Toxia,
You will always be the center of attention as a bard.
Last night I was in Solusek's Eye (Sol A) at level 25 fighting some extremely
tough Fire and Inferno goblins. These suckers make Runnyeye look like
Blackburrow. Anyhow, I'm standing with my group in the "pull room" which is
near a zone into Nagafen's Lair (Sol B) to which we can run for cover if
necessary. There is another group pulling into this room as well. My group
had finished off a few and our wiz and cleric were medding so I'm just
standing there. Not even playing a song. Just standing there. The other
group pulls two or three goblins in the room and one of them makes a beeline
straight for me and SMACK for 43, SMACK for 22, SMACK, SMACK. What the? I'm
not even on the aggro list of these guys. So my group has to get up and help
me finish the damn thing off.
One tip is that if you're fighting in a group where you're the (or one of the)
low level member of the group, don't play Area Effect (AE) songs at all, and
keep Hymn to a minimum. Concentrate on playing as many buffing songs as you
can.
Some observations that should be in the FAQ if they're not:
1) Sitting is a taunt. Green stuff will attack just about anyone if they're
sitting and/or meditating. If I'm really low on health and need to heal after
killing some nasty stuff and there's a lot of green stuff around (The yard in
Unrest comes to mind) I *will not* sit down to do it. I'll crack out the
Mandolin and play Hymn standing. If you sit down, the beetles and other
random yard trash will swarm ya.
2) Every point of healing that you do to your party is percieved by mobs as
being damage to them (I'd like to see some research done in this area by the
bard community). So if you heal your group of six for 10 points each, you've
done somthing like 60 points of damage to *each mob* that you're fighting.
Hymn is a good way to get every mob on you over the course of a few rounds,
especially if you're playing a stringed instrument. For this reason I
normally don't start playing hymn at the very beginning of a battle. Wait a
few rounds for the hate list of the mobs to be divided amongst you and the
other tanks in your group. Once people are starting to drop health (maybe 12
or 15 rounds into a fight) I'll start playing hymn. Don't listen to others
telling you to play it from the get-go, they'll get you killed.
3) Area Effect (AE) songs are a big taunt. This includes Direct Damage (DD)
songs, but also includes debuffs like Binding, Lullaby, Chains, etc.
4) Crowd Control becomes increasingly important at higher levels. If you don't
have a competent enchanter in your group, that task will fall to you. As you
gain levels it becomes increasingly difficult to pull only one or two mobs at
a time, and your ability to solo them drops dramatically. If you pull too
many, your options are to zone, lullaby them, or pixie strike them and have
your group fight them one at a time.
I hope this helps, and the bulk of it wasn't really directed at you
personally, but all younger bards.
Crier Sharpsong - 25th (and holding) bard on fennin ro
Jason A. Farqu´┐¢
CDI at
http://www.pigging.com/
> I am finding as I am going to more and more grouped dungeon settings that
> the monsters are concentrating on me more than anyone else in the group.
> Everyone is asking if I am singing chords or dissonance (which I don't use
> for that reason) because it is so obvious the monsters have it out for me.
>
> Oh well I just tell everyone wood elves taste good. :)
>
> Toxia
> Bard 18th Circle, Prexus Server
>
>