Does anyone run a bard berserker duo in EoK?

Discussion in 'Melee' started by Parker, Sep 30, 2017.

  1. Parker Elder

    Currently running a bard mage combo and its going extremely well. However I just got a berserker 2hander to drop and logged in my old berserker toon to loot. Years back I ran a bard berserker duo remarkably well...in UF and all the way up to HoT before I quit. When I started bard was my main and raid geared so it seemed the natural tank...but somehow over time I progressed to zerker tanking via the 2 or 3 stun abilities they had...one being a fail safe if the other didn't land. Ran with 2 healer mercs. Named were a different story...iirc bard would deftdance while zerker burned then fade or natural aggro transfer to zerker with his own WS type disc and mob was basically dead.

    Eok mobs seem a bit more beefy so just curious if anyone runs a setup duo like this now with any efficiency?
  2. Feljar New Member

    I main changed to a zerker. Made a bard a year later to pair with my zerker. This was around House of Thule era. It was and still is a killer combo. My real problem came when my zerker could no longer tank efficiently, as I am group geared. So now I felt I had to make a tank. I didn't want to use a war/pal/sk as I would have to basically gear them before my main to be effective, so I made a mage and pet tank. Now I three box, and with that combo and appropriate mercs for the situation, I haven't come across anything yet I couldn't handle. Named who spawn adds, or unmezzable adds give me trouble sometimes. But in regards to your question, zerker and bards work well together, but it may get harder and riskier to tank with your zerk (unless raid geared). I tried tanking with bard but zerk always regains aggro very quickly. Hope this helps
    Parker likes this.
  3. Parker Elder

    It did help, thank you.
  4. Parker Elder

    Little update on this. Tried yetis in Lcea with my duo two different ways.

    Bard as MT with two healer mercs...splatter once every few pulls. Didn't really care for the inconsistency.

    Tried again with bard tanking with songs to help that. Still unreliable. Bard isn't maxed in defensives either.

    Tried merc tank with one healer merc. All ways...bard songs to support merc(s)...too many splats.

    Only thing that worked was working on bringing up bard defensive AAs, then moving to trees in FM while running 2 dot songs for aggro. That was sustainable however xp returns extremely slow due to low dps...40k ish ...seems zerk isn't putting out as much with VoA raid wpn and 3k AAs...I'm guessing it picks up at 104 disc?
  5. Filter Augur

    Things will pick up once you are 105 and get to have some EOK gear, decap firing and use your mash key with dicho. Your dps will improve by a large margin.
    Parker likes this.
  6. Bigstomp Augur

    Your problem is mercs. Mercs are intended to fill ONE role in a group, not two.

    None of your toons are tanks or healers.
    So you're using both bad healing (mercs) and bad tanks (mercs, your various dps toons).

    It can be done, but it's not going to be easy. (although with enough stubborn alot of things you wouldn't expect to work can work)
    Parker likes this.
  7. roth Augur

    I don’t run a Bard/Berserker combo. I do, however, run a Ranger/Berserker combo, with two cleric mercs.

    Both are beefy enough (especially with some TBM raid gear) that they can tank trash reasonably well. Those times where I get two mobs on a pull, both can take one and the first one to make a kill starts to assist the other. When there are three mobs (rare, but not rare enough) each takes one and the two cleric mercs can usually keep themselves, and the Ranger/Berserker, up, though this gets rather draining on their mana.

    Named mobs I try to get singly. I usually have the Ranger tank, and always have the Ranger tank named mobs. If I somehow get an add with the named mob, and a F/Blusterbolt won’t solve the problem, I’ll have to have the berserker start tanking it while burning down the named with the Ranger.

    I should note though, the Berserker usually will eventually take the aggro from the Ranger, unless I work to hold it. Sometimes that work is harder than others. I do not play a Bard, but I do not know of any aggro-generating moves in their toolset (if they have any, I don’t know what they would be) so expect the Berserker to take aggro and not let the Bard get it back.
  8. Nniki Augur

    Bard's tools for aggro are limited.

    They have Dissonant Chord AA for hate + 6s aggro lock every 30s, Cacophony AA dot every 3 minutes, and Chant songs. Make sure to disable Combat Subtlety AA. Can also wear one of the cripple/slow proc belts... not sure how effective (if at all) they are for aggro though. There are also Echo of Anger masks bards can wear, but the effect is minimal for bards.

    Dissonant Chord is really the only ability bards have designed for grabbing aggro.

    I've done some groups on my bard with a berserker and rogue in group where I've been able to keep aggro most of the time, but some zerker abilities just jump their hate up enormously, and they end up tanking those rounds. But like you said, when the bard loses aggro, they're usually not going to get it back.
  9. Parker Elder

    Never really had an issue holding aggro with the bard if I tried on both toons. Bard had to pull wnd start with dots to generate and hold it. Admittedly there are a few abilities on zerk that will supersede anything I could do on bard ...I just eliminate those. Beyond that zerk has the Jarring line of skill mashables which has not effect. Also distraction AA which isn't always needed. Issue isn't really aggro as much as is bard zerk combo an efficient one for what I'm trying to do...which is group content at its highest levels...eventually.
  10. Filter Augur

    With a group geared zerker and bard, I've been playing in FM in EOK with one healer merc. This is at the Bif camp and I'm tanking on the zerker so the mobs aren't too hard. My zerker has 15K aa's and I'm just now starting to get my def aa's. Just tank with zerker to maximize DPS and auto attack with bard while doing melody. This is the easiest way in my opinion.
    How you do named mobs will be interesting with that combo.