There a lot of people who just don't have a clue as far as the value of
a bard in a group. The bottom line is that you have to fight differently to
be effective with a bard. If the group's tactics are simply - have the
tanks tank as hard as possible - and have the casters blow all there mana as
quickly as possible - kill the critters - hope you don't die - then go to
and heal and re-gen mana - wait for spawn (if hasn't yet) Repeat... These
are the people who will yell "Play the Heal Song" in combat when they get
down to 2 bubbles. For that type of strategy - I would tend to agree with
the argument against Darkfox (Blitz Krieg) on the board. There are other
classes that will clearly outpace us in a simple strategy like that.

Clearly this isn't the best way to play Everquest. Perhaps in certain
situations (especially when dealing with Kill Stealers and the goal is
simply to get a kill as quickly as possible) But IMHO it would be utterly
boring. The analogy in war - is simple frontal assaults all the time (both
sides never learned that lesson in WW1 and the Japanese never learned that
one in WW2)...

I play on Xegony - started in Freeport. When I started soloing around
level 5 or 6 - I never had a problem finding a group - in fact I'd
constantly have people ask me to join their group when I was already in a
group! However - when I went to Faydwer at level 8 (stayed there for a
level or two) I did have problems getting into groups. I'm not sure if it's
that the majority of the people in a particular area don't know how to use a
bard; or the majority of the bards don't know how to play properly (giving
bards a bad name) - or maybe even the types of monsters don't lend
themselves to bardic fighting styles (doubtful IMHO)

So my advise is to do that bardic thing and travel until you find an
area where the players know how to use a bard.. I did great alternating
between East Commons and North Ro at your level - time to take the boat
ride!

Slyde of Xegony
(Just made level 17!)