After playing a bard as my main in Live and playing it very well (imo) it has been difficult to come back to EQ and play anything else.

My first two weeks of p99 were spent on a Druid that I was able to get to lvl 7 before becoming bored. I knew what the future would bring, and ports simply were not enough to keep me going.

Week 3 I created a enchanter. CC was the most fun part of playing my bard. However once reaching lvl 8 I started to miss the tools the bard brings to the table.

Being new and having no gear I was a bit worried about playing a bard and dealing with the 40% xp penalty. But here I am sitting at lvl 7 on the bard and loving it! I do not mind the 40% extra xp I have to earn as I am killing at a very nice rate, and I am able to get xp in every single setting. Once I get charm/slow/snare/fear the world is my oyster, and although I may need to get 40% more exp to level, I personally will enjoy the ride.

Everyone knows a good bard can offer SO much to a group, you will not notice the extra bit of xp it takes to level.

I like that with my bard, I can duo with every single class in the game using different strategies. YMMV

I agree with you. I have played different chars here and in Live and, for me, there is NOTHING as interesting as a bard. I can melee a bit, cc, buff, charm, pull... of course, here I have to keep pressing keys all the time but you know what? I like it that way! I found that melody really changed the way things were done for bards and made them more "melee with a few spells running all the time" than what they are here.

The exp penalty is a pain but I can always make up for it by aoe kiting a few mobs :)

AoE kiting is really annoying. It's not terribly hard to do, though you'll occasionally get fucked over by random shit like sneezing during your kite, but it's so dangerous and stressful that you can't do anything else. You pretty much can't even take a sip of your drink or blow your nose, it's 100% concentration for the duration of the kite. Since that time starts to really ramp up towards level 40+, that's when most people drop off. A kite takes a few minutes at level 25, but it can take 20+ minutes at 40. That's a lot of time in which you can't do anything else at all, and any distraction can kill you. It's so different from anything else in EQ because you can usually be tabbed out fully half of the time when playing most other classes. I've died while kiting from stupid shit like coughing fits, trying to scratch my forehead, fucking Windows Update needing to be postponed, anything that forces you to take your eyes off the screen for a few seconds. It also kills your wrist much more than twisting does.

So let me get this straight.

AE kiting isn't terribly hard, and yet it is dangerous and stressful, demands 100% attention for its entire duration, takes quite a while to do, involves absolutely zero margin for error, and in fact can be unsuccessful just because you need to sneeze or cough while you are trying to kite? And any failure results in the loss of all the time you put into the kite so far plus the time it takes to CR and/or get a rez?

But it isn't terribly hard?


Come on, dude. Even if you're the average american with a 4th-grade reading level. Come on. For real.


There seems to be some issue that the majority of MMO players have with words like "hard" and "skill." You guys refuse to use the words for their real meanings just because you've got some complex about admitting that anything in a video game is difficult or troublesome to accomplish, or that anything in a video game requires a significant level of training and aptitude in order to achieve.

Get over yourself, narcissist.

Using a logical fallacy instead of simply starting to use a simple word like "hard" properly is only going to reinforce my belief that I am superior to just about everyone else.

I think that it has more to do with using "difficult" instead of "complicated". AOE kiting is not complicated but it's quite difficult to do correctly. Same with classic EQ, it's not that complicated but quite difficult.

I'm sure you do feel that way, seeing as you apparently make a habit out of targeting random posts for a single word and going on a long-winded, insult-filled rant over it just to bolster your own grandiose sense of self-worth.

AoE-kiting is not complicated. You'll die now and then to random shit outside your power, but it's a very simple and straight-forward task. It certainly isn't hard; it's so simple that you'll frequently find new level 40+ bards who kited their way there in a week or two but have no idea how to play the class.

Do you want people to think it's hard so that you can proclaim yourself skilled for doing it, or is there actually no ulterior motive to your random, uninvited hostility?

lol @ this thread

I do like this statement. Similarly to monks, I see dozens of clueless twink bards---yet very few skilled, mid to high level players.

WTB more bards out grouping and learning their class, and less fail bards aoe'ing to 40+. Don't get me wrong, aoe'ing a few levels here and there is fine, but make sure you get a decent handle on the class first and max those skills!

QFT