I totally agree with John Kim on optimizing game play being a lot of the
kick for me. I also play a troll shaman in attention to my bard and I can
tell you that with each new rank there opens up literally 100's of new
permutations - finding those 2 or 3 that WORK is awesome. Its not an
exaggeration to state I spend hours testing new spells for myself before I
decide if they show potential or not (like you'd be making a mistake if you
read the shaman's guilds telling you that frenzy is worthless). Bards are
even more of a challenge since every level we introduce a new variable. As
your group matures and the mobs change you'll find that having 1, 2 even 3
backup contingencies not to be unrealistic - we've all had bad pulls that
some how we fight through and come up smelling like a rose either by
accident or by inventive tactics - I prefer the tactics part but in practice
serendipity has saved my bacon a time or two... he he.

Thankfully with bard hate being what it is, we have PLENTY of chances for
experimentation. :)