Yes but all those examples were with each class using all its abilities. I
was trying to point out that separating them out was meaningless which those
examples would bear out. How the 25th bard beat the ranger I can't fathom.
I dueled a 15th level ranger when I was 15th and despite having 40 points of
ac over him he smoked me and stayed above 2 bubbles. If I ran around and
tried to heal he shot me with his bow, and in melee it was a near even trade
of blows. It should be even worse at 24th with rangers getting Parry at
18th and double attack at 20th, ick! When I hit 20th I will try again on a
20th ranger, but seriously doubt I will win a real duel with him. What I'd
like to try is a group of three bards vs three of any other class at the
same levels. I think we would nearly win all those duels, but unless on the
PvP servers will never find out unless I can get some friends into the
Arena.

Kitasi of E'ci

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Boller [mailto:eboller@...]
Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 11:53 AM
To: eqbards@onelist.com
Subject: [eqbards] Re: Bards vs. casters, melee, etc.

From: Eric Boller <eboller@...>

Actually, I was reading a post by someone at the
Concert Hall website describing his duels. I'll just
go ahead and post the message rather than describe it:

Thex
***********************
You'd be surprised exactly how effective us bards are
in duels. You just need to know what you're doing. So
far I'm 4-1 and my one loss was really in my mind not
a true loss. You'll see that below

Level 22 bard vs. level 23 monk (Monk won):
He won because we were still grouped and I couldn't
sing heal song without healing him too :( If I had
known that I needed to disband first I would have and
probably won. The final score was me at 0 HP (he beat
me down then bandaged me alive again), he was at less
than 1 bubble. Of course I'm good friends with this
monk and he refuses to ever duel me again. He says
he'd prefer being known as the one person to beat me.

Level 25 bard vs. level 24 Wood-elf Ranger (Bard won):
This was an interesting fight. I actually decided to
melee her, and the result of the fight was me at 4
bubbles, her at one when she yeilded. It was an
interesting fight, but I won.

Level 25 bard vs. level 24 Troll Warrior (Bard won):
This fight was a joke. He did a grand total of about
80 points of damage on me the entire fight, which I
promptly healed. Between chaining, bellowing, and COD,
he went down without even batting an eyelash. He even
tried to fool me at one point by yeilding then
attacking me when I got in close to tell him to zone.
The result of the fight was a fully healed bard vs. a
Troll warrior at less than a bubble of health (he
finally yeilded for real). The nice aspect is it took
him down a couple of notches and he won't duel anybody
anymore.

Level 28 bard vs. level 29 High Elf Wizard (Bard won):
That's right, I took down a wizard, and it's so easy
it's not even funny. He got one spell off on me the
entire fight, which I did a full resist on. Use the
spell disrupt aspect of BBB and they're cake. Never
got a spell off and I meleed him dead.

Level 28 bard vs. level 31 High Elf Wizard (Bard won):
This fight was a bitch but my best duel to date. He
had Jboots which sucked, and exploited the fact that
my connection was bad that evening. We started with
the typical BBB vs. a caster, and he did get a few
spells off on me, but not many. When we were both at
half health I hid and healed back up to full. We
started at it again, and that's when I learned the
coolest mid level bard tactic against casters in the
book. He finally got me rooted and started backing off
for the kill. Just charm them, thy run right up next
to you, and can't cast for the duration. All 5 times
he was able to root me I charmed him and meleed him
when it wore off. To mess with them even more, make
them stand up, sit down, report your name, etc. Fun to
the bystanders. With my magic res, bellow, selo's
constant chain (stoped those JBoots cold) and charm I
took him down. We both respect each other a lot more
too.

So don't believe for a second that we're not good
duelers. If you know how to play your class and use
every bardic trick in the book we're pains in the ass.

--
Delanos Songslinger
Bard of the 30th song, follower of her Lady, Erolisi
Marr

>
> To further turn your argument around:
> Bards cannot beat any caster consistently in pure
> magical combat. (though
> I've come close with Maxell MR)
> Bards cannot beat any other hybrid or melee type
> consistently in pure melee
> combat.
>

=====

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