Quote:
Originally Posted by Loadsamoney
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I'm kind of set in my ways because the Bard is classified as a Melee class, and wears plate and dual wields. To me, that screams melee, face tank, and big DPS, not a pseudocaster with crappy DPS and mitigation disguised behind plate.
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I don’t think the game or manuals ever classified bards as “melee”, I think Bards got shoehorned into the P99 forums here due to lack of any proper grouping (jack of all trades, master of none).
The single defining ability of the bard class is songs. It’s the only class that can “cast spells” while moving. The class has a dizzying list of abilities: levitate, breathing under water, fast movement, snare, haste, resistances, charm, lull, mesmerize, fear, pbAoE, DoTs, faction modifiers, HP Regen, Mana Regen, damage shield, etc etc etc.
Pretty much all buffs are meant to apply to a group, meaning by playing a stringed instrument you essentially give 6 people each a Fungi Tunic’s worth of regen, at the cost of no mana. The bard is an amplifier for a group, making everyone perform better. The bard is also a Swiss Army knife, able to fill in all sorts of roles as the demand arises.
Bards trade the power of raw-melee for the ability to be flexible and to potentially augment an entire group with generous buffs.
I can’t find the original classic EQ manual, but here’s what the creators have to say about bards in the Trilogy manual:
“The Bard has the unusual ability to play magical songs, whose supernatural effects last as long as the Bard continues to sing. He has some passing knowledge of the Warrior ways (self-defense), but his main focus is always on his art.”