On Fri, Sep 17/99, kim@... wrote:

> From: <kim@...>
>
> > Especially when you consider their ability to cast Divine Aura and be
> > invincible for a brief time. Sadly enough in my normal group our tanks are
>
> Well, they can't cast spells while invulnerable, and it's
> supposed to have a really long cycle time. It's basically a
> last-ditch get-out-of-death-free tactic, to help them run for
> the zone. Once a cleric casts Divine Aura, he is no longer a
> factor in the fight (other than your party trying to keep him
> alive).

Yes and no. He's a factor in the fight in that he can stand there being
beaten on for 30 seconds with out taking any damage while everyone else
in the group can nuke or beat on the mob. Now granted, I have never seen
anyone use this technique (and if it became popular and well known I
would be willing to bet Verant would nerf devine aura, assuming it was
effective) but in a way it makes them the perfect tank for 30 seconds.
They can soak up huge amounts of damage without actually taking any.

The biggest problem with Bards at later levels, IMO is that most groups
(at least on our server) go to item distribution based on need, rather
than the various schemes like alpha used by lower levels. I believe this
is used on other servers as well. Unfortunately, as the Bard is known as
a mediocre fighter and inadequate tank at that point, and the weapons we
can use are all weapons multiple classes can use because we have no bard
only weapons, there will always be someone in the group who could use
the item more than the bard. Why would a group want to give the first
Ykesha they find to a bard, who can't double attack and thus won't be
making as effective use of this special weapon as a warrior or ranger.

Yes eventually your turn will come up, but with the super rare spawn
stuff, that eventually can be an awfully long time, and at least for
some of us, like other classes in the game, part of the fun comes from
having some unique things that make your character special in some way.
Having no weapons or armor that are unique pretty well leaves Bards out
in the cold as far as that goes.

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