A Bard's strength lies in its ability to bolster its allies and play to their strengths. Bards can heal their allies, empower their attacks, give them bonus stacks for their class, and dish out a fair amount of damage. Sometimes all you need is a little tempo change to turn the tide of a fight.
Bards have two stacking mechanics, Serenade and Crescendo. You gain Serenade stacks by using skills that help allies, you gain Crescendo stacks by using skills that hurt enemies. When you gain your 3rd stack of Serenade, you automatically trigger the Passive: Serenade, losing all Serenade stacks and giving a random ally a class stack of their class that they don't have maxed. When you gain your 3rd stack of Crescendo, you automatically trigger the Passive Crescendo, losing all Crescendo stacks and doing damage to all enemies.
This is a skill known skill at level 1. Tune Performance is a buff that raises crit rate for your next attack. It also gives both a Crescendo and a Serenade stack.
To use this skill, type !a (target isn't required).
This is a known skill at level 1. Dissonance damages a single enemy and scales based on the number of Crescendo stacks. It also gives a Crescendo stack.
To use this skill, type !b e1/e2/etc.
This is a known skill at level 1. Invigorate is a healing skill that scales based on the number of Serenade stacks. It also gives a Serenade stack.
To use this skill, type !c p1/p2/etc.
This skill is learned at level 10. Fortissimo gives an ally an Attack buff and grants a Serenade stack.
To use this skill, type !d p1/p2/etc.
This skill is learned at level 30. Resonance an attack that has the chance to apply an attack debuff to the enemy and brings in an ally to attack with you. The ally can also apply a debuff based on what class they are. It also gives a Crescendo stack.
To use this skill, type !e e1/e2/etc.
This skill is learned at level 50. Balladeer's Overture is a skill that converts all of your Serenade stacks into buffs for every ally and Crescendo stacks into debuffs for every enemy. Buffs and debuffs are chosen randomly.
To use this skill, type !f (target isn't required).
This skill is learned at level 20. Rehearsal is a passive skill that modifies Tune Performance. While you have the Tune Performance buff, if your attack is a critical, it deals 2x damage instead of 1.5x.
This skill is learned at level 40. Encore is a passive skill that modifies Tune Performance, Dissonance, Invigorate, Fortissimo and gives them a chance to affect all players or all enemies (where appropriate).