Are bards fun to raid with?

What makes bards good pullers is that can cast while running in addition to being extremely fast. In outdoor zones a bard never has much issue with bad pulls because they can kite forever and break off mobs as they need to. indoors their power is diminished but the ability to cast cc on the move makes bards excellent at manipulating situations quickly.

I really didn't like playing a bard on TLP from classic - Luclin. Bards just barely start to become interesting in PoP, but only for < 10 fades. They get a lot more fun in later expansions. That said, a lot of people seem to really enjoy bards on progression servers. Part of this is probably that its a unique class, and that their variety of utility is more special in classic than in modern expansions.

Edit: Specific to raiding, most of the "play" of a bard is choosing a melody and playing it, then assisting for bad DPS. Sometimes there is pulling, but usually there are 1-2 chosen players doing that. IIRC these pullers tend to be monks except for a few specific things.

I'm gonna be rocking out with a bard main on Selo this time. I've never mained a bard before, but i've had melody box bards. Gonna say Bard has to be one of the more boring classes on raids until PoP. Prior to PoP you rarely should be doing anything other then /melody on raids, some times you don't even get to melee while doing it cause you need to stand near the clerics playing AE mana song. There is a few times like first 2 mini bosses in VT where you will get to kite a large number of mobs in a circle for 20+ mins. After PoP Bards can do some crazy Voodoo pulling tricks(WTB lessons bling), you can also just lull your way through things like BoT mini towers.

This statement is very confusing lol. Your opinions are formed based on your experiences. But I digress, no reason arguing, we're each entitled to our own views.

I mained a bard for a good while on LJ, Phinny, and Agnarr.

What I can say is bards are fun in groups almost all expansions.

What I can also say is that Bards are super boring on raids in Classic, Kunark, and Velious (mostly just hiding behind walls to avoid AE's and playing songs, No point in even hitting the mob cause your dmg is so bad it doesnt matter and if you get hit by an AE your just hurting the raid more than your helping, so you might as well just hide). Bards are super useful during these eras but are really boring to play. But hey, if your the type that wants to watch TV or play other games while you raid - Bards for you!

That all being said, this changes drastically in Luclin+. Luclin bards get some new tools to make them much more formidable and then in PoP they become better pullers than Monks in many/most situations. This makes them tremendously fun PoP+ if you like to pull for groups, because you WILL be pulling for groups.

They are also excellent power levelers because they can reverse dmg shield plvl other toons (Just need a healer really).

So, I usually play one class till Luclin then switch to a bard during Luclin - ive done that for 2 servers now.

Anyway just my opinion.

Most of the time I'd rather have a boxed bard played by a dps than a main bard.

More likely to actually be attacking and not just melodying in the back of the raid, and actually using their epic/AAs during proper burn phases.

IDK what it is about TLP servers but almost all the main bards I play with end up being loot sponges that either quit or sell before 2 expansions are up.

If you are using your bard to pull, you are not getting the benefit of their songs most of the time. Bards are great for splitting the camp, or pulling very short distances while you are plowing, but in most cases if you are staying in one place and pulling mobs in for xp for an extended time, having almost anyone else in the group pull will be better than the bard. Especially further on into the game once they begin adding more and more adps.

yah not getting the song while the last mob dies while they bring 5 more into camp and play songs while you kill 4/5 is "most of the time"

Later on (good) bards don't suffer from song interruptions while pulling anymore. You get an instant clicky mezz in the form of an AA (sleepwalker) that doesn't interrupt your melody, it's a free out of jail card on a very short timer. A lvl 80+ bard has so many AA and free out of jail cards that they should never have a single song interruption during a pull, even in a tough zone.

But very early on in classic bards are very mediocre pullers, they tend to interrupt their melody, they tend to have low mitigation (monks wear leather but have much higher mitigation than bards due to their much higher AC softcap), they don't have their fade yet, they don't have their bellow yet so they're pulling with social aggro (or god forbid, the stupid bard slow), they don't have song range extension yet. Early on bards kinda suck, but they become godly around OOW and remain pretty much one of the most powerful classes in EQ, and they become the most efficient pullers.

Question - Are bards fun to raid with?

Answer - Yes, if you are not a mouth breather.

The people who actually hurt bard their group potential most are annoying tanks asking bards to slow.

The amount of DPS your group loses by asking for a pitiful bard slow (which they need to precede by HoS to even get it to stick, requiem has a horrible magic resist check), is never worth it. Having HoS+Requiem interrupting melody on every mob makes the bard completely useless. Even if there is no slower in group, don't ask bards to slow, bards generally hate doing it, and it severely hinders your group's potential, just ask the healer to pay attention.

nm

Bard slow is borderline useless. Requiem is on a terrible magic resist, to get requiem to stick you need to play HoS first. You're wasting 8 seconds that could have gone to your group's DPS, just to get a terrible slow on your mob, a slow that has a high chance to be resisted even with HoS.

A very very limited number of things make bards awesome, and it's not slow.

Awesome things a bard can do:

Songs:
-spell haste with +ATK
-V3 overhaste
-mana song
-your modifiers, proc songs for melee and +spell damage for casters
-selo (becomes an AA later on)

AA:
-Fade and Bellow, the two best pulling AA you get
-Dirge of the Sleepwalker AA, your instant free out of jail card
-Quicktime and Funeral Dirge, the only two bard AA anyone cares about on a raid

All the other songs / AA / abilities / discs bards have, are barely worth mentioning.

There is plenty to do on a bard during raids. In my opinion, they're a fun and entertaining class. Play a bard and beat the game.

During classic, through Velious, you’ll mostly be hugging your healer and playing mana song. You can literally make a /follow /melody hotkey, and afk (check in occasionally for wipes and you’ll be fine. The only times you’ll do anything different is when the raid requires resists.

In groups it’s the opposite, you’ll never get a moments rest lol.

Bards are (in general) the best pullers in group content, hands down.

If you have a balanced group with adequate CC, there is no class that can pull at the same rate as a bard.

While there are niche situations where a fd class would be the better puller, most groups have ways to deal with extra mobs.

I have raided, there were bards and it was fun so in conclusion yes bards are fun to raid with. They always bring the music and entertainment. You just need a couple of dwarves for their ale, a couple casters to bring on a good light show and an enchanter to turn everyone into female elves and it really makes for a good time. Just look at the mascot for the Selo server and tell me he does not look like a dude who is all jacked up on evercrack ready to have a good time.

This is a pretty uninformed opinionated comment, I can think of plenty of situations where bard mez is very useful.

1. The bard is pulling and wants to string out some of the incoming mobs so chanters/tanks can pick them up easily.
2. Events with multiple add spawns e.g. frostcrypt where bards can help give the chanters some extra valuable seconds to get control
3. Partial wipe situations where tanks/chanters may be down and getting control of the camp will help get the raid back on it's feet.

Sure most of the time we're just melodying, but it's not all about dps all of the time, and you have to be able to think on your feet and help out when it's needed.

Imagine thinking the AE version of bard slow is bad.

Fierce Eye is pretty good as well