Hello guys. Recently came back to the game, took a year off or so. I usually ran a 6 box but i would like to cut that down to 3 active accounts if at all possible. My main is a bard and whatever i create would have to include one. It's just my favorite class, and always has been. So, with that said, what 3 box would you guys recommend using a bard, currently in the game? I can make any class (will be using heroic characters on a new server). I'm looking to do most group content in the game if possible with this 3 box combo. Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
tank. probably sk or warrior caster dps either magician or wizard. run 2 caster mercs and a healer merc. gives u heals, dps, pulling and crowd control
as long as u dont rush into eok and ros. i would lvl to 105. Fully gear yourself with tbm currency gear. try and sell tskill items to fund this. once you have tbm. worrk on augs and lvling to110 in tds, tbm, and cotf. once auged go to eok and work on getting t2 armor. you need this for ros armor. once you are 110 and fully eok t2,head to ros. or if u have alot of plat lvl straight to 106 and get a full set of ros tskillarmor.
ok, I'm a bard main also. but I don't box, so take this as you will. 3 box + 3 mercs, Bard main, shaman main, Merc rogue, merc tank, merc cleric, Ranger or BL main BUT that said, I normally group Melee heavy, so that's just imho.
I run SK + Bard + Zerker and 1/2 healer mercs depending on the content and I don't have any problems. If you don't really want to manage 3 melee then I would go either Mage or Wiz. Warrior also wouldn't be bad, it's a much lower max AA count.
I just recently returned as well and run an SK + Chanter (replace with Bard) + Mage combo. 1 healer merc, 2 wiz mercs. Was just the SK + Chanter from 60-105, then decided to throw in the Mage. Wasn't needed, but definitely helps things go by faster. I have yet to step into RoS (admittedly, I still need to purchase it)...but EoK, there isn't anything i cannot handle. SK - Tanking and decent dps (for a tank, and also the one I main) Chanter - great aDPS, amazing pulling/CC/buffs and great to have when things hit the fan (again, just replace with bard) Mage - back up tank if need be, good dps, but I know I'm a bit lackluster in the dps department seeing as he's a social button toon. But mobs are usually dead/dying before his full rotation goes off.
I run sk, shm, bard.. though thinking of subbing my mage in place of the shm from time to time. My brother runs sk, bard ench. Pretty good combo there.
As I said, I don't box, but, I do duo with a shammy, so 2 real people. my cleric merc, his tank merc, he and I, we do absolutely fine in Overthere. He was fully T2 EOK geared, now it's banked and he's wearing Prophet's Conflagrant til we get him enough drops of ROS gear to change him out. (I'm mostly ROS raid geared but what do I count I'm just a bard(right ?)
This is false. I don't even block promised/hot anymore and my SK has no issue. Max AA, t2 gear but full augs/trophies + tribute.
As a Bard main, I currently 2-box with a Beastlord + 2 healer mercs and I do pretty well in all content having the pet tank. Named in RoS can be rough, though. I've considered adding a Zerker to my duo to speed things up, and to better handle namers via straight up heavy burn through tactics. Would likely pop a rogue merc for trash killing, and a third healer for named fights. EDIT: It's probably irresponsible of me NOT to mention that my Bard is obviously RoS raid geared, and then the BST is EoK raid geared w/a few RoS raid pieces (EM24 pet ear currently). This probably has a lot to do with my success thus far, admittedly. If I added a Zerker as a third, it would likely be started from scratch, though. I can see it initially having RoS crafted group gear + RoS raid weapon eventually. For a group geared team, I would probably suggest a Warrior for the third, instead of a Zerker. Beastlord would still make a good pairing with the Bard though, in my opinion. Lots of ADPS synergy between the two, and the BST pet would make a good emergency off tank potentially. Would still run 2/3 healer mercs for trash/named.
If I were to start over... and wanted a bard I would... Sk, bard, wiz For mercs, healer/caster/caster Why... Once you get to 101/102 wizard alliance will be awesome... bard slow if viable till sk gets a slow belt, make aure you get things like epics, np’s from anguish, etc. The advice eariler about take the time to level ip is absolutely correct! I would start in HoT, get the heroic augs for all slots, get some gear, work on merc/partisen tasks for free aa’s/exp. doing hinyer achievement will get some free bags etc. Learn the classes and get as mank rk2 spells as you can. Around lvl 95 ish I would shift toward CoTF and start progression there. Again, re-gearing as you can, once ya hit 101-2 move to TDS work that stuff for gear/progression.. You dont have to complete them, but get some started! Absolutely I would pause leveling @105 and try to knock out alot of aa’s... mainly till your tank has maxed his defense aa’s as thise are needed for you to be most effective. Then just find a good grind spot and get 110, then go back to cotf and work back on the progression for hero aa’s.
With the bard as 1/3rd of the trio already set you have to use 2 characters to provide tanking, healing and DPS. Yes you can use mercs to supplement them but being dependent on a mercenary 100% is not a good plan. With a bard as a main and their ability to pull, the mage's earth pet makes for a good tank choice. They can handle singles relatively well and are not as gear dependent as a PC tank. They are however also not as good at tanking as a played PC tank. Managing aggro on adds and other things is not as simple as it would be for an SK, their survivability of a bad pull is less than a PC warrior, etc. The mage also gets you some reasonable DPS and their pet heals will help keep the pet going but would be useless with a PC tank. To provide healing, I would probably vote for a shaman, while slow is not as critical as it once was, the healing effect the later versions have as well as the various stat buffs available will help things go smoother than a simple cleric hp buff. (which you can get from a merc anyway). A druid is a possible alternative as they may be more DPS than a shaman and certainly makes travel easier but at the expense of some of the shaman unique utility.
