How exactly is a monk a min/max class? Niche for sure, but min/max? no. Warriors and rangers can both out dps monks on the raid scene, and both are better tanks as well. Pulling is what theyre good at, but even then, technically SK's can do it better with more health, snares and spells to help.
In seb, xping (~55), I would be in group, pulling, tanking, slowing, hasting, CCing, and mana regening at the same time. From my own perspective and the groups, not needing a dedicated tank / CC and just having a healer / DPS means you kill mobs insanely fast. To say a bard isn't wanted in a group (to the extent of necro being unwanted) is insane.
Bard gives more mana regen than an enchanter at that point, which by itself is already pretty good enough for minimal group needs.
50+ bards are exponentially better due to the variations of songs they have. Group overpulled? charm one mob = 2 CC'd, mez one, and highsun anything else to let group get out in time. One of my favorite strats is to have AE aggro (slow/snare) ready in case of overpull, and use that in conjuction with frontal melee immunity disc. Barring spell casters, this can hold off 25 mobs at once buying valuable time. The vast majority of XP mobs even at 59 are still charmable and mezzable (seb, etc).
Bards are awesome at king camp... You can trio it with a cleric and monk (given everyone is 60 and like thurg+ geared).
There are more monks because monks are easier. You would be a fool to think otherwise. Bards need to be on top of their songs and switch out / know when to apply what. They have to know how to fulfill different roles, be it tank, mana regen, puller, CC'er, etc. Monks have 1.5 panic buttons to save themselves in any situation from death, and are generally only tasked with either pulling or dps.
edit* Also, if you wanna talk min/max, bards where its at. You need bards to max out resists and ATK.
|