So, I made a Bard, I have him up to level 30, healer merc. He can handle about any mob toe to toe or even 5 mobs at once thanks to the merc. It takes forever to kill a mob though. I can't find any decent damage weapons that i can afford. Somehow i doubt it would help anyway. I realize he is not a DPS class but OMG!! Is that just the way it is? Or am i doing something wrong? I don't want to PL him because i want to know the class inside and out. Any experienced Bards that can give me some insight? I made a few macro's and he has all his spells that i could find in POK. Armor is so so.
Use a tank merc instead and you will be chewing through the mobs. The tank merc is really over powered and can handle 3-4 mobs at a time depending on CON. Stick to blue or light blue and you should be able to chain pull them at that level. head to groku mesa** which is a hot zone and go to town. i followed this guide and it helped. http://www.almarsguides.com/eq/leveling/mypath/gorukarmesa.cfm
Thanks Wrexoul, I thought about doing that but figured i would die quick. So just run my healing songs and DPS and mes/charm adds. Makes sense!!
Yeah tank merc is crazy powerful. Havent played a bard before so I dont know what songs you can twist but you can experiment to see what gets you the best benefits. You can right click on the name of the merc and select role then pick Main Tank and he will taunt the mobs to stop you from being hit. Then just line up behind the mob and go to town.
If you decide to go with a tank Merc which is best , I would twist group haste, dmg shield, Regen and a dd or dot, but that's just me, I'm sure others would suggest differently. And that will change with lvls
Practice swarm kiting. It will help you in the long run. Cougars in Iceclad work good at those levels.
Yes, switch to a tank merc - no real need to heal, just use damage shield if you have it, and haste songs, then can add damage so long as you don't steal aggro. Don't worry overmuch about gear; at 30 you can take your pick of Blightfire Moors, Stone Hive, and Goru'kar Mesa (exp will be better in the lower zones). Spend some afk time keeping spell skills up, and make sure that you have gear with instrument mods (Defiant has most). Also, learn how to swarm (as Verile says). You won't get any better exp that way, but it is one of the base skills for a bard.
Thanks guys/gals! I figured it was me sucking. I knew going in that Bard was going to be a challenge. Thats why i chose it. I like the idea of pulling/kiting/charming/mezing etc. I'm hoping to get real good at this bard. I'm trying to solo up the levels to get to know his capabilities. I know groups basically just want his buffs. I want to be the complete package though. I can't seem to get my skill up to charm mobs though. 500 fizzles and counting. I have never gotten it off one time to go afk to skill it up.
You need to skill up the song type that charm uses. I believe it's a wind type. So put a flute in your primary hand, park yourself in PoK in a corner away from people, target an NPC, and start Cinda's Charismatic Carillon. It's the lowest level wind song you have. If you can't get it it to stick to a pok mob, go to your home city and do it there. Once you get the song running, walk away for a couple days. Or at least a few hours. As long as you don't use melody, and just sing that one song, it'll skill up on its own.
Ah, ok. I will do just that. I am having trouble finding a vendor that sells instruments. I'm sure there are some that do. I have not found one yet however. Do you recall who sells a flute by chance?
Hail to the Realms of EQ. I just came back from a long journey throughout the realms of wow back to my home eq, but now I see that the game is way quite different than before. Just a couple of questions; what happened to the warrior DPS, IT really sucks and the way crappiest market where the bazaar is now only for the gold members. What happened with these dues of Sonny?
Thats odd. I spent a couple hours checking vendors in several zones and came up with one instrument. I will keep looking. Thanks. I figured it out. I had the "show only items i can use" option set. Go figure.
Thanks all. The tank merc did the trick. I got 4 levels in less than 2 hours soloing red mobs. The tank merc rips right through them. I just twist 4 songs and watch pretty much. =)
As far as that goes, Defiant Plate Greaves, of all tiers have Wind Resonance built into them, its not as great as a modifier as a real instrument, but it works fine for getting skill ups while you sleep. (also boots has singing, gloves has percussion, helm has brass, and arms has string on them).
Ill add that Charming is another way Ive heard it done. If you are killing 4 at a time and your merc is getting hit hard, you can always add Largos Melodic Binding (PB AE slow) to reduce incoming damage. But make sure u get in, cast, and get out so u dont take too much damage! http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=705
We should probably tell you now, that bard melee DPS is going to be disappointing as you level. Most of the bard DPS comes from your songs aiding the group and by always keeping a monster in the camp (by good chain pulling). As others have said, rely on the tank merc, who will easily 'power level' you to 50 without any heals. After 50-60, you'll probably have to get creative and use some form of charm to kill creatures, until you can find some melee weak monsters to maybe kill. I haven't leveled a bard solo in a very long time, so it might be worth doing some research once the warrior merc gets too weak.
You may also consider boxing another character with the bard. I boxed a bard and ranger til about 80 and it was a blast! The bard was great for run speed, utility and boosting dps. They would pair well with just about any class. I'm currently leveling up a Monk to catch my bard at 90. Bards wont ever do stellar dps. The other big side benefit is if you box a bard and another character is that you can run with a tank and healer merc. That will get you pretty far!
