First, welcome to being a bard. We are the best and most friendly class in
the game (don't tell anyone).
The AC benefit of bronze over banded was never justifiable to me considering
the weight, so I was in banded until I bought steel one piece at a time.
From steel I started accumulating the Lambent pieces, a full set of which is
very well rounded stat-wise. Stay with your bronze if you're happy until
you start getting Lambent. Since you have the bronze you might as well skip
over Steel as it's quite expensive (Breastplate was ~850pp as I recall).
However, the one saving grace of buying steel is that you basically rent it.
The sell-back price of steel plate is quite high (75%?), so much of your
investment is recouped as you replace those pieces with Lambent.
For weapons I would recommend a Polished Granite Tomahawk or Barbed Leather
Whip in your primary hand and Dragoon Dirk in your offhand (when you hit 17
and get duel wield that is). The benefit of these two weapons is that they
work on two separate skills (1 hand slash and piercing) simultaneously as
you level. When you can afford it buy a Staff of Writhing (~400pp), bite
the bullet and work your 1 hand blunt skill up. As you mature and replace
the Dragoon Dirk with a better weapon (although it's awfully good for the
level that it's available - you'll use it a while), you can move it to your
range (throwing) slot and retain its stat bonuses. So the Dirk remains
useful even after you stop wielding it in your hand and thus amortizes your
expenditure even further over time.
[47 Bard] Crier (Half Elf) <Seekers of Norrath> ZONE: work
> From: "Sigma111" <sigma7@...>
>
> Hello,
> I just subscribed to this list, but I was wondering if any of you
> could reccomend a 1h slash weapon for a level 12 bard?
>
> Also, I am in bronze armor now for the most part..and it seems a bit
> heavy. Whats the next step armor wise?
>
> thanks!