Enchanter Play vs Bard Twisting

[miraculous]

I have been debating whether I want to level up a bard and the only thing holding me back it seems is the nightmares I hear about people getting carp tunnel on their wrists and their hands hurting and so forth.

They seem to be awesome in groups and solo for swarm kiting, but I am curious to know how annoying the constant clicking gets?

Are there ways to make this easier on your hands? Are they really worth all of the extra effort to play as opposed to other classes?



I have been debating back and forth on an Enchanter or a Bard. I like the idea of CC, but I also like the idea of pulling, running fast and mana regen and so forth.

I have heard that for grouping/soloing in dungeons Enchanters take the cake as they are one of the best solo classes, but they aren't as handy in raids as they are buff bots.

Bards I have heard are pretty good for groups and decent at solo outside, but not as good in dungeons. But I have heard they are superb on raids in comparison to Enchanters as they are more involved and not just buffing.

Are these claims pretty accurate? I am interested in both solo and raid play, I don't play a ton, but I really like to control the pace of a group and help them succeed better by providing great CC and a constant pace.


Any Advice or suggestions on which class to play?

[Splorf22]

Well in dungeon groups it boils down to charm. An enchanter can keep a pet permanently charmed for +80-100 dps at 50+, which is a huge win. If the enchanter isn't charming, I give a small edge to the bard (especially an epic bard), although the enchanter can still be very effective with stun/slow/dispell/buffs.

On some raids enchanters can charm to great effect (all planes). On others not so much (pretty much all dragons). Bards are really buffbotting on raids too, it's just that they can't afk because their buffs only last 15 seconds :D

As a bard, you will be pressing at minimum 1 key every 3 seconds forever while grouping. Probably much more if you are targeting, pulling, moving around etc.

Really both are fantastic classes with a lot of room for creativity and skill especially when compared with something simple like a warrior or rogue.

[Tecmos Deception]

They're both very cool classes, they just have different strengths and perks.

Bards can cast on the move (even clicky items!), move super fast, track, do some melee, provide great regen for both hp and mana, give incredible resist buffs, snare, and dabble in almost anything an enchanter can do (haste, slow, CC, fear, charm). But the trick is they can only do a few of those things at one time. If a group needs mana regen, cc, haste, slow, and pulls... while a bard CAN do all of those things, he will NOT be able to do them all at the same time.

An enchanter is better than a bard at anything the enchanter can do, basically: hastes, slows, CC, charms (especially). They've got tash and the best roots in the game and 4 PBAE stuns and a wide variety of utility spells. They lack some of the versatility of a bard (no heals and no resist buffs being the big ones), but the fact that they can do everything the class is capable of all at once makes them more powerful when you don't truly need the versatility (or resist buffs) of a bard.

Both are pretty active in planar/chardok-style raids; CC, pulls, buffs, debuffs, etc. Enchanters are c2+haste+GRM buffbots when killing gods or dragons, and bards are going to be twisting mana regen for buff groups before kills and twisting resist songs for melee/tank groups during kills.

[falkun]

I main a bard (while the two responders above main enchanters). As Loraen says, bards press buttons...a lot. Outdoors is fantastic exp, I can't solo for loot as well as an enchanter. There is not a whole lot you can do to decrease the button pressing, although I did make all my casting macros (1 click stops the current song and starts the next one, instead of the default 2 clicks).

In dungeons, I usually end up as mana regen, haste, slow, snare, puller, CCer. I personally usually try to get a shaman or enc to offload haste/slow because that gets hectic, but I can do all these tasks if its necessary.

In raids, I'm usually a resist bot on the raid bosses, but I'm active in scouting, pulling, CR and all the group tasks during the rest of the raid.

From my experience, if you want to be doing something ALL the time, play a bard. ENCs are almost as busy in groups, but for most raids their involvement drops a lot. However, nothing feels as overpowered as CCing in this game. Watching encs and/or bards lock down a messy pull for a group or raid is awe-inspiring. These two classes are so unique to Everquest they really should be experienced by all.

[seped]

Most programmable keyboards/similar devices will loop key presses, I've used that in the past to twist the same 2-3 songs if I'm not doing anything interesting but you need to take over full manual control when you want to weave something else in like a mez.

[Tecmos Deception]

Most programmable keyboards/similar devices will loop key presses, I've used that in the past to twist the same 2-3 songs if I'm not doing anything interesting but you need to take over full manual control when you want to weave something else in like a mez.

Heh.

[falkun]

Most programmable keyboards/similar devices will loop key presses, I've used that in the past to twist the same 2-3 songs if I'm not doing anything interesting but you need to take over full manual control when you want to weave something else in like a mez.

Ya, that's not something I'd admit to doing around here. While it may be difficult to enforce, its illegal use of external software/hardware and should not be advocated on these forums.

[seped]

Ya, that's not something I'd admit to doing around here. While it may be difficult to enforce, its illegal use of external software/hardware and should not be advocated on these forums.

I'll keep that in mind if I roll a bard on here :P Seems like a silly restriction but such is life, it's the only way I'd touch a bard on live until they added melody.

[seped]

Actually, I can't find anything covering G15/nostromo/etc it in the rules, the closest I saw was "Any program that provides an unintended advantage"

I guess if not suffering carpal tunnel is an unintended advantage it counts, but that seems pretty short sighted.

[Kekephee]

Playing EQ
Not tunneling your carpals

Every man dies; Not Every Man Truly Lives

[Ezrick]

Ya, that's not something I'd admit to doing around here. While it may be difficult to enforce, its illegal use of external software/hardware and should not be advocated on these forums.

I specifically remember SOE (Verant at the time) saying that the use of programmable game controllers was perfectly acceptable. The question was also specifically directed at the use of them by bards. I'd say the use of a game controller to weave songs IS Classic EQ.

I used one on live (indeed I bought one upon reading they were allowed) for my bard with no fear that it was considered cheating.

Ezzy