Continue shaman or play bard?

[galahad1st]

I played a bard to mid 50s on blue. I definitely got tired of the constant song twisting in raiding situations. I rerolled enchanter and liked it much more than bard since the CC aspect of bard was what I really liked.

Being able to kill 25 mobs at once was pretty cool. Definitely ruined my expectations for what good exp is. I got almost a whole level on one pull at ~30 in Overthere in about 20-25 minutes.

Currently level 16 shaman and it's slow and painful. Missing a lot of the shaman kit until 24 with regen and cannibalize. Then 34 is when shaman really pops off with companion spirit and a host of other useful spells.

[Tecmos Deception]

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

I played a bard to mid 50s on blue. I definitely got tired of the constant song twisting in raiding situations. I rerolled enchanter and liked it much more than bard since the CC aspect of bard was what I really liked.

Being able to kill 25 mobs at once was pretty cool. Definitely ruined my expectations for what good exp is. I got almost a whole level on one pull at ~30 in Overthere in about 20-25 minutes.

Currently level 16 shaman and it's slow and painful. Missing a lot of the shaman kit until 24 with regen and cannibalize. Then 34 is when shaman really pops off with companion spirit and a host of other useful spells.

You poor, new bards who had to deal with low-hp aggro changes and 25-mob aoe caps. You have no idea what fast bard aoe is! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Sham is definitely a grind up into the 20s. Sham races have shitty wisdom so you're always like one resist away while soloing from having to run to the zoneline or die. In groups few of your buffs make much of a difference at low levels, you aren't being mana efficient unless you heal with inner fire up until 19+, your awesomest ability at high levels (slow) is awful until the 20s and still not great at that point, etc. But shamans get by and only get stronger as 24 and 34 come. Eventually they're basically uber when solo, duo, trio, or in groups, and while their role in raids isn't flashy, their buffs are phenomenal (melee with love you) and heals and malo and root CC and slows don't hurt either.

I played a bard on blue as well and the comments here are pretty accurate imo. You're powerful and versatile, but not fully understood by most people and so sometimes shunned from groups while they continue to look for an enchanter or shaman or a dedicated tank or dps. Twisting can either annoy the hell out of you or become second nature depending on the person I think. Most people don't expect you to tryhard 4-song twists or to pulse CCC instead of just leaving it autorepeating. You're a great puller, which makes your life even busier. Your resist songs are absolutely essential in raids.

[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 Tecmos Deception [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You poor, new bards who had to deal with low-hp aggro changes and 25-mob aoe caps. You have no idea what fast bard aoe is! [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Sham is definitely a grind up into the 20s. Sham races have shitty wisdom so you're always like one resist away while soloing from having to run to the zoneline or die. In groups few of your buffs make much of a difference at low levels, you aren't being mana efficient unless you heal with inner fire up until 19+, your awesomest ability at high levels (slow) is awful until the 20s and still not great at that point, etc. But shamans get by and only get stronger as 24 and 34 come. Eventually they're basically uber when solo, duo, trio, or in groups, and while their role in raids isn't flashy, their buffs are phenomenal (melee with love you) and heals and malo and root CC and slows don't hurt either.

I played a bard on blue as well and the comments here are pretty accurate imo. You're powerful and versatile, but not fully understood by most people and so sometimes shunned from groups while they continue to look for an enchanter or shaman or a dedicated tank or dps. Twisting can either annoy the hell out of you or become second nature depending on the person I think. Most people don't expect you to tryhard 4-song twists or to pulse CCC instead of just leaving it autorepeating. You're a great puller, which makes your life even busier. Your resist songs are absolutely essential in raids.

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!

[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.

[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

[oldhead]

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

It might be hard to find CC since less people are playing Enchanters due to some of the changes,

what changes with enc???

[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