I'm pretty new and wanted to try the new TLP server. Is Bard a bad choice for a new player? They sound kind of complicated from the guides I'm reading. I'm wondering if I should try a few other classes to know how they work before taking a dive into playing a Bard, unless the songs come slowly enough that it gives me time to adapt my game play. Just looking for experienced player advice, thank you
Their main complication comes in the variety of options you can do as one, they can do a lot of things To play one or not, if you really want to there's no downside if you find it fun or not since the level range is closer at the start its not that hard to re-roll to something else
Thank you. Is swapping instruments complicated or is that taken care of by a macro these days? I also noticed the melody macro which certainly makes life easier.
It should have the Bandolier ui piece to swap the most common ones (you save primary, secondary, range, ammo in this to each slot), otherwise it's just dropping the instrument in 2ndary slot based on what you need to boost (like Drum for travel or kiteing/doting solo stuff, Strings to boost hp/mana regen stuff, etc), later expansions have these mods on the actual gear itself so you pretty much no longer have to use instruments then Melody can auto play songs for general fighting/playing yea, you'd mostly only need to break it if you have to like Charm or Mez stuff
Macros macros macros I made a blog post to help another player who was doing some barding, it might help you get a start and understand some of the other site's posts, too https://rijacki-game.blogspot.com/2023/04/everquest-social-macros-for-novice-bard.html My very very first character back in 2001 was a Vah Shir bard and that was long before several QOL changes like /melody and the bandolier. And now I have 2 more bards, one at 120, and am going to roll a bard on the new TLP next month. Bard is not the easiest class to play well and the simplest class to play decent. Bard is a jack of all trades with a lot of versatility and layers of complexity. But... you can learn a lot of that as you go along and improve from being decent to much better. I'm not an expert and probably am missing a lot of optimisation but I do look for improvements on how I do things from time to time and continue to 'grow' in the class. It's actually my most favourite class of all.
Swapping instruments is mostly a thing in the lower levels on the live servers. It can be done by creating hotbuttons (for bandoliers) which are mini macros for weapon/instrument sets. Defiant gear and higher level armor has instruments included: Helm, Gloves, Boots, Vambraces, and for singing there is an AA line. Bard can be easy to play but is very different to other classes. Mastering the class can be difficult and it is very dependant on song sets for many different group and tactical constellations. Playing a bard does mean to play a tactician so you should be good there. A good standard song set does also work but can waste much potential. It is not a bad idea to start with a bard but you might have problems to switch to a caster or hybrid class later because only the bard class can move around while activating songs/spells without getting interrupted by doing so.
This is fantastic, thank you. I wasn't sure how the bandolier system worked exactly but you explained it pretty well along with song twisting.
Hopefully explained it well enough you can start using it on your own. It's good for working on different weapon types, too, or swapping in a shield on fights that really need that extra AC. As noted, in higher levels, the armor has instruments built in (denoted by the instrument type bonus), but unless you're absolutely min/maxing, it can add a bit of flair to equip your lute for the soft strumming of mana regen while everyone is taking a break or tub-thump when you're on a run. Bandolier makes that easy-peasy so why not add that bit of RP back into the MMORPG
Thank you, you explain it very well. If you'll indulge me I had a couple more questions. I've started a Bard on FV just to get some practice before Oakwynd launches. I notice that sometimes my melody will just stop and I have to reactivate it again. Is that me 'fizzling' a song, or missing a note, or whatever it's called due to low skills? Also, how many songs can you twist at once. I'm still low level but it seems like I can do four, I don't' know if things change with higher levels and AAs and such.
Stun will stop your melody. I hate stun with a purple passion. Missing a note (fizzling) with melody will sorta stop it as it tries to sing that same one again and again and again. Stopping it (tap on a spell gem or /stopsong) and starting again often resolves that. More common in lower levels. Back in the long ago past of the early aughts, by the time I was level 20ish, I could manually twist 4 to 5 songs depending on the songs' durations with only a small period of a song dropping before it would be resung. Using /melody is heaps easier and more reliable.Songs have different durations and 'cast times. Most songs have almost instant casting. You can get more songs in a melody, even in lower levels, by mixing the songs to take advantage of their durations. You can can have more than one instance of a song in a melody. So you could have a long duration song, with repeats of the shorter before it comes back around to the longer one. But yes, the durations do increase with AA just like spell durations do, but most still are at most 2-3 minutes. By level 120, you can have a very long melody. But, you also will have an increased number of things you'll want to sing and still have to make choices and not sing everything and not have everything in you spell gems (though those, too, increase). I have a few different melodies I sing at different times and based on the group makeup. If it's a melee heavy group, there are some songs that butt melee more than caster. If it's caster heavy, then out come the spell boosters. If mana isn't an issue, then I sing the mana song just at breaks or I have it in the mix for pulses but with it also dropping a short bit before it comes back up. It's a lot about thinking ahead and making melodies and spell sets to accommodate different situations. Oh and some songs become AA so you don't have to have them in your spell gems or melody but get /alt activate instead (which has to be fitted in between songs).
