Best Bard Chaos Dungeon Build

Bards are the most sought-after support class in Lost Ark, providing buffs, shields, and heals to their party members. Many players struggle with them in solo content, such as Chaos Dungeons, due to their perceived lower damage output. But did you know they can absolutely SLAP with the right build? You won’t have to wait and queue with other players and hope they do a good job damaging while you support. This build will make you rethink your go-to class to use for farming Chaos Dungeons. If you’re new to Bard don’t stress! We did all the hard work and figured it all out for you!

We’ve tested multiple skills and builds in order to make this guide, and one big contributing factor in this build relies on a lesser-known engraving. It is often overlooked in other forms of content, but the Preemptive Strike Combat Engraving is one of the best choices to make in Chaos Dungeons. (A more detailed explanation can be found here)

Skills To Use In Chaos Dungeons As A Bard

In the first zone, you can simply group up enemies and rotate usage of these skills: Heavenly Tune, Prelude of Storm, Rhythm Buckshot, Sonic Vibration, or Soundholic. All of these skills should be able to one-hit kill normal enemies,

In the second zone, there is a simple rotation that will entirely clear the screen due to the chain reaction effect of the third tripod: Aria of Death for Prelude of Death.

1. #1: Wind of Music
2. #2: Prelude of Death
   • Applies Debuff, Death’s End, which deals damage to a nearby target on the enemy’s death
3. #3: Heavenly Tune, Prelude of Storm, Rhythm Buckshot
   • The highest damaging skills to kill an enemy and trigger Aria of Death

Grouping up all 3 Named monsters and using this rotation should reset all the skill’s cooldown so that you can repeat this again when the next three Named monsters spawn. This can also be used to eliminate the Challenge monster at the end of this zone; just be sure that the enemies marked with the debuff from Prelude of Death are very close to the boss so that it becomes the target of the debuff.

Finally, the Awakening Skill: Oratorio, can also be used on the second rooms Challenge type enemy, as it should kill it in one hit. For even more damage, use the Identity Skill: Serenade of Courage as soon as you can. Or if you’ve taken too much damage use Serenade of Salvation for a heal.

Here’s a table detailing which Bard skills to choose as well as a brief description of the purpose of that skill. The skills below are sorted by which target they perform well against. (in order of lowest to highest HP: Normal, Named, Challenge, Boss).

Engravings Priority For Chaos Dungeons

For the Bard, here are the Engravings you can prioritize for Chaos Dungeons using the Preemptive Strike build:

• #1: Preemptive Strike
  • Guaranteed Crit on challenge type or lower monsters with full HP.
• #2: True Courage
  • Increase Damage buff of Serenade of Courage
• #3: Keen Blunt Weapon
  • Increase Crit Damage; a chance for reduced damage. (As support builds do not include this engraving it can be omitted to save on gold if you plan on doing group content.)

Here are the engravings that are supplementary to the Bard class in general.

• Awakening
  • Reduce awakening cooldown, increases the number of uses
• Desperate Salvation
  • Adds a heal at the end of Serenade of Salvation
• Heavy Armor
• Expert
  • Improved Shield and healing effectiveness
• Barricade
  • Increased damage while shielded (works well in this build with Wind of Music)

Bard Gem Priority In Chaos Dungeons

It would be more economical to only prioritize cooldown gems as a support for group content as your damage is not as important. However, if you simply want to maximize your Chaos Dungeon experience follow this order.

• #1: Prelude of Death – Damage
• #2: Prelude of Death – Cooldown
• #3: Heavenly Tune – Damage
• #4: Heavenly Tune – Cooldown
• #5: Prelude of Storm – Damage
• #6: Prelude of Storm – Cooldown
• #7: Rhythm Buckshot – Damage
• #8: Rhythm Buckshot – Cooldown
• #9: Wind of Music – Cooldown
• #10: Guardian Tune – Cooldown
• #11: Sonic Vibration – Damage

Stat Allocation

Stat allocation comes from the Accessories (Necklace, Earring, and Rings). It can be very expensive to have a different set of Accessories for Chaos Dungeons so you should choose those stats based on the class engraving you’ve chosen to play. Generally speaking, you will only ever find Bards utilizing the Desperate Salvation Class Engraving and not the True Courage Class Engraving due to the Bard’s very low damage output.

• In Solo Content, the stat priority should focus on full Swiftness for faster cooldowns.
• In Group Content, the stat priority should focus on either full Swiftness for faster cooldowns, casting animations, and improved movement speed or full Specialization for more frequent and more powerful heals.

Tripod Skill Tree Effects

At Transfer Skill Tree NPC, you should transfer tripod skill tree effects from looted gear to your equipped gear. (don’t forget to save them in the Tripod inventory tab too for multiple builds!) Not every Tripod can be leveled up so here are the Tripods that can be affected by Skill Tree Effects that are used in this Chaos Dungeon build:

1. Wind of Music: Quick Prep, Enhanced Cast, Wind of Protection
2. Prelude of Death: Quick Prep, Death Amplification, Aria of Death
3. Soundholic: Sound Concentration, Sound. Barrier, Focus Fire
4. Sonic Vibration: Frozen Core
5. Rhythm Buckshot: Melody Increase, Shot Concentration
6. Heavenly Tune: Quick Prep, Tune for Me
7. Prelude of Storm: Jungle’s Law, Lightning Enhancement, Lightning Concentration
8. Guardian Tune: Powerful Protection