Hey all, I'm fairly experienced with EQ however I'm completely new to the bard class. I wanted to see what all of the hype was about with bards being in demand for each raid group? If our DPS is awful and other classes are superior with mana & health regen along with attack speed buffs...mezzing (enchanters). Why do we need bards? And don't tell me "at level ??? bards get 1 song that helps melee groups and 1 song that helps caster groups.... I understand if I play this role I'll be in charge of pulls. That's just something I'll need to learn on the fly. Is it hard?
Depends on the era. At first, raids love bards becuase of resist songs. Those are a huge boon to tanks and melees. Also, the mana song in very important for casters. Of course they have a lot of other songs to help most roles, but at first it is mostly mana and resists. Later they get pretty awesome adps songs and AAs, both for melee and casters, and the mana/hp song is raid AE, so only one bard has to sing it. In general bards start being really good and useful and they get better and better as expansions unlocks. Most groups love to get a bard, and most raid leaders would say they'd have a bard in each group if possible. About pulling. Bards are great pullers, and their basic pulling mechanism (lull) is really easy, so you should be able to get a grasp pretty soon. From there, there are still a lot of tricks of the trade to learn, as a bard puller, but in general they are way easier than a monk as their toolset once they get fade is really strong. In raids, usually monks are the pullers, except maybe in kunark iirc that some long pulls are made by bards because of selos. Raid pulling is more about know-how than class, to be honest. FIrst xpacs monks are needed because splitting in some encounters is a must, but as time passes most pulling becomes more simple. Any class can pull trash most of the time, FD and Fade is just a failsafe in case something goes wrong. In groups, you will probably have to pull. The basics are simple, and you have a lot of place to grow, but some people just don't like pulling, so that's up to you, but if you find yourself hating pulling avoid the bard and monk. In general, bards are fun, have a huge skillset and you can do a lof of things (even dps once the Bellow AA gets superbuffed) but it's a class that most people either love or hate to play. Also be aware than once you playa bard and get used to Selos you will never be same the same, you will feel snared if you ever play another class again!
Bards are the jack-of-all-trades in this game, and a good bard makes any group better. It's also the hardest class to master, IMO, but the most rewarding. When I switched to bard main after playing a SHM for a couple of years, it seemed like everything I did before that point was in slow-motion. I'm not just talking about selos speed, but everything... Someone else might take 6 seconds casting a spell, but that's an eternity to a bard, and I just did 12 things in that same amount of time. One thing to note, I heard that bards were somewhat of an afterthought in the game. They designed all the other beginning classes first, then decided they needed something else, so the bard was born. As a result, we operate on a different set of rules, which includes no mana regen but worn, but also being able to cast on the run, and many other things. So, I do recommend giving it a shot, but know that it does take a lot of practice to get it right.
Bards are great, and I can confirm you're never far from a group invite as they're a pretty awesome class. Saying that, to get the best out of them takes practice and dedication, and you'll find that most bards tend to just be melody bots at the back of a box group, as you can get 80% of the functionality out of them by doing that. It's that last 20% where the magic happens however. If you're willing to put in the work and focus on what you're doing you'll find that all other classes are kind of dull and feel like they're missing an arm. Once you've barded properly it's hard to go back to playing any other class. You'll have to deal with some misconceptions however. Until you get the fading memories aa, you'll pull no better than any other class with lull. People will still expect you to pull... as that's what bards do... right.... Take your time, don't try to box until you know what you're doing, and think about the group makeup of every group you join and adjust accordingly. I think the best thing ever said to me as a bard was: Forget about your personal DPS, it's woeful...especially in the early days. You're there to make everyone else better at what they do and make them look good. If you can do that, you've done your job.
This isn’t entirely accurate. While once you get fade, you do quite suddenly become a powerhouse for pulling, before this point, you still are a better pulling choice than most other lull classes, simply because of your speed. You can pull to the group and head out again then get back with another pull much quicker than any other pullers. When coupled with a fast dps group, this can absolutely increase the kill rate and thus exp rate of the group.
I've played a lot of classes up to pretty high levels in live and TLPs. Druid was always my main which I really loved playing but Bard probably overtook both druid and enchanter as my favourite. So much flexibility, pulling (with tracking), CC, solo kiting dot/charm, melee and caster group aDPS. Gone are the days of carefully running around zone walls to avoid aggro, just run straight through zones with impunity.
Agreed Selo's is a big boost, however it does come with some issues. if you get stunned, and selo's fades, then you're likely to be toast as 3 seconds recast (assuming no restun) is an awful long time when you're trying to outdistance a pack of mobs, and have no way to drop aggro. It does become a moot point at 49 when you get selo's accelerating chorus which lasts for 2.5 mins. Then everyone runs at bard speed long enough for a pull. I am not disputing a bard's ability to pull, it's awesome, but the point i'm making is that they're not pulling gods till they can drop some aggro.
