Shattering Stars/Bard

=Bard=

Obtain
A Bard's Testimony from one of the following:
 * Abyss Sahagin (Level: 72 - 74) (Sea Serpent Grotto)
 * Coastal Sahagin (Level: 62 - 69) (Sea Serpent Grotto)
 * Denn the Orcavoiced (Level: 64 - 65) (Sea Serpent Grotto)
 * Yagudo Conductor (Level: 63 - 67) (Castle Oztroja)

=Guides=

A Maat Fight Strategy
Max out your sword level for this as Spirits Within will be your best friend here. Bring along the usual melee stuff, Opo-opo Necklace, Sleeping Potions, Hi-Potions along with def food and a stack of Selbina Milk. When you enter the arena, watch Maat and see what he's buffing himself with. Eat your food, sleep yourself to 100% Tp and then use your Icarus Wing which should bring you up to 200% (yeah, little different set up this time). Now, drink your Selbina Milk. This is your "finale blocker." If Maat finales you, it will remove the milk effect instead of your songs. Drink another milk if Maat finales you. Use Soul Voice along with your best songs. Now, use finale on Maat if he has any potentially threatening buffs on (that's why I said to watch what he does when you enter.) and debuff him. Now, hit him with Spirits Within for a strong early hit. Now it's just a matter of fighting him, using WS as they come up. Finale any buffs Maat puts up and drink milk if he finales you.

Easy Maat as 66BRD Tarutaru 0 Elixirs, 0 Icarus Wing
Capped Sword skill is ideal because this strategy doesn't relying on accuracy bonuses from spells or food. Stack as much HP, Defense, Attack, and Accuracy as you can. This strategy worked with nothing more than a Tavnazian taco, 6 Hi-Potion +2, and a couple drinks to serve as buffers for his Finale.

Take more high potions, especially if you don't have capped skills such as evasion, and sword (which will make the first last longer). I'd suggest a dozen unless you have a lot of faith in your gear. There's no good model for gear so I'll just type out what I wore. The hands and feet are Tarutaru only, so if you are another race, consider some sort of equivelent.

Equipment: Spark Rapier +1, Scorpion Harness +1, Creek F Clomps, Creek F Mitts, Peacock Charm, Diabolos Earring, Heim's Earring, Rajas Ring, Unyielding Ring, Potent Belt, Behemoth Mantle +1, Empress Hairpin, Horn +1, Akinji Salvars.

You'll eat a Tavnazian taco, and sleep 100% TP with the opo-opo necklace. Don't bother with 200%, that's 4 minutes of sleeping, and the fight will took me 8 minutes and 34 seconds with only sleeping 100%. 200% TP would have been a loss because it takes 2 minutes to sleep each 100% and that would have put my prep time at 4 minutes and the entire battle at 10 minutes and 34 seconds (which is impossible because it has a 10 minute restriction). Use a Blink Band, Stoneskin Torque, Reraise Hairpin, and your pear drink which can help block his Finale. The stoneskin and blink ensures you get your Spirits Within off with 100% HP.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Don't use your typical Bard macros, because you don't want to be equipping staves or changing instruments as this will reset your TP to 0. Make seperate macros for Minne4, Minne3, Elegy, Requiem, and Finale. Consider a macro that feeds you hi-potions as well.

Start the fight off with Soul Voice, double Minne, and pull him with Elegy followed by Foe Requiem V. When he's in range, hit him immediately with Spirit's Within and begin meleeing him. Don't worry about Finale unless he uses Paeon, Minuet, or Minne. If your gear is decent his critical hits will do a mere 50ish damage to you and his regular attacks are around the 20s and some cases in the teens. Keep Minne up at all times, and use hi-potions whenever you hit yellow. Try to time your hi-potion usage to follow a melee swing. Keep your HP up and use Fast Blade at every 100% TP. I'd suggest not using the ones that inflict elemental damage because it can be resisted, and Spirits Within without full HP is going to be complete garbage. If your HP is full, feel free to use it because it can't miss. You'll hit Maat pretty hard with a decent weapon with criticals around 70, and the delay of sword isn't too bad. Don't forget to put Elegy back on him if it wears off. Howling Fist and Combo can do about 150-200 points of damage and Asuran fists can do about 350, so be prepared. The fight will only last long enough for him to WS you twice, unless you came in underskilled, so it is possible for him to get off a third WS.

He gives up at about 20%. Congratulations on an easy win. I think I could have went AFK for a drink while he made sub par attempts to damage my Tarutaru.

Maat WIN without Opo-Opo and Sword. Easy
Easy win with a Staff (No,that is not a typo). Let's start with my char's gear so you can see how "Non-pimp" I had to be to do this with relative ease.

EQUIPMENT: Lvl.70 Elv BRD w/ Earth Staff, Iron Ram Horn (Instr is your choice), Crow Berret, Chiv.Chain, Melody Earring x2, Scorp.Harness, AF Hands, Woodsman Ring, Venrer Ring, Jesters Cape+1, Gleemans Belt, AF Pants, and AF boots.

NOTE: The Body, Necklace, and both Rings were borrowed from a friend. Staff Skill at 200 for Full Swing. Items: Hi-Potion+3 x9, Selbina milk x12, Tavnazian taco x1, and an Icarus Wing.

Let's begin. Enter BC and run up till you can see Maat. Eat your Taco and drink a Selbina Milk(this is your Finale buffer), then pop your 2hr "Soul Voice". Cast Peaon V & IV then hit Maat with Carnage Elegy and Foe Requim VI. Finale anything you deem potentially dangerous such as Minuet or Mambo etc.

NOTE: With the Taco and Earth Staff Maat hit for 50-70 Dmg. Elegy Slows his DoT rate down quite well especially with the Earth Staff bonus.

Now here's the fun part BARD SELF-SKILLCHAIN!!! Once you build 100% Tp use "Full Swing" and imediatly use the Icarus Wing and do Full Swing again which will create "Fusion".(NOTE: The Skillchain step isn't needed but Fusion does a lil extra dmg and it's good for a frap vid).

Continue the fight as normal using potion at own discretion but keep Hp in the Yellow as best as possibly cause he should be using Weapon Skill soon (Hit me for 272 from "Dragon Kick"). Once that's done he wont have enough time to WS again so just use potions and WS's till he is defeated. Easy Win 6min 17sec was my record and total cost for items was 24k.

Hope this helps some people out and shows that Sword is over rated for this fight and so is the Opo-Opo Necklace.

Maat Win with dagger/shield
Okay, well, hard to say much about this strategy, but I beat the record with it. 7 Mins 18Seconds to my 5 Minutes 8Seconds. Anyways, my equip is as follows, Behemoth Knife, Elegant Shield, Nobles Ribbon, Chiv Chain, Two Melody Earrings, Scrop Harness, Jaridah hands, 2x woodsman, amement+1, potent belt, af pants/feet. Yeah, I used most of my thief gear and sam.

I did not beat this the first time because I did not know what to expect, was my first Maat fight afterall. I was doing fine and got him down about 20% till he did Howling Fist and killed me at about 600hp, so my fault for getting that low. I learned and found out it was easier than I was making it out to be.

Second time around.....I had about 13-16 potions (1k/2k each -totally easy to buy). I went in with both mambos using the +, my evasion is capped and so is my dagger. Yes, I used a dagger. I used a shield as well and cyclone WS (which did 86 damage, first fight it did 135). I did not have -any- Icarus Wings, I actually went in with these medicine effect still on from the last Maat fight.

He hit me for around 70-90 when he did and I used a potion basically every time he hit me to stay on top in case he one shot WS me again. I did not go in with soul voice, rather, I waited till he did his then did Paeon (with instrument) on myself and it helped a ton. My damage was roughly 26-43 average and pretty constant, hardly ever missing.

Also, he used combo this time and it did 280 damage, which was a pretty big deal as I read he did more than one WS at times, so thats when I went all out on potions. One thing you have to remember is to keep ReqVI up, Elegy, and debuffing him. Before you know it, you will be done! Congrats.

Oh, when you first go in after casting two songs on yourself/food, do finale to provoke him. Then do Carnage.