[Troxx]

Originally Posted by gildor [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Barding in EQ is no different than managing cooldowns on any other melee class in modern mmos [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] lots of button mashing at the right time

Exactly.

1-8 for me macros are:

/stopsong
/cast #

9 is Breath of harmony click

0 is just a simple /stopsong

To be honest, the only time I developed wrist pain or hand fatigue was prior to level 42 when i was holding my hand/wrist at awkward angles strafe running and aoe dotting things dead. For general play purposes, you're doing any standard movements and clicking a button every 3 seconds. When you compare that to playing almost ANY class on live EQ (in the modern era with dozens or a hundred or more discs, abilities, aa's and cooldowns) that is a lot fewer keystrokes per unit time.

Once you have intelligent hotkeys set up, playing a bard on p99 shouldn't give you carpal tunnel syndrome.

(2) Also because of this utility, you can duo with almost any other class - and in duo, you will gain xp faster than solo.

I disagree about the 'faster' part. All the way up to 60, after velious launched I could put down 10 mostly dark blue (some high greens) every 15 minutes for the better part of 2-3 hours before I ran out of mana and had to med up. Alternately could put down 6 dark blues and maintain mana. That's between a mob ever 80 seconds and a mob every 130 seconds right in the sweet spot of xp. To this day, I don't know of any other class that can maintain that kind of kill speed and xp over time other than necros (even then that kill speed might be pushing it). Enchanters and necros can solo harder content indoors and have a lot more options. Bards are limited to a few outdoor zones and camps that will take you all the way to 60 (and if they're camped you're out of luck).

Bards will get more xp solo than duo if they know what to do and where to do it. Duoing does open up a lot more areas, and they duo well with most all other classes.

Originally Posted by Stepper [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Bards are a lot of fun in groups when there is no enchanter, and definitely wanted in that case. When a group has an enchanter, which happens pretty frequently, you might not be in high demand, and find yourself doing sub par DPS. But you do bring awesome buffs.

If you know what to do, there's plenty a bard can be doing in the group alongside an enchanter. With quick assistance with charm breaks, this also allows the enchanter to go nuts with a hasted/charmed pet. Between group regens (both hp and mana - not a trivial contribution in and of itself), assistance with charm breaks and crowd control, pulling, and buffs - a bard brings a lot more to the table than just our crappy dps.

It really is a great class. Most bards I've grouped with on other characters are adequate and round out a group nicely. Every now and then I'll group with a really good one and it just makes all groups that much better and more efficient.