IMHO:

Ya know, you are exactly right. It would not unbalance the class. But ya
know what? It would be almost totally useless. Worse than the "useless"
songs we got now. Time and again I have mentioned that when you reach level
30ish and most of your playing is with a group and most groups at this level
have clerics, it does not much matter where you are binded!!!!!!!!!

First off, dying really is miserable above 30. Die one time and you lost a
good 2 or 3 hours of work to get the xp back. You can lose one quarter of a
bub of xp in a single death. So, you get smart and you dont die as much.
When you do, your cleric will rez (ressurrect) you. He targets your corpse,
asks you if you are ready so he knows you are not zoning or running around
(you should be re-memming your songs), casts the spell on you and you get a
yes / no dialog box, you click yes and get Loading, Please Wait...

(BTW - this usually happens after a 20 or 30 min CR <corpse retrieval>
session as the others in your group who survived - the clerics bind nearby
and gate before they die if possible - go back in and drag the corpses to a
safe place to rez. And 20 or 30 min is for like mid 30's - mid 40's and up
their CR's take much longer if its a bad death - or so I am told. So where
you are binded makes little difference - you can run back and even be in the
zone before they get you dragged out to a safe rez spot. And then they will
rez you even if you are right there in an attempt to get some of your xp
back.)

Then you appear next to your corpse with the "rez effect" (str, sta, health
drained and 0 mana). You loot and get your stuff and hang out while the rez
effect wears off. It does not matter where you are binded.

If you have a good group at these levels, you have someone who can teleport
and thus someone who can bind. So, at the end of the action, he generally
gates people to where they need to go and slaps a bind on you if you want
one.

Granted, if you are a solo monkey and think that 3am middle of the week is a
good time to explre the Kerran Isle cuz you have never been there in in 44
levels or you heard from your level 42 ranger pal that the Mino Hero spawns
at 2:56 am Eastern time if you give the gnome guard some muffins and really
wish you had a bind inside Kaladim cus you are gonna make some Tumpy Tonics
there - them ya a bind song would be nice.

But for the most part, it's totally useless at the "high" levels. Even at
the "mid" levels, and even at most times of day, you can get binds in
"popular" places pretty easily. Where bind would be usefull is for bards
who do alot of travelling at lower levels - like 8 to 18 (getting self-bind
at 16 to 18 with a full mana burn and group bind - everyone in group at one
shot with a full mana burn would be a value to the bard class.)

By my 20's, if there's a binder in zone, I can usually use normal say's and
have a nice conversation that leads to a bind. If the guy's a high lev,
there usually no need to pay him. If the guy's a lo lev who just got his
bind power and is still happy to show it off, I usually over tip him. If
the guy wants to be paid up front, I don't even let him bind me and usually
ask how much he thinks I should charge to taunt the next mob off him when he
needs some help.

Arrgh - i hate these threads on bards getting bind!

Bard DO NOT _need_ binding power (any more than any other class that does
not have it.) They especially do not need it at higher levels where it is
superfulious for several reasons (rez, group gaters, groups with 2 or 3
binders, many friends.)

Sylly - the bard!

Kitasi wrote:

I still greatly doubt that a high level binding
song would be unbalancing.