Table of Contents
Why Paladin and Bard?
The first and foremost, you should know as a player is that both the Paladin and the Bard are excellent choices in Lost Ark. In fact, they are both equally popular among players. Aside from the point that they are both supporting characters, they are very different.
Both the Paladin and the Bard are incredibly effective at infiltrating parties, and this is true even when they are wearing sub-par gear and engravings. Consequently, the answer to the question “who is better” will be determined by your gaming style. Since they are both equally good, you should not be concerned about the Paladin being better than the Bard or vice versa.
Paladin VS Bard: The Main Differences
These are the notable differences between Paladin and Bard that will help you in choosing:
Fighting Range
The most noticeable difference you can catch between them is that Bard uses a long fighting range style, while Paladin can play in short to mid-range. Therefore, you must stay back in a safe area while fighting if you choose Bard as your class.
As you may know, considerable skills can be cast from a distance, but sometimes you need to get closer to inflict more damage. You’ll also need to get close to the boss for your wind of music to activate the shield and defeat him.
With Bard, you must hit your party members with AOE skills to be effective. This implies that you will be the only one to profit from the supposed party shield if you just cast the skill in the middle of nowhere. When using this character, you must be more conscientious of your body positioning.
It’s crucial to recall no distinction between long and short-range. Instead, it is more like a flavor, and you must determine which one you prefer the most.
Gender Categories
As you may have noticed, Bard is a female character while Paladin is a male. This will give many players a good thought on who to choose. Gender categories can be a way for you to select a character too. Although Smilegate addresses this matter, the two supports are still affected by gender lock.
General Identity Skills
Let’s talk about the primary identity skills of each support. The abilities of Bard and Paladin are mainly the same. It’s not about how Paladin can make the party fly in the sky, or Bard let them into an underground tunnel. What similar skill means the ability they have and benefits to other characters.
All of the support characters in Lost Ark have similar skill classes. Perhaps, the most apparent difference between these two supports lies in their use of an identity gauge. After all, the identity itself is what makes something unique. That being said, both of these classes need to land their attacks to fill the gauge.
However, Paladin’s more straightforwardly filling up the orb through holy energy. Moreover, you can activate either one of the two available auras for personal damage or damage buff when it is complete. Once the bar has been filled up, the two supports can utilize their song of choice.
1. Bard: Serenade of Courage VS Paladin: Holy Aura
For a bar to match Paladin’s attack buff, you will need to play two bars or, better yet, utilize the serenity valor. Still, the buff will be 4 secs shorter at 3 bars. A bar attack song gives 5% more damage while having the same duration as Paladin’s holy aura. However, you should know that it comes with the cost of healing, not having a damage reduction.
The holy aura consistently gives off a 10% attack when it comes to attacking buff, while the serenade of courage will be either 5%, 10%, or 15% – depending on the bar. So, if you like more depth and complexity in your gameplay, Bard is more recommended to use.
2. Bard: Heavenly Tune VS Paladin: Guardian Angel
With Bard’s buff, you can gain +16 attack speed, while Paladin’s buff will give +10 more mana regen with a 20% damage reduction. If you ask which is better, most DPS players will answer either way because they don’t care about the buff differences. What they need is total support at the end of the day.
You may sometimes get hard-pressed to find yourself a DPS main who knows every little bit of the difference between Paladin and Bard. It doesn’t give a big difference between the sonic vibration and wrath of God. The more significant difference lies in your playstyle.
3. Awakening Skills
Both the supports, Paladin and Bard, provide a massive shield in their awakening Skills. Bard provides a shield equal to 100% to the character’s max HP. On the other hand, Paladin only provides 80, but her other skills catch up to the additional support.
In case you didn’t know, every class has a different HP and defense coefficient. So, considering these two characters, HP’s differences make them similar to each other. Paladin has an innately higher HP as a short/mid-ranger but needs to hit the actual boss for that shield to activate.
On the other hand, Bard justifies the HP differences with Paladin through its unique skills and style in fighting. Hence, it makes both of them equally similar in awakening skills.
Summary: Paladin VS Bard
So who do you think is the winner in this Paladin VS Bard comparison? To sum it up, here’s a summary:
- The range measurement of Paladin is highly different from Bard.
- In terms of attack buffs, both characters are similar
- With the actual attack power buff, they have minor differences.
- Both can give great support to the party
- If you are looking for a mage support caster, choose Bard, and if you want to play a support warrior, choose Paladin