A Bards Thought of the Day

[Delvesh]

So I came to an odd conclusion the other day about my main character, a bard.

It started when I made a monk twink and quickly came up with a 300k wish list of stuff I would love to get it some day (which by no means do I have the plat on hand to get it today). But the thought of these up grades was exciting as they are things that will make him far more effective and fun to play some day. And these upgrades serve as goals/quests or things to work toward and put energy into achieving.

After dreaming about this wish list it finally dawned on me that I really never felt this way about items for my bard.

From a raiding stand point:
My melee will never be a tide turner
I don't have to focus to hard on resist gear because I got my songs and cap easy
I'm not going to take many hits so AC and HP are nice for some survivability but not an earth shattering focus
And I don't need mana gear

Form the solo side:
I'll do it naked with an instrument, enough said

Please don't get me wrong, upgrades help but I'd defer most to dps/tanks as they can get a bigger boost to their role in most cases.

Really the only big upgrades that I find ecxiting are instruments, clickies and my epic.

I enjoy the bard a great deal and love the value he brings to his groups but I find this lack of reliance on gear almost takes some of the fun out of it.

Just a random thought of the day. =)

[ebilsoldier]

That fashionquest though.

[Delvesh]

Give me a break. Gear is a huge part of these games. The people are cool, beating new content is fun, but making your toon more effective is a major part as well. And gear is how that is done once you have figured out the best play style.

Thing is, most bards can handle keeping 4 songs up, and know what to do when the are in the MT, cle or support group, high vs no resist fight and know the best mix to balance out any class deficiencies in the raid.

So then how do we add more value? Once we have the basic requisite gear to live through a fight, our instruments are really the only thing that can make us more effectice, its the only modifier that really improves our out put.

Every other class is a sum of its collective parts. Granted melee are impacted by weps greatly, but they still benifit as a whole from each upgrade. If I get 6 more str, 5 dex, 10ac, 10 magic more on a piece, it's really added nothing if I have a brass instrument in my hand and am playing a DS rotation.

So yes, call it what you will. But I would be far more excited to get that kinda stat buff on my monk over my bard.

[DarthMartigan]

Today I was in a Kael raid and realized this while deciding whether or not to call need on some corroded plate items. Technically were upgrades, I guess, but not really. Instruments are all we really need (and someday an epic). Super fun class to play because of this. Also, Velious outdoor zones all feel like they were made for sprinting through, naked or clothed.

[webrunner5]

Today I was in a Kael raid and realized this while deciding whether or not to call need on some corroded plate items. Technically were upgrades, I guess, but not really. Instruments are all we really need (and someday an epic). Super fun class to play because of this. Also, Velious outdoor zones all feel like they were made for sprinting through, naked or clothed.

Yeah a Bard is the ONLY Melee class that really doesn't need any gear. :cool:

[Blaiseblah]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but aren't casters kind of the same way? At least thinking of Enchanters. Like once you hit 250 cha and decent int is there much to look forward to? Kinda makes me jealous of Shamans with stuff like epic/JBB/torp to look forward to.

[Spyder73]

Bards have the coolest clickers. All the illusions are fun for me

[brecon]

For raids with that need resists, all you need is Resists and HP. For pulling, you want CHA and some AC. For grouping when you are wielding epic or the CC, you need dex.

When you're talking about melee stats, you're technically right: without double attack and on lower damage table, the relative bonus of 1str is lower in terms of total damage output. But arguably, same as with enchanters or clerics, if your group relies on a bard, the most important thing for your group is to keep him alive. He is your resists, he is your cc, he is your haste buff, he is your tash, etc. And resist gear, ac and hp gear, makes keeping him alive easier.

Being said....Bards can do some crazy stuff solo which you can't do naked with a drum.

[Kollins]

I'm sorry, but I'm a little offended. While you may spend 90% of your time on a raid twisting group buffs and you may be able to kite stuff to "solo" the class still has several roles to play that benefit from gear. If you are doing crowd control, you will get resists and you will draw aggro and you will get hit so you do need AC and HPs. We have bards who have timed solo kills at many levels and until endgame they almost always go faster with weapons and melee songs than they do with instrument enhanced songs, even if you count the HP regen downtime. I've played many roles in leveling groups, including enchanter, healer, nuker (DoTer) and even main tank using high aggro songs when I'm a little higher level than the rest of the group. If you have a melee heavy group and are using melee songs, you are best off adding your [arguably pathetic] melee to the mix. You also can't kite everything, so there are times where you must rely on your melee skills to quest or pharm and having good weapons, maybe a haste item, helps a lot!

Bards are about versatility. We can kite and do some crazy things without getting in close, but there are times where you just have to go in swinging and be able to survive a few hits.

[fishingme]

I'm sorry, but I'm a little offended. While you may spend 90% of your time on a raid twisting group buffs and you may be able to kite stuff to "solo" the class still has several roles to play that benefit from gear. If you are doing crowd control, you will get resists and you will draw aggro and you will get hit so you do need AC and HPs. We have bards who have timed solo kills at many levels and until endgame they almost always go faster with weapons and melee songs than they do with instrument enhanced songs, even if you count the HP regen downtime. I've played many roles in leveling groups, including enchanter, healer, nuker (DoTer) and even main tank using high aggro songs when I'm a little higher level than the rest of the group. If you have a melee heavy group and are using melee songs, you are best off adding your [arguably pathetic] melee to the mix. You also can't kite everything, so there are times where you must rely on your melee skills to quest or pharm and having good weapons, maybe a haste item, helps a lot!

Bards are about versatility. We can kite and do some crazy things without getting in close, but there are times where you just have to go in swinging and be able to survive a few hits.

I believe what the OP is trying to say is when you're raiding, gear that will make your character .1% more powerful just isn't going to benefit your character as much as it would benefit another class who relies on stats to further their dps. In terms of CCing, yes charisma gear is a plus, but if you don't have an enchanter around then you should really invite one to your guild. Prior to velious, I twinked out a bard with over 600k in gear and the difference between being twinked and leveling a bard with raids, and being a bard that isn't twinked with raids is just not that substantial.

Same for the enchanter class, once you're capped or hardcapped on charisma and capped on int then where do you go from there? Just being an enchanter class, you all ready can solo 90% more than any other class in the game other than shaman. The only real upgrades that make any differences are click items that you can obtain. There's just a point in a character's life where it's pointless to hunt for that BiS that will barely improve your character.

This is essentially why so many people quit or make alts once they've gotten their epic done, what else out there is game changing. I mean, how many epic mages do you see on a day to day basis that aren't really just used as coth bots? Once you get epic, your pet does serious dps and you're half of a wizard that's probably on mod rod duty anyways. Once you've capped out on a character's progression you either quit or you start an alt that you can do more on.

[Tenlaar]

I don't understand why more bards don't actively seek to tank for group content. It's tons of fun and you have a reason to get HP/resist gear! I have an incredible amount of gear to look forward to and work towards and wishlist that will help me in how I like to play, now that Velious is out.

[Kollins]

I think the OP and I are in totally different mindsets, or he's trolling. I'll bite, yea bards stink, don't roll one (server bard population IS too high anyhow.)

From a raiding stand point:
My melee will never be a tide turner
I don't have to focus to hard on resist gear because I got my songs and cap easy
I'm not going to take many hits so AC and HP are nice for some survivability but not an earth shattering focus
And I don't need mana gear
This is classic Everquest and quite frankly, most of the raid content is simply a mix of gear check and did you pass raiding 101 anyhow. If your guild is breezing through raid content, then no you won't see any benefit from gear while sitting in the healer group playing mana song, the casters won't change the tide with an extra 100 mana or hitpoints either.

Form the solo side:
I'll do it naked with an instrument, enough said
Not enough said. Maybe this needs to be clarified for the kids at home. Are you honestly saying you would Nascar for 60 (technically 59, since chords is at level 2) levels? Are you saying if you roll out on your 60 raid bard to pharm something, you get no benefit from gear?

Outside of raiding, the bard is the jack of all trades, master of none. Most of the roles they can fill have their own stats that can be improved with gear. No, the pieces aren't as big of an improvement as they would be for some other class, but they all help.

[fishingme]

Kollins, what guild literally isn't breezing through content? There's no more quality over quantity on this server. It's all just one massive blob of players. If you want to farm stuff, make a shammy or enchanter. With how game mechanics are known now, there is easier ways a bard can farm platinum.

[Destron]

Kiting bards are a dime a dozen, a good group bard is a rarity.

A highly skilled bard is the biggest catalyst to an exp group in the game. Anyone who tells you different is wrong.