Meet the Bard! The Newest Realm of the Mad God Class!

Thank the heavens. Deca has decided to add a new RotMG Class! Meet the Bard, the newest class that is available for us to test out on the test servers!
The bard is a mid to long-ranged bow class that uses the Robe armours and ‘Lute’ abilities. The idea of the bard is that it is another support, with more base weapon damage than the mystic & priest, using a bow instead of a staff or wand. The Bard has a high max dexterity, matching with the low dexterity of robes compared to armour, giving it nice well-rounded base damage.
Bard and Pet

The Bards ability

The Bard has, like every other class, 7 different tiered abilities, with no untiered ones for us to test out yet. The Lute is a very unique ability, with a new buff. By using your ability, you will give a range boost, depending on the Tier of the Lute of 1.1 at tier 0 to 1.5 on a tier 6 Lute! From tiers 2-6, the buff Energize will be given. Energize causes an Increases of MP regeneration by 20 MP per second.
This buff will be useful for helping with Perma stuns on low-level pet knights and healing during lava walks and survival phases as well as at Marble Colossus & Void Entity. I can see these abilities being used in end game dungeons such as Shatters, Lost Halls and Crystal Caverns that require stuns and healing to be consistent!

Tier MP Range Boost Energize duration
0 70 1.1
1 75 1.2
2 80 1.3 1.5
3 85 1.3 1.5
4 90 1.4 3
5 95 1.4 3
6 100 1.5 4.5

Every tier Lute has a different on equipping effect, here are there current stat buffs;

Tier ATTACK HP mp
0
1
2 +2
3 +3
4 +4
5 +5
6 +6 +20 +20
This is what all the tiers of Lutes currently look like on the testing server;

Bard Items

Max stats!

The Bard has some well rounded Max stats, with 670 HP, 385 MP, 55 ATT, 25 DEF, 55 SPD, 70 DEX, 45 VIT, 75 WIS.
How does that compare to other classes? Well, the Bard beats both the Huntress and Archer in Dexterity, Vit and Wis. Compared to other support classes, the Bard is quite similar to the Mystic with HP and 5 higher Dex. It has less Dex and HP than the Trickster and higher damage (Dex, Att) than the Priest. Making it a good middle ground in terms of base damage and survivability for support, as well as giving a nice group buff in exchange for the damage from the other bow classes.

Thoughts on the Bard

Currently, I think the Bard is one of the best support classes, beating out the Mystic for usefulness as well as points for helping boost supporting classes like the Priest, Knight, Huntress and Archer when it comes to their abilities and Perma paralyzing, stunning, slowing and healing. It’s like a supports support, with decent damage output. I love it.
Test it out yourself on the test servers!