As a bard pre-50, I find I can tank most groups fairly easy. I just twist AE (or single target) slow + Group Haste + mana regen and I'm good to go. The AE slow pretty much keeps all aggro on me unless I'm grouped with a zealous SK, and since the mobs are hitting now only once every 3ish seconds,i take a lot less damage.
The mana regen helps the cleric not hate me for wasting complete heals on such a low HP Pool
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Mind you, I prefer to not tank. But it seems impossible to do so in a dungeon if I am the slower. The amount of aggro generated per tick is uber high compared to the duration.
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On topic though, Bards are only a melee character in that they can dual wield. If you're like me and just like hitting things in melee, then they're a great choice for a melee solo character. You can log on and fear kite a few mobs for 30 minutes, get some XP, then log for awhile.
If you set up your hotbars correctly they aren't that overwhelming to play either. That, and when you DO want to group, groups will love ya!
But if you have about 20k+ to spend, Monks are a great option as has been stated. Especially with a fungi.