getting it straight about bards..(rant)Follow

I AM TIRED OF PEOPLE THINKING I AM A HEALER! Today I was invited to 3 groups. 2 of them ask me, "Why are you not healing us?" Im like "WTF. What makes you think Im a healer?" They reply with "you a bard you noob." Some people dont understand I am in a group to buff them and deal some hella dmg. Well my debt has gone up from 0% to 54% in a matter of minutes. I left as soon as I could. Please guys. A bard in EQ is TOTALLY different than a bard in FFXI who is pure support and not a dmg dealer..

Sorry guys..Had to get out some steam.

FFXI has left a stain on MMORPGs that will take a long time to get out. :/

I had to explain the same thing (Bard does not = Healer) to a friend today. She's getting ready to start EQ2 from FFXI and has the same misconceptions.

edit> And actually, Bards in FFXI were in high demand. They weren't the same as EQ1 bards, but they did kick *** in their own way. :)

Edited, Mon Dec 13 23:06:17 2004 by Miravelle

yes i understand. i sometimes in group with people thinking bard = healer. i needa explain that everytime

I have the opposite problem when I'm playing my Shaman. I've been in a number of groups where someone would say "wait, we need a healer." And I'd be like "Um, I'm a healer." And they'd be like "I mean we need a Cleric." Grrr. Shamans are just as good as clerics at keeping the group alive!

But I sympathize with you bards too. Bards don't seem to be getting the respect that they did in FFXI. Maybe because there aren't enough people who understand the class yet. I think that a lot times people don't appreciate the buffs that bards give to the party. A lot of meatheads will brag about how much damage they are doing without realizing that it's the bard that's making them hit harder and faster.

oh, and as far as bards getting respect...

i'm not sure what that's all about! took a h*lla good player to run a bard in eq1, no clue on that other game.

to see a killa bard twisting *4* songs *and* pulling, *and* taking my job away was quite a thing :x. but i was able to help my group out, since the bard was doing cc, in other ways, since i was never low on mana ... even though i felt completely useless :).

sad part was, i was goin stir crazy with not much to do besides nuke and stuff, so i ended up having to log to an alt after a couple of hours to save my sanity :).

bards *always* get respect from me... unless they really dont know their classes... besides... it takes a solid person to wear pink in (virtual) public!

Ha! If you group with people who expect you to be their healer as a bard because they had a main healer as a bard in FFXI, then you're already in trouble... Bard wasn't any more of a main healer in FFXI than it is in EQ2. It could heal (WHM was really the only sub that was "acceptable") but it was far from a main healer.

good to see this. I just made a bard the other day in EQ2. Originally from EQ1 I was always impressed with bards. But they never healed. So knowing this is going on will help me wonder if I or the other person is crazy.

With a good NIN tank.. a Taru bard in FFXI was more then able to be main healer...



Having never played EQ1 i really have no idea of what to expect from bards yet in this game...

Yeah EQ2 has attacted alot of new players to MMORPGs and alot of people who come from other games like FF SWG etc. I guess playing EQ before hand gives you a good advantage as you have knowledge of how the classes work factions good evil etc. plus it helps alot with the story line. You just have to be tolerable and try not to blow a fuse lol.

I know they get a power regen spell but I dont know about health yet.

To further add to the confusion, Bards in Dark Age of Camelot are healers too. Mainly a backup healer but a healer nontheless. I have a 14 bard and have not been asked to heal yet but I'm sure the day will come.

I like mine a lot. Lots of cool Combat Arts, the songs are very handy for grouping too. At 14 I already have AC/Stamina boost song, Group attack speed song, Group power regen song and a couple others. Good soloability so far too. Also nice to be able to sneak through areas that others may not be able to get to. Like sneaking down into Blackburrow for instance. I wouldn't try that without Sneak Adept 1 though.

There are some fun things you can do with the CAs too. There is one that stuns the mob for a few seconds. If you turn off auto-attack as soon as you use it, you can run past the mob to get off an attack from the rear. Mix that up with your HOs and you're dishing out some good dmg.

Finally, a lot of the better multi-person HOs are started by scouts. The only 4 person HO is a scout starter.

I really like the Bard. Its easily the most group friendly of the scout classes. Sometimes I wish I could use poisons but its a small price to pay for all the extra utility.

Edited, Wed Dec 15 15:54:43 2004 by emanonpettis