A Bard's Tale

[Dostarr]

For those of you who don't already know, I am Rojas. I am known for my brothers and I's service (though I am the face) and snare pl'n. Anyway, on to the purpose of this post.

Bear with me, I swear there's a point to this.

I just want to talk for a short about bards and the overall p1999 community here in my experience as both a non-bard and a bard. First, I leveled up as a few classes but my first real "main" was a halfling Cleric level 51 that I traded for Rojas. When I was leveling up my cleric I was generally treated warmly; I always found groups, people typically were respectful but you know not everyone is a saint :P. This left me absolutely loving p1999, it was the Everquest community from the days of old (or young in my case as I was 11 at release) nonetheless it was everything I'd missed from EQ with a few more trolls and longer expansion estimations lol.

Once I received my bard, the first thing I noticed was people wanted free pl's, to leech xp while I leveled etc, and because it was new it was fun..it was great being able to finally return part of the kindness they'd shown me while I was leveling my cleric. We remained good friends however once I got busier on Rojas, and had to start turning them down I noticed that despite my efforts to stay in contact many...stopped contacting me and starting giving me the cold shoulder. Well, maybe they are busy right?

Then I started swarming more and getting better in various zones, learning mechanics and everywhere I went, I was treated like complete trash. I have easily spent 10+ hours talking to groups, soloers, quadders, duors, etc in various zones trying to coordinate so that we could best utilize the zone, and minimize zone disruption.

The point I'm getting to primarily is that, everyone treats bards like shit by default. The reason I am writing this post is even I noticed myself doing it earlier because I am sick and tired of being blamed for low hp kiters ripping mobs off everyone in the zone because some noob bard doesn't understand his mechanics...because, they think a snipe invitation means they can follow my swarm around picking mobs off it like it's their own little pull piggybank. I am typically very very sensible, subject to logic and listening to what people have to say without simple-mindedly dismissing it, but honestly with all the bard hate even this bard right here, one of the few who IS being decent and who doesn't screw over the group you spent 2 hours putting together is starting to lose his patience.

This is just a thought, when ya see a cleric ya don't assume automatically they stole yer mob intentionally, next time a bard does it..how bout asking him if he meant to? or if you could have aggro back on your mob. (It is VERY easy to accidentally tag a mob.. npcs load faster than pcs and mob healths dont update til about half a sec before snare goes off)

I guess it really comes down to this..I understand why you dislike bards, but at least until you know its intentional, what can it hurt to give them the benefit of the doubt? If they are a douche you'll know almost immediately. At least that way SOME of the bards might end up nice...I can promise you one thing, bards typically treat you like shit, so you treat them like shit...The same is true for us bards..even if we were tolerant before, if ya treat us like shit long enough, eventually we're just going to treat everyone like shit...cause we all have a point. I'm not at mine yet, and I hope I never hit it...but sincerely, just give it a thought.

-Rojas

P.S. - Soz for wall post, just feel like it's something that needed said, and everyone else just sits around arguing about how non-bards can go to dungeons or bards could group or share blahblahblah...none of that matters...We all just wanna play EQ, the great game we fell in love with over a decade ago with an outstandingly wonderful community where you actually need people to achieve things. Deuces.

[Sollix]

I see where you're coming from.

But the fact that this statement is necessary:

next time a bard does it..how bout asking him if he meant to?

shows that this is an extremely common occurrence. Swarming is conducive to accidentally stealing pulls. Your post almost implies that swarming is the only way for a bard to level. It isn't. Charming, grouping, single target dots - all viable.

It's natural to be a bit pissy with a bard when he/she feels it necessary to use absurd 'classic' game mechanics to engage dozens of mobs at once.

[LiQuid]

My bard's only 23 but for the most part I haven't had any negative run ins yet. I've bumped into some other bards doing the same type of kiting as me and we just kinda waved at each other and split mobs. I had a Mage try and peel a chicken off my pull today and he got a full pack of em on accident (my fault I'm sure I probably prox agro'd a few), and you know, nothing is the end of the world. We were both cool about it and I told him to be careful if he wanted to swipe some mobs from me but that I'd leave mobs up around his area and then we went about our business.

I feel like the people that are going to be rude and give you crap for doing bard stuff are the same type of people that are going to be rude and give you crap about doing anything that might clash with their interests. I've been in groups in say, Unrest where people were absolutely losing their mind over someone PLing in the zone, and it's like, jeez guys chill out they're just playing the game too. Some people just feel like the game should revolve around them and their interests. If you want the entire zone to yourself go play some modern MMO with no actual player interaction, otherwise learn how to be civil and just deal with people not bending over backwards to not get in your way.

[andrew23]

I have a 53 bard and the only time I play him is to raid or run circles. So I am fully aware the "happenings" of kiting. I am going to agree with Rojas on this, kiting is a delicate situation, tons of mobs, tons of different type of mobs, once screw up and your done. In Rojas situation when hes trying to run a business and provide professional and timely PLs its even more important he does not have any mishaps. The one necromancer standing on the side of the zone, pulling single tigers always has to jump in and shout "mind not pulling the whole zone" or "didn't you see me EXPing here!?" This displays two things to me.. first of all they are fully unaware of the mechanics of pulling, and the train of mobs are so far behind I have little to no control over their pathing. Second, that they are upset or angry with me (when infact there are plenty of tigers for everyone) they have to OOC or shout some pointless time wasting remark rather than being mature and sending me a tell.

Because in fact, NO I did not see your pixels standing half way up the zone wall 500m away at selos speed with 900 mobs chasing me... sorry.

I think the angst towards Bards comes from the jealousy at how easy-mode a good bards life can be compared to quad kiting or grouping. Because even though I have been accused of it, and people probably think I do it, and hate me for it. Despite ALLLLLL my efforts time and time again, I have yet to pull EVERY mob in a zone, leaving plenty for your "group".....

[Furinex]

So far the bards I've met that do this are very respectable. They for the most part alert the zone and leave mobs for others. Capi zanderr and Rojas to name a few. The hate is jealousy.

[Flamewraith]

I have nothing against bards (except that I really don't think it's a very useful class in groups) but all I ever see most of the bards here do is complain about how much they get picked on. Sucki it the fuck up, you guys make insane amounts of money PLing and you are the only class that can solo 1-60 in like a week. If my mage could pull that shit off, I wouldn't care if my class was the most hated and scorned class in the world.

[Dostarr]

For sure it IS a common occurrence, even with me who is quite careful...when it does happen I always stop and let them re get aggro though..not that big of a deal. If a bard can't do that, they are just being dicks or the server's being especially laggy. Nowhere did I insinuate that bards HAD to swarm...they don't. In fact I pointed out in my P.S. section that the whole point was NOT related to "who goes where to zone or what not blahblah" It's simply the fact that people treat bards like shit by default and that makes more bard's assholes...even I'm getting fed up with it.. I just dealt with a zone of trolls for two hours while being polite and leaving them plenty of mobs etc; but because some DOUCHEBARD (yes they exist :P) decided to low hp kite and kill half the zone...guess who gets flak because he's also a bard yet had no role in it.

Fact is: people are too lazy and don't really care, all they care is that their mobs are missing and they will lash at whoever they can toss the blame on regardless of truth, or any real evidence whatsoever aside from /who bard.

[Skope]

Some background before this inevitably goes into RnF (and I hope it does):

This dumbass post by him was started after we (I was on bard and a guildie on his) inadvertently trained him in OT. We must've cross aggro'd while pulling and as a result, after getting low hp aggro and getting blindsided mobs that we didn't see coming - that we must've pulled off his own giant train - we died and then he died.

To see his "don't judge bards" plea shortly after he went off on us in /ooc about "wiping the entire zone" (mind you, he was the only one that died and then complained), is so hypocritical that you'd hope it's some sort of comedic satire, if only for his sake.

We logged in and noticed that it was sparse pickins' - he had a huge chunk of the mobs in the zone for his PLing clientele. So as a result we've got to go out further to grab us some mobs and must've cross aggro'd on something. We pulled our mobs to a quiet corner and flat ground, and as soon as he got low hp aggro, we got blindsided by more mobs (what made it worse was our SoW'd Sarnak). After we died, he aggro'd ours too, died and then flipped his shit in /ooc.

So, yes, accidents happen. Sometimes you get social aggro and aren't aware of it, but if you're going to be so understanding in this forum post then it would do you just as good to not be such a giant douchebag in game. Or at least take your meds.

If you're going to PL as a 55 bard in OT, then you should be more understanding that some of us are there to level as quickly as possible and gtfo. Unfortunately, you pull more than half the zone and then have the balls to complain when these 'understandable mistakes' happen to you, yet when they happen to other people it's not a big deal.

I'm glad you died, and I hope you die many more times as well. If you're going to be a giant douchebag in game then you're going to be called out as a giant douchebag on the forums as well.

You're PLing somebody in OT for $$$ and you died. Get over it. It happens and it'll keep happening. If only there were some way to make sure that it would happen only to you then we'd all be far better off for it.

[Stinkum]

Anyone who has been in Overthere lately has seen Rojas taking all the mobs in the zone, training groups, and sniping mobs from Druids who are just trying to quad kite.

All of this to PL people for ridiculous money.. And when they politely ask him to cut it out, he freaks out in OOC like a crazy person.

I don't dislike all Bards, but when I do, they're Rojas-type douchers.

[Skope]

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

Anyone who has been in Overthere lately has seen Rojas taking all the mobs in the zone, training groups, and sniping mobs from Druids who are just trying to quad kite.

All of this to PL people for ridiculous money.. And when they politely ask him to cut it out, he freaks out in OOC like a crazy person.

I don't dislike all Bards, but when I do, they're Rojas-type douchers.

Training should be allowed specifically for these types of cases. In fact, I reckon that if I did I'd probably get a pat on the back for it from staff and players alike.