Bard

Bards are support specialists who use their songs to inspire their allies and dishearten their foes, and are most effective as part of a group of adventurers, where their musical motifs, codas, fanfares, and anthems are most effective. The Bard is a fountain of energy and movement. Their play style is support—dishing out mild damage while reducing the enemy's incoming damage, helping their allies with several types of buffs, and providing a consistent stream of healing. Though not an offensive destroyer, they can win a fight on their own with a bit of time. The Bard finishers, called Codas, vary in function, consisting of: direct single target and area damage, aoe attack and spell power debuff, an aoe increased damage to enemy targets, and even a group heal.

Due to the utility of Bard buffs, the soul works well whether points are distributed primarily in other Rogue souls or tightly focused within the Bard soul's branches. Whether a pure soul or mixed with Ranger for a pet, Nightblade for Conceal, or maybe a sticky bomb from the Saboteur, the Bard can easily run through the lands hunting for treasures.

Strengths
The Bard is a support class with a number of buffs, debuffs and limited healing capabilities. They have a number of long duration group/raid buffs called Fanfares. They can also toggle one of several Anthems (e.g. increased movement speed or increased armor) which last indefinitely and affect the Bard's entire group and raid within a certain distance; again, only one Anthem can be active per Bard. Finally, they get a number of Motifs: short duration (15–30 seconds) buffs which must be continually recast, but which greatly enhance the party's damage and survivability. At higher specializations, a Bard's Motifs cover almost every stat in the game while providing a happy dosage of health, mana, energy, power, and charge per second. Such as with Fanfares and Anthems, two Bards casting the same Motif only overwrite one another when in a group or raid, so splitting Motif duties for more flexibility in using healing or debuffing Codas is an excellent plan of attack for organized groups.

Even touhgh they have the same starting skills, look at their skill tree and you'll find out that there are still tons of unique skills for each of those souls. Overlapping and redundancy in skills are common only for the starting level but they'll greatly differ as you level up.

History
“Let me tell you a story.

“The heroes stood on the edge of a valley bathed in fire. Though the heat flushed their skin, and steam burned their eyes, they were unconcerned with the challenge that lay before them.

“They gazed ahead at the whelps of Maelforge— all those unwashed and heedless hordes— and they laughed. Do you hear me? They laughed!

“They were not afraid of spindly kobolds, nor cowed by the boorish centaur. Even as the wanton red dragon himself circled above like a hawk after prey, they did not balk. These were the smartest, the fastest, the strongest of their people, and victory was all but assured the moment they took to the field.

“They put the minions of Maelforge to the sword. They extinguished his flames and entangled his wings with their spells. As he crashed to the ground, they overwhelmed him, their might too much for the fell, red god. A great cry of victory rose over the land, and the names of those who fought were sung on the lips of the children. Everyone celebrated because no one needed to fear the flames of Maelforge ever again!

“This, my friends, is our story. This, my friends, is our destiny. Let us go forward and make it reality!"

The rippling chords of the accompanying lyre died down, as did the Dwarf woman’s surprisingly big voice. The soldiers and common folk of Telara who stood with her moved slowly, as if emerging from a dream. Clearing her throat, she changed her tune to a stirring martial anthem.

Karine turned to face the horde swarming in the valley below. Their frenzied screams echoed between the mountains and gouts of flame and steam shot from the blackened earth, scorching the air. Not one soldier in all the army behind Karine looked on with fear, for their hearts brimmed with the power of her song. They felt smarter, faster, and stronger than they ever had before, guaranteed their place in the songs and stories of Telara.

Screaming, a dragonian champion dashed up the rise, heading straight for the tiny Dwarf Bard. As he drew in close, she laughed and brought her song to crescendo. A spiral of sonic energy struck the reptile with an audible crack. He crumpled and did not rise again.

“Now,” Karine said, eyes gleaming as she turned back to her companions and brandished a sword, “let’s acquaint them with the sharp pointy end of our destiny.”

Abilities
Bard abilities are divided into several types.
 * Anthems
 * Motifs
 * Fanfares
 * Codas
 * Chords
 * Verses