What next for midlevel bard?

[Toxigen]

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

Yup, game sucks and the class you play is dommed to be in the worst zone in history even though thats where the best monk pvp weapon drops if you play on a server that isnt for n00bs (blue and gren is for n00bs).

Listen to this guy, hes got an avatar making facial expressions that would get you kicked out of any real life social situation, your class sucks if you dont zem +15% just log out.

You blues play in museum thats supposed to emulate the classic experience but wont level up anywhere that isnt KC. your playing bard, giving yourself carp tunnel fish hand down syndrome and you wont give up that sweet Zone Experienc Modifier.

And this guy with an avatar making facial expressions that would get you kicked out of any real life social situation never even played the only classes that are fun.

filed under drugs

[Troxx]

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

Yup, game sucks and the class you play is dommed to be in the worst zone in history even though thats where the best monk pvp weapon drops if you play on a server that isnt for n00bs (blue and gren is for n00bs).

Listen to this guy, hes got an avatar making facial expressions that would get you kicked out of any real life social situation, your class sucks if you dont zem +15% just log out.

You blues play in museum thats supposed to emulate the classic experience but wont level up anywhere that isnt KC. your playing bard, giving yourself carp tunnel fish hand down syndrome and you wont give up that sweet Zone Experienc Modifier.

And this guy with an avatar making facial expressions that would get you kicked out of any real life social situation never even played the only classes that are fun.

I’m guessing you are heavily medicated most days?

[Duik]

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

Faff and twaddle.

Would you care for some salt with that sour bitterness you carry with you?

[Troxx]

For the record, I consider Tox to have the best avatar on these boards. I’m a little jealous every time I see it.

[Toxigen]

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

For the record, I consider Tox to have the best avatar on these boards. I’m a little jealous every time I see it.

lmao

i just noticed your location and almost spit my water out

[Troxx]

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[Vivitron]

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

I've continued having a lot of fun on the bard. I did all of level 43 on Crystal Cavern geos, getting 1kpp in the process, by far the most lucrative camp I've done yet. I probably should have stayed for another level, but some of the geos were turning green, and I wanted to check out SolB kobolds, which I did for all of 44. That was a lot of fun, and good charm practice. It turns out that for all my questions and struggles when I was starting out, the solution was just to get good. Most of the time I was able to complete a charm fight without losing more than like 20% health, and mez, snare, fear gave good crowd control. When I had a single pull I could pretty quickly drum-dot it down. I always felt in control, even at low health.

45-48 was mostly CoM. I had an absolutely fantastic session with a warrior/shaman trio where I was chain-pulling for an hour or two at stables. Then I had an experience at Arena that kinda bummed me out. We had a weird group composition, pally/bard/cleric/wizard, and I was playing a ton of different songs, sometimes three dots, sometimes haste/slow, sometimes damage shield, sometimes manapump. The group wasn't killing very fast, though. Later, as other people joined and my wrists were tired, and we had pally/melee/mage/bard/cleric/wizard where I had swapped to cleric. The new bard mostly just pulsed mana, and it seemed a lot smoother. I don't know how much of it was the song choices and how much was the full group, but it does seem that in groups at higher levels just pulsing mana might be the best contribution, and that's real boring.

All the casters in Droga left me a little scared to try charming in there, and not sure if it would still be worthwhile now that I'm level 48. I did a little duoing with a wizard at Cobalt Scar against drakes and wyverns, and might head back there to solo a bit, interspersed with some more City of Mist. I also need to head down to Guk to get my DE mask; what level would I need to be to solo that camp? With three mobs in camp and not much room I'm not sure how I'd split it or fight them, either.

I got some gear upgrades, some meaningful and some not. I've got my 5/55 rings, which certainly help, but I don't think the Heavy Dragonhorn Boots and Crystal Chitin Armplates are very impactful. And then I got a free Pegasus cloak from someone farming Quillmane and giving away loot rights over this past long weekend. It's a lot of fun to be able to levitate everywhere now. And then I got the SS gauntlets for the worn Enduring Breath, which makes me want to go see if there's anything I can do in Kedge Keep.

Anyway, I can probably let City of Mist carry me to 50, but where should I go after that?

Glad you got to do geos and kobolds.

I think the problem in your pally/wizard/bard/cleric group was probably not enough dps, that's a rough group composition. Could look for opportunities to pbaoe if you end up with clerics and wizards; I'm not sure about pulling a chunk of CoM at 48 though, and you'd have to be careful to get enough aggro in before they nuke.

For the bard in the latter group, if you don't get to pull/cc/haste/slow it can push you to a less interesting role; mana/regen, interrupt casters (outside of CoM anyway), backup cc, what dps you can. The busy swiss army knife vs sleepy mana song can be frustrating but sometimes it's the right change of pace too.

Someone recommended snare/fear/drum dot bloodgill goblins as a good camp to 51; I haven't tried it on a bard but I mean to if I take another bard through that level range. If you can get the VP key piece while you're there it would be worthwhile; bards are a good vp class, good pullers in there. I think charm soloing CoM moat is probably pretty decent while they're blue as well. Wyverns sound fun too.

I think you can probably solo the de mask already, but I'm not 100% sure.

If you are up for AEing I think TD raptors and BW should both be good next spots. This boat tracker can help if you do raptors, note it relies on user reports to keep the schedule accurate https://discord.gg/j46cVcJH. You can pick up an OT hammer just by casting bard charm on the foreman and turning in the jade.

AE snare (at 54) is a fun bump to grouping -- can pair well with singing steel helm eyeball pulling in areas with fewer casters and where you are high enough level for your songs to land well, and cantana at 55 is a nice power bump to grouping.

I've clipped where I got xp 48-55 below. The hole had a big xp modifier at the time and I leaned on that. Also a fair bit of Raptor ae and some BW.

level  48
total	grouped	solo	zone name
130	59	71	all zones
40	8	32	Nagafen's Lair
29	25	4	Kedge Keep
19	0	19	Dreadlands
14	14	0	The Hole
14	0	14	The City of Mist
11	11	0	The Burning Wood
1	0	1	Northern Plains of Karana
1	0	1	Southern Desert of Ro
1	1	0	Karnor's Castle
level  49
total	grouped	solo	zone name
135	47	88	all zones
51	0	51	Dreadlands
47	47	0	The Hole
36	0	36	The Burning Wood
1	0	1	Lake of Ill Omen
level  50
total	grouped	solo	zone name
161	161	0	all zones
161	161	0	The Hole
level  51
total	grouped	solo	zone name
344	304	40	all zones
292	292	0	The Hole
26	12	14	The Wakening Lands
25	0	25	Nagafen's Lair
1	0	1	Neriak Third Gate
level  52
total	grouped	solo	zone name
304	286	18	all zones
208	208	0	The Hole
49	49	0	Kedge Keep
29	29	0	Timorous Deep
8	0	8	South Kaladim
8	0	8	The Wakening Lands
2	0	2	Butcherblock Mountains
level  53
total	grouped	solo	zone name
242	21	221	all zones
128	0	128	The Burning Wood
77	0	77	Timorous Deep
18	18	0	The Hole
7	0	7	Nagafen's Lair
4	0	4	The Wakening Lands
3	0	3	Velketor's Labyrinth
3	3	0	Plane of Hate
1	0	1	Neriak Third Gate
1	0	1	South Kaladim
level  54
total	grouped	solo	zone name
434	188	246	all zones
209	37	172	Timorous Deep
78	78	0	Permafrost Caverns
71	69	2	The Hole
70	0	70	Nagafen's Lair
3	3	0	Trakanon's Teeth
1	0	1	South Kaladim
1	1	0	Kithicor Woods
1	0	1	Velketor's Labyrinth
level  55
total	grouped	solo	zone name
756	696	60	all zones
278	276	2	The Hole
117	117	0	Old Sebilis
112	112	0	Howling Stones
69	52	17	Skyfire Mountains
63	39	24	Velketor's Labyrinth
36	35	1	Permafrost Caverns
35	35	0	The City of Mist
17	17	0	Great Divide
14	10	4	Trakanon's Teeth
6	0	6	South Kaladim
5	0	5	Kaesora
3	3	0	Karnor's Castle
1	0	1	Swamp Of No Hope

[Tann]

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

Someone recommended snare/fear/drum dot bloodgill goblins as a good camp to 51; I haven't tried it on a bard but I mean to if I take another bard through that level range. If you can get the VP key piece while you're there it would be worthwhile; bards are a good vp class, good pullers in there.

Did/currently doing on my bard atm, since some are just outside the mana free charm level. Snare - fear - chant - chant - aoe dot - snare.. let them swim away and come back to rinse and repeat. Has worked great so far. Would recommend to any bard wanting something more engaging than aoe kiting half a zone.

Could do essentially the same thing in TD with the chickens if you don't fancy water sports. If only real swarm (charm) kiting worked like it did on live.. that's where I leveled into the 50s super fast back in the day [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Vexenu]

What stats are you guys prioritizing on a grouping/non-kiting Bard these days? Are the returns from CHA/DEX worthwhile? Or are you better off going for more survivability with AC/HP/STA?

[Toxigen]

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

What stats are you guys prioritizing on a grouping/non-kiting Bard these days? Are the returns from CHA/DEX worthwhile? Or are you better off going for more survivability with AC/HP/STA?

id go survival...you're probably gonna be pulling with singing steel helm