Quote:
Originally Posted by bcbrown
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I've continued having a lot of fun on the bard. I did all of level 43 on Crystal Cavern geos, getting 1kpp in the process, by far the most lucrative camp I've done yet. I probably should have stayed for another level, but some of the geos were turning green, and I wanted to check out SolB kobolds, which I did for all of 44. That was a lot of fun, and good charm practice. It turns out that for all my questions and struggles when I was starting out, the solution was just to get good. Most of the time I was able to complete a charm fight without losing more than like 20% health, and mez, snare, fear gave good crowd control. When I had a single pull I could pretty quickly drum-dot it down. I always felt in control, even at low health.
45-48 was mostly CoM. I had an absolutely fantastic session with a warrior/shaman trio where I was chain-pulling for an hour or two at stables. Then I had an experience at Arena that kinda bummed me out. We had a weird group composition, pally/bard/cleric/wizard, and I was playing a ton of different songs, sometimes three dots, sometimes haste/slow, sometimes damage shield, sometimes manapump. The group wasn't killing very fast, though. Later, as other people joined and my wrists were tired, and we had pally/melee/mage/bard/cleric/wizard where I had swapped to cleric. The new bard mostly just pulsed mana, and it seemed a lot smoother. I don't know how much of it was the song choices and how much was the full group, but it does seem that in groups at higher levels just pulsing mana might be the best contribution, and that's real boring.
All the casters in Droga left me a little scared to try charming in there, and not sure if it would still be worthwhile now that I'm level 48. I did a little duoing with a wizard at Cobalt Scar against drakes and wyverns, and might head back there to solo a bit, interspersed with some more City of Mist. I also need to head down to Guk to get my DE mask; what level would I need to be to solo that camp? With three mobs in camp and not much room I'm not sure how I'd split it or fight them, either.
I got some gear upgrades, some meaningful and some not. I've got my 5/55 rings, which certainly help, but I don't think the Heavy Dragonhorn Boots and Crystal Chitin Armplates are very impactful. And then I got a free Pegasus cloak from someone farming Quillmane and giving away loot rights over this past long weekend. It's a lot of fun to be able to levitate everywhere now. And then I got the SS gauntlets for the worn Enduring Breath, which makes me want to go see if there's anything I can do in Kedge Keep.
Anyway, I can probably let City of Mist carry me to 50, but where should I go after that?
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Glad you got to do geos and kobolds.
I think the problem in your pally/wizard/bard/cleric group was probably not enough dps, that's a rough group composition. Could look for opportunities to pbaoe if you end up with clerics and wizards; I'm not sure about pulling a chunk of CoM at 48 though, and you'd have to be careful to get enough aggro in before they nuke.
For the bard in the latter group, if you don't get to pull/cc/haste/slow it can push you to a less interesting role; mana/regen, interrupt casters (outside of CoM anyway), backup cc, what dps you can. The busy swiss army knife vs sleepy mana song can be frustrating but sometimes it's the right change of pace too.
Someone recommended snare/fear/drum dot bloodgill goblins as a good camp to 51; I haven't tried it on a bard but I mean to if I take another bard through that level range. If you can get the VP key piece while you're there it would be worthwhile; bards are a good vp class, good pullers in there. I think charm soloing CoM moat is probably pretty decent while they're blue as well. Wyverns sound fun too.
I think you can probably solo the de mask already, but I'm not 100% sure.
If you are up for AEing I think TD raptors and BW should both be good next spots. This boat tracker can help if you do raptors, note it relies on user reports to keep the schedule accurate
https://discord.gg/j46cVcJH. You can pick up an OT hammer just by casting bard charm on the foreman and turning in the jade.
AE snare (at 54) is a fun bump to grouping -- can pair well with singing steel helm eyeball pulling in areas with fewer casters and where you are high enough level for your songs to land well, and cantana at 55 is a nice power bump to grouping.
I've clipped where I got xp 48-55 below. The hole had a big xp modifier at the time and I leaned on that. Also a fair bit of Raptor ae and some BW.
Code:
level 48
total grouped solo zone name
130 59 71 all zones
40 8 32 Nagafen's Lair
29 25 4 Kedge Keep
19 0 19 Dreadlands
14 14 0 The Hole
14 0 14 The City of Mist
11 11 0 The Burning Wood
1 0 1 Northern Plains of Karana
1 0 1 Southern Desert of Ro
1 1 0 Karnor's Castle
level 49
total grouped solo zone name
135 47 88 all zones
51 0 51 Dreadlands
47 47 0 The Hole
36 0 36 The Burning Wood
1 0 1 Lake of Ill Omen
level 50
total grouped solo zone name
161 161 0 all zones
161 161 0 The Hole
level 51
total grouped solo zone name
344 304 40 all zones
292 292 0 The Hole
26 12 14 The Wakening Lands
25 0 25 Nagafen's Lair
1 0 1 Neriak Third Gate
level 52
total grouped solo zone name
304 286 18 all zones
208 208 0 The Hole
49 49 0 Kedge Keep
29 29 0 Timorous Deep
8 0 8 South Kaladim
8 0 8 The Wakening Lands
2 0 2 Butcherblock Mountains
level 53
total grouped solo zone name
242 21 221 all zones
128 0 128 The Burning Wood
77 0 77 Timorous Deep
18 18 0 The Hole
7 0 7 Nagafen's Lair
4 0 4 The Wakening Lands
3 0 3 Velketor's Labyrinth
3 3 0 Plane of Hate
1 0 1 Neriak Third Gate
1 0 1 South Kaladim
level 54
total grouped solo zone name
434 188 246 all zones
209 37 172 Timorous Deep
78 78 0 Permafrost Caverns
71 69 2 The Hole
70 0 70 Nagafen's Lair
3 3 0 Trakanon's Teeth
1 0 1 South Kaladim
1 1 0 Kithicor Woods
1 0 1 Velketor's Labyrinth
level 55
total grouped solo zone name
756 696 60 all zones
278 276 2 The Hole
117 117 0 Old Sebilis
112 112 0 Howling Stones
69 52 17 Skyfire Mountains
63 39 24 Velketor's Labyrinth
36 35 1 Permafrost Caverns
35 35 0 The City of Mist
17 17 0 Great Divide
14 10 4 Trakanon's Teeth
6 0 6 South Kaladim
5 0 5 Kaesora
3 3 0 Karnor's Castle
1 0 1 Swamp Of No Hope