Continue shaman or play bard?

[Tecmos Deception]

Originally Posted by galahad1st [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I agree with your assessment of bards and (from what I've seen so far) shamans.

Also, senpai noticed me! Your enchanter videos were the reason I re-rolled an ENC and played until 54. I learned so much from you. I would really appreciate some videos of your green journey. I loved the relaxed, calming commentary style so much!

Id love to do some videos once my sham gets a few more.levels. Videos of him before 24 would be like videos of a level 8 chanter though imo, haha

[Keza]

Well shamans and bards are both amazing in groups and both can solo effectively, so it's more a preference of how you want to play. *Although ultimately bards are pullers/buffbots while shamans are gods. But again, depends on if you plan on soloing things with puppet strings.

Bard is a class I've always wanted to play but never bothered with because the meta seems annoying. I'm the kind of person who can't stand half-assing it, but bards are so tedious that I'd be fine if any bards I'm with were slacking a bit. Twisting is demanding but it's fun, swapping weapons/instruments constantly however is just annoying. I can't deal with that without hotbuttons. FFXI's bard seems heavily inspired by EQ's but isn't expected to melee. Imagine EQ's bard but with buffs lasting a couple minutes. They pull, CC and buff their group accordingly with a short-range pbaoe songs, but most importantly in FFXI you can bind equipment swaps and spells into the same hotbutton rather than needing to manually swap constantly. EQ bards being fun are more of an ideal than a reality to me. Like people who want to theoretically be a ranger but don't want to be useless.

As far as later levels it's basically just pulling. Does anyone expect a bard to melee in groups when people are in kunark/velious gear? In raids you're just a resist buffbot afaik.

[Deathrydar]

I must be losing my mind. Who the hell wouldn't invite a Bard to a group? What's going on out here these days?

[galahad1st]

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

Twisting is demanding but it's fun, swapping weapons/instruments constantly however is just annoying. I can't deal with that without hotbuttons.

DuxaUI was a life saver for swapping weapons/instruments. I wouldn't play a bard without it.

[Siege]

Both classes require a lot of busywork. Bard with song twisting, and shaman with rank 1 Canni dancing (brutal at higher levels), keeping track of buffs on a per-person basis (this can be a big pain in the ass in a full group, especially with people rotating in and out), slowing/debuffing mobs, managing pet, etc. If you're in the main heal slot, you need to do all of these things on top of staring at and filling HP bars. You basically don't have a moment's rest. Don't go back to shaman thinking you'll get a break on the button-pressing end.

[pink grapefruit]

Bard is easily best class in the game, and twisting is a LOT less annoying than keeping track of everyone's buffs as a shaman. The limited UI is maybe a dealbreaker though, unless playing with inventory open is something you can put up wiith. Bards have a lot of buttons to press and if 4 of your 6 hotkey spaces are taken up by inventory/weapon slots you're pretty limited. How you gonna track and forage and assist and spam your /group roleplay macros??

Anyway you should play a bard in spite of these limitations. Bard class best class. Make sure you pick a good deity though. An agnostic bard is an rpg sin :O

[NegaStoat]

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

Bard is easily best class in the game, and twisting is a LOT less annoying than keeping track of everyone's buffs as a shaman. The limited UI is maybe a dealbreaker though, unless playing with inventory open is something you can put up wiith. Bards have a lot of buttons to press and if 4 of your 6 hotkey spaces are taken up by inventory/weapon slots you're pretty limited. How you gonna track and forage and assist and spam your /group roleplay macros??

Anyway you should play a bard in spite of these limitations. Bard class best class. Make sure you pick a good deity though. An agnostic bard is an rpg sin :O

Bards can pick Rallos Zek. The Imbued cultural armor has all the str / sta in dropable gear that a wimpy wood elf (or other bard race) could ever want. Cha comes from swappable jewelry anyway. Plus you get the perk of role playing a Skald and having Barbarians everywhere think you're pretty cool.

[Jimjam]

RZ is a decent neutral race, makes sense for velious where you start to get really involved in actual wars.

Personally I went for Mith Marr as I think this is the kind of deity that will have followers songing hymns of praise. Just looking at the cultural items they seem pretty decent (if incredibly difficult/rare/expensive to source the gems)!

[pink grapefruit]

Rallos Zek, Erollisi Marr, Quellious, Rodcet Nife, Tunare, and Veeshan are the deities I would consider. You can't really go wrong though, so long as you avoid agnostic and Brell the Bitch.

My OG bard was Tunare, as half elves on VZ could not worship any other deity lol. ELF TEAM!!! xD

[Cyrillious]

Bards are an under appreciated class. They can make all the melees swing faster/harder, casters save on mana from not having to heal as much. If you spend enough time in a group, you can directly see the number of pulls and kills increase gradually as the pullers/tanks/DPS realize they are now a bit more...better?

Solo, they're tons of fun. Can fear kite. Charm kite. DoT kite. Travel is a breeze...nobody is faster.

Add in a little more utility with corpse location/selos/levi/invis...and lots of folks just want to be around you [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

And last but not least...they can be some pretty interesting pranksters too...(Melanie's Mellifluous Motion anyone?).

Yes, you need to be a bit more engaged with what you are doing...but that's part of the fun...I get bored sitting waiting for mana... [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]