Explain Bards To MeFollow

First go to eqdiva.com, and read all about bards. There's more to them than anyone can tell you bout in a single post.

But with that having been said, bards are incredibly versatile, far and away the most versatile class in the game, and by clever use of their many different talents, they can produce remarkable results.

For instance in powerleveling, a 65 bard can put almost 100pts worth of damage shields on himself, play an AE slow song to keep aggro, and round up huge numbers of low level mobs. His PLing subject then plants himself in the middle of that mass of mobs, casts a single low damage point blank AOE spell, and can get all the exp for them while the mobs beat themselves to death on the bards damage shields.

Not only can bard swarm/charm kite, and chant kite, but they can also AoE kite. By using several AoE dot songs, and rounding up dozens of mobs, each of whom will be hit by each song as it is played, a bard can literally kill dozens of mobs at once. Its dangerous and even bards that are accomplished at it will freely admit to being killed regularly, BUT!!! they can also get gargantuan amounts of exp from it. One bard reported getting 5.5 yellow bubbles of exp from one kite.

Bards really are great. I've never done any AoE kiting with mine, but I think I soloed form 32nd to 52nd level without ever getting hit by a mob, just by chant and swarm kiting. Since reaching 52nd, I've mostly been grouping, and Bards shine just as well in groups as they do solo. Need a puller in a dungeon? Bards can lull, pull and debuff the mob before it reaches your group, AND mez any adds that come along, then up your entire groups resists, haste them, and slow/snare the mob. There are other classes that can do each of these tasks better than a bard, but none can do them all, or do them all as well as a bard.


The downside is that its very hard to play a bard. They require a lot of attention. And when you ***** up you can ***** things up like noboby else. The only difference between a bard swarm kiting and a huge train is one of control. Forget to keep your Selo's up and that swarm of mobs you were so skillfully destroying a second ago is going to have you for lunch. You have to constantly be on the ball to keep up a good twist of songs. Carpal tunnel syndrome can be a real problem for those who play bards. If you want a nice relaxed evening of playing, don't choose a bard, you'll be too busy. If you like to chat a lot in group, don't choose a bard, you'll be too busy.

Lots of people don't realize what a bard can bring to their group, but when they find out, they're usually amazed. I'm still amazed by the things I read about other bards doing.

Like Death said, it's all in the versatility. If you know your songs, what they can/can't do and how to use them, you can do almost anything (except FD or gate, grrr, but we can get the OT hammer). For instance, the other night my bard dinged 53 swarm kiting rats in PoD. I saw Grimror Plaguebringer up, a level 60 non-kos quest NPC. I asked if anybody needed him and checked this site to find out some particulars on him, then promptly chant kited him down to dust. Due to the experience/kill cap, I only got 2 percent, which is just barely more then I was making per kill on the rats, and it took much longer, I was still impressed with myself that I could do it. Then I dinged 54 2-3 hours later soloing rats and flies. I'm still getting the intricacies of AoE kiting. I did well with the spirocs in TD, but can't seem to get the flies down very well. After I get them down, I'll probably move to stalkers in PoN when it's open... it's just amazing what bards can accomplish. Oh, and the most experience I've ever gotten for one kite was when I AoE kited the entire armory in Dulak. Was about 30 mobs, dead in 20 minutes, got me 2.5 yellow at level 45, but I was hurtin afterwards. Was a tight space with a lot of mobs, so took a lot of concentration to instrument twist and song twist in such a tight space.