As a bard soloing you'll find your melee fighting capabilities to be underwhelming. At a certain point mob hp will make it so you can't really go toe to toe with the mobs. You'll more often find yourself fear, charm and selos/chant kiting outdoors and that'll prove to be anywhere from 20 to 50 times less efficient than just swarming in the same zone. Indoors you'll charm rot up to a point, but you'll really shine as part of a group. You can do a little bit of everything for a group and a skilled bard will be a valuable addition to any group. If you're set on not swarming grouping will be your path to 60.
You absolutely don't have to kite if you don't want to. That being said, you should give it a try until you get your first successful kite off, just to see what bards can do. I can't say I am fond of kiting much myself, but I still wanted to do at least a few kites in each of the traditional bard kiting zones, as a rite of passage. Some zones I loved (NK, LoIO, OT) and I was there for a few levels, others not so much (EK, FV, BW) and one or two successful kites were plenty. Not to mention that swarming is to some extent practice for PLing, which will also be something you might do (either for plats or for your friends).
Ultimately what you want to do with your bard is entirely up to you, but I'd suggest trying it all, as it's part of the bard's versatility. Why deny yourself part of the experience?
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