Bard group desireability?

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by superman, May 13, 2017.

  1. superman Augur

    Thinking about maining a bard on agnarr. Curious about how desireable in they are in groups.

    I've always just looked for a bard if i couldn't find an ench, but I know what the majority thinks of bards is the biggest factor here not my own personal view. I just think it'd be fun to be a pulling class! Curious if any bards would pipe in <<<see what i did there? and let me know how it tends to go in picking up groups through the expansions.

    Thanks for any input, I know these post are getting old to some :) lol
  2. Xoner Baby Joesph Sayer

    Bards don't really become pulling gods until PoP when they get fade. Until then they're just a basic utility class.
  3. TruthofEQ Elder

    Well I love grouping with bards personally, between mana and hp regen, their utilities are amazing, haste, aoe slow, snare, etc... But not every group will take full advantage of a bard, so it's a little iffy early on. Xoner is right, until they get Fade they aren't OP pullers, although they get lull song at like 8 or something, so they can pull decently well.

    The problem with bards pulling is early on most of the casters really want the bard around, and when they pull you just don't get manasong enough!

    The best thing about bards, I feel they are pretty OP in classic, and although they won't be as good at charming later on, overhaste, fade, and several other AA's/Songs just make the right group setup insanely OP later on. Plus you will always be wanted on raids (most of the time) for resists and haste and mana for clerics!
  4. Tevez Augur

    With the amount of groups that there's going to be I reckon bards will easily be getting picked up in groups. Being pullers, able to mez and provide mana regen/buffs is always good even if their own damage is lacking. There pretty much always seems to be enough dps in groups provided its full so there shouldn't be an issue there.

    The one main thing ive found about bards is that you can get a bad rep for yourself if played poorly (although this is kinda the case with almost any class). On Phinny I remember grouping with a bunch of the same people while leveling and coming across a bard who didn't know how to pull or mez which caused the group to wipe several times and he would then blame us. After that even when there would be a spot open for any class in group and he'd be LFG (and he tended to be stuck in LFG a lot) we would simply wait till pretty much anyone else was LFG to invite.

    All in all I reckon if you like the class you'll be fine getting into groups and having fun.
    (Having said all this I have never mained a Bard, this is just what i've experienced while leveling on TLPs)
  5. Trevalon Augur

    Repost from a post I made on another thread about Bards earlier this week:

    Well, having mained a bard on LJ for early expansions and now maining a bard again on Phinny at this moment I can answer a few questions.

    1) A bard will generally be invited for pulling unless there is a monk and even then you might pull some. I found that bards pulled less in early expansions but once PoP rolls around you will almost always be the exclusive puller for your group (Though its pretty fun to pull with Bellow + Fade + Speed, yo can really get some chain pulling going).

    2) Bards are extremely easy to play, borderline downright boring. The /melody command makes playing songs a non issue and you basically just set it and forget it unless you get stunned or need to make a song switch for a raid. No more having to manually play each song!

    3) Your melee is terrible as a bard. Truth be told whether you melee or not really isn't relevant at all, and in classic + Kunark and MOTM buff making those mobs significantly harder (Classic & Kunark are the hardest raid expansions now with MOTM imo) I found on my bard I spent more time standing behind a wall playing songs for my group than actually facing/hitting the mobs (Unless you couldn't wall the AE's and then there was no point in hiding of course). This makes bards terribly boring in Classic raiding and to an extent Kunark as well. It gets better Velious+ and then once you get to PoP bards become a lot of fun actually.

    4) You won't be swarm kiting as its hardly possible (though it technically is) to do anymore. What they did was they made so if the bard is moving and the AE song goes off it won't actually hit any targets. So you have to physically stop moving to have the AE song hit targets, which is tough to swarm kite if you have to stop moving in the middle of the kite, but I hear its technically doable if your really precise with your movements. Either way, not worth it.
    4a) Reverse Charm killing is definitely a thing and a good bard can do some really amazing things solo using this tactic

    5) in groups youll spend most of your time pulling. Once Kunark hits and you get your epic (A must for any bard) you don't really need to use an instrument for a whole lot. Sure they help some, but the increase eventually becomes pretty minimal and once PoP rolls around all your major songs are all singing anyway (And if your lucky enough to get a Shei cloak then your GTG for the vast majority of your songs). You might mez on some but I don't really mez all that often, I mez more now in PoP than I did in earlier expansions due to the better mez (Lullaby of Morrel is pretty dang good).

    Bards start pretty slow and imo are one of the most boring raid classes there are, but they are a slow burn class that just gets better as expansions go on. They are HIGHLY sought after for raids and fairly high for groups (Some people prefer to take another dps over a bard, especially earlier expansions, though that gets better as you get closer and closer to PoP).

    Overall, I am not sure I would recommend a bard to people for early expansions, I, personally, didnt love my bard during Classic/Kunark but I absolutely recommend a bard Luclin + as they get alot of new tools and become much more enjoyable after that point IMO.
    andross77 likes this.
  6. superman Augur

    Yea boring on raids was another reason i kinda wanted to play bard. Because when most guilds raid my kids are up and i dont' know wen i might have to get up in a pinch. Bard was the only real class I could think of that could just /follow and /melody and be alright if you had to get up for a couple minutes for a spilled drink or "sissy punched me in the face" scenario lol.

    Just trying to balance that with ease of getting into groups as well, I hate solo'ing/farming crap and i love grouping and just chilling meeting new people. I don't mind making groups half the time, but don't want the bother the other half of the time... thanks for the replies.
  7. Machentoo Augur


    If you don't want to ever raid, bard will be very frustrating from Luclin through Pop and Ykesha. Almost zero group based flowing thought items in Luclin, PoP, Ykesha will mean you can hit Fade about once every hour and a half. Max FT from raid gear brings that down to about once every six minutes, a reasonable amount for chain pulling using Lull. It will get a bit better in LDON if you focus on the right augs, but that's 9 months of being way behind the curve compared to raiding bards.
  8. superman Augur

    Oh, i want to raid, might have said that badly. I never felt i could raid much on my wizard because i wasn't contributing if i had to get up abruptly to handle something. With bard i'm assuming as long as melody is going that's 90% of what they need from me. I'm just an all or nothing type of guy I don't like to do things halfway and i'm a little ocd about it. So playing the wiz, if i couldn't parse well every fight it bothered me and made me not wanna raid it all. < i'm a little weird.
  9. Machentoo Augur


    You are in luck. Whether you play either a bard or wizard, everyone will expect you to randomly AFK during raids.
    Trevalon likes this.
  10. Trevalon Augur

    Bard is a good class if you need downtime on raids, just put on follow and your good.
  11. osirissx New Member

    Every one loves a bard past level 32 (manna song...) Past 27 if there smart. There are a few gaps in there song list that kinda mess with them ( pre luclin ), but for end game on agnarr there going to be awesome.
  12. Troubadurix Lorekeeper

    Wrong. They made it so that whenever the MOB moves, it doesn't take damage from the songs. The bard can stand completely still and yet, the mob won't take dmg, if it is moving.
  13. Strawberry Augur

    It really depends on the era. Bards are a useful class in every expansion, but it's around GoD where they start to get certain songs and especially AA, where they become an extremely powerful class.

    Someone already mentioned fade, but they also get quicktime, fierce eye, funeral dirge, boastful bellow for pulling, instant mezz AA, just tons of stuff in a few expansions that lifts them from a regular class in classic to a very powerful class post PoP.

    A bard in an expansion like OOW or DoN, is very desired.

    As far as soloing, I almost never solo on my bard, running in circles or charm killing isn't very fun imo, certainly not as fun as grouping with a bard.
  14. DariyaVika Augur

    If people can't find an enchanter, you're the next best thing since you can do group haste and mana regen. If the group does have an enchanter, you're still really great, particularly in Luclin and beyond because you get overhaste songs that stack with enchanter haste, and you can let the enchanter focus on charm pet dps while you pull 2-3 mobs into camp and keep the adds drooling while the group obliterates the other one. If the group just wants you to sit there and sing mana song and haste for them, occasionally mezzing a mob, you can do it. If the group needs you to chain pull for them, you can do it.

    They're awesome pullers even in classic. They can split rooms much faster than a monk because they can lull 3-4 mobs and then pull one, and there aren't many rooms in any dungeon where more than five mobs will come with a pull.

    In Kunark and Velious there's an annoying mez gap, where you'll go about 6-7 levels with no ability to mez mobs in your high 40s.

    As other people say, they're an easy class to play, but every single class in this game is easy to play if you have at least a room temperature IQ and aren't half-afk because you're paying more attention to the TV than to the group you joined. I would say slightly more difficult than an enchanter, from a crowd control point of view, but also more exciting if you're pulling. Enchanters can fire and forget with their mezzes, while you have to pay more attention to the timing if you're juggling 3+ mezzes due to a botched pull.
    Troubadurix likes this.
  15. osirissx New Member

    Bards are screwed... (in classic to pop) there aoes do nothing now!. then need a way to be a bard!
  16. Soon Augur


    This comment is simply fostering bad bards by trying to normalize bad plays...

    1) Bards pull better and faster than monks in group contents. If you have your monk pulling, especially in classic, your group is losing dps because of task mismatching. In classic raids (Hate, Fear, Sky), bard pull is more efficient than monk.

    2) If you just use /melody without looking at what important song buffs are missing, you are not doing your job properly. Especially when you pull and run away from the group, you will want to give some song buffs on the group sooner than other less useful songs.

    3) If you just hide behind the wall, it's boring.

    Bards in classic are not boring at all. Actually, it is more challenging than when in PoP where you get all the tools to make your job trivial. Of course you can still "do something" to the group/raid even if you just afk /melody. But that's less than 50% of what a bard can actually do.