Is a bard wrong for me?

[Surpent]

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

IDK if bards are necessarily always going to be the puller. When I play my cleric I get a little heated if the bard is pulling instead of sitting next to me playing mana song at all times 😹 in my experience though I don’t think most groups you are going to encounter are going to be super cutthroat and will understand you are new to pulling or new to certain zones. My last couple of groups have had rogue pullers even though we had a monk in the group 😹 they were just having fun.

Until you play with a bard pulling with a ss helm while sitting in camp singing spells. I never played a bard, but they're an insane class to be grouped with the right person playing them.

[Toxigen]

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

Until you play with a bard pulling with a ss helm while sitting in camp singing spells. I never played a bard, but they're an insane class to be grouped with the right person playing them.

ding ding ding

a bard w/o eye helm isn't really a bard

[Videri]

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

Played the game on launch, never raided much at all and played a Cleric back then. Was thinking of trying a Bard since I am returning brand new on Green. Never played one, but they seem like a lot of fun. I played on live at launch but only made it to 25-30'ish I forget.

My biggest fear is being main puller. I don't know enough about the game to effectively be a puller lol I would not even know how if I had to do dungeons and lord raids would be murder since I've never raided.

So my questions are:
1) I figure I'll be soloing for most of my leveling life but at 40+ if I find groups, what will be my roll in the group?

2) For raiding what would be my role? I've heard Bards are mostly song bots on raids, is this true?

I basically want to see if playing a Bard (for me) is a mistake or not. Sure, over a long time of playing I'm sure I would learn but that's way down the road.

OP, you can totally play bard. You don't have to do all the things people in this thread are describing. You don't have to be some kind of Jimmy Neutron meganerd bard.

1) Crowd control. Level 15 mez, later replaced by level 28 mez, and level 27 charm spell. You can turn a 3- or 4- mob cluster**** into a nice chunk of exp for your group by neutralizing enemies, or even weaponizing them. And what's better than neutralizing adds? Never having adds in the first place thanks to level 8 Kelin's Lugubrious Lament. Two enemies next to each other? Lull Mob A, pull Mob B.

2) Certain raids you kite (attract mobs without getting hit, then run in a circle for many minutes while your guildmates kill stuff). Certain raids, you "bump" (use your Deftdance discipline to parry all attacks from the front). But most raids, such as Halls of Testing or Kael Arena or even Vindi, you just manasong the clerics (and necros).

If you're not up for all the fancy stuff and different methods of soloing and feats of high-APM nerd glory, that's fine, your bard is still powerful.

Be sure to set a "cycle through nearby NPCs" button. And I also like to set a "target nearest NPC" button. You can do this in Options (Alt-O) > Keys.

[Ripqozko]

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

OP, you can totally play bard. You don't have to do all the things people in this thread are describing. You don't have to be some kind of Jimmy Neutron meganerd bard.

1) Crowd control. Level 15 mez, later replaced by level 28 mez, and level 27 charm spell. You can turn a 3- or 4- mob cluster**** into a nice chunk of exp for your group by neutralizing enemies, or even weaponizing them. And what's better than neutralizing adds? Never having adds in the first place thanks to level 8 Kelin's Lugubrious Lament. Two enemies next to each other? Lull Mob A, pull Mob B.

2) Certain raids you kite (attract mobs without getting hit, then run in a circle for many minutes while your guildmates kill stuff). Certain raids, you "bump" (use your Deftdance discipline to parry all attacks from the front). But most raids, such as Halls of Testing or Kael Arena or even Vindi, you just manasong the clerics (and necros).

If you're not up for all the fancy stuff and different methods of soloing and feats of high-APM nerd glory, that's fine, your bard is still powerful.

Be sure to set a "cycle through nearby NPCs" button. And I also like to set a "target nearest NPC" button. You can do this in Options (Alt-O) > Keys.

OP you dont have to be this hardcore, you can just put cantana on your bar and AFK, you dont need 10 apm to play a bard. Certain raids only require you to sing mana and afk.

[Vivitron]

Originally Posted by Vivitronc

An interesting idea. If you drop the non-kos idea, the question becomes whether you can eyeball through any of the locked doors without catching aggro. I think you might be able to get through PD (Sky) but probably not Druushk. For Swamp, I think it would be easier to run directly from Overthere even if you could get through Xygoz.

Follow up, I did get through pd on my kos bard. Full disclosure though, the first attempt I got in a bad spot between a couple see invis roamers, aggrod, and had to train away and cycle camp. I learned how to avoid that particular aggro, but given the PITA a corpse run would be I expect to continue to prefer dial a ports.

[Morningbreath]

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

OP, you can totally play bard. You don't have to do all the things people in this thread are describing. You don't have to be some kind of Jimmy Neutron meganerd bard.

1) Crowd control. Level 15 mez, later replaced by level 28 mez, and level 27 charm spell. You can turn a 3- or 4- mob cluster**** into a nice chunk of exp for your group by neutralizing enemies, or even weaponizing them. And what's better than neutralizing adds? Never having adds in the first place thanks to level 8 Kelin's Lugubrious Lament. Two enemies next to each other? Lull Mob A, pull Mob B..

Yeah I want a bard single-pulling, snaring, mezzing, etc rather than patting themselves on the back for frantically twisting songs like a misguided tryhard.

Just relax and adapt your songs to help the group work better.

[Toxigen]

Bare minimum:

- Keep lute on.

- Keep cantana up 100%, even if pulling without eye helm (you have lots of time after a cast).

- Pull based on the strength of your group. Don't trickle single mobs slowly into a competent team and don't bring a big pack of nasties into a group that can't handle it. You should be working on the next pull as soon as there is only 1 mob left in camp, or before if you know you have some distance to cover. Have the next set of mobs coming in as they're finishing up that last mob. Flow / efficiency is what separates good pullers from bad ones.... always be managing multiple mobs but not being overwhelmed...thats the sweet spot.

- CC on pull...see above. Charm is amazing in a situation where your temporary pet can hold aggro on another mob while the group handles the roots / tank pickup / etc. You're essentially doing 2 mobs worth of DPS in that small window of getting the pull under control.

- Identify what else your group needs and twist accordingly, but not if its going to sacrifice efficiency in any of the above.

- Nivs is good. Breath of Harmony is moar gud. Singing Steel Helm is amazing and should be in your inventory by level 44 for when you ding 45.

Bards that try to melee without doing the above efficiently are terrible bards, melee really should be saved for when you get your epic which for 90%+ of bards is essentially never. I've seen maybe 4 bards in all my years be able to melee while twisting / swapping / pulling / CC / etc. It takes a true autist to do that.

Also remember: a capable necro and bard can heal most normal XP groups. Just because you don't have a cleric / shaman / druid doesn't mean you can't keep going.

[Jimjam]

Really good post, Toxigen.

[bcbrown]

How do you use the SS helm for pulling? I know it spawns an eyeball and your sight gets bound to it, but do you then face pull with it? Something draws aggro, hits it for a damage, then the eye poofs and the mob runs back to you? You can't cast lull/snare/etc based on the eye's location, can you?

[Toxigen]

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

How do you use the SS helm for pulling? I know it spawns an eyeball and your sight gets bound to it, but do you then face pull with it? Something draws aggro, hits it for a damage, then the eye poofs and the mob runs back to you? You can't cast lull/snare/etc based on the eye's location, can you?

yeah...its a little risky if you dont have dangerous spots broken up and your group is lacking enc aoe mez in places with casters...

but for normal everyday pulling, it allows you to keep twisting in group and run off with the eye and body aggro...i like to move up after eye dies and get LoS on a target and then as soon as its in range start casting and run back to the group...stuff is getting CC'd before they even arrive to your mates its great

its really nice once you have aoe snare, can just yolo pull like a madman and handle w/e comes to camp

definitely not for exploring, but when you have an established camp and know every mob spawn by heart its great

edit: bards that dont move while casting trying to juggle CC are really bad...even a little circle kite will cut down on dmg taken by a metric shit-ton

id say bards require the most situational awareness of any class to play well...by far

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1155754690 (not me but a very good bard player here on p99) - showcases you can do a LOT in tight spaces