EQDiva

Perhaps I have been playing too long to hold to the game as it is today. Back in the day when bards seemed different. I see names poping up out of no where. Level 65 bard lfg. At first there is a pause to try to recall this name, and alas there is no history. A little later, I hear chat about this bard, who can't do anything except mez, or pulls 5 mobs at once, and it makes me wonder where are these people coming from? Has SoE made twinking a bard and soloing/powerleveling to 60+ that easy? Why do they choose bards? A bard was /telling me for quite a while on how mad he was that they "nerfed" aoe kiting, and how he would make so much xp doing hoh, and how he quit his bard after that. My question is, how did he even get to hoh? We have gone from a good group of people, a certain roleplayer type chose the bard from birth. People who were entertainers, who were tact, who made people enjoy the group, back when bards had very little to offer besides level 32 manasong. It seems this day even on higher end guilds in Time, a bard born late luclin can level their way up, use guilds and get to the top, only to give us a worse name. Complaints of bards training, of not being able to twist and fight at the same time, of not knowing what songs stack for resists, or even what all the songs do, (had a bard ask me what nilipus's did at 65... ) what has this age come to? I have seen more and more bards turn from the good a bard can offer and seem to just go straight for loot and end game. I urge you to earn it yourself, grow through the game yourself, don't rely on others to get you there. And please don't be an immature player and use a bards ability to mess with spawns and trains and fights. If you want to be an ass, be a wizard or cleric.

Has SoE made twinking a bard and soloing/powerleveling to 60+ that easy?

Remove the word bard, and the answer is yes.

Why do they choose bards?

Bards are, or were, the flavor of the month when you could get the aa and aoe kite for stupid huge amounts of exp. First it was halfling dr00ds, then it was necros, now it's bards. For the PVP person, Bards were huge because they seemed to be the best (high resist, able to get and stay out of range, dots etc etc). Then AE kiting made bards into the class of choice for the power gamer because we could get mad phat xps. I keep hoping it'll taper off, and I think it has to an extent, but all these d00ds are now realizing that bards are still powerful and great for solo and stuff, and they are in demand for guilds because bards were such a rare class. So, you've got all the power gamers that made bards and twinked/PL'd them so they could get the stupid amounts of exp by taking advantage of something SOE did wrong, and are staying because bards really are uber, which most peeps didn't realize for the longest time. What they don't get, and don't bother learning, was that part of why bards were uber is that they aren't as easy to play as the rest of the classes, and the only reason peeps stuck with the bard was because they liked the class and thereby knew how to play it. Since bards are in demand, and on a raid all they have to do is play resists, or mana, or whatever, they've never had to learn how to twist because even a poor bard is better than no bard for the raiders.

A bard was /telling me for quite a while on how mad he was that they "nerfed" aoe kiting, and how he would make so much xp doing hoh, and how he quit his bard after that. My question is, how did he even get to hoh?

What the d00ds don't realize is that you can still AE kite if you are careful. }:)

Heh theyre just lazy. Got an alt bard, finally got Fufils. Seems far less painful than fear kiting but less fun than single charm stunts. But i can twist 4 now (yay me), tho i reckon my choice of songs isnt good yet, can mez 3 mobs ok (but not and melee yet, judgement isnt up to it). Cant swarm kite at all and ae kiting (hurts too much for my tastes). But its a matter of learning what youre doing. Doesnt matter how easy lvling is, lazy is lazy. Face it you could drop a druid 50Kpp and get lvl 50+ in a week? and have no skill whatever. Or buy the bard online. If you want to play a class its up to you to learn how. Too many ppl cant be bothered tho (face it pull mob to guards, let em beat it to 10%, charm it and walk away with it. Break charm, snare and beat the fleeing mob. Low skill, easy xp. If i wanted to do this none stop i could, but i wouldnt learn anything and would be useless at later lvls)

Id have to agree, most higher guilds on my server have only like 3 bards max... though we have 4 time flagged guilds now, but still 2 - 3 bards in a time guild isnt that many considering a guild of about 100+ players. Im only bard in my guild at 65. It's hard to find "good" bard that know what they are doing these days.. esp when high end bards quit and give their account to a friend or something that doesnt know how or doesnt wanna learn how to play a bard, its rather sad. Some people just cant seem to get it down how to play... which is cool bards arent made for everyone... but i hate it when i hear of bards that play like one or 2 songs and thats it. I 99% of the time get complimented on my playing ability as a bard :) .. i can mez, melee, twist other songs etc all at once... but it keeps me awake and its a rush $$. the other 1% of the times is when im uberly tired and can barely stay awake at keyboard and start to doze off behind the screen hehe =X. but yeah new charm roxxors and its fun swarm kiting hobs now =D... not greatest reg exp but hear its good AA... ummm.. mephits good exp and drop stuff most the time, theres a post in forum on how to get up on plateau ( it works i did it and dont have fading memories to go through the hobgob tunnel) charm a banshee or croc ... have it attack a gloom on plateau and when charm breaks it'll summon you up there.. so be prepared to get whacked a time or 2.. make sure your at least 75% health pending on hps... then kite away.. go to mephit cave.. charm one and kill off the glooms then do the cave =). bards are phat class if you know what you are doing... bottom line ;)

My guild is small -- around 40 members total - but highly capable. The mains are average level 64+. Unfortunately, I am now the only bard in the guild. I would love to have one or two more, but every bard on Luclin that I know and trust is in another guild and generally happy with the guild they're in.

I am blessed I guess. My guild has about 100 members, but we never have enough on every night to fill a raid unless its a special night (Like when we keeled RZ WOOT). Out of those 100 members, we have 5 full time bards. All are full time bards, not PLd or twinked, we all played these same characters pre kunark. There are at least 3 of us on most nights, and a couple times a week we have all 5 on. It is very nice when the raid leader has read through our portion of the guild website or takes our suggestions and places us in focused groups rather then making 10 little exp groups for the raid. Wizards LOVE it when the group is 4 wizards, a Bard and a Druid. Talk about a KS group! And we are all very cool about loot and stuff. The guild loot system is Award style, no points, so we kinda decide in bard channel who gets the special bard only stuff. We try very hard to stay close to one another as far as gear goes, since we all play about the same time, we see ourselves as equals pretty much, and try to make sure the guild gets the best barding possible. When we did KoS the second time, it was hilarious watching them decide who got the Crowned Staff of Anguish, it looked like those Gophers from the bugs bunny cartoons "Why I insist you take take it" , "No, No, you certainly deserve it, I wouldnt think of taking it", "I respect your opinion, thank you for your praise, but you contribute so much, please, take the staff".... Guild leader said "Gratz Rot on staff" and the rest of the guild called us all idiots before one of the other bards finally grabbed it (I had gotten the first one, Im not that polite lol) I do agree that seeing some no skill, pl'd or swarmkiting bard with Elemental gear does make me feel a little envious and makes me doubt that guild's recruiting process. But I am confident knowing that I provide my guild with the best barding possible. And when I do exp or LDoN with guildmembers from "Higher Teir" guilds and get praise and wows from them, I am pretty confident that those swarmkiting bards are learning the hard way what it means to be a bard. Its a game, people play it differently, i have fun playing it my way, I dont get my panties in a wad because some plays it another way

I have 75 Bards in my guild, hehe.

but your CHC is full of holes........

nice post Sapper. :) describes us to a tee !

Has SoE made twinking a bard and soloing/powerleveling to 60+ that easy? Why do they choose bards? A bard was /telling me for quite a while on how mad he was that they "nerfed" aoe kiting, and how he would make so much xp doing hoh, and how he quit his bard after that. My question is, how did he even get to hoh?

Its easy and i can explain how to get to HOH & AE there... just go play 280days, do some quests like lambent and such. A bard doing AE in hoh is a bad one for you? Tell me how you made it to HOH, with such a overgrown ego 8)