In this post, I will provide a detailed explanation of the hero Bard, covering how to obtain him, upgrade his skills and talent tree, and integrate him with other heroes.
How to get Bard?
The only way to obtain Bard is by acquiring 10 of his fragments during the Ranged Top Commander Event. This is the only method, and the Top Commander is a challenging competition where you need to rank at least top 15 to obtain 10 fragments.
Talent Tree
Bard is a ranged-type hero with secondary talent trees in Siege and Defense. While he is built for siege, I recommend using him as the assistant of the squad. It’s preferable to have a leader hero with the skill talent tree. However, if you’re looking for a build for Bard, I would combine the Defense talent tree with the ranged talent tree. His build would look like this:
Skills
- His first skill, Mass Annihilation, deals damage to 3 squads in a circular area with a damage factor of up to 13,000. The damage taken by each enemy target is reduced by 15% for every additional target. It also has a 50% chance to recover up to 60 rage if you kill an enemy squad.
- His second skill, Purge Weakness, increases the ATK of the ranged squad by up to 30%. If the enemy squad is inflicted with silence, it increases basic attack damage by up to 21%.
- His third skill, Invincible Fleet, increases the DEF and HP of the ranged squad by up to 25% during siege (rally on shelter, towers, fort, or checkpoints).
- His fourth skill, Direct Confrontation, increases the skill damage on garrison squads during a rally by up to 54%! However, all damage taken from the garrison squad is increased by 12.5%. Note that the bonus damage on skill is significantly superior to the damage received.
- His awakening skill, Dominating the Seas, enhances the first skill. The damage factor is increased from 13,000 to 14,300. If the skill kills an enemy squad, it has a 50% chance to recover 65 rage and increases own attack by 30% for 3 seconds. I believe you get the extra 30% ATK if you kill a squad.
How to upgrade his skill?
For every fighting hero, you need to upgrade the 1st skill, the raging skill, first. I recommend upgrading the 4th skill next, followed by the 3rd, and finally the 2nd. The suggested order would be 1, 4, 3, 2. You want to upgrade the 4th skill next to increase skill damage. Then you want to upgrade the 3rd skill to get the 50% extra stats to trade better in siege, and finally the 2nd skill last because the 21% increase in basic attack happens only for 3 seconds when the target is silenced.
How to combine Bard?
Bard is a siege hero, and he is best used as the assistant, paired with another ranged hero having the skill talent tree and that can silence the target. So I would pair him with either Chun or Julia. Julia is obviously the best option. I would probably not start a rally in IR or AR with him before he is awakened.
Conclusion
Bard is an incredible siege hero that every top member of your alliance should have to start rallies against towers in IR and AR. He is not a F2P player-friendly hero, and I would not recommend upgrading him or using your legendary fragments on him if you’re not a “whale” player that can start rallies for your alliance.