Wind Bard PVE Talent Tree / Guide

Note 1
Build has changed slightly due to the +1 to skills from runes giving greater flexibility. It's still primarily a PvE build, but runes have given more options for PvP too. It's detailed where relevant below. I chose Nyos to boost Wind's AoE power at 35 nature. Nyos 55 is another AMAZING one. Because you can spam Requiem like there's no tomorrow, and each Requiem can give up to 30% chance to reduce the target's Attack Power by 55%, at 55 Nyos, Requiem becomes and offensive, AoE-based bubble, not just on you, but on your whole party.

Note 2
Expansion, new talents, level 90. Take them all. Take it all after requiem. That is all. XD

This is what my build looks like. I am building primarily for PvE, and of course, I'm not an expert. =) This is just what I've found works for me so far and what I think will work in the future.

This build has changed and changed again in the course of learning more, and updating this guide, so please take it as exactly that - a guide! It's not set in stone, and it's not something you *have* to follow. Hopefully it's something that lets you understand stuff better, and then make your own decisions.

It's rather long (haha), and some bits attempt to show my evolving concerns, because every class plays differently at different levels, and even if your chosen class doesn't seem much different, changes in other classes as they level up affects you, unless you never intend to group at all.

This build uses 17 rune talents total, that's the maximum number of runes you can socket. The maximum number of *blues* you can socket is 7, but that's only important in that you need at least 7 blues with 35 nature in total between them to gain the AoE bonus from the Nyos tree. Update: There were more rune things unlocked since I wrote this, so you get a few more talent points.

The talent tree I've shown here is base, without runes. I will indicate how many points should be filled in by runes. Obviously, the +s from runes will come at a slower pace depending on time and money. Note that you CANNOT get a +1 from runes in a talent that has pre-req talents.

You can see if a talent has runes by maxxing it, then mousing-over it in the in-game talent tree. If it still shows a 'Next level' after it's maxxed, it has a rune. Of course, this means you have to max the talent to know, so... either make a lot of alts, or use a lot of talent compasses.

All 3 solos have runes (Solo of Wind, Light, Water). All are incredibly rare. And yes, they will give you the skill outright, though without the boosters to improve the skills, the value is arguable.

I've left 2 spare talent points free, put them wherever you like.

Rune List, courtesy of Aely from Illyfue, FW forums.

That being said, here we go. =)



Why choose this stuff? Here we go...

TIER 1:
Zephyr 5/5
Because wind is buffs AND DPS.

Infuriate 5/5 [6/5 with runes]
Because wind is DPS AND buffs.



TIER 2:
Wind Melody Knowledge 2/2
For moar pewpew.

Tuneless Wind 3/3
I used to think of this talent as 'It's nice, but it's a filler. Not worth it for me to talent a filler, though I've read reports of it doing nice big numbers if you do take it.' My views have since changed.

The thing to understand here is that you're not taking it for the damage it does, you're taking it for the wind resistance it lowers and how that in turn increases your damage, and the damage of your wind-attack based party members. That being said, I'd only advise taking this once you're in your 70s, because before then, other talents will be more important.

I considered taking Waving Ripple 5/5 in the Water tree, but after further consideration, I believe that Tuneless Wind gives a higher DPS increase, simply because it scales. Basically 10 points of resistance = 1% less damage done. So -10 to resistance means that 1% more damage is done to the target. This in turn scales with the damage being dealt, vs a static 150 more Attack on your Surge (and 15ish more Attack total on your courage later on.) Tuneless Wind, if taken after 70, should boost your Wind damage (you'll be spamming C chords to DPS) and your Wind group members' damage by at least 6%.

Art of Music 0/2
You can take this when you're under or averagely geared, especially pre-70, as you'll be doing a lot of baptising. After 70, other talents start to return more, and I'd retalent to take it out, or not take it at all.

Acoustic Stretch 0/3 [3/3 with Rune Talents]
Get (3/3) from runes. Results in a small end-game increase in DPS, if you factor in the amount of time it lets you continue spamming Cs rather than renewing buffs. Note that Acoustic Stretch runes are rare and expensive.



TIER 3:
Solo of Wind 4/4 [5/4 with Rune Talents]
This got buffed majorly. Take it, take it all. At 4/4 it's 160 (180 at 5/4) free mastery that you can keep up ALL THE TIME, together with 12% damage reduction. That's 16% when combined with a runed 4/3 Windblade Shield. Take it. Take it. TAKE IT.

Rapid Melody 0/3
Great for PvP, for PvE, I don't tend to kite all that much.

*Even in Hell Road, I kite fine without this.

Gentle Sway 4/4
A must - this makes all your buffs buffier. And many people think Buffy is seksy. Frankly, I think Baptism is more seksy than Buffy!



TIER 4:
Wind Shadow 3/3
Pew and help your party pew!

Divine Music of Wind 0/3
I originally put points in this, took em out again with a talent compass. Reason is - this is a PvE build. I do not gem for evasion, and I barely PvP (all I did was get my green necklace). You won't be able to evade bosses with only the evasion from this, and if you don't gem and gear hardcore for evasion, this really won't help you much in PvE.

Melody of Wind 4/4
Pew pew pew.



TIER 5:
Sandstorm 0/2
Take this if... you pvp a little:
it's nice in PvP and nice on some self-healing WBs. But only take it after L60. Preferably after L70. The reason is that you're using 'spare' points from runing up Advanced Solo of Wind and Windblade Shield to have enough points to put in here, and still have 3/3 in both Advanced Solo and Windblade Shield. Before 60, leave this at 0/2 - after that, it's your choice.

Do NOT take this if... you never pvp:
...at ALL except to earn green necklace/rings.

Advanced Solo of Wind 1/3 [4/3 after Runes]
Many will say this is useless - 12% of 1000 is only 120 etc. This is true on the one hand. On the other though... with Windblade Shield 4/3 (another talent folks think is useless), you take 16% less damage every 10s. It's not huge, by any means (lolwut, only 160/1000?) but it is there and consistent all the time. Put it another way, it's the equivalent of having 160 in each and every single resistance so...

This is at 1/3 because the other 3 points will come from runes.

Wind Maneuver 2/2
CHAAAAAAARGE!



TIER 6:
Wind Rhythm 2/2
It's a really nice DPS talent, but the only time I use Note of Rest to spam DPS is when the boss is so easy I don't need to do anything but surge and courage. Which is uh... other than low level farming (and even sometimes then with baby squishy teammates)... really not all that often. -_- Maybe after I'm geared out the wazoo (if ever), it will be good. Before that, nah.

Note: My perspective on this changed a bit at 65 with Light Sonata. Now I can and do spam C chords when I only maintain surge/courage/baptism. However - that being said - I still don't use Note of Rest on my C Chord spam unless it's a very safe boss fight in a small instance where we won't move much. !Hello fissure bosses! This is very much a personal preference thing though, and if you're comfy whipping out Note of Rest at every opportunity, go for it.

Note2: Perspective changes again at 70-75 (depending on the groups you get). At 75+ especially, I'd say go for it! The reason is that by 75 almost all the priests you group with should have AH by hook or by crook. This usually means you'll be baptising a lot less, and DPSing a lot more, particularly when you get Requiem and Frost Storm both (AoE pewpew). By this point, you should also be comfortable enough to spam Cs when you want to, and still be able to weave your baptism if you have to. Additionally, by 70+ you'll start getting your scaling talents, so your damage output will be appreciably higher than before - this makes it even better.

Just one thing though - DO NOT TAKE THIS BEFORE 70.

Wind Resist 0/4
With 3 in Advanced Solo of Wind and 3 in Windblade shield (3/3 for both is achieved with runes), sure it'd be nice to have this on TOP, but really, I get more 'resistance' out of those two skills combined than wind resist. And this is PvE build so... nah.



TIER 7:
Improved Chord of Wind 3/3
PEWPEWPEW! LAZORZ!

Movement: Song of Wind 1/2 [2/2 after Runes]
Run, Spot, run! (I don't find the 2% more on something I can only cast (with this build) every 90s to be worth it.)

Ferocity of Wind 0/2 [2/2 after Runes]
Doesn't really matter in PvE, but it's a nice PvP talent. As with Sandstorm, only take it after L60. Preferably after L70. The reason is that you're using 'spare' points from runing up Advanced Solo of Wind and Windblade Shield to have enough points to put in here, and still have 3/3 in both Advanced Solo and Windblade Shield. Of course, if you love PvP, you may choose to take this (and Sandstorm) earlier. Note that you'll get 2/2 from runes.



TIER 8:
Advanced Rhapsody of Wind 2/2
LAZORZ!

Voice of Freedom 2/2
The definitive wind bard skill. -_- Get out of jail free card. I have this at 2/2 because I don't like WONDERING if it will be up in time. If you can live with that uncertainty, make it 1/2.

Wind Speed 0/2
It's nice, but I preferred to use it on other things. If you aren't convinced by my argument about Advanced Solo of Wind + Windblade Shield, this is a good place to put things. Note that you COULD take the 2/5 points from Waving Ripple and put them in here... But Waving Ripple runes that I have seen (or not seen) are really rare, and really expensive. So that would mean you'd need 5 WR runes instead of 3. Your preference.



TIER 9:
Windstorm Movement 2/2
Crit chance, crit dodge, mana regen, oh my!

Note that the description on the TALENT TREE is WRONG for the mana restore portion. What it really does is, "Has a 25% chance to restore 1% of YOUR max mana to party members every 4s." Yes, it's a bit pathetic on the mana-restore front from normal movement. However, the crit chance and dodge is still nice. Movement: Song of Wind has a 20% chance to restore 1% of YOUR max mana to party members every 1s. -_- This is on top of the chance given above, at least as far as I've seen from personally testing. Additionally, the chance for proc is every 4s.

That means, every 4s, it rolls a 25% chance to see if it will proc and restore 1% mana. The description isn't QUITE as clear as that, but it's how it works. It also means that in a 'best case' scenario for Movement: Song of Wind will proc 1% of your max mana restore 10 times. In a worst case scenario uh... nothing happens.

Also, it means that the restore may be a much higher percentage of a party member's mana, relative to yours. If it procs on a Protector, and it is restoring 1% of your max mana - as a bard - that's way more than his max mana as a prot.

One more thing to note is that it rolls each time for each party member, separately. So some people may have little blue numbers, while others have none.

Windblade Shield 1/3 [4/3 with Runes]
See the above stuff mentioned in Advanced Solo of Wind. Note that it's 1/3 on your talent tree, it should be 4/3 with runes.



TIER 10:
Advanced Voice of Freedom 2/2
Advanced Get Out of Jail Free. ^_^

Inspire 3/3
Because you will have a LOT of AP even if you just use buffs. If you gem for damage, among other things, like I do...



TIER 11:
Notes of Wind 2/2
PEW PEW LAZORZ

Wind Inspiration 3/3
PEWPEW FASTER LAZORZ!



TIER 12:
Requiem 1/1
PEW PEW LAZOR CANNON TURRETZORZ!



!!WATER TREE!! Important if you are considering...
Waving Ripple 2/5 [5/5 After 3 Waving Ripple Runes]
[Note: This entire bit has been rewritten after much discussion and testetestesting.]

5/5 in this talent will give you 150AP, but how much is that 150AP worth to your party? Well, here goes!

At the time I ran this test, I had 2/3 Inspire, so it was a theoretical 6% increase (rather than 9%).

Test 1: Remove 150 ap (3 rage IIs, gear without AP), test with party member watching her AP from my courage.

Test 2: Put on 150 ap, test again

6% of 150 should be 9. What we got was 12. That is MORE than 6%. O.o

Gentle sway doesn't factor in this +150 test, since it is present in both tests, and can therefore be ignored.

So now we have the very reasonable statement, 'yes dear but it's still piddly to your party'. And to that I must agree. It IS piddly!

But 150 to me is not piddly - yet anyway - and it's constant, the party piddles are on top of it.

Conclusion, Inspire returns more than it should. However you must consider whether it's worth it to take Waving Ripple, when Inspire's AP returns, though higher than they should be, still aren't anything amazing to the party.

I used to think I'd rather have that straight 150 extra over any of the other stuff (including Wind Rhythm), because in the case of Wind Rhythm especially - I don't like to gamble. I like consistency and steadiness.

However, as detailed in the beginning (yes waaaaay up there) of this post, I had a fresh look at the scaling damage derived from Tuneless Wind's wind resistance debuff, and have since changed my mind. However, all the stuff said above still applies, so if you still want it and you aren't convinced by Tuneless Wind and Wind Rhythm, go ahead! =)

Rune Tree Update: No reason not to take this now - with 3 points via runes. Not a priority though, fill up easy runes first. Waving Ripple runes seem RARE.
Nyos Rune Talents (17 points)
Wind Talent Runes
Total rune points used for wind Rune Talent Name
3 Acoustic Stretch x 3 (nice to have)
6 Advanced Solo of Wind x 3 (key skill - max it)
7
Movement: Song of Wind x 1 (nice to have)
OR
Inspire x 1 (VERY nice if you can get it)
9
Ferocity of Wind x 2 (PvE nice to have, PvP max it)
10
Infuriate x 1 (Very nice if you can get it)
13
Windblade Shield x 3 (key skill - max it)

Water Talent Runes
Total rune points used for water
Rune Talent Name
3
Waving Ripple x 3 (very nice if you can get it)

Light Talent Runes
Total rune points used for light
Rune Talent Name
1
Solo of Light x 1 (If you can get it, why not.)

My gem priority in an IDEAL situation, my gem priority would be...
Bloodstones, Ragefire, Crit %, Crit Damage %, Crit Dodge%, Crit Reduction %

Goldsparks and shattershards - where previously I viewed wind bards as steady DPS rather than a high-crit class, I had a philosophical change of heart. While our crit is not as good as a water bard or a rebel priest, and our crit is only on our wind damage skills - still, I've found that in decent groups I can C-spam quite a bit. And so, to Hell with survivability! Gimmeh NUMBARZ! But more seriously, I'm still gemming full bloods and rages before sparks and shatters, and my gear is ALL something-stout, so I have, and will continue to have decent survivability. If you don't want to go kamikaze this way, crystallines and twilights are definitely a good thing. And for the other slots, anything but azures. Mana is of no use, pot through it.

60-75 Gear IDs
Any stout gear, forget the set gear, it's not really good for Winds. Re-IDs in order of importance: HE / HP / Crit heal / Mastery / Attack (NOT Wind Attack)

Reason is from 60-75, you'll be covering the bulk of the aoe-healing where it's needed, and stacking HE in these level ranges lets you do that beautifully without appreciably gimping you. After 75, as stated earlier, your priests should all have Angelic Harmony, and you shouldn't need to baptise so much anymore.

75+ Gear IDs
Mighty stout gear (if you can get it, it's very very rare to see it on Storm for bards). Re-IDs in order of importance: Attack / Mastery / HP / Crit Damage / Crit Chance / HE / Crit Heal.

General Tips / Observations
Most priests I PUGged with from my mid-50s to late 60s thought I was light, and were surprised to find out I wasn't. Honestly, wind isn't that much of a pushover as a healer *if the group is playing reasonably*, from 55-69. Just a few pieces of HE gear net appreciable returns with Gentle Sway. Just don't be lazy, and don't be stingy with pots. That being said they are NOTHING compared with a well-played decently-geared Light. The thing about PUGs is your chances of encountering a well-played, decently-geared Light at these levels seems somewhat low. ._.

Normal fights (after 55), do Baptism/Courage/Surge.

Hairy fights when everyone is taking damage (after 55) do Baptism/Majesty/Courage/Surge (assuming you have no light bard in the party). Baptism stacks, no matter how many bards you have, you should generally cast it.

Baptism/Majesty/Courage/Surge works better for hairy fights (imo) where you have to hold Sonata of Life for the AoE, because the rotation just fits together better. If I'm careful, I can almost always counter the boss AoE immediately with Sonata of Life. Don't feel bad if you drop surge now and then, just put it back up fast as you can.

I find Fantasy to be mostly useless in PvE, unless your group is full of evasion-whores.

Your rotation will get easier once you have Light Sonata (65).

After 60, with Rhapsody of water - normal fights (if you feel like it) and hairy fights:
Baptism, Courage, Surge, Baptism, Majesty, Courage, Surge (use solo of wind), repeat.
This rotation (barring lag, having to move a lot, etc) will let you keep up all 4 comfortably.

It is easier after 65, with Light Sonata. With Light Sonata you can usually hit Sonata of Life exactly when you want to. Pre-65, you may not be able to to so.

If you do not yet have Sonata of Light, then in hairy fights, I would fall back on dropping surge from the rotation in favour of being able to time Sonata of Life. Do note that this is a non-issue after 65 and Light Sonata =)

Also, after 65 and Light Sonata, even without taking Acoustic Stretch, you should be able to spam Cs if you're doing only Surge/Courage/Baptism. It may take a bit of adjusting if you're used to only keeping your buffs up, and not focusing on DPS, but it's worth it once you get used to it. About 65% of the time, if I'm PUGging and I do this, I can take and keep aggro if if I want to - especially if I use Note of Rest as well.


After 70-74, and DEFINITELY after 75+ (depending on your parties)
Keep up Surge/Courage, spam Cs, use note of rest when you can, if you've specced into tuneless wind by now, use it. DON'T baptise unless your party obviously needs it. After 75 wind bards should have all their defining talents, and are better off DPSing than healing *unless the party obviously needs it*.

Where I'm Currently At Equipment-Wise
I stopped updating this 'where I'm at'  at 78. It's not that I won't be chugging along slowly getting upgrades and levelling to 80. It's that there's a point in FW where you can do all PvE content without being in any danger of dying if you know your class unless you a) do something really really stupid, b) get really really unlucky, c) try to solo something you really shouldn't (Koubo! haha), d) let your cat play your toon. That point comes much sooner than the general community (imo) likes to acknowledge.

Why is your HE so high *dated question to do with 60s-74 gear, 450ish HE? Are you going for the AS set?
Well... first off, it's NOT that high, and it's only going to drop further as I move into high 70s gear. It's average/decent for a wind bard, but only pathetic for a light. Pre-75 gear, I had my HE at 440ish, and it was good enough to offheal with. But post-75, I'm dropping it to under 100 (without Nyos). Wind bards come into their own after 70, and after 75, you REALLY start seeing it. So after 75, have much better things (yay AP, Crit, mastery) to spend my gear stats on vs HE.

Is the AS set any good for wind?
No, it's crap. I have all my 75+ gear waiting. The stats it does have that are directly beneficial to wind are easily surpassed by patiently building up non-set blues. My 65-74 set already surpassed the AS 75 set bonuses in HP and HE, and if I treat my 75+ gear the same way, it will MORE than surpass the AS 75 set in HP and HE no longer matter after 75, for wind. Nice as Crit Heal % is, it's not a priority for wind bards, imo. If I get my ideal which is Mighty / Deadly / Ruinous Stout on every piece, I'll surpass the attack bonus from the AS set as well. Bear in mind that while Mighty is always amplified by Wind Bard Talents (hi inspire!), as you go up in mastery and gear pwnage, Ruinous will begin to return more. But don't neglect AP - because of Inspire. Come 75+ I'm now re-IDing for Attack/HP/Mastery/Crit%. Say goodbye to HE.

What about the ToK set vs Champion or Wargod? (Props to Dragonland on Storm for convincing me of this.)
ToK is very very good for alts, or if you don't want to spend a lot of time / money on your bard. Warning though, ToK is all-or-nothing. If you wear it ALL, the set bonuses make it competitive with (and possibly better than, depending on your choices) a mix-n-match set that can take a large combination of time and money to put together. If you can only wear a few pieces of ToK, don't bother. The set bonuses from just a few pieces won't make up for what you lose from getting attack/hp and crit/hp from mix-n-match. However, ToK is incredibly cheap these days, so if it's an alt, and if you use the full set, go right ahead.

If you're poor / cheap / it's an alt, hey? - then I advise going for 9/12 one piece at a time, rather than going for 6/12 on all, then trying to slowly get them all up. 9/12 first on strategic pieces (boots, weapon, shoulders, gloves, belt) will give you back more than 6/12 on everything. Yes, people may look at you funny, but I've tested this. XD

Champion and Wargod are better than ToK, but the same all-or-nothing applies, especially since a lot of both sets seem to love def/mana. ._. All-or-nothing is much harder with Champion and Wargod though, unless you GoS / Tok / ASHM or PvP nonstop, so if you take champ, you're likely seeing a long road before you see the +65 and +35 mastery from the full sets. The base stats are better than ToK, but the bonuses are much more all-or-nothing than ToK.

Summary: If you're going to be playing enough to really farm the heck out of PvE (and spend quite a bit of cash on crafting the materials) or PvP a lot, then go Champion (PvE) or Wargod (PvP). If not, go ToK.

ZOMG! How much did you spend on this game?!
I've played FW for slightly over 24 months now, and have purchased about US$200 in Zen. I've yet to SPEND it all.

Economy has changed in terms of what people will pay for from gathering professions, now that you can fly around and pick herbs/mine without aggroing. Metal still seems to sell, but herbs have been hard hit.

Hay, if you don't CS for gems and don't sell mercs for moneh, how did you get those HP pre-75 (I was 18k pre 75)?
Part of the reason my HP are so decent is - arena neck. 50-59 bracket, ?66? HE, ?360?HP with a 150HP+ ID. Arena jewelry - especially necklaces - is something you should aim for. It's REALLY easy to get, and even a noob can game the system. No, really.

Game the system? Lil 'ole meeeee?
Yup. You see, you have to do at least 10 arena matches per week to qualify for points, and in order to buy gear, you need at least 1000 ranking (the absolute beginner's ranking if you don't lose), in order to buy the low end green items like the necklace mentioned above. Which is far and away better than ANY necklace you'll find in the AH, short of an epic one that costs a couple of D.

So - just play ONLY 3v3 or ONLY 6v6. That way, it doesn't matter if you lose (though of course, winning gets you more arena points per week.) Even if you lose, you'll still get points based on your 1000 rating from the arena you didn't touch. You can then use your points to buy gear that has a minimum 1000 req for that arena. So all you need to do, really, is go over and over till you have the rep level you want. It took me two weeks to get to L3 rep, which got me the 50-59 slot green necklace. L4 if you want 60, L5, etc. It's worth it. Of course, once you start winning, you switch over to the one you haven't won in yet, to rake in more points. I'm just putting it out there that even if you ALWAYS LOSE NONSTOP... you can still benefit.

I've heard wind is hella squishy. Are you squishy like a leftover sashimi slice?
Despite my utterly ignoring defence and accuracy gems (I'll basically woreANYTHING stout pre-75, so my def and acc comes from there) in favour of purely bloodstones and ragefires, I'm pretty hardy. I credit that in part to maxxed Advanced Solo of Wind and Windblade Shield. If I find I start missing, I'll gem a single eagle II or III, but as of now, with the way I pick my gear, I see no need.

Let's put it this way - when and if I die in a dungeon, it's usually due to my own stupidity, and not because of Teh Squishy.

It's too hard to get all that gear and all those gems.
DO NOT RUN GEAR INSTANCES FOR GEAR.

I know it's counterintuitive, but it's true, and this applies for all classes, starting latest level 50 - buy your gear TEN LEVELS before you need it. Trust me. At least 10, maybe 15. You'll get to make a lot better choices this way, and save a lot of money. If you level slowly, and you do this, you'll have a very, very decent set of gear by the time you hit the level to wear it all. I do this for every character I have, but my wind bard is the first one to benefit from closely following that rule. My vamp and rebel (both over 60 as well) have a mix of 65+ and 65- gear. My bard is the only one with all 65+, and I strongly recommend ONLY 65+ gear until you get to 75. It's really just that much better. If my vamp had all 65+ gear, she'd probably have 18k hp at 67, rather than her 16.2k.

All chars over 60 now get 2 gem boxes a day from GL, so if you have massive altitis like me, this may help you. I have 3 over 60 atm, and may have 5 in a few more weeks. We'll see.

And if you think this is expensive, just go play a vampire, a priest, or a warrior. XD Perspective. It halps.

Hey, didn't you use to say what your DPS was like?
Yeah, I did, but that was from back when noone believed wind bards were worth bringing. XD I don't think I need to say what it's like anymore, at least not on that account. ._. Look at Hell Road. The top ranks are ALL wind.