Not to mention neither Druids nor Shamans can really fight in Melee...

We can still pretend we do...

Druids and Shamans are kind of the generalist casters, having a great
variety of spells, but we bards are really the only people who can fill
almost any role in the party...

I had a good example of this (granted I am low level, 10, so I can still
tank in a pinch).

Saturday: Fighting orcs in S Ro. I joined 4 trolls (1 shaman, 3 War or
SK) and a Delf SK. My job was to since my buffing songs (anthem and
elemental), then heal us all up after battle. (Does troll regen with
our bard song? Being trolls I could not a straight answer out of them:
"How much are you healing while you sit?" "EetBugz heel gud. Lik elfy
sing.")

Sunday: Fighting same orcs with a new group: 2 wizards, 2 enchanters,
shaman. I became the tank, having more than a full column of buffs at
lvl 10 is pretty cool, btw. I felt like a real warrior.

--
We now return to the non-stop rock.

Matt DeBarger