Hi all.. I've played a dirge for alot of my time in EQ2 and always enjoyed the class, I've always played on pvp and its definately one of the harder classes to play solo. Fairly recently I rolled a troubador as the consensus of opinion on my server was that troubs are better than dirges as a solo pvp class. I have to say that the charm, stifle, and the mez in the later tiers looked tempting so I thought I'd give it a go. I've now got both toons, my troub and dirge at level 35. Both are well geared and fully mastered. However the disparity in kill v death ratio in pvp is quite significant. Dirge at approx 3.5 kills per death, Troub approx 7 kills per death. (note I do the vast majority of my pvp solo). The main reason for this for me is that the troubador can easily kite most melee classes, the only one thats given me problems before exiling to Queynos was swashbuckers with reach. I'd have to say the overall dps of the troubador is slightly higher, and has more ranged options (offensive spells). This thread isnt about me saying how much better the troubador is, I'm really looking for advice or tac tics on how to get the best from my dirge. With my troub I've concentrated on keeping my int high, and with my dirge I've looked to keeping strength as high as possible. I'm thinking maybe I should try to kite more with my dirge, but it seems to go against what the class is given in regard to ca's and songs, to be honest too much kiting with a dirge u have to seriously wonder where the dps is going to come from. The thing is dirge spells are for the most part about debuffing the enemies melee abilities, unfortunately too many have a recurrent power cost and u will soon find yourself oop if you try to use them all, particuarly against any class that can heal. I'm coming to the conclusion that I should pretty much avoid solo pvp with my dirge and stick to group encounters where you can really shine. Any comments from experienced pvp dirges would be greatly appreciated!
I am not gonna be one to tell you what to do, but this is what i have found. Been doing them on both pvp servers (vennie and nag) for 2 1/2 yrs now between teir 1 to teir 7. For yer dirge resistances is #1 in the areas of cold, heat and magic. We got it well covered for disease and poison. Look into going down the dirge line on the right (forgot the name @work) where it turns poison/disease buff into a ward also. So many different bard lines are great and work well, some say shield (sta line) blah blah blah... Myself i have done every line possible on both bards for dirge i prefer the agi line up to max 8 poison concotion and the wisdom line. Whatever line doesnt matter i have found but the wisdom line for selos is a must for kiting. On the dirge i use a old techninque which i have never seen anyone do it on both pvp servers yet to this day... (besides me lol) which is reverse kiting and kiting which comes from our ancestors in eq1 the bard and other classes like the necro and sk from the eq1 days. Reverse kiting (fear kiting) dot the piss out of them (you get more dots later on) (and use tools that u can get from quests and tinkering to add) keep fearing and snaring and just cast cast cast this works well with casters too very good on casters i found and then go in for the kill up front in there face if a caster type (healer included). Forward kiting / Kiting - snare, debuff, dot, over and over and over. Make sure you keep hting yer evades and stealth on both techniques. I try not to use fear as much as only in emergencies because fear will break a lot based on yer melee hits evades with kiting works best. I will use fear if iam faced when there up in my face too close. Its very sad to see both bards types not even applying these techniques on pvp servers, very sad. then we get knocked by amatures and critics saying that blah blah this better than that this and this class sucks and so forth. Totems, and other utilities including racial traditions at higher level. I do not select the dmg tradtions (racial), reistances or anything like that till higher level the higher the better they really dont factor as much as they do in higher levels comapred to the lower levels i have found. If that makes sense. Mind games.... Bards are fast... should they be faster i dunno.... Can they survive on there speed... yes the dirge especially... Try to lure people into traps wether it leading them into a mob and hiting stealth at the right time (i do this when fighting grps), or pretend iam scared of them and have them power burn to chase me if a healer type since dirge can have a harder time with healers than the troub this works well, let them burn power or use totems that hp regen out of combat shut off yer deaths door line so it doesnt react back at them put them into combat and let them burn it up and then move in for the kill. I totally disagree with you on what you said bout the troub has higher dps... this is not the case at all and at higher levels. Maybe looking more agi and int and a mixture of str to throw in for higher dps on yer dirge. Myself i never use a shield on both types ESPECIALLY dirge.... with my dirge(s) i focus on dps on my troub(s) i focus on defense against melee because thats there weakside of the two different types i have found. Iam not expert i learn everyday more and more bout the game and my love the bards, and with this i have maitained a pvp kvd of 10 and higher. There was a time was so upset with the dirge because i forgot what i learned from leaving the game for a bit and listend to some people say how they know it all on the forums and i gave up on the dirge and exiled to trouby on naggy back then, come to find out i was wrong... and for me i prefer dirge these days and i only solo pvp... not into the grp or duo crap with this i have learned how to take apart groups and how to avoid dangerous groups. Only thing i play now is account full of bards on pvp Enjoy
