Bard or Ranger for a 4 man group?

[MikeXG]

Man, it is great to be back on the p99 servers. My friends and I took a break for about a year and a half and are just coming back this week. We decided to make a 4 person group. So far we have a druid healer, an enchanter, and either a pally tank or maybe a monk tank (my friend is looking into the logistics of how viable a monk tank is) and then my character. I am torn between, you guessed it, a Bard or a Ranger. I already have a 19 bard and 10 ranger so I would use one of them. I just cant decide which compliments the group more. We will need DPS so I am leaning towards ranger, however we already have a druid so some spell overlap there (not the end of the world though) BUT if the tank decides to go Monk (again not sure how viable that is) that would bring the group DPS up a decent amount, and maybe bard would be more beneficial at that point? Some other deciding factors for me are, I dont have a lot of time to play and whatever character I pick for this 4 man group I would only play within this 4 man group. Most likely 1 session a week for several hours. In my spare time I still would like to hop on and play here and there, part of me wants the bard for that solo time 1, because they can solo kite really well and 2, they can get groups fairly easily. If I play the bard in the 4 man group, I would not want to solo with the ranger so I would most likely keep playing my rogue, although they suck at soloing also....

I guess I am just super overwhelmed with the good memories of everquest. I played live since launch all the way up to POP and whatever Xpac came after that.

Anyway, any advice, insight, suggestions are appreciated (and any info on my friend monk tanking?)

Thanks

-MXG

[SamwiseRed]

tldr

bard

[Zubek]

Everyone will get on here and say bard bard bard blah blah blah.
I played a bard on live from '00 til just a couple of years ago. Bard is a lot of fun, can solo, makes groups better, etc....
But saying all of that, for the 4 man group you are wanting to run, go Ranger.
Rangers can solo, and will be able to fear kite animals come velious, and they do a lot more DPS than a bard.
You're going for druid healer instead of cleric or shaman, this means weaker heals and regen. The monk can tank sure, but that Pally is going to give much better threat generation and let you the Ranger go balls to the wall without pulling threat. You've got slows with the Chanter so that will help if you go Monk tank, but will drain more mana if the chanter is doing debuffs, hastes, slows, and charming...... probably not as much of a big deal at higher levels, but still.

Pally, Druid, Enchanter, Ranger sounds pretty good to me.

Unless of course you go Monk and let your friend tank with Pally......... that sounds even better [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[MikeXG]

Hmm, Never realized rangers could solo, totally forgot about fear animal.

Can Rogues solo at all with the fear they get if they use a snare proc weapon(or any other method)?

@Samewisered, Forgive my ignorance, what does "tldr" stand for?

@Zubek, I agree, monk pally chanter druid would be awesome, however I've played monk (or the equivalent) in every game I've ever played, and was itching to do something different this go around.

Thanks for the replies.

[Tenlaar]

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

tldr

bard

I'm also highly offended that you didn't even consider using the bard for the group's tank.

[Gustoo]

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

Hmm, Never realized rangers could solo, totally forgot about fear animal.

Remember this spell only gets added in velious. Panic Animal.

[Mandalore93]

Bard will add more utility and power to the group at pretty much every level.

[SamwiseRed]

still didnt read but for whatever you are doing, a bard will be 10x more helpful than a ranger. bards amplify everyone in the group and most importantly lessen downtime.

[Tecmos Deception]

I'd go with bard, personally. But it's a pretty close call.

The trio you're starting with covers so many "required" things for a group and is even redundant with some of them already, so a lot of the bard's versatility will be unused a lot of the time. But that aside, even though the bard doesn't bring as much damage as the ranger, he will make a better puller in dungeons + his hp regen, mana regen, and resists songs are all awesome assets in a group without cleric heals.

Style points and +dps for the ranger though. The group will work fine with either class, I just think it'd be "stronger" overall with the bard.

[Nytch]

Also remember a Ranger can step in and off tank if the enchanter runs oom and cant CC (bards can mez i suppose) Ranger can snare so no runners (this way the druid doesn't have to) Rangers can do very minor spot healing if they need to. Ranger can also use Snare Kiting and root to CC if you need to...

Bards will be better pullers and when shit hits the fan you can always AOE MEZ (until lvl 35 anyway).

As a Ranger you wont have to destroy your wrist and finger twisting songs.....

both have 40% XP penalty so that doesn't matter.

If you are started from zero a ranger will be easier to buy gear for, everyone has a bard alt to swarm kite so gear prices are a tad higher.