How well can bards solo in classic eq 1-50 ? Being casual i might have to solo a bit more then group.
Hi there, and welcome to the bard.....Really, the best class in the game...... What server are you going to play on? This makes a huge difference in playability because the Progression servers (ragefire & lockjaw) have tons of people playing on them. If you are playing on a regular live server, then you can pretty much assume that you will have to solo from level 1-70. So, how well do bards solo? TERRIBLY! In fact, I have leveled 12 characters to level 75+ and the worst to get there was the bard. ( there is one exception, I will discuss later ). LEVEL 1-25 - If you have decent gear, you can pretty much bet that these will be the easiest levels for you. While having a healer in group will help; youll find that the bard has good DPS at these levels and they can tank with the best of them. LEVEL 25+ - You will notice a drop off in the amount of DPS dealt. If you are soloing still at this point, you will find that you can only kill light blue and green mobs. Requiring tons of rest time in between kills..... While Charming a mob for intermittent tanking and dps is do-able, I think this is more situation dependent. I myself, only charm mobs when I pull too many mobs to the group. I never charm mobs like an enchanter would ( for 10-30mins at a time ). The reason you have to remember is that mana & bards do not go together. -- Bards max out on meditation at (1) -- Bards cannot use any forms of Mana regeneration, EXCEPT for gear -- Bards have a fairly small mana pool. -- Only a few of the bards songs/abilities use mana: charm being one of them -- Replenishing a full mana bar can take upwards of 20-30minutes. (depending on gear) THE EXCEPTION: The only exception to this is charm swarming. This is the only power leveling that has not yet been nerfed.... If you are skilled bard, you will be able to take a mob that say has: 2,000 hitpoints in total. And if you charm swarm effeciently, you will in essence only have to damage the mob 10% (200dmg) to kill the mob. I encourage to scroll to page on the hybrid forums as there is a recent Charm kiting post @ https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...charm-kiting-guide-and-other-info.1288/page-3 .... On that post, on Page 3, I added my own personal flair to how I charm swarm because I feel setting up your targeting keys appropriately is super important................. The only caveat is that you need something with instant-click cast: invis, from your inventory. Now that the progression servers have advanced to Kunark, this means the "Goblin Ghazugi Ring" is now available. I have camped this spawn which took approximately 40hours real life hours. Feel free to google: "Sarnak Courrier ZAM", You can reference another post I made (karmalious 2013) here @ http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=5327 which describes the way i camped the ring and any considerations to be made about that. IN CONCLUSION, If at all possible try to find any group while leveling your bard and it will be the most fun you ever have. If your going to solo it will be very little fun.......... Even the charm swarming while it is very fast xp; it takes a ton of mental focus, stamina, and skill.
Great write up! I want to add my own two cents into the mix: The solo game for bards is difficult and can be quite lonely. Yes, bards are indeed the best class in the game (thank you KarmaThaKing!), but we have three methods of soloing, and until you get to level 60 or so, meleeing is just too slow and is essentially off the table. You won't do enough damage, you have no way to heal, and the mobs have too much health. Maybe if you fight to 20% of your HP, mez the mob, sit and regen, and then fight again, it's doable, but that's no way to exp. So count meleeing out. You could dot kite. Plant dots on one mob at a time with your best percussion instrument and run circles. Pretty boring, takes a long time..and isn't really doable until level 30, when you get your first dot song, to pair with your lvl 18 bellow nuke. So at 45, it's more plausible because you have a better lineup of dot songs. But at that level you could be charm kiting! Charm kiting is only feasible at level 27 and up. So until level 27, you essentially need to rely on grouping. I remember trying to solo below level 30, and it was just horrible. So find a guild and stick to groups. Don't expect to make much progress alone. Sorry to be a downer like that, but it's the honest truth. Now, once you get to level 27, you can begin charm kiting. Begin in Rathe Mountains where you can charm the hill giants. You'll make lots and lots of money, and the exp is rather good, too. The REAL fun starts when you ding 39, because the charm song at that level allows you to charm mobs all the way up to level 51. You'll be charm kiting deep, deep red mobs, so the exp will be fast and furious! My absolute favorite spot at 39-54 or so, was charm kiting the Spirocs in Timorous Deep. They're on the north central island, look for the rookery towers. You should be able to charm kite in packs up to 8. Try not to die, the run back to Tim Deep is long. Spirocs are good until about 44-47 or so, when you can cross the islands to the east and prey on the Pirates on the northeastern island in TD. These mobs range up to level 51, drop lots and lots of plat, steel weapons, and gems and things. Many of them are rogues, so keep a very good distance from them because one wrong move and you'll be backstabbed a dozen times in one round. There's an Elf vendor south of the pirate island on the Kelethin faction you can sell your stuff to. I highly highly recommend playing bard, even if soloing is the pits prior to lvl 30ish. A level 50+ bard is immense fun in a group, you'll be watching your tracking window, looking for mobs to mez, managing mob spawns, twisting songs, and planning your next pull. No other class keeps so busy.
