Monk or Bard for green?

[garfo]

Hello melee forumquesters,

I main a shammy on blue and would like to switch it up for green. Grouping is where my heart is, but soloability is important to me due to RL constraints often limiting my play sessions.

I have a monk twink (no fungi) on blue and I'm loving the solo life in sol a with the occasional group or duo thrown in. As long as I can manage the casters and keep the pulls moderate, I can cruise through mobs with just the right amount of downtime to heal up while mend refreshes. I wonder though, how much of that is due to the full black pantherskin+ haste + peacebringer... and whether that soloability I'm enjoying now will translate to green with cracked staffs and cloth. (fwiw I don't mind the human monk, I actually prefer it. iksars are ugly!)

Utility will definitely be a bigger quality-of-life factor on green than it is on blue, with ports and sow not a given every moment of the day. Selo's seems like it will just make life more bearable, especially for those melee CRs. In terms of soloing, bards are obviously known for swarms... but I wouldn't want to rely on that given the likelihood of crowded hunting grounds in the pre-Kunark era. The major factor giving me pause for the bard is the 40% penalty... I know it goes away in Velious, but that's nearly 3 years of living with it!

What are everyone's thoughts on bard soloing vs monk soloing, both untwinked? I don't want to say let's rule out swarming, because if I went bard I'd absolutely get in on that when I could, but I certainly wouldn't want to count on that as my go-to method of leveling. I'm less concerned about the group utility aspect, each class has its role to play in groups.

Anyway, I'd love to hear any thoughts from more experienced melee players out there!!

I plan on starting in Qeynos, btw, for max nostalgia.

thank you!