than persuade because: they have no saving throw save for the master level song of songs of silence. They either automatically fail or succeed and they check on every verse to see if the effect hits the enemies or not.

You can train art sure but the only real effect you're going to get is from scrolls, which aren't overly powerful.