Quote:
Originally Posted by Ennewi
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None of its combat skills come with an asterisk when compared to other melee classes. .
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Au contraire:
Riposte: Bards Max = 75. Next lowest is Shadowknight at 175
Parry: Bards Max = 75. Next lowest is Shadowknight at 175
And of course, they do not get double attack.
Worst damage mitigation skills of all the melee combat characters, probably done to balance the class out against their powerful songs like Slow, Mez, Charm, etc.
Also, if you parse raid encounters where bards are actively DPSing with melee, and not just providing support, you notice a trend- Bards are wayyyyyy at the bottom of the DPS parses below the knights, ever so slightly above mage pets (and in some cases Mage and Necro pets out DPS bards). This is because they don't get double attack and can't use any of the cool 2 handed weapons. This improves alot when they finally get double attack AA, but they are still the worst melee DPS.
Bards are melee, but just barely. Bards primary role on raids is not to add melee DPS or tank (the two options for a melee focused character), its to provide support. In a group, while levelling: Bards primary role is also not to add melee DPS, but typically to pull and/or provide support in the form of crowd control, song buffs or mana regen. The best bards I've grouped with don't even equip a weapon most times.
To anticipate the argument: "Well monks primary role is to pull, not to DPS"
Sure - but monks are also the second (and sometimes best) melee DPS on raids or in levelling groups. They can also tank raid mobs, or tank for levelling groups.
Rangers can't tank shit at level 60 - but they have like 2x the melee DPS of bards with equivalent gear, and fall behind monks and rogues, but do way better than Knights, and are mostly on-par with warriors. Knights can't DPS for shit, but they get great tanking abilities.