Quad group, would a bard work?

[MikeXG]

So some buddies and I are making a static four man. We have an Enchanter, Mage, and Necro. The last spot is for me and I am torn between Shaman and Bard. I think we will be mostly hunting in outdoor zones or safe solid camps in dungeons. Shaman is cool because of the heals and the 4th pet (i know it sucks but still 4 pets is cool) and dots which go well with this type of group. However I thought a bard buffing the 3 pets and twisting in some damage could be good too, plus I could pull, and help with downtime. I think if I went bard I would mostly use instruments and just twist while sitting next to pets/mobs and the casters on the back line.

So my questions is, thoughts on a bard in this group? or would I be shooting us in the foot without the heals?

[Cecily]

Would be a godly fear kiting group with insane mana regen. I don't think bard songs (group buffs period) hit pets, however.

[MikeXG]

Would certainly have options with fear kiting and they have some tricks up their sleeves, but if pets dont get the buffs... that is kinda a big draw back

[-Catherin-]

depends what you want to do in this group. bard is going to win hands down outside but if you are taking it into dungeons take the shaman.

[MikeXG]

What I want to do and what we will do is a whole other story. A few members of the group have a limited time to play so it is really a 5-10 hour session every few weeks. So realistically we would be lower level for a while and although the dungeon crawl is nice here and there, overland is most likely what we would end up doing.

[DarthMartigan]

Without a healer it's hard for me to imagine a bard being a good option here. You won't be able to tank most things without down time, and the dps of the pets is going to destroy what you are able to do. You also will have issues with not being able to bond with your buddies.

Bard is my favorite class by far, but in this combo I would go shaman to buff other pets and slow and heal.

[Qtip]

Roll shaman and that is a beast outdoor or indoor group.

[brecon]

Don't think about the Bard as doing any melee at all. Bards are the best in the game for agro and fear kiting, which is exactly how you optimize dps in outdoor zones. You could easily level 5-60 just aggro kiting in EK, FV, DL, BW, WW, etc. In places where you can't agro or fear kite, just root the mob and the bard is free dot dps and mana regen, and can help CC for the enchanter/necro on charm breaks. Plus the Bard is a great outdoor puller, and if you ever start trying to do Levi cloaks / Enchanter epic / Mage epic / Bard epic, you'll be thankful for a tracker with song of highsun.

The only real benefit for a shaman to this group is Slow + Sow + Malo + Patch heals. Enchanters get slows and mana regen won't be a problem in this group if you had a Bard and an Enchanter. Mages get malo. Bard has selos, but you can also buy sow pots and quest jboots. Necro can provide patch heals, and Bard has regen song. I don't see a shaman contributing much to this group, since it's almost all pets, and it is always inefficient to heal pets unless you have CH or Torpor.

[Cecily]

Title kinda bums me out because I thought this was gonna be a group of quad casters. I always wanted to see how a group of wizards and druids blasting the hell out of quads would work out.

[Kowalski]

I'd say it would be overlap on the enc and a healer/priest class would be better, especially a druid if you're gonna be outdoors mostly, maybe even an Iksar Monk with a fungi could work ;)

[MikeXG]

@Brecon That is what I was thinking it would look like. Play the Bard almost 100% as a caster. Sure I would have weapons, but I imagined it would be me sitting near the casters helping them recover. Doing my best to CC charm breaks or backing up chanter on normal CC if it got out of hand. And Dotting/debuffing the mobs. I had originally thought the bard buff songs would impact the pets, but it came to my attention it does not, however I still think there is a lot of potential. The cool thing about going shaman over bard is that, although it is kinda meh, they too get a pet. and dots. and the buffs. and the spot heals. But I think bard will ultimately bring more to the table, despite it being less conventional.

Thanks for all the replies.