Trou or Dirge?Follow

Well....

For me, I chose to be a Troubadour. The main purpose of the bard is to provide group buffs. Now both the dirge and the troubadour can group buff; however I think the group buffs are a bit different at higher levels. Dirges are more offensive and troubadours are more defensive. Both can play group songs that haste, increase strength and agility, and regenerate power. It seems to me that the dirge and troubadour are very closely matched with abilities; But it was the offensive vs. deffensive part that made me decide to go troubadour. I may be wrong about this, very little information is out on EQ2, but I suspect that the defensive songs may give an advantage for grouping and the offensive songs may give you an advantage for soloing. Let me explain my thinking.... In EQ1, bards were able to solo because they could deal a good bit of damage and for grouping they were used for pulling and crowd control. In EQ2, it seems to me that they broke the bard up into subclasses where now you have to choose which is more important to you - grouping or soloing. Now both the dirge and the troubadour are very closely matched, but troubadour may have a slight advantage for groups and dirges may have a slight advantage for soloing. One difference that I did notice is that Troubadours get Bria's Entrancing Sonnet at lvl 21 (which is a charm song for mobs) and dirges get Lanet's Excruciating Scream Dirge at lvl 21 (which is a weakening type song for mobs). This information can be found at http://www.circonian.com/abilities_list.php and leads me to beleive that Dirges are for debuffing and weakening the mob and better for DPS and Troubadours are better at pulling and Crowd Control, but also deal DPS. So I hope this information helps you decide what you wanna be.

Sonnette,
I am about to ding level 21 with my Dirge and looked at both classes closely before I picked Dirge. Both classes are group friendly, just in a slightly different way. Dirges work by making their group deal more damage. Whether by debuff, or enhancement songs that provide haste or make your group hit harder, proc more etc. your group is more efficient at what they do. On top of that - YOU are a damage dealer and have some respectable DPS that you can throw out yourself.
Troubadors are defensive in nature and thus they make the group hardier by singing defensive type songs. As far as crowd control goes - Troubador IS NOT your EQ bard. Most of what I have read and seen is that Troubador crowd control is pretty limited at best.
Having played a bard in EQ as well as a minstrel in DAOC, the Dirge is very much like the DAOC minstrel, while the Troubador is more like the EQ bard with alot of the fun stuff taken out. I realize that this is just my opinion and there will be 100 troubadors that will tell you differently, but I believe that the Dirge is both more versatile and fun.
Now, once troubador reaches level 50 and has thier high end charm, they may rule...however there is a lot of time between level 20 and 50 and I never judge my characters on their end game, just how much fun it takes to get there. My suggestion, take the one that sounds the most fun to you. After all, thats what the game is supposed to be about.

Andante Level 20 Dirge Guk

Honestly I don't really think it is even so much a question of a bard/dirge but whether or not you wish to even play a bard in EQ2. I am currently a lvl 25 dirge. And while I enjoy my class immensly I have oft compared myself to an enchanter with knives. The damage output of the dirge and the bard class as a whole is rather disappointing.

Having said this, I am however happy with my choice. For me it is the best of both worlds...spell casting, buffing and melee. I played a high lvl enchanter and rogue in EQ1 and find this to be an excellent compromise.

i picked dirge, and have yet to regret it, and have an easier time soloing that a trab! in fact, ive met trabs in my guild who regreted there decision, they told me 2 go dirge.