Power-leveling a bard

[medievalerror]

I'm curious: How long would it take to power-level a bard from level 11 to level 20? Also, what do peeps usually charge for that amount of time? If you wanna chat in game, send tells to Adien (I was gonna post a WTB in the EC Tunnel forum but know nothing about pricing, length of time, etc.).

[falkun]

Bards are the ultimate power levelers. The best class to powerlevel a bard is another bard. Bards can level solo almost faster than they can be PLed.

[medievalerror]

Aye. But solo faster from level 11 to 20, though? I didn't really thinking self PLing for bards kicked in until the mid 30s.

[Estu]

Aye. But solo faster from level 11 to 20, though? I didn't really thinking self PLing for bards kicked in until the mid 30s.

Bards can do great kiting from level 8 onward. Not really any need to get a PL. I mean, it WOULD be faster with a PL, but not that much faster. Kind of a waste of money.

[medievalerror]

So kite tactic using Chords of Dissonance coupled with speed spell? (Apologies, but somewhat new to bard class).

[Kender]

any character that can heal can PL a bard at any level (although would be easier it they were minimum level 10)

[t0lkien]

If by PLing you mean AoE kiting, you can technically start at level 5. It really begins at 18 though when you get Denon's. It's not easy until you master it though, so be patient. You'll die a lot. I personally wouldn't attempt it till 18 as the level 2 DoT is just too short a range to be effective with any sort of lag.

However, AoEing is not really PLing. Low hitpoint kiting is PLing, and it's a broken mechanic being exploited by lazy/greedy/selfish players and spoils entire zones for everyone else, not to mention how it trivializes the game. The last thing we need is another PLing Bard.

[webrunner5]

Sad to say but you are right. Feel sorry for the really good bards on here because Most are just a pain in the ass solo, Pling, and in groups anymore. :eek:

[Estu]

I personally wouldn't attempt it till 18 as the level 2 DoT is just too short a range to be effective with any sort of lag.

If you have a good connection it's totally doable. I've been kiting large chunks of West Karana on my level 8 bard by twisting Selo's and Chords of Dissonance while using a mandolin.

[skacat]

low level kiting tip: kite beetles.

scarabs in N ro, after that move to NK and there's a range of beetles there. they run slower than regular run speed so you can kite with no selos, just playing chords only. found it much easier with the limited range. did that from around 11 to 18.

if there's groups, group up so you can max out your weapons skills and make some friends and learn how to play the class. also don't kite everything in zones where other people are hunting or expect to make some enemies.

[t0lkien]

Yeah I'm sure it's doable. Tough though. Mind you I'm on a 250+ ping so even Denon's AoEing gets dicey. You are effectively guessing where the mobs are as opposed to where they look like they are. No way can that be done with the Level 2 song (I tried).

[skacat]

my ping is consistently 230 and I started kiting at 8-9 on butcherblock skellies by the druid rings. definitely possible. I'd advise sticking to 5-6 dark blues at a time if you don't wanna die. some people don't mind repeated death and they go greedier.

[Furinex]

On location, if you are respectful enough in the zone you could do it wherever you want. Announcing your presence and asking where people are hunting to find out where you shouldn't pull from is a good first step When AOE kiting in a zone. I've seen some people kite upwards of 100 or 200 mobs at one time. I don't think it's as easy as it looks but I guess once you get the hang of it it's pretty exciting. Playing as a druid, i Envy bards being able to do this type of thing.

[Estu]

I've seen some people kite upwards of 100 or 200 mobs at one time.

I'm surprised this is possible; even on a 50-mob AoE Chardok pull with a high-end computer and spell effects off, I can get some graphical lag if I look at all the mobs together. If you're kiting 100-200 mobs and you can't allow them to come into your view because a bit of lag will kill you, you can't visually keep track of their distance from you - scary!

[t0lkien]

You can only kite like that if you are mousing strafing, which is very tiring. I F9 out and so see all my mobs all the time, and can tell if spells land etc. I only kite 20 or so max at a time so it works well. Pulling 100's of mobs takes a lot of time, and is instant death if something goes wrong (as well as inconveniencing others IMO). The recent aggro changes would also make social pulling impossible I think, so you have to damage every mob. I'd think that would remove much of the time benefit of doing it that way.

[skacat]

I wouldn't recommend kiting that many with the lv2 song. but 5-10 is definitely doable, with keyboard. I F9 to 3rd person, auto run, and alternate short presses between right strafe and left turn to go in circles.

Some mobs like beetles will not socially aggro if you're far away, but will if you're close by. It's pretty easy just to use bellow on each mob to pull anyway. I can confirm aviaks, centaurs, and gnolls will all socially aggro if you pull their friends past them.

Anyway, no one is forcing you to kite groups of mobs, but so far I have overcome the things you're talking about. If you don't want to bother, you can melee down single blues pretty fast with a decent weapon and hasting yourself. Just get something slow with high damage, and the haste will make the weapon ratio pretty awesome. Twist in some heal song and the dot and you can easily solo melee mobs outside. You probably can do this well even with just a tarnished sword until 18. Heal song means fast regen, and you can always just run away at 30% or so if you're losing the fight with selos.

[medievalerror]

...you can melee down single blues pretty fast with a decent weapon and hasting yourself. Just get something slow with high damage, and the haste will make the weapon ratio pretty awesome. Twist in some heal song and the dot and you can easily solo melee mobs outside. You probably can do this well even with just a tarnished sword until 18.

At the moment I am using a Gleaming Short Sword (10 dmg, 29 dly)--anything better at my level you might recommend? Thanks!

[Furinex]

I'm surprised this is possible; even on a 50-mob AoE Chardok pull with a high-end computer and spell effects off, I can get some graphical lag if I look at all the mobs together. If you're kiting 100-200 mobs and you can't allow them to come into your view because a bit of lag will kill you, you can't visually keep track of their distance from you - scary!

i7 3990k, 2x GTX 690s and 32gb of ram with EQ on an SSD drive. I duo with a bard mostly every night, using some method close to this and Upheaval. I never lag. EQ is a fairly old game, newer hardware can handle it very well. Ping is something I would worry about however I have a decent connection so that doesnt effect me too much.

[Furinex]

You can only kite like that if you are mousing strafing, which is very tiring. I F9 out and so see all my mobs all the time, and can tell if spells land etc. I only kite 20 or so max at a time so it works well. Pulling 100's of mobs takes a lot of time, and is instant death if something goes wrong (as well as inconveniencing others IMO). The recent aggro changes would also make social pulling impossible I think, so you have to damage every mob. I'd think that would remove much of the time benefit of doing it that way.

On the social agro... as long as you tag something of the same type of enemy, social agro still kinda works... Ive used this to pull extra mobs by pathing my train through them. They catch the anger of their pissed off brethren and rampage after me. Seems to work.

[Fromp]

I have a kiting guide up here, you may want to check that out - http://www.project1999.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105033 if you need any help message me in game - Tryndal