Bards in Kunark Era

[innocent51]

My 1st character ever in Everquest was a wood elf bard called Phillane Selmo (*wave Pantera fans out there). I stoped her at level 30ish with a couple of Lambent at Karana's Aviak tree to play on Vazaelle server when it came up.

I kina remember my friends making fun of me because bards were unpopular, they couldnt deal damage or have "good" buffs (that means Clarity or damage shield for us at this time) and the only good thing with bard was selo speed with Mistmoore Drums.

Anyways, at the moment on live Everquest bards are the king of buffers, CC as good as chanters, deals the fuck out of damages (behind pure dps classes, very ahead of tanks, and hybrid healers) and is by a incredible margin the best pulling class. Nonsense.

I my class research came out the idea of rolling a bard on P99.
How to they perform on Kunark Era in term of Crown control, tracking and buffing?

[SamwiseRed]

they control the crown very well

[Musetii]

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

they control the crown very well

Indeed.

[Dweed]

A bard that's good enough and willing to CC with charm is amazing dps and CC. If he also rotates clarity song and other essentials, then he's a rare prize.

Disclaimer: not all bard results are the same

[webrunner5]

A lot of people on here hate anyone with a Bard. I am not fond of them either. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[innocent51]

How is their track ability?

[Bronia]

Track is poor - but on the other hand, when they're already swarm kiting every mob in the zone, track becomes pretty irrelevant anyway [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Calibix]

As a bard myself I can give you some insight as to how it goes. Bard is an amazing class played well. You can solo nearly any mob as long as you have room, albeit slowly. Bards fit well into any group because they are so versatile although people generally want a pure (type here) that doesn't have the 40% xp penalty. They are amazing for pulling in places like Seb with lots of casters. They are also really good at "running" groups as I call it. Its very easy for a bard to dictate how fights go and how frequently they happen. I've been in 3 person groups in KC at RCY where we were out killing a full group at LCY. That's 3 good, adaptable players, but you get the point.

90% of the people hate bards because of swarming. Most of these people are lower-ish in level. The other 10% love them (and tend to be higher level) for all the crazy shit a bard can pull off. Bards aren't gear dependent unless you want to raid. They aren't a money maker unless you sell PL's. Being able to PL lowbies easily is nice as well. And Selo's is the most glorious thing in game.

[Tiax]

In the right hands Bards perform very well in Kunark. They are probably the most difficult class to play though.

Regarding CC, Bards are the best CC class until about level 35 at which point their aoe mez starts getting resisted a lot, and chanters become better. However I would still say that practically there isn't much difference between them. By that I mean, as a Bard you should be in control of all the mobs into the camp, and you should be aware of what is popping when, and you have your 6th sense (track). If you are doing all this correctly there shouldn't be more than 3 mobs in the camp at any time. If you get trained though you want an enc [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I rate Bards the best pulling class for a group in the game. I think they are better than Monks because of all the tools available to them - lull, snare, mez, track, charm, eye of zomm, selos, invis. They are especially good at pulling camps full of casters where Monks struggle.

Regarding Buffs, encs are better - Bard haste and the 32 mana song are both poor compared to Enchanter haste and Clarity. The level 55 manasong is as good as c2 however.

Where Bards really struggle vs encs is DPS - enc charm is OP, and makes them one of the best dps classes in the game, combined with the best buffs, and their ability to cc make encs OP as a class. I still prefer my Bard though because they are by far the coolest class in the game =)

[Tiax]

Cailbix makes a good point about 'running' the group - this is what a good Bard should be doing, keeping control of the camp and allowing everyone else able to perform their role. Bards that play as buff bots are doing it wrong.