At 01:30 PM 2/21/01 -0500, you wrote:

>I think that bards are probably over powered in the pre 50 game and under
>powered in the post 50 game.
>
>I see absolutely nothing in this patch that addresses EITHER of those
>beliefs. Furthermore, assuming that my personal belief is incorrect, I see
>nothing that does the opposite. Based on what I see in this patch, I have to
>conclude that bards are perfect and all the other classes are being balanced
>to match them, only I'm not seeing any reduction of power in the other
>classes post 50, in fact, I'm seeing modest improvements for them.

bards are not really underpowered in the post 50 game imo. they are
only underpowered on large multigroup raids. why is this? because
bards are best at being flexible and filling in the gaps of abilities not
represented in the group. generally in most well organized large multigroup
raids, all abilities ARE represented, leaving little for the bard to do.
i would say that bards are overpowered in most single group scenarios
(even post 50) and underpowered in most multi group raids which seems
as a whole compared to other classes to be overpowered. paladins/sks/
necros/druids/mages/rangers all are underpowered in the large raid type encounters.
but they also aren't any more powerful in single group scenarios or unbalanced
group scenarios either. necros and druids are slightly compensated in that they
can solo well for most of their careers if they choose to. but the other hybrids
seem to need some sort of enhancement.