Hello all! I've been lurking here for a while, and thought I'd post on a
subject that's been troubling me lately: the incompatability of enchanters and
bards. Are there any other two classes in the game that work together as
poorly as these two?
Problem 1: Overlapping duties. Many Bard tasks can be done better by
Enchanters. Crowd control, buffs, and mana regen are the big three.
Problem 2: Enchanters make Bard AoE songs more or less useless. Since so many
of our songs are AoE, our playlist is more limited than a Los Angeles Top 40
FM station when grouping with an enchanter. I've just learned on this list
that Largo does NOT wake up mezzed mobs, so I'm adding that back into my
"Enchanter Hotkey" bank. That's good news.
Problem 3: Bard invis song kills Enchanter pets / breaks charm. Yeah, this is
really the Bard's fault if they do this, and it can happen with other pet and
charm classes too. However, there is a unique problem with Enchanters. The
other night I got into a group in Unrest by the fountains. One of the group
members was a casting Troll. "Shaman," I thought to myself. Suddenly, a
typical Unrest train comes roaring by bearing half the house. I kick in the
invis song to protect the group when the message "Gebaner slashes itself for
32000 points of damage" pops up, followed by a severe reaming from the
Enchanter who was in troll form.
Problem 4: For some reason, most Enchanters I've grouped with are total
jackasses. They are constantly barking orders (usually in all caps) and
yelling at everybody. It's very rare for Enchanters to give instructions ina
polite fashion, like "Hey guys, please assist the puller so I can mez the
other mobs." They are always self-congratualtory ("Heh heh my ae mez rockz,
dOOd!") and showing off ("Look, I'm a table, d00dz!" followed 1 minute later
by "OOM"). They seem to be surly most of the time, I can't imagine them
having any fun with all their gripes. And oh, if something goes wrong in
battle, it's NEVER their fault. They point fingers all the time. It's very
rare for an enchanter to say "Sorry guys, I mezzed the wrong mob." It's
usually "My Mez wore off that mob!!! Somebody must have attacked it! Idiots!
It was probably one of those retarded bard songs!!!"
Don't get me wrong, Enchanters are a great class. They can enable any group
to handle mobs that would be unattainable otherwise. And there are some good
apples in the bunch who can play their role well without being a jerk.
Anybody have any tips on how a Bard and Enchanter can group together
successfully and work with each other rather against? Right now, whenever an
enchanter is in my group, I feel like an underpowered tank, which is not a fun
role to play.
Thanks,
Sarsa Parilla (Level 20 Half-Elf Bard, Nameless) <Avengers Federation>