Not true from what I've seen. With no spellcasting they are as good a tank
as a bard if not better. Add even 18 seconds of invulnerability to that and
they definitely outlast us. The cycle time is long, about 5 minutes, but
being invulnerable for 18 seconds out of a 90-120 second fight effectively
increases their hit points by 10-15%. Since they have as many hits if not
more than us already, and the same armor plus a shield... It adds up
quickly to their being able to absorb way more damage than us. I have duo'd
with my dwarf cleric friend several times and when he gets a mob's focus he
always ends up taking far less damage than I do, especially in the shorter
fights. Imagine the following, 4 wizards, 1 cleric. Cleric casts smite,
then divine aura and gives the wizards 18 seconds of nuking. In same
situation the bard would take a hell of a lot of damage trying to solo tank
the same critter the cleric could.

Kitasi

-----Original Message-----
From: kim@... [mailto:kim@...]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 1999 11:10 AM
To: 'eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Bard only equipment, a rant

From: <kim@...>

On Fri, 17 Sep 1999, Kimes, Dean W. wrote:
>
> Clerics dodge skill caps at 80 so they are better tanks than us probably.

I think ours caps at 100. Can someone around L18-21 check?
Still, that's a far cry from the 200 the other melee classes
get. I really do think that this is a very important
oversight - all the other classes with poor defensive skills
can do considerable damage at a distance using
root/SoW/snare/pets to keep the mob away from them. But
because we're a melee hybrid, our primary means of damage
requires that we be in melee range.

> 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).

--
John H. Kim
kim@...

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