Can't decide bard or ranger

I'll throw in my 2 coppers worth even though I am sure Agent of Change will be along shortly to tell me how stupid I am and blah blah blah.

Ranger:

• DPS.. it only gets better
• Potential of dying a lot on raids
• Relatively easy epic 1.0
• Can tank classic content
• Great soloer (if you want to)
• Kites like a champ
• Did I mention DPS
• Ranged damage (totally worthwhile starting in Planes of Power)
• Awesome looking epic weapons... LIGHTNING!

Bard:

• No DPS ... ever... forget it... just no...
• Crowd Control
• Loved on raids for resist songs... potential of always being in the main raid group if that's your thing
• Cool looking pixels all over the place... I mean who doesn't like bard pixels?!
• Can solo, but the nerfs over the years have made them not that great at it anymore
• Epic 1.0 is a major pain in the butt to get because of the bottle neck in Old Seb... expect to fight every other bard on the server for the spawn
• Plate armor...
• Unique play style

Really it comes down to personal taste. I like both classes, and I *always* end up making an alt of both of them.

In fact, I forgot to make my ranger, so I could get the dark elf mask for him. Crap... now I got another alt I need to create and level up before the mask stops dropping. *sigh* Dang you alt-itis... dang you!

Bard epic doesn't require Undead bard anymore (was updated on Phinny server). Trak himeself now drops Trak guts.
Epic is now fairly easy honestly relatively.

That's a huge improvement for that epic.

Can anyone answer my question about bards getting a new mezz at 53 in Kunark?

Allakhazam can.

Level: 53
Song of Twilight BRD/53
1: Mesmerize (2/55)
5: Decrease Magic Resist by 1 (L53) to 27 (L105)
Wind
SingleTarget



At level 53, you get the ability to mez up to level 55. You do not get another mez in Kunark or Velious. At 60, you will only be able to mez 55 and lower mobs until Luclin.

If you want to pull make a monk. If you want to dps, also make a monk. If you want to do one of these two things but can't decide which, make a monk.

If you want to be unusual and in-demand for raiding guilds, bard is generally quite a bit better than ranger. They bring a couple highly-desired special abilities for raids that have been covered already (manasong, resist songs) that stack with all other class's buffs. Of course bards are always in demand to provide these skills because people get bored and frustrated trying to level their bards and quit, despite the hordes of new bards you see up at server launch and every double xp weekend. Unfortunately you might feel the same way they do.

Bard gameplay will consist of turning on these abilities, along with attack, then watching text scroll by. You can do a bit more like keeping up clickies and long-refresh nukes, which might put you solidly in the tail end of the dps parse, ahead of the afk rangers.

Bard mana song is a huge boost. I don't even know what to say to you beyond that.

Beastlord is the master class

A properly played anything should be better than a boxed character. Boxed bards, however, can have a big impact on the group while doing nothing but playing whatever four songs fit the situation. I sometimes pull with my bard box and almost always melee. But if he's just standing there singing mana, health, AE slow, and <insert other song here> then that's fine, too.

Mana song is ok but since it is pulsed once a tick and not a buff there is no twisting with it running.
Well you can twist it but it kills the regen rate.
Unless they changed it

Uh, they changed it a long long time ago.

Velious has an irresistible mez song.

It is listed as a Luclin Spell, and unconfirmed that it drops from Vulak'aerr during Velious.

Ah well see how long it has been

It dropped from Vulak for me.