Hardest Class for a New Player

[Toomuch]

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

He's already chosen Bard, but if that doesn't work out, what's your recommendation?

Bard will work out. That's my honest recommendation.

There are many ways a bard can solo, and they also offer a heck of a lot to a group. They really are an extremely versatile class, which is why I'm maining one now. Here's a short list of some ways for him to learn how to level:

1. The simple solo "Tank n' Spank". Have him learn to twist 4 of the most effective songs while tanking and fighting mobs. I'd suggest twisting Hymn of Restoration, Selo's Consonant Chain, one of the haste songs (self or party, depending), and then fill in the blank with maybe a dot song or something. Just be careful with AE dot songs pulling adds. If he's got banded+ gear and a decent weapon or 2, he can do this very simple method of solo exping for quite some time, or even possibly tanking in groups.

2. Fear Kiting (level 26+). Have him learn to twist Selo's Consonant Chain, Angstlich's Appalling Screech, one of the haste songs, and either heal or dot song, depending on need. *Advanced method: have him make a hotkey that does both Angstlich's Appalling Screech and Instill Doubt, just in case he'd get a resist.

3. Chant Kiting. A very non-glamorous way of leveling, you can simply equip drums and run away while dotting a single mob with Fufil's Curtailing Chant (level 30), Tuyen's Chant of Flame (38), and Tuyen's Chant of Frost (level 46).

4. AoE Kiting (also known as "swarm" kiting on P99, but true swarm kiting was different on Live). This is a bit advanced, but if you go digging on Youtube, you can find some tutorials on how to do this. Essentially, you grab a train of mobs that all run the same speed, then kill them all at once by playing Point Blank AoE dot songs while strafe-running in a circle just barely outside of the mobs' melee range, but inside the range of the dot song. Again, this is more advanced, and you WILL die learning how to do this, but it is literally the best solo exp I know of in the game. I got 120% (yes, 1.2 levels) in a single pull in Firiona Vie one time.

5. Charm kiting. I'm definitely not an expert on this, I just haven't done my research or tried it much yet. It can be good exp in areas where mobs aren't all that resistant, but do a lot of damage really fast, simply because they'll be doing that damage to each other really fast.

There can also be many different combinations of these things, like charm kiting 2 evenly matched mobs until they are low, then chanting them the rest of the way down to finish them off, etc.

However, if bard just seems super overwhelming, I'd recommend going druid. They can heal, they can port, they can dot, they can nuke, they can quad kite, and eventually once he's high level, he can easily power-level any alt of yours [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.].

[Spyder73]

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[dookieshed]

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

Bard will work out. That's my honest recommendation.

Thanks again!

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

Ur name is funny OP

Ayyyyy lmao

[Triiz]

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

5. Charm kiting. I'm definitely not an expert on this, I just haven't done my research or tried it much yet. It can be good exp in areas where mobs aren't all that resistant, but do a lot of damage really fast, simply because they'll be doing that damage to each other really fast.

There can also be many different combinations of these things, like charm kiting 2 evenly matched mobs until they are low, then chanting them the rest of the way down to finish them off, etc.

In my experience, a charm kiting bard should be keeping both mobs perpetually DOT'd and alternating which mob they are charming since bard charm "resets" aggro.

Start with mob #1, Chant dot Mob #1 with all 3 chants, Charm Mob #1, send Mob #1 to fight Mob #2
Start Chant DOTing Mob #2 with all 3 chants
when charm breaks, charm Mob #2 and send it on Mob #1, and then start re-Chanting mob #1, recharm mob #1 when charm breaks, repeat.

This will make bard charm killing close to twice as fast and uses a lot less mana since your total number of charms per fight will be a lot less. Jboots/Sow Pots make it a lot easier so you don't have to keep selo's up, but it's doable without. Obviously works best 46+ when bard has all 3 Chants available to them.