Heh - Kenross - we play the bard totally differently!
Comments below (talking about 51+ bards) ---->
Sylly
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth E. Bachman [mailto:
kbachman@...]
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 11:23 AM
To:
eqbards@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [eqbards] going thru the archives....
> 1. The Bard's offense sucks. He adds less offense than anything other
than, perhaps, a Cleric.
> 2. During combat, the Bard can sing offensively oriented songs which add
to the capabilities of the melee
> members of his party, or counter the abilities of the MOB, which dereases
mana and decreases risk.
Or, he can use instrument and Chants. With good instruments, significant
damage - like >1800 per minute. So, bard's add 1200 to 1500 with store
drums. Get MM or Tamborine or Selo's and you do more.
> 3. During downtime, the Bard can sing downtime-reducing songs. This
decreases downtime risk and
> decreases downtime itself. This allows the party to pull stuff faster.
Actually, mana song in downtime keeps clerics and hybrids at full potential.
Your ench has Theft of Thought and with that and his own clarity buff he
should stay above 66% mana if not more. Kinda all depends on where you
fight and training your group to let you keep your "mana mob" alive. But
mana for ench is not a problem normally.
A cleric with an ench and a bard in the group can pretty much nuke to his
heart is content and that is 516 to 1032 more dmg per mob. The cleric will
ask the bard to play mana song in combat if things are falling behind mana
wise. I dont find that an un-reasonable request at all. Let me also say
that I actively play 54 bard, 53 cleric and 51 enchanter and have been in
groups with other bards.
> The problem is "the situation". There are 7 things that high-level Kunark
parties need: 1) crowd
> control, 2) primary healer, 3) a tank, 4) a puller, 5) a group gater
(sometimes), 6) a lockpicker
> (sometimes), 7) secondary healer (sometimes).
Our enchanters (mine too) don't go into dungeon's without clerics (and
clerics that they can trust). Next is a plate class tank. We use mez &
cheal tactics. Conservation of mana is accomplished by having a tank with
high hps be the focus of the mobs attention. Next on the list is a "snare"
person. I hate that role as a bard. Our snares suck - we have to re-stick
it. I pretty much have to drop everything else to maintain the snare - much
rather have a ranger, druid, sk, necro or wizard doing the snares. But then
- you pretty much have the requirements for a decent exp group. Lockpick,
evac for certain spots but you certainly have other choices. Secondary
healer? Only if you would lose a cleric for some odd reason.
> The bard can't do any of these things other than limited crowd control, or
pulling (which doesn't allow him to
> play the downtime reducing role), which means that he doesn't satisfy any
of the core requirements.
A bard can't be the plate class meat-shield tank that gets chealed while
taunting the mobs as they are BS'd to death. Thats a Warriors job.
A bard cant be primary healer - that's a cleric's job.
He can be the snare person - but if he;s like me - its not much fun.
He can do good additional damage with DoT's (chants) and he can keep mana
maxxed and actually above provide more to allow others to do more than
usual.
Yes, the specialtys are needed for certain places - but that is why they are
specialties - I wish bards could pick more doors in Kunark. I have "heard"
that Scars of V. will have places for "sense traps" and "disarm traps" to be
used. Will they let us bards do this? Let's hope.
Any person who spends a lot of time in /gu telling everyone how much their
class sucks will soon discover that the guild is if not believing them - at
least totally sick of hearing them whine and they wont be getting groups.
It wont be a matter of class balance, but it will be how they play their
char - ie constant whining. Yes, I think bards need some fixing up and
perhaps VI has done this in this patch - but the constant whining about how
badly bard's suck (whether they do or not) hurts more than anything towards
getting a group.