Bards are often a misunderstood class and to make matters worse most people are horrific at playing them. To get the most out of the class you must be very active and constantly adapting to the needs of the group which, without melody, often requires pushing buttons repetitively to "twist" songs or, in other words, have multiple songs running at once.
Lull, mezz, clarity, regen, haste, slow, some melee, SoW on meth, Snare on heroin, buff resists through the roof, resist debuffs, dots, fear, invis, levitate, charm, the list goes on and on. The only catch is a 3 tick duration for every song so you have to act quickly and decisively, clicking buttons quickly and adapting on the fly. Monk just pulled 3 casters who are AoEing your group? Switch to instrument and use a resist song for that element and when you get target on casters lock them down with mezz. Mezz also interrupts spells so locking mezz on a caster target prevents casting (watch aggro though).
If you like being very active, playing many roles on the fly, and people taking notice of your abilities then a bard may be for you.
Take note, however, that many people have a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to grouping with bards. I think many people feel more comfortable dealing with enchanters because they know that all enchanters will bring a longer duration haste, mezz, and clarity so there is more room for error and laziness aka less risk in compromising the group's ability to maintain high DPS and manage bad pulls. This combined with the hybrid penalty often turns people off to grouping with bards.
|