Bard Soloing That's Not Swarmkiting

[Darguth]

Hi everyone,

Looking to level up my Bard a bit more and (a) personal reasons mean I'll need to solo rather than group with him primarily due to time commitments at home and (b) I don't want to *constantly* be under the pressure that swarm-kiting represents. I enjoy doing it, just not all the time.

Can anyone recommend good solo techniques for a Bard other than swarm-kiting and maybe some good spots and camps to do it at? I'm currently mid-20's on him.

Thanks!

[Scrumtick]

You can probably go anywhere bards normally swarm kite at that level range and just pull single mobs. I am swarm kiting at level 24 on my bard in OT near WW zoneline. You can easily solo here with decent gear and a good twist going. Can also try LOIO. The level ranges of mobs there vary significantly and tend to coalesce in regions of similar level ranges.

[branamil]

At 26 you can fear and snare, so twist selos consonant chain and appalling screen to fear kite singles and mellee them.

At 27 you can charm, pick a pair of blues and charm one, send it at the other. When it breaks, charm the other one and send it at your former pet. It’s better to pick things that flee on low health like animals and humanoids, so you can finish it off yourself easily and get full xp.

[Issar]

Swarming is fine once in a while to get you over an exp hurdle, like finishing a level that’s been dragging. However it’s just the least fun play style in the game. The beauty is that bards have the most diverse toolset in the game.

At 26 you get the ability to fear kite which is fun, easy, and very effective. You won’t expend any mana and you will take relatively little damage. Stick to blue cons for maximum up time (you will be chain pulling to your hearts delight). My rotation was snare/fear/self haste/dot, rinse repeat adding in various dots. Once your mob is fleeeing in fear below 20%, I swapped fear out for healing song.

After a few levels of fear kiting, I switched to charming. This is probably my favorite solo method. You will find different strategies work for different spots, but always give yourself space from your charmed admirer, as you will be re-charming frequently. My typical play was to charm a mob, have it face tank another mob, and when they are both below 20% finish them off with your music or weapons. Be sure not to let the original target be killed with your pet charmed, so you can collect all of the exp.

I know you have a limited play time, as do I. Playing a bard in the above mentioned methods is definitely some of the best solo gameplay you can have. However, I strongly recommend grouping up with others whenever you have the opportunity. Playing a bard in a duo-full group is where the real fun happens.

[Alphablue]

Depending on where you go, you may find yourself swarming, charming, and fear kiting all in the same encounter.

As mentioned above, OT is probably the best place for you right now

[Crede]

As others have said, charming is the way to go. It’s crazy how powerful it is, especially with the lower level charm that uses no mana.

What you would want to do is charm one and have it beat on another, keep the other one dotted, then when charm breaks charm the one you were dotting and repeat on old pet, get them both down low and then make sure to finish them both without a pet. You’ll learn to use dots to control health if one pet gets too far of another.

It’s pretty amazing what bards are capable of, so efficicient at leveling even without swarm. I’m in the same boat as you I just solo here and there. I pretty much stick to dungeons because I have a fungi and it’s ridiculously powerful nonstop killing. You could do without a fungi too just need to watch your breaks more closely and swap in heals as needed.

It gets much easier at 30 and 37 as you gain more chants to dots, but I’ll still stack the other dots on mobs during charming depending on how fast I want to kill. It’s really easy to mez a third mob too during all this it you get an add. Could prob do 4 if you’re really comfortable with timing. But keep those mobs dotted as you’re charming for faster kills.