Bard Solo vs Necro Solo

Been playing a bard on TLPs since Phinigel and Ive played almost every TLP.

While a bard CAN do everything you listed, overall the necro will do it (for the most part) better and FAR easier than the bard will. Bards have a ton of tools to get things done, but it takes much more effort and mental acuity than it would on a Necro.

Overall if your wanting to solo things, Necro is almost always the way to go, and on a server that people can KS you, Necro is definitely the way to go.

Anyone who says otherwise is giving you false hope. Sure, for the 10 year bard veteran some of the things like reverse kiting is not too bad, but it takes alot of know how to do those things. Not just on how the class plays, paying very close attention to things, but also know where to go and what to kill. Ive been doing it a long time and even I mess up reverse kiting quite a bit to the point id rather just group than anything else.

I have also played a Necro and they are just super good overall. They go through the caster slump like them all, but Pre-Luclin and Post OOW they are extremely good. Get to HoT and they are literally godlike.

As a raid leader, I would take a well played main necro over a bard main. Bard mains are great, but the problem with bard mains is that a box bard can be 80% of a bard main as the biggest thing bards do is play songs and that is super easy for boxes. Sure bards pull, can do some decent dps with the right groups, and other things, but that stuff is pretty inconsequential overall when you have 5-8 bards every raid. MOST bards are just sitting at the raid playing songs and hitting Q box or not. Even in VoA, all I do is hit my cooldowns, hit Q, and turn on melody...during any given fight. Why? Cause there is no point in doing anything else. Mobs are easy, stuff dies, it doesn't really matter anymore, just hit the mob and kill it. That is on 90% of fights. Sure there are fights here or there where a bard can shine with Mezzes/charms, but those fights are few and far between.

Anyway, long winded rant: Necro is better at 1, 2, 3 overall and number 4 is a completely tossup - you'll find a guild with both characters just fine.

EDIT - I will say that you will find grouping easier on the Bard. Necros are actually not very good in groups, unless they undead charm. Run a meter, Necro DPS ramps too slow for most average mobs and they are sub par DPS in the group game until about Underfoot (Then they start to go nutso). I found finding groups on my bard MUCH faster than my necro. Like night and day.

Less than average, because you could had charmed another mob to finish the other one, instead of using DD and DoT songs.

I hate to break it to you, I typically was finishing 8 mobs with low health (or more iiirc?) with the low level aoe dd song which crits pretty high with epic and FE running….and there’s always the frontal cone aoe dd we had if you’re good at landing that with a pack of 20 or 30 mobs on you. I could typically finish a pack of 12-20 mobs in 8 minutes, 10-12 if I was sloppy. Idk wtf you’re on mate.

Remembering the actual question
1. Named farming Solo
2. Dungeon Crawl Solo
3. Fastest xp Solo
4. Most wanted in Raid guilds as a Main

This is very heavy solo. Simply put, a Bard is more of a force multiplier. Grease for the wheels in a group setting. Makes a group take less damage, do more damage, and takes some of the stress off other characters by helping with healing. It's always good to have a group take less damage. Bards mix with just about any other character type. If you put a Bard in with 5 casters, they will all burn and buff more often and faster. If you put a Bard in with 5 head knockers i.e. Warrior or Monk, they will swing for more damage and take less damage. Of course a mix of casters and head knockers benefit too.

If any complaints, for me it is the songs get almost all their benefit from being in a group. I mean if you solo, singing a 15% haste song is better than nothing but not by much. 15% added to your otherwise measly output is not a big deal. Add it to 4-5 other players in a group that really do some dirt and now you are talking.

Necros are a great solo class. Put a run speed hampering spell on your target, add a couple of DOTs and Fear it. It dies while shuffling away with your pet biting at its heals. If you are in tight quarters, your life taps will often heal you faster then the MOB can hurt you, and it dies. Only time you are less than optimum in a group is when the MOB dies faster than your DOTs work. You still have value with heals (transfer hps) and snares, just probably less than an equivalent Bard.

Necros have nearly zero risk to kill mobs. Fear kite with snare, and if the pet does get killed -> Grab your second one or cast a new one, or cast FD. No need to use escape which will fail anyways because of DoTs, as FD is already their escape. Nearly the same situation for bards: Run away and chain trigger fade (escape) until all aggro is cleared, then start over. I can only wonder that these classes are still around the way they are.

From the perspective of TLP, once a bard obtains a charm, fastest XP solo isn't even comparable in favor of the bard, assuming the bard is well practiced and skilled with the technique. With out of combat regen now, it's sustainable without any FT gear which was the major limiting factor once using mana version. Even with Denons capped at 5 targets now, that's probably still faster than a necro as well thanks to ooc regen.

Dungeon crawl and soloing named is obviously in favor of necro. It would take way more effort, although doable. And necro soloing is braindead easy compared to any of the bard tactics.