AE kiting is gone. Charm kiting is gone. Isn't the lore behind a bard - a monk turned bard due to his abilities to run and fight. So how do I do that now? I was wondering why people were saying; "there is a shortage of bards", I understand now. A ranger can kite a whole zone, and bards have to stand literally face to face with a mob to charm it. That's just absolutely stupid. Someone is bias at SOE because there is no rational thinking behind the nerfs to a bard. You can't say that bard mass charm kiting was to effective, look at rangers! I just started back, however, I wanted to let someone know that I think the nerf is absolutely stupid. Standing toe to toe with a mob at level 81 trying to charm it to fight another mob is a massive waste of time and a great way to die. The population isn't what it use to be so grouping is hard for a returning player. I can work with even 7-10 feet, but really toe to toe?
A ranger can kite a whole zone, but they'd be stupid to try as it is a slow way to kill for us. However you have a lot of complaints in here so it may be best to just make a thread called... "Hi, returning bard that's out of the loop, need advice."
there is absolutely nothing stopping you from getting in range while invis, start casting the charm and fading immediately.... problem solved.
Why? I can't handle the mobs when the charm breaks, so I can't get back in range to recharm without dying. The point is, I use to never have to get this close to a mob to charm it. It takes away from kiting, because there are far better ways to level. I can play around with FM, invis, but it's just a waste of time vs other exp methods. From my era of play charming has been nerfed.
I recommend reading this thread. There are bards still making amazing xp doing what you are saying is impossible or a waste of time.
Hmmm... at level 81... try this... Go to Loping Plains, the gators on the beach there. Play your faction song on them, charismatic carillon or whatever it's called... Gators are now dubious, can walk right up to em and charm np now. Pull far one of the line, run through the next 3, to the 5th one on the beach. Stand on top if it, charm it, sic on the 4 pack coming at you. Wait a few seconds, click mosquito boots, dot down while doing a medium size circle behind the pack, run up to the 6th gator in line, and charm it. wash, rinse, repeat. The respawn timer on these gators is like 6 minutes, and provide for a great place to xp grind at 81 and the beach has just enough that you can clear it just about the time they start repopping. The key is finding mobs that are not kos, or mobs that you can make not kos. Also, starting at the level 84 and higher charm, it goes back up to 75' range, instead of 30' that Yowl of the Bloodmoon is.
Rangers don't kite entire zones. One, because there isn't a zone in this game they can kill everything in and two even if there was such a zone it a damn stupid way to gain xp. You should probably learn how to play your class instead of whining about what you think rangers can do.
Oh ok! lol .. I've never seen so many bards kiting in the feerott. Oh, wait, bards? or is it another class.
Again, why would rangers kite anywhere, let alone Feerrott? Do you know what kiting is? If you want to whine about headshot be my guess just have the common courtesy to at least know what you are talking about.
I had a similar letdown when I returned last month to find a mere shell of what a Bard was ten years ago. Came through all the crap of Kunark, carpal tunnel, and all those times songs just stopped working at all but this is just horrid. Play something SoE seems to like, any effort you put into that Bard would pay off ten times more in a "favored" class. If makes you feel any better you are not alone. Thats all I can offer.
Your jumping to conclusions, bards weren't nerfed. The changes you are referring to were done years ago. You are acting like it is something new. Fact is the AE changed needed to be done, so just move past that one. Not only was it way overpowered, it was causing server problems and making zones lag out for other people. As for the charm, as what was already stated, at lvl 84 (think it is) our range goes back to what it originally was. Why they changed it for those 3-4 expansions I don't know. Guess they didn't want us charm kiting for those lvl ranges. But the song is still very usefull. Try using it instead of mez for adds. Works great to add more DPS. Don't worry bards in their current state are still awesome and very fun to play and bring plenty to the table. On another note, starting threads like this really is a bad idea, it starts out all negative and is just asking for a mod to come lock it down. Also calling for other classes to get nerfs is against the forum rules.
I just started playing a bard recently and spent the last 2 days learning to charm kite, having never done it before in my life, I practiced a few times on different mobs and have spent the rest of the time getting pretty decent exp in feerott at lvl 90. Until I just read this thread I wasn't even aware there was a nerf. Yeah the range of the charm spell feels a little tight at times, but i've managed to recharm with 10 ghosts chasing me while dodging trees without too many issues (when they did catch me i died instantly). As long as the range for charm is greater than the range of the mobs melee then its possible. I certainly didn't find it particularly difficult, a little bit of practice and its fine.
As the resident n00b here, I have to say there are other strats that are available for bards especially when the level of your charm does not allow for much distance. I for one believe in grouping to work on your melee skills and defense, ( can't get a group.. I usually start one .I have charmed kite in Ferrot, it is possible just look out for the trees.. . they hurt when you smack into it.
If getting into charm kiting seriously, can't recommend the Tash Orb clicky from the PoK Monster Missions highly enough. Bellow/HoS is great to get a charm to land, but the Tash click's duration means charm WILL last the full duration, you simply don't get early charm breaks (that's the most annoying part of charming to me). Yeah, range was reduced, you need a bit more skill now, but there's still fantastic xp to be made and uses for charmed pets. As mentioned above, you can pop in and out of range as the charm casts, or use faction songs, or carefully work the range, or even snare split some out to be able to circle round and re-charm if the hits are too much for you at the moment. (sword and shield, defensive aa's, shield block aa's, all good stuff to get).
