Bards post 40 are mana batteries

[Schwarzoid]

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

What would you improve on his comment?

I'm not trying to put you on the spot.

I'm actually considering playing a Bard and I want to know how to play one good.

I imagine regen, mana, and haste are at least 3 out of the 5 songs you should constantly twist.

What other 2 are crucial to most groups? Some sort of AC song?

Do you have to twist your charm song? Probably. I imagine you do. Okay, 5 there.

Then AOE mez when you need to CC?

Depends on the situation and I'm still a baby who is just breaking into 55+..

So with that caveat..

I've ran into many groups that have decent heals and already have a haste, so it depends. My default 2 are usually cantana/niv's. If there is group haste and there is room to melee I will slap on Verses of Victory for AC/STR/AGI and Selo's Absonant Binding for the slow/snare/ac/agi lowering.

If there is no haste in group I'll swap verses of victory for the best group haste available.

I'f I'm in a spot like Efreeti, or something with strong damage that can be resisted i'll take out nivs/Selo's depending on what the group has and sub in pslam of warming for extra CR.

If you are in an absolutely melee stacked group, with lack of healing, but haste, then my songs change a little with the instruments, still the core cantana/nivs but you could push stats with Chant of Battle and Verses of Victory to give your group a strong STR/DEX buff.

Granted I'm still somewhat newer, so I don't have a good handle on parse damage and how much STR contribute to other melee's damage. How much STR, on how many people, does it take to outweigh a bards melee contribution?

Then there is the other 4 off primary rotation. Usually reserved for charm, mez, aoe snare, utility.

I've been in a bunch of situations where I don't need healing or haste, so I can bring out my melee weapons, use a 5 song rotation and charm every 6th song to get added CC as well as damage output. If you are fast with your song rotation, you should be able to back away out of melee range and be able to land charm before you get smacked. Granted it loses effectiveness later on, but having some juiced up CHA can help with that. I think? heh.

The list goes on for other niche situations, selos swarming over pulls, splitting packs while pulling as as bard

I mean, sure a bard can just sit there and pump, but I could also just watch paint dry as well. I'm here to play a game, not be a lazy afker. So to say bard's effectivness is 95% mana regen is a pretty lazy mindset imo.