I am not exactly sure why I write this post, but somehow I feel I had to do it, just to show my love for the Dirge in general and my Dirge in specific. There have been several issues whether Bards (Dirges here) are broken and needed a revamp. Some think Dirges are screwed, others don’t and there are also people like me who just love the Dirge. We have some issues, we have some weaknesses, but if played right, we rock in many circumstances and a dirge is a good (evil) class to roleplay. I have been playing a lot of classes till 40+ and even some till 60, so I can compare other classes with the Dirge solo and groupwise. I cannot compare them on raids since I have only raided with my Dirge so far. And I am only speaking in PvE circumstances. There are a few things a Dirge falls behind to other players, these are: Personal DPS Burst DPS Because we fall behind in these 2 things we also have big problems to solo heroic mobs of our lvl and wont gain xp as fast as other classes when soloing. But in general scouts have problems knocking heroic encounters in the same lvl-range. The use of poisons makes it a bit easier for them. In groups we often are not doing much dps compared to other classes. The main problem with this is that we lack burst dps. If the fight lasts longer, the dps gap between us and other groupmembers will in general become smaller. So if you group with fabled/legendary geared players the fights probably will be short and our dps be low. If you group with mediocre equipped people, the fights will be longer, our dps will be a bit higher and the gap between our dps and other’s dps will decrease. So the postings about Dirges being low dps are correct, the only thing I had problems with at that time and still have is the solutions people came up with by giving Dirges more dps. I am not saying I am the only one who knows what the role of Dirge is or should be, but imo dps is not what we need. I have been able to solo yellow/white/blue non heroic encounters all the way from 1-70. Other classes could do it faster, but I have experienced that there are also classes who do it slower or even have problems soloing yellow cons. DPS is imo our only weak spot, but for that we get so much in return. If you like dps, you probably wont like the return part, but hey if you really like dps, don’t play a Dirge, there are many other classes to play We are top buffers with parry buff, dps buff and powerregen buff in general are not beaten by any other class in the game. We can lower the mobs resistance against all magic attacks, all mellee attacks, by using our clara line, our garsin line and pre 50 our zander line. We can lower the dps of a target by debuffing his pure dps or debuffing his attack rate or by dazing the target. After lvl 50 we get stoneskin (good for raids and tough group encounters), Scream of Death (good for solo and raids) and Cacophony of Blades (although nerfed/fixed drasticly, in a group with tank, me and 2 other mellees still rocks heavily and if interrupts are working also decreasing dps of the target). At 65 we get Oration of Sacrifice, a spell I have used very often on healers and even on tanks and it saved many lives and wipes for sure. When I played other classes, I noticed that every class can do a specific thing better than my Dirge, for being dps, buffing a single thing, debuffing a single thing, crowd control etc, but I have also learned that no other class I have played can do as many things as a Dirge can do. Some people like to be specialists and choose for a templar or wizard, a Dirge is specialised in not being specialised. Now the fact that we are so diverse is not always counting for us, in some circumstances other classes are preferred over Dirges, but doesn’t that count for all classes and if a Dirge would always in any circumstance be preferred over another class, wouldn’t that make us overpowered? In raids I came to the conclusion that Dirges are very much needed in the early stages of a new Tier, but that it decreases as the raidforce gets better gear, reaches stat-caps again. Basicly, if it all gets trivial and on farm-status Dirges become less important on a raid, but never useless. I don’t have any experience with other classes on raids, but everyone is facing other issues on raids, and so do we. So after playing a dozen other classes I come to the conclusion that a Dirge is definitely not underpowered, brings many things to a group in many circumstances, but on the other hand can be better replaced by another class in other circumstances too. But that can be said of any class. If you like roleplaying, if you don’t care about personal dps, if soloing quick and fast isn’t your prime objective in EQ2, if you like grouping, if you like to enjoy in silence, if you don’t care that you wont always get the credit you deserve, a Dirge is the class to play . If you are forced to play solo all of the time, than there are probably better classes out there to play than a Dirge, but though not very high personal and burst dps we still can solo very decently. Perhaps I am an optimist, I don’t know, but I always try to look at a glass half filled with water as half full instead of half empty. I have had my bad moments as a Dirge and sometimes feel weak if I see a wizard knocking down green/blue triple up nameds and collecting master loot all by himself. But that doesn’t last long for although we are known for our screams and songs of horror and we fight at front, we are the unseen important factor of so many succesfull battles. That’s why I love my Dirge, not perfect, not always understood, not the best in all situations, but I would not switch my Dirge for another main char ever.
First off: I love playing my dirge every day. And I agree with many thngs you say about our groupabilites and raid abilites. Some small corrections where i disagree...not cause i love disagreeing, but cause i am a gnome:smileywink: I have more fun on my dirge then any alt i ever tried. I love playing her no matter if solo in group or in raid. I however feel that everything I do should have a valid reason. We have to many songs/buffs that have been halved or crippled in what they do due to game changes. We have never yet seen anything back for this. Thats the reason why I say we are underpowered. Debuffing agi, useless (or almost) debuffing magic resists < 50 useless. 50 % cob dammage (not useless but not compensated either) Tombs (have heard its fixed, not checked it yet) buffing agi/str in group (for raid = useless) not been evaluated when they introduced stances (or hardly) Fear, almost useless now, we can only buff melee, not special attacks, and i can go on and on. We get punished in : no stances (they cost no power and no attention points) no poisons (not even special debuff once) songs that have their usefullness removed due to game mechanic changes, no usefull cc, no upgrades to special songs from previous tiers, and a couple more stuff. Ah, did I mention scaling issues and powerconsumption yet??? Do I love my dirge and thinks she rocks....YES Do I think we are a finished produyct... NO Message Edited by firza on 07-07-2006 05:17 AM
We can lower the mobs resistance against all magic attacks (only for spells < lvl 50), all mellee attacks (useless against most stuff except orange and red cons), by using our clara line, our garsin line and pre 50 our zander line (see previous comment I think you meant our melee resistance debuff). M1 Garsin = Debuff 100+/- WIS... yep decreases ALL resistances.... get in a group with a caster hitting what is orange to them and see what the difference is with you casting it... they will think your a god! lol bump? yes please! lol (ps: sorry for the confusing "quote")
aye, sorry. think he was refering to zanders, and if not i was Did i recall to say i do love bump for this combo?
