So I have decided I am going to join a bard guild. My character is a faeling and I <3 influencing I have been thinking about going Harbinger for the +1 charisma for shadowsinger but I wonder if another guild would help me be more effective for influencing. Also I have been thinking about doing a bit of pvp, So I guess my questions are which bard guild will help me influence and be fun to pvp with with minimal skill for a bit. Are Harbingers good at both?

If you're definately staying faeling, then speccing shadowsinger would be the best option for boosting your charisma for influencing. All bards can dabble in pvp with just Master Music, so that'll be fine (p5th in groups + aurics). Whether you'll like Glom's ambience is another issue you'll need to look into altogether, that should weigh into your decision.

Yeah, Harbs can hit 23cha iirc. Seasingers come a close second at 22.

For a mixture of both, Cantors are far superior than Harbs in the PvP field, although that said, Harbs are far from incapable.

Overall, given how things are lately, I'd recommend Harb. (This is coming from a Cantor) :P

All bard guilds are effective at influencing.... Especially as a faeling. And each bard guild is effective at pvp. The best option is to base your decision on the roleplay of each city and guild. Nothing wrong with making altar to get a feel for each then deciding.

Wild Elfen Can hit 23 Charisma, Shadowsinger Faelings can hit 24 charisma, Warbling Trill can hit 25 charisma, So Seasingers come in a slow fourth with 22 Charisma, Sorry Dray :)

And all are crushed under my rapscallion dracnari tankiness

And none of them close to my unholy 137 Charisma. :)

Eventru:

And none of them close to my unholy 137 Charisma. :)

This avails you naught if their eyeballs explode before you can even open your mouth.

Jayden:

All bard guilds are effective at influencing.... Especially as a faeling. And each bard guild is effective at pvp. The best option is to base your decision on the roleplay of each city and guild. Nothing wrong with making altar to get a feel for each then deciding.

This is the best advice here, I think. You'll get similar - although definitely not the same - things out of most of the bard guilds in terms of skills, that's just how archetypes work. But you won't get the same RP, so whilst I'm totally up for more active Harbingers I would still advise you to go for whichever city/commune offers you RP that you are really into. That'll keep you happy there a lot longer than skills will, IMO :)

Eventru:

And none of them close to my unholy 137 Charisma. :)

Smalltime. >9000 and that's on a slow day.
(plz2sharechawifme<3)

While it is true that any bard can pvp with just aurics, solo combat is actually not that easy.

That being said, if you want pvp with minimal lessons invested, Harbingers are top. It's perfectly doable to just kill with aurics as a Harbinger using minorsixth, crowcaw and dischord, which is all in the main guild skill. Cantors probably a close second, as Draylor demonstrates every day with his cannon starchord, which requires a bit more including some beastmastery. You won't be as good with it untill you hit demigod, but you can be a mini-cannon? The other guilds require a bit more investment in my experience.

Cannon starchord does take a fair bit of investment and work, to be fair. To pull it off, you need:

1. Seasinger.
2. Demi (Int and Cha endowments.)
3. Trans starhymn and beastmastery. (Beast spit.)
4. Beauty, Knowledge and War karmics.
5. Beauty or Knowledge Domoth. (War too is nice, obviously.)
6. Good earwort tracking code.
7. GC? (Sure, it's only minor, but it's all extra damage.)
8. Magical damage rune.
9. The right illusion(s). (You basically need to steal their sip/sparkle and scroll balance.)
10. An angry face.

Sure, you could pull it off with less, albeit somewhat less effectively. It's really just all about stacking the right things.

Finally, despite what everybody thinks, it's actually not even half as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, it can hurt, but in order to pull off a massive damage attack requires level 3 holy fire (This takes 30 seconds to build up) - A plain Starchord is just the same as any other org chord. The only thing that makes it slightly better is that 50% Divinus damage type. In reality, this is not even all that more powerful.

Just wanted to put that out there.

Draylor:
The only thing that makes it slightly better is that 50% Divinus damage type. In reality, this is not even all that more powerful.

Way better than my 50% asphyx, which everyone uses hold breath for. Let's not downplay the Divinus, it's only slightly lower than Poison.

Also, angry face made me laugh.

Daereth:

Way better than my 50% asphyx, which everyone uses hold breath for. Let's not downplay the Divinus, it's only slightly lower than Poison.

The only reason that Divinus and Poison are so "harmful" is the lack of any real direct DMP for these damage types. There are plenty of other options that will mitigate these, to be fair.

Daereth:

Also, angry face made me laugh.

Hehe. Don't downplay the angry face. That's a 25% damage buff right there! :P

My minorsecond does more damage than my spec chord.

:(

:(

*soothe loth*

Lothringen:

My minorsecond does more damage than my spec chord.

:(

Specialization chords were added to offer some damage variation - the formulas are the same, IIRC. It'll be more useful for bashing, probably - particularly against excorable-weak mobs (admittedly not too many at the moment, but probably someday!) that don't share a cutting resistance.

I know the intent was damage variation aimed primarily at bashing, but it's unavoidable (thematically) that some have infinitely superior uses in PK than others.

Spec chords should probably only work against denizens, heh.

*cue outcry!*

Lothringen:

I know the intent was damage variation aimed primarily at bashing, but it's unavoidable (thematically) that some have infinitely superior uses in PK than others.

Spec chords should probably only work against denizens, heh.

*cue outcry!*

I don't think we really want 'denizen only' bashing attacks.

In an ideal world, everything would work against denizens, but the reality is that's not feasible.

In terms of more uses in 'PK', this is probably true - though I suppose this is the reality in any variation of skills, unless we reverted everyone to kicks and punches. Ultimately everyone will have their own tactics and venues, though, to achieve kills - hopefully each as viable as the next!

As I see it, spec chords were created 'for bashing' (primarily) but have had the unintended affect of being imbalanced for PK. The simplest way to change that is to make them bash-only, which is (as you implied) probably thematically inappropriate.

It's the age-old conundrum of thematic vs. balanced, I guess. In any variation of skills, the goal is 'different, but equally good'. This has been pretty satisfactorily achieved as far as Music specializations go, in my opinion. The same can't be said for the various chords. They're not different but equal - some are terrible and some are starchord.

Enough derailing from me, though.