I find it kind of disheartening to see all this attitude about GZ's answer
to the question Baelish asked him. GZ didn't design the armor, the
equipment team did. He asked them, they answered. He didn't comment on
whether he agreed to it or not he just relayed their answer. Jesus... don't
shoot the messenger guys. GZ has always tried to at least answer us.

Now, my thoughts, my oppinions are below. They differ from others but
that's ok, we're all different.

1) Bards are not primary tanks. Yes it would be _nice_ to have 3 or 4 more
AC but I'm not going to stay up at night over it.
2) Bards have ways of reducing their taunt level now (Song of dawn,
harmonic weapons)
3) ************** GZ Doesn't design armor. That's a different team
******************
4) The singing steel BOOTS are AC 18. It's not like their AC Sucks they're
still better than anything else we could get before, including imbrued.
5) The "Magic" number for AC is about 800 AC. After 800 there seems to be
a dramatic drop in the amount that you get hit. With buffs it's even
better. Right now a level 50 warrior can get their AC to about 800 maybe
900 with items. We can get ours to about the same. With singing steel I
will be able to get my AC (at 50th level) to over 900. (Warriors may be
able to break 1000 with theirs)

Why must we have the same ac as a warrior? We can kite, they cant. We can
Charm, they can't, we can reduce our taunt, they can't, we can run faster
than anything in the game, they cant. We can heal, they can't, we can DoT,
they can't. Umm I'm gonna stop before that paragraph gets too long ;)

I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have more AC. I'm saying I'm not
having a cow about a *slightly* lower AC. Now, people complain that rangers
have higher ac than us. I PLAY a Ranger. They need AC about 10 times more
than we do. I play a Ranger and a Bard and a Warrior. Bard is my primary.
My warrior does ok. My Ranger takes more dmg in any given fight than my
bard does, hands down. They NEED that AC, they're a tank!

Am I envious? Sure! Am I going to die if I don't get an extra 4 or 5
points of AC added onto my armor? Nah.

Now... the effects on the armor REALLY ticks me off. So far every effect
they've put on there are rarely needed, two of which (greaves and boots) we
have covered with forage anyway. What I kind of wish is that they'd give us
effects that we don't have songs for.... hmm ok maybe just give us effects
that we have songs we never use for ;) (FYI I can't think of an effect
that we can't duplicate with our songs ;) Invis Undead would be nice for
the boots though... god I'm tired of begging for one.

Anyway... The armor is STILL Better than anything we could get _previously_
The only reason people are upset is because other classes are getting
_better_ ac on theirs. Uhh so what? I'm a bard. I'm proud to be a
bard... And anything over 800AC is just bonus to me. 800 is the 'magic'
number. Ask any warrior. The next really dramatic number is 900 and then
1000.

Lyrnia Jongleur
Bard of Norrath