Actually our melee "Skills" pre-kunark were "worse" than they are now.
After all we now get parry and riposte (admittedly at godawful high levels).
So this statement isn't entirely true. Our Melee "Skills" have never been
much better than pure casters. And there were always some freakin brutal
weapons available to casters that were 2h blunt (Gatorsmash maul comes to
mind for shaman). The weapon field was a TAD skewed in our favor but the
bottom line was that our melee ability isn't much better than that of a
cleric, shaman or druid. All four of them get 4 offense/defense points per
level (to our 5) have only slightly lower dodge caps (75 or 80) and can wear
equivalent armor (Cleric armor is actully just as good, if not better).
So, sure we were "Better" at melee. But we were FAR from "Good" at melee.
We have always been a VERY poor substitute for any of the "melee" classes in
the game. Early in final, as Kit has said, a lot of bards who hadn't been
beyond level 20 yet were adamant that bards were only slightly worse at
melee than other hybrids. Which couldn't be further from the truth.
Bards are the "Caster" hybrid. The others are "Melee" hybrids.
Anywayz, Kit is right. A lot more bards understand themselves better these
days ;) It's actually nice to think back to some of the rather humorous
assumptions that newbie bards used to start with ;) Now days most newbie
bards (the good ones anyway) get educated by the best (those on this list)
early on and learn how to be very effective bards indeed. I would say that
overall the quality of bards has improved because of the bards on this list
and, to a slightly lesser extent, the bards on the Concert Hall. Rokken's
site, Caster's Realm and Concert Hall have all become excellent resources
for bards. When I started barding we didn't have anything but word of mouth
(usually in the chat area when servers were down).
Lyrnia Jongleur
Levelling since Beta 2
> our melee skills pre kunark were much better than druids or shamen based
on
> our selection of weapons. post kunark, with the discovery of some brutal
2h
> blunt items, the scales are more balanced.
>
> Draelon
>
>