Bard Tank!?

[thewrush]

Hi, I started a bard and have been told they make decent tanks prior to 50. How does one go about gearing and using songs to become "The Bard Tank".

Currently, I have a Human Rallos Zek bard with most visible pieces of Cultural gear(+STR +STA, AC). He has a bunch of missing slots but sits around 144 STR and songs bump him up more. He is using 2x 5ac 55HP rings and has around 600 HP at level 20.

What can I do to further my tanking career? I might try to farm some Guardian Armor for him(if that is even remotely sane to do given the drop rates). I don't care about end game blah blah blah boring sit in front of screen for 20 hours for something to spawn, then wait another 2 hours just to engage BS. Just want to approach this class and do something different.

[Xaanka]

spam snare song on everything for aggro
acquire AC and HP
that's it.

[Troxx]

As a bard holding aggro is ridiculously easy, even a paladin/sk can't hold aggro better. The snare/slow line of songs (especially the higher level one with debuffs to boot) are legit aggro and you can spam it literally every 3 seconds (that would be overkill though).

Where bard tanking gets problematic is in the 'tankiness' department. HP is very low compared to real tanks and we get fewer defensive 'skills' that cap lower. If you plan on playing the 'tank' spot, plan on being the 'tank' in lower level hunting zones for your level range.

[gildor]

http://wiki.project1999.com/Staff_of_Writhing

instant aggro on that proc, was fun using that on my bard when I tanked gobbos in HHK

[Troxx]

Bards don't need weapons to hold aggro.

[-Catherin-]

Bards are literally the best at holding agro with three second single target and AE songs with tons of agro with no global cooldown, no mana cost, and can be used while moving around.

A decent bard can pretty much tank any dungeon, probably as good as or better than your typical stereotype tank. but once you get into a raiding situation the bard tanking situation ends once the deftdance wears off...

This of course applies to people who actually know how to play their bards. the majority that have only swarm kited thier entire lives will have no idea what i am talking about. And that is where the problems lies. Good luck finding a bard that knows how to play a bard.

I have tanked the kith general a few times on my bard, as well as offtanked some HoT trash when it was neccessary. I think that is getting about as far as you can take it.

[Troxx]

There are some of out there, but yeah Catherin more or less hit the nail on the head. We have songs in our arsenal that generate upwards of 600-1k hate per cast. We can sing them while moving and meleeing, and they are on demand literally every 3 seconds. Some of those aggro songs are PBOAE which really helps, and most of those great aggro songs also include a slow component which means mobs will come to your group pre-slowed 25-35% which does cut down a lot on the amount of healing required. Areas where we suffer (hp and mitigation for instance) can be made up for with instant slows by the slower, preslows from the bard himself, and a plethora of buffs. No other class can out-aggro us with the exception of another player hitting 'taunt', and even then we'll have aggro back within 2-3 seconds. In routine play, nobody will out-aggro you unless trying.

Biggest drawback to using the bard as the tank is that it DOES make doing your bardly duty a bit more challenging. You won't keep a perfect 3-4 song group augmenting twist going while locking aggro, and you will have a hard time playing the job of CC flawlessly if you're also expected to tank. A bard expected to be 100% support, 100% cc AND tank will find one of those duties lacking. A bard stepping into the role of TANK will be able to do so easily while still helping out in other areas.

Basically as a bard tank you can basically advertise yourself as a sk/paladin that also buffs the group, helps slow/snare/debuff, resists buffs, and gives epic regen all while filling the role of tank perfectly. Imagine a knight that also gives his group 10-12 mana and hp per tick regen and that's just a lazy 55+ bard that sings only regen + aggro songs.

We're less efficient to heal compared to a real tank, but we do more than make up for it in other ways for 99% of content.

[SirAlvarex]

You seem to have the armor for it. I did plenty of Bard Tanking leveling up to ~40 with worse gear than you. You could argue that I was a better tank than Pallies/SK since at that level range the defensive skills matter but not a *ton*.

What I did was pretty simple:

* Spam Snare songs (preferably AE snare) for 3 casts to lock in aggro.
* Twist Snare, Heal, and Group haste/combat buffs. If you're good enough throw in one of the defensive songs. If you have the Mana song twist that in (wasn't available for me when I was that level).
* If there is some CC issues, start with the snare spams on the main (to get aggro). Once aggro is attained twist in the Mez on adds and the snare. You can keep 3 reliably mezzed doing this while keeping aggro. If you only have 2 adds, twist in the heal. If there is 1 add, twist in the heal + Haste/Defense.
* For Casting mobs just spam Mez. You can keep casters stunlocked pretty easily this way.
* Don't use weapons unless your healer is doing a good job keeping you alive. The double heal from the regen song by using a lute makes a huge difference.
* Don't use Charm because it adds a crazy variable that if you screw up could kill you. Or if you're better than I was I guess you can try charming [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

With you as a tank the only class that might dislike you are Druids (and maybe clerics). Shamans usually could heal me just fine. Clerics would just throw the small heals on me way more often than with a bigger tank (40+). Overall tho each time I did it I'd get compliments and the usual "god I love Bards that do more than swarm kite" which is always nice.

[Rygar]

Sadly I agree with one poster that most bards leveled up swarm kiting and don't realize the true potential of their class, when I asked bards to tank groups (even post 50) they are like, "Umm... I'm a bard, I can't tank", to which I immediately face palm.

Bards are a plate class with some low capped defensive abilities, but awesome agro potential. I have seen a bard in the Hole tank, lull pull, song twist, and CC without issue.

Best Bard I've ever been with is Thald, dude seriously knows his class. He is spot on with adds, pulling, song twists, you name it. I recommend you ask him any questions, he probably can give you some serious tips.

[Jauna]

Generally, anyone can tank when something is slowed.

But at max level, even mid 50s your ability to tank well starts to slow down and is counter balanced by your ability to regen your healers mana who will be spending more mana healing you.

Your defensive skills, hp and whatnot will never be on tier of knight/war. My 40 warrior, when I CAN hold agro is a dodge/parry/riposte beast when looking at the chat logs whereas my bards skills cap out at 75s, when my 40 war has 180s/200s