Reedwind,
Hello! I've been a lurker here for a long time and a bard even longer
(since June 6th 1999). The folks on this list are great! I haven't yet
contributed since I'm fairly low level but I feel I have a good appreciation
of your situation so I'm posting now. ;)
There seem to be three general types of bards I've met in my travels;
bards who sing (twist/weave/other word of your choice), bards who melee,
bards who think they can melee. With normal armour and weapons, bards seem
naturally to choose either the first or second path. Most twinks I've
encountered become the third kind of bard and don't appreciate what it is to
be a bard until it's too late. It seems that you can either play a bard as
a poor melee class, or as a good bard (using melee or song as the situation
warrants.)
The key to playing a bard (at least at the lower levels) is to
understand the capabilities of your songs and apply the right ones, with
instruments or without, in the appropriate situation. Silly Songsinger has
provided links to excellent information about songs so I won't repeat (much)
of it. Let me instead explain a few of the combinations I have used. These
tactics worked well even though I have low stamina (67) and low strength
(70.) I was equipped in full leather and had a combine scimitar which I
then upgraded to a Dragoon dirk and some banded by 15. (Actually, I'm still
in mostly banded and some special armour that I've picked up over the months
and still wielding my trusty Dragoon dirk.)
Soloing:
Soloing is something I prefer not to do since bards really shine when
grouped with a true tank (warrior, ranger, paladin, shadowknight are best -
rogues and monks aren't as good unless they are hitting the back of a
creature.) However, sometimes a bard is travelling around and just has to
solo. I found I could solo low blues but not high blues. With weapons, I
could take one low blue. With instruments, two low blues simultaneously.
Twinking will allow you to take on tougher creatures but I suspect the
strategy will still apply.
Solo strategy #1:
Find a low blue or two that is isolated from others and equip the lute.
Start up Hymn of Restoration (HoR), Anthem de Arms (Anthem), then pull the
two with Chords of Dissonance (CoD). Start punching while twisting those
three songs (the punching for 1 - 5 may not seem like much but the fight
will be long so it will add up.) Depending upon the creatures you fight,
keeping up the twisting can be difficult.
Try to pick creatures that don't bash. When I had more experience, I
soloed the two gnoll guardsman in blackburrow near the door to the spike
room but I had mostly perfected twisting by then. I wouldn't recommend you
start there because they bash and if you're not careful, you can hit other
gnolls through the walls with your CoD and start really bad trains. Learn
twisting somewhere safer first. You can practice this strategy fairly safely
out in the Karanas on silvermist wolves and switch to gnoll reavers when you
are a little better at it. (Stay in a zoomed out view so you can keep your
eye on anything nearby)
Solo strategy #2:
Variant A: Find a creature or two (ideally slow creatures like scythe
beetles) and equip your lute. Play Hymn of Restoration, Chords of
Dissonance, then pull with Brusco's Boastful Bellow. If the creatures are
slow, you can kite them around with these three songs (Hymn is needed if you
get hit and you will when you first learn the range of your bellow and CoD.)
(Stay in a zoomed out view so you can keep your eye on anything nearby.)
Variant B: This tactic has a less useful and/or more difficult variant
if you play Selo's Accelerando (Selos) with a drum, CoD with a lute, then
Bellow with either the lute to maintain a higher damage on CoD or equip the
drum (for more safety) in preparation for the next pulse of Selos. You have
to use this more dangerous variant when kiting silvermist wolves, lions, and
other fast creatures that catch up to normal running speed.
Solo strategy #3:
Find a single creature (or make a camp into a single creature with
Kelin's Lugubrious Lament) then equip your weapons. I had a Dragoon Dirk
and a Shiny Brass Shield (SBS) until I got dual wield. Start up Anthem and
HoR then pull the creature with Bellow. Keep twisting those three
throughout the fight.
Grouping:
Bards are best at grouping. Try to avoid any group that considers you a
melee class since you will be limited to being a poor tank. There are many
great combinations you can use depending upon the members of your group, the
type of creatures you are fighting and the type of pull you get (solo,
multiples.) Generally, I used the following:
Your group against casters:
This one is best at level 18. Equip the drum and play Guardian
Rhythms(GR), Elemental Rhythms(ER) or Purifying Rhythms(PR), Anthem de Arms
(to help the tanks take down the caster quickly.) Below 18, I usually
equipped a drum and played ER/PR, HoR, Anthem. A completely different
strategy is to use Kelin's Lucid Lullaby (Lullaby) with a lute if you can
take a few blasts and the caster is significantly lower level (eg. low blue,
or green.) It's a fast ticket to your bind point otherwise.
Your group against high con solo creature:
Generally, your damage songs won't affect them much so stick to buffing
the tanks as much as possible. Usually I equip a drum and use Anthem, HoR,
and throw in ER for some AC buffing then later in the fight switch to the
lute for faster healing. The extra AC from ER is only a few points but it
can make the difference between the tanks getting hit for max damage a lot
vs getting hit for max less often and partial damage more often and will
generally save downtime more than trying to get a bellow or CoD to stick
while maintaining Anthem (the most important.)
Your group against low con solo creature:
This should be an easy fight. To make it even easier, I use Anthem,
CoD, Bellow with a lute equiped and change Bellow to HoR if the tanks are
actually taking any damage to preventatively reduce downtime afterwards.
You group against multiple low con creatures:
There are really many different scenarios here. This is where the most
variation in tactics can occur. The following strategies will work, even
with an enchanter, as long as your AE songs don't hit the creatures that the
enchanter has mezed. With my weak hit points and AC, I can do the
following:
- If there is a caster and two or less non-casters, I normally MR buff
using a drum and ER/PR + GR. Try to start your songs after the tanks have
engaged the caster and stay as far away from the fight as possible. This
will help stick as many of the extras as possible on the tanks but you will
get beaten. You better hope you know how to twist songs and that the tanks
can take the caster down fast so you can get to the next part. ;) After the
caster has been eliminated, equip the lute and play Lullaby until the tanks
have reduced the rest down to just one then use the tactic above for group
vs. 1 low con. (Note: everyone MUST /assist the main tank for this to work
or you will be killed because everything that gets hit will beat on you
unless it is very well occupied.) If the tanks don't seem to know the
meaning of /assist, as a backup plan, try twisting HoR, CoD, and Anthem but
you won't be able to keep this up for long and stay alive. You might have
to flee so be ready to equip the drum and run. ;)
- If there are 2-4 non-casters, get the tanks /assisted on one at a
time, and play Lullaby with a lute until they have reduded it down to one
left then play HoR, Anthem, CoD. The backup plan of HoR, Anthem, CoD listed
above will not work in this situation. Equip a drum and Selos to the zone
while shouting out about the train if this happens. Or, an alternate escape
strategy is to equip the lute and play Lullaby while running behind the
tanks to the zone. This seems dangerous and it is, but you can pull off
some miraculous escapes when it works.
I'm not sure how any of these strategies will change as I get to the higher
levels but for now, they seem to be good, at least to level 20. Thanks to
everyone on eqbards for a lot of the ideas and strategies and sorry for the
long post!
Sincerely,
Aanluil <Imperturbable Fellowship>
20th level Wood elf Bard
Erollisi Marr
P.S. Does anyone have suggestions for a last name?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Malin" <Thanos0000@...>
To: <eqbards@egroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 13, 2000 9:54 AM
Subject: [eqbards] How did you play when you were 15th?
> Hi guys, I'm new to this list and I was hoping I could get a little advice
> on play tactics. I have a 15th level bard as my secondary character and
he's
> an awesome change from my ranger and I'm trying to figure out how to play
> him most effectivly. Lately I've been hunting orcs in Crushbone by
meleeing
> them and bellowing at them, it seemed to be working better than bringing
up
> Anthem for it's haste factor. I tried using the 15th level song to mez
them
> but it didn't seem to buy me anything in combat, it did help me escape a
> training one afternoon though. Is there another way I should be playing
the
> encounters? Is there any place you'd recomend that would be hungry for a
> bard to group at my level?
>
> Reedwind
> 15th level bard
> Bertoxx