The bar din my regular group (where i'm the cleric and leader) asked
what good she was recently. I sometimes think we can lose sight of what
we're doing (man I HATE those nights when she can't play). I think our
#1 job is to make everyone else better at what they do best (which is
how verant designed us). We take the down time healing requirment off
the clerics (I cannot tell you how much, even at my low lvl this means,
I have mana to buff everyone, and even throw some stuns in combat when
our bard is around). We help the real melees fight better (granted many
other people do this better than us, but at a great cost in mana). We
help the casters regain mana (at levels higher than me).
Secondly we fill in when you don't have the ideal group configuration.
No enchanter, then crowd control falls on our lap. No tank (well at
lower levels, it seems we cant do this at higher levels from what i
hear), looks like all those mean orcys are going to chew on little old
me (I end up tanking in pick up groups a lot because so many tanks are
not good pullers and I get impatient). No teleporter in the group?
Well guess who's going to get your group across the continent fastest?
No pet to sacrafice to that mob "We thought we could kill it"? Oh wait
guess we can't help there... (unless you can charm FAST)

I'll say it again at least at low levels a good tank(Monk in this case),
with a buffer (Shaman in this case) and a bard at his side in a darn
scary thing. We had no trouble (even pulled desert trash some times)
holding the 4 derv camp this weekend and they are high blue/black/yellow
to us (with Thugs being red, I would kite them to half usually before
the monk would attack). That was pretty sweet experience and loot...
(the shaman was at more than 2x her massive wt limit with bronze weapons
when we went to sell)
--
We now return to the non-stop rock.

Matt DeBarger