Enchanter vs Bard

[indiscriminate_hater]

does aoe mez even work? last time i tried i failed to aoe mez a group of level 10 mobs as a level 60 bard

[thufir]

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

does aoe mez even work? last time i tried i failed to aoe mez a group of level 10 mobs as a level 60 bard

It works to the point of ridiculousness. We first noticed it in Kerra. Turns out even huge cat trains really enjoy a good song. Leveling up with my static group we'd frequently have 10+ goblins nodding their heads in Sola. (Once we had over 20, but it gets dicey with larger numbers; one bad rng will cause a lot of bashes and ruin your day.)

You get more resists later, when you're fighting mobs that are more magic resistant. But it stays useful. Best kept secret on the server imo. I don't know why the wiki claims it stops working at 25.

[brecon]

OP question was about group desirability. As several commentators have said, Bards can fulfill multiple roles, and they stack well with enchanters. Because of this, Bards are very difficult to play well. You need to really know your songs and adjust your twist based upon (1) your role, (2) the group composition, (3) the mobs you are fighting.

This leads to a second issue: there are lots of bad bards out there. Any bard that leveled up by aoe kiting is unlikely to have the full mastery over his song library. This becomes especially problematic in the 40s, when bards get a lot of songs that can be hugely useful for xp grouping, but seem somewhat similar until you play around with them.

If I was in an xp group and we had a choice between an enchanter and a bard for a sole CC slot, I'd take an enchanter. Even if the enchanter is bad and doesn't charm, he still should be able to CC small numbers while casting haste and clarity. For a bard to CC 3 mobs, he won't be able to play both mana regen and haste at the same time...

But as said before, a Bard can fill in as puller, or as a Tank (though this falls off in the 50s, similar to ranger -tanks), or as a dps, or as haste/mana pump, or as a CC. So if you get a group with a skilled bard, all you need is a healer and any 4 other classes.

[Troxx]

My biggest frustration with cc-ing on a bard was touched on above. If I'm trying to mez more than 2 targets it gets hard to keep haste/regen etc up. The one exception to this is the aoe snare song. If you have room to kite (doesn't take much room as the snare is wtfpowerful with strings equipped) you can cc 3 mobs or 30 mobs pretty effortlessly while keeping 2-3 other songs rolling. The snare cc is not for the feint of heart though. One slip up with a lot of cc-d mobs can turn ugly if they bash you at the wrong time and the snare drops.

It's powerful but kinda a zero sum thing on intentionally large pulls. If the bard dies you now have 3, 5, or 10 mobs loose in camp with no cc.

Fastest group I was ever in was 3 rogues a monk cleric and me in an otherwise empty KC. Monk just chain pulled 5-6 at a time while I kept it all locked/snared/chasing-me and the rogues mowed them down with bardly haste.

I'm pretty sure we kept both cys, captain, moat, and most of basement dead with some downtime. Only problem was when we pulled mobs that summoned. Monk had to avoid those for routine pulls and single them after the swarms were dead.

[Coridan]

I definitely still use my AoE mez in the 40s at least. Has saved my groups a couple times in SolA. It does get more oftne now than it used to, but it is still more reliable than fear, which is a missed note like 3 out of every 5 castings.