Bard or Chanter End Game

[Wonka11]

Which of the two is better for groups? Both of them share a lot of abilities, each has things the other doesn't offer, and some spells dependent on their mechanics (songs vs spells, and having to recast songs constantly... not a bad thing, but something to note).

The question is, comparing an equally skilled bard vs chanter, which is better for the group?

Also, how do each measure against each other for soloing high level?

If you had to pick only one of them to group with for the rest of eternity, which would it be? (No dodging the question, please)

[godbox]

chanter I think everyone will say chanter for group and for best at lvl 50+ soloing

[azeth]

Depending on the bard's skill with her/her class, I'd have to favor the highest end Bard over the highest end Enchanter.

Bards are just irreplaceable when played correctly. You'll move so fast through grind mobs your head will spin.

As far as soloing, consider a Bard as a guarantee for 1.) ability to kill most anything you'd call an exp mob 2.) do it with little to no risk.

The real downside with bards is the exp penalty, but realistically I think it'd offset again if the Bard is on their toes pumping the group with stellar tunes.

[Supaskillz]

I Would take an ench in a group and ench are sorta better at soloing if you are talking about indoor, but you can swarm kite on a bard to 51 super fast if you are good at it.

[Glasken]

Join Date: Apr 2012

Lots of new forum names lately. I didnt think this server got so much press as to attract new users in troves.

[Pierth]

Originally Posted by Glasken [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Join Date: Apr 2012

Lots of new forum names lately. I didnt think this server got so much press as to attract new users in troves.

Could also be word of mouth due to the recent F2P conversion for EQ live. Players may try it out for nostalgia and instead come here because of how much the game has changed over the years or due to not wanting to pay in the cash shop for different races/classes. I came here because I'm sick to death of all these solo-to-cap MMOs where it's nigh impossible to find people to group with. I could also care less about class homogenization/nerfs due to PvP, which I think leaves me with this, FFXI, and LOTRO.

[Wonka11]

Do Bards stop swarm kiting after 51 or is there better options available to them?

[Kraftwerk]

Originally Posted by Wonka11 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Do Bards stop swarm kiting after 51 or is there better options available to them?

If you're a good Bard with a decent comp you can do BW, I used to snag 90% of bees and skeles (no gorillas too scared of Guller and different hitboxes) in BW pull them to my spot and take 'em out in ~20-30min of actual kiting. Add in 20-30min of gathering and you're looking at an hour. I stopped playing here at lvl 55 but even then I was still getting 2-3 blues per kite at that level. It requires 100% concentration though, and they sometimes drops gems/ruby crowns/saphnnecks. Not bad for zoning out to tunes while kiting for an hour.

[webrunner5]

A lot of Bards are as useless as tits on a Boar Hog. They just twist one song and go AFK half the time. Most people can't walk and chew gum at the same time, including me. SO I don't play a Bard and most on here can't either like they should be played. Give me a Chanter. Not that a Enchanter is easy either to play well but the twisting thingy is just too hard to do hours on end for most people. There is a reason Sony came out with Melody.

I am not knocking the really good Bards on here. All 30 of them. Done right, they probably are better than a Enchanter overall. Being able to run across a whole zone in like 20 seconds, Priceless.

[Splorf22]

Enchanter's opinion:

Group: All the bards that think they they are as good as an enchanter in a group are just fooling themselves (sorry Deajay). If the enchanter doesn't charm, then I'd say it's about even with perhaps a small edge to the bard if they are really good. If the enchanter charms, well, no amount of bard utility can make up for 125 dps. That's like 1.5 rogues. Having played a warrior and an enchanter I'm quite confident that any group that replaces me with a bard will kill more slowly (especially if that group has a mage or a shaman).

Raid: The problem is that Enchanters are so overpowered that Verant simply disabled their abilities for most raid mobs (obviously being able to keep Trakanon mezzed while your raid heals/cures itself would be ridiculous). Fear/Hate are actually a lot of fun as an Enchanter, but Sky is just terrible. I've tried a number of things to be somewhat more effective on single target bosses, but overall Deajay is right. Especially with the epic (and in Velious, with stun/mez immune Giants and Dragons) you absolutely need those two enchanters to buff you, and then they can go AFK and cook some food while the rest of the raid kills the boss.

Solo: Enchanter all the way. Bards can get great XP swarm kiting, but Enchanters can solo bosses for $ as well as leveling really fast too.

I will say that I've seen more Encs burn out than bards, and the bard population is much smaller than the Enc population. From my experience as a bard in a raid guild, it looks like Encs really love getting to end-game, but then don't enjoy raiding while bards enjoy getting to end-game, and then enjoy being the jack-of-all-trades in raids as well.

This is pretty accurate although Enchanters do get to have some fun farming.