Bards melee sucks so what exactly do we do to properly play our Bard in xp groups and even on planer raids? I have heard 2 stories. One was we are just music bots on Raids. The other was we were music bots and CC bots. Don't Chanters get the CC job anyways? Its been years sorry.
In groups: . Pull mobs, which bards are top-tier at. . Quicktime + Epic 2.0 + Fierce Eye, which helps casters/melee DPS. . Keep Aria (Song and aura), War March, Reckless Renewal, a couple mana/endurance songs and a few other songs up. . Spam the mob with their basic melee / abilities, including a bunch of swarm pets that work well with magician's volley spells. . Hit the mob with insult, which gives a big boost to the party's next attack. . Hit the mob with vainglorious or boastfull bellow which can do considerable DPS (for a bard) . Slow/CC if necessary. IF you've got a decent tank/healing, CC isn't likely to be useful. Better to just pull everything and tank it down. . Make everyone run super fast. RoS was actually pretty good for bards, they got a decent buff to quicktime, their insult synergy got significantly buffed, and they got a big boost in DPS in vainglorious/boastful. I think bards are still a little underpowered, and for whatever reason Beastlord's have overshadowed them in regen + melee ADPS the last few years, but bards are there to make everyone stronger, make everything a little cleaner, and make everything go a bit faster.
"What is a Bards job in groups?" To make everyone else in the group better at their own role and to fill the role of a missimg class. Make healers heal better, tanks tank better, DPSers DPS more, etc... Or CC if no chanter, slow if no chanter/shaman/BL, tank if no real tank/pet, etc... The ONLY thing i fail at is healing but i do make healers better.
Bards make everyone else awesome (and also are untouchable in their pulling skills). However, if you want to simply parse high - that is not what bards do
Yes, i can tank. I can even tank while AE mezzing up to 6 additional mobs with a merc healer. The DPSers just have to watch their aggro. A properly geared bard can tank a single mob very well, we just have aggro issues. I have been moloing and main tanking in my groups, for EoK HAs for at least six months. Yes, it took almost complete EoK tier 2 group gear plus Wurmslayer but bards CAN tank.
Tanking is just as much about agro and mob management as it is taking damage. Anyone can take the hits with a healer and enough gear, but I'd say a bard isn't a tank. They can't hold agro unless the dps is basically just hitting auto attack.
Bards can parse decently if played, not the highest but still 2x or 3x a merc........ And our pulling is not untouchable in this day and age our pulling abilities are stagnated and junk. Monks make pulling so much easier with targetted AE mez and they got their own little fade/knockback now. With fade using so much mana too it can also be ineffecient.
Bards are are only slightly more useful than necros in a group. I say combine them into one class that everyone can make fun of without having to go to two different subforums.
I am really curious as to what people consider to be acceptable DPS? I consistently put out 100k+ dps in groups and raids. With all that i do as my normal bard role, 100k is pretty dam good. Yes, i am always in the top 10 on raids and beat out true dps classes on a consistent basis. Quit hating on bards.
I've held 200k dps over 60seconds. That's without glyph, that's without max levels and the songs that come with it, that's with zero RoS AAs (no QT), that's with only group and HH seb gear so wpns aren't raid level nor are heroics. That's also without perfect synergy...no alliance fulmimation on that particular burn...other clickable weren't idea etc. Just missing the alliance dps were talking 40 to 60 k dps missing not to mention ALL that other stuff missing. Im positive there's a bard right now burning for excess of 300k..somewhere...maybe sniffing 400??? Walk around dps...sustained in my groups im about 50 k dps being semi lazy with nothing special burn in the 120 to 150k range. We need an increase to base melee imo...somehow someway. All the rest of the dps you really gotta grind for....so its not there for e everyone to access due to laziness or inability...it wouldn't be ground breaking to give us an increase to melee.
This is exactly what I try to ask for, we get discis but yet they give us no discis. A sustained dps disc wouldn't hurt or activated damage attacks. Hell even a little short reuse defensive for pulling would be fantastic since monks have earthforce, bsts protective spirit, etc.
I tried pushing for a short reuse defensive ability for while without any luck. A bard version of ranger's Bulwark of the Brownies using dodge skill (like Deftdance) instead of parry, an ability similar to Repel, or even a rune on a short reuse would be great to help in this area. Bards are currently stuck with Deftdance and Shield of Notes on 20 min timers... lacking a short reuse defensive ability for pulling. A secondary offensive discipline to use when Thousand Blades is down would be great too.
What is realistic dps for a group bard? My melody bard with a few spams appears to be capped at 28k . Which hstats should I go for? I have done agi mostly, was that a mistake? Is there a way to go from a melody without a nuke to a melody with a nuke that will not create a gap in the adps for trash mobs? I would think the adps is way bigger than the dps, and therefore I keep the same melody going 95% of the time.
1. cant tell you what your dps should be. Do your best without dying. 2. I go for a balance of Hsta and Hdex. See https://www.everquest.com/news/imported-eq-enus-50674 for explanations of heroic stats. 3. I think as long as you are playing your most important songs first in the melody it doesnt matter too much if some at the end drop off sometimes. You want your overhaste and haste first. 4. melody macro: /pause 1, /stopsong /melody 1 2 3 4 etc however many you can play
