Last night I was camping the Preacher room in Permafrost with a 23rd Wizard, a
22nd Wizard, a 22nd Cleric, and a 19th bard. I'm pretty damn young to be
there, as those are hard-hitting Ice Goblins and heavy casters that we're
fighting. We held our own there for about five hours - with me mostly using
instruments and not weapons - in fact we were TANKLESS. We got a tell at
about the four hour mark from two Warriors wanting to join our group - and we
declined! I routinely pulled Gobs from the surrounding area when mana
permitted as well.
If heavy casters were in the pull (and they throw Force Shock and the like) I
would switch to button bank 2 (my "caster" bank) and play Anthem, Guardian and
Elemental while holding a drum. Anthem was played because my cleric was
melee'ing fairly often as was one of the Wizards, so it's better than nothing.
Our magic resists with the drum equipped were in the low 70s, and 40ish for
heat and cold. Not shabby, but can I do better at my level without a MM drum?
Any stacking advice would be welcome. I didn't play Hymn much fighting the
casters 'cause .. what's the point? They're either gonna burn you for 150
points or not, and Hymn isn't going to help much since my drum is equipped.
Besides, we had a Cleric in the group (she saved my bacon when down to 30HPs
on about three different occassions).
If there were no casters involved I would switch to button bank 1 (my "melee"
bank) and play Warsong, Anthem and Hymn of Restoration. In appropriate
situations I can also use Bellow or Denon's Distruptive Discord on this bank,
but Bellow is pretty pathetic when you're fighting multiple mobs and DDD can
really get you in trouble in a dungeon where you can't even use Selo's.
Lullaby was also used a fair amount and the Gobs didn't resist TOO much. I
would equip my mandolin and just stand there playing Lullable while the
casters burned the gobs or beat on them with sticks. Usually during this type
of cheezy caster melee combat I was typing "Fight one", "Fight one" over and
over. It takes some people a long time to realize what's going on.
Hey, we did pretty well. I didn't die once (and gained level 20), and the
casters only had one round of deaths, so I think we fared very well all things
considered.
What could I have done differently and/or better? More experienced bards
please speak up!
For reference, when in melee my weapons are Dragoon Dirk or Barbed Leather
Whip in the offhand with Thulian Bladed Claws in my primary hand. This
character is *not* twinked believe it or not...
------
Crier Sharpsong - 20th song bard on Fennin Ro
PS - My bard is still leveling discouragingly fast. I'm having too much fun
with her and sure don't want to see it end. My damn monk took 5 times longer
to level than this bard.
Jason A. Farqu´┐¢
CDI at
http://www.pigging.com/