EQDiva

Before I get too far into this with specifics, I will mention that there are two basic types of bard combos. 1) Bard keyed: These are the combos where the strategies rely almost completely on the skills of the bards and the second class is mostly support. 2) Bard Supported: These are the combos where the bard is in the support role. The Second of these is obviously much easier to think of since bard's can do so many different things. In these combo's the bard is paired with another class and mostly supports an already established soloing method of that class. The first of these is less obvious and much fewer. These are where the other class looks at the way the BARD solos and figures out how to make that more efficient. That being said, here are the list of duo's I've done with a bard and some of the strategies applied. Bard and Druid These two are probably the most flexible and have the largest level range of “duoing” potential. Druids have something in common with bards; they are able to do a very wide range of things but not many of them better than anyone else. For this combo, remember one thing, druid snare is more efficient and lasts the longest in the game. Levels 1~25 (The early years): For these early levels it is very easy to do a traditional tank/healer combo. However, very quickly it becomes easy for this combo to fear kite animals with the druid fearing the animals and snaring as well. While the druid is responsible for keeping the animal feared and snared the bard self hastes and provides melee dmg. Levels 26~ (Screech them all): Fear Kiting with this pair is extremely easy from levels 26 on. With the druid and the bard both able to lull or harmonize a crowd of mobs and single pull, the bard’s fear and the druid’s snare becomes a very fast killer. Usually the bard lulls then pulls. The druid then is waiting near the point you want to path the fear kite through. The bard pulls the mob near the druid who snares it and gets agro and the bard begins to sing fear. The druid uses this agro to pull the mob into the right path and the bard’s fear should kick it right into the right fear path. Then just doing self haste and two bursts of fear for a 3 song twist, the bard can keep the mob almost indefinitely feared. This works quite well. If the pair run into trouble the bard can mez, the druid can root and they both can back up and regroup, whatever it takes. The best part is that the bard now has mana regen that the druid lacks. Levels 38~60+ (Root chant-a-rama) This method starts as early as 30 with the first bard chant, but doesn’t really get maddeningly efficient till 38 with the next chant. Starting at 38 using two chants and a decent drum a bard can chant kite really easy…however in some areas this can be dangerous and very boring. A druid livens and speeds this up a lot. As we all know a bard can pull like almost no one else, so the bard pulls a mob to camp the druid snares then roots it. The both drop dots on it and watch it decay. Once a bard has 3 or more chants this gets to be just insane. The key is the root of the druid allows the bard to stand in one place and just twist three or four chants. After a while the druid dots really pick up in damage and the high amount of hit points on higher level mobs isn’t as significant as a bard trying to solo chant-kite these same mobs. Levels 39+ (assisted swarms) This is a method much to the extreme of the bard keyed combo. The bard swarm kites as usual but doesn’t finish them off himself, the druid roots the low mob and dots him into submission after the swarm is out of agro range. This takes quite a bit of room but can be maddening how fast it goes. Another way of doing this same thing is for the druid to just add his or her dots on top of yours during the chant down portion of the swarm kite. Levels 39+ (Swapping the Hitters) Another version of this has the bard agroing a squad of “hitters” and then the druid charming a nearby animal of appropriate level to send at the squad. Normal swarm kiting methods then take over. When the animal has been dotted down at the end of his beating by the hitters the druid will now have agro of the squad so it is the bard’s turn to fetch a victim. As the druid continues to run the squad around, the bard fetches a nearby mob to charm and sick on the squad. The two just keep trading agro of the squad back and forth, the key here is to never ever touch the squad directly, just run it around and let it beat the crap out of your poor victims. Bard and Shaman: The strategies for these are almost the same as those for a druid and bard except that a shaman never gets snare, has better dots, and doesn’t have as good of animal charm spells. Levels 1~38: The shaman can slow the mobs and buff the bard allowing the normal tank/healer routine to last much longer than with the druid. Also the shaman has better dots so the root and dot routine mentioned above can be started earlier. Levels 38+ (Agro Kiting): The shaman now has a pet, the bard now has two chants and the stage is set for the simplest bard combo out there. The Bard pulls and then snares when they get near the shaman. The shaman waits a bit till the bard starts to snare/chant kite the mob in tight circles and has a good grip on agro, he then sends the pet in to assist and stacks on his own dots. This method is very straight forward, simple and compact, it can even be done in some dungeons as the snared mob moves so slow a person can out run then without buffs. Bard and Necromancer: There is really only one set of strategies that works well for this pair and that is the simple agro kite mentioned before, but it has some variations. Levels 1~22 (Necro snares it) For the levels before the bard has his own snare the necro snares for the group and the bard uses his speed song to stay out front of the mob. This period is a bit tricky for the pair as the agro can be very hard to manage. However if you can get some sow for the necro it becomes very easy, in that case you just agro kite with the necro being the agro target, and the pet and bard chasing the mad mob. Levels 23+: From then on the bard can provide the snare and probably most of the agro as well, normal agro kiting as mentioned in the shaman section applies. Just be ready to reverse agro targets at any point because necros’ dots can pull agro very well in early levels. Once the bard has a couple of chants though follow the shaman guide. Bard and Rogue I know you say to your self, “What the heck?” This actually is a fun pair and very fast, however very boring. Levels 1-29 (I wouldn’t try it) Not until the bard has a decent pair of damage songs (at least first chant and bellow) should this really tried. Once a bard can solo fear kite the rogue can assist applying damage, good communication is really important in that case however. Levels 30~55 (chant and BS) Once the Bard has 2 damage songs a good drum this method can be used. The bard pulls and chants the mob all the way to the rogue, once in range he snares and begins a two damage (dot or dd)/ one snare song twist. Once the bard has a solid hold on agro, usually about 80% health at early levels, higher at later levels, the rogue jumps in and adds his or her mad damage abilities. Notes: You will notice in this guide that you can substitute other classes for the ones mentioned, i.e. Beastlord in place of Shaman, and Mage at later levels in place of necro. Because of this I will mentioned here a couple of basic ideas for combinations with the rest of the classes. Cleric: Root and dot like the druid or tank/healer when possible. Ranger: Snare agro kite as mentioned in the rogue section but with the ranger able to do ranged damage and snare earlier than the bard. Monk: Same as rogue Warrior: Same as Rogue Beastlord: Very similar methods to the necro and shaman but neither have root and only the bard has snare after level 23. Mage: Once the bard has snare, the pet can do damage and the mage nuke as needed. Wizard: both are great soloers so the options here are similar to the druid except direct damage being applied carefully instead of dots. The wizard has an AE snare that can really help the bard out in some swarm situations and the bard and wizard can play agro ping-pong with the bard chanting and wizard nuking. Enchanters: Charm kiting in just about any version you want. Think of it as similar to the druid assisted swarms mentioned above minus the druid snares.

I'm only level 59, but I love to tank/duo with a bot cleric. That is a lot of fun and has no downtime for me. Basically, I just snare/slow, and twist haste, mana, and sometimes a dot (depending on how much I'm getting bashed or how much slow gets resisted). Beforehand, I use clicky bracer to put a small DS on me, and the cleric bot does a reverse DS on the mob and the two add up to a bit of damage. Then the cleric assists me, yaulps, and adds additional damage. I just need to refresh yaulp a few times and the fights are over. Healing-wise, if the Cleric is anywhere close to full mana, I'll toss a heal-over-time spell on myself after I've taken a little damage early in the fight (enough into the fight so that the celestial won't heal me to full though). By the time I'm ready for a C Heal, the cleric is nearly FM again. Managing mana efficiency is the real trick for the bot. Granted I don't kill super fast this way (straight 4 chants is certainly much faster), but it is fun. Charming pets with whatever mana I can regen with FT1 makes for a big leap in DPS. I love tanking, having max melee stats and it's something I never do when on guild outings, so it is very relaxing and enjoyable. Being in a small family guild, we don't "raid" really, so my equipment is reasonably attainable for any bard who takes their time. Therefore, I feel this is a workable option for people who are not "uber" and/or have no desire to be so, contrary to general sentiments toward the idea that only raid-guild bards can do cool stuff by virtue of their high stats. You can also farm a ton of stuff using this method. Using this duo, I got a lot of items from Nurga, got exp the entire time, made a lot of cash, and am now ally to Chardok (and partway through the chardok quests toward the Spirit Wracked Cords). Anyway, it takes time to do things, but it is a heck of a lot of fun, and that would be the point of the game :-) Maybe others would enjoy it as well.

I recently worked out the mechanics of this tactic and was AMAZED at how efficient it can be if done correctly. This technique requires only 1 competent bard. The first bard will be mez control and can just sit back, while the second will be damage. Bard1: Starts Mez Song Bard2: Halfway through cast of B1, Start Chant Cycle. It takes practice to get the timing right at first, but once done right, what will happen is the DoT's which are on the mob won't break the mez until they Tic. However, as soon as they break mez, the 1st bard's song instantly mezzes it again. The combined effect means you have a way of Doting far safer than Druid's Root. Also it can be done in much smaller area's since standing next to the mob will result in no injury while it is mez'd. Good luck :]

This is good stuff, I sent a copy to my buddy with the kitty warrior :D

My main is a 53 necro and my RL friend has a 54 bard - we have duoed a few times and it was awesome. Just need a little room to kite. Works like this: 1- bard pulls to camp using chant -2- necro drops snare, stacks a few dots and sends in pet -3- mob aggros necro -4- bard goes and pulls another while necro kites mob -5- when first mob is at 30ish% HP necro fears it away and lets pet and dots kill it -6- necro snares and dots the second mob, etc., etc. The important thing is not to fear early or mob will wander too far before it dies which can (a) cost you experience if your too far away when it dies and (b) bring adds. Using this technique we were able to chain pull fast in BW and always had 3 mobs going at once. One feared mob near death being killed by pet, a second being kited by necro and a third "on deck" being kited by bard. Hunting like this was safe b/c bard and necro have selos up (the long duration song) so they can easily stay out of mobs range. It was very efficient too b/c bard would always make sure to include mana/hp song in his twist whenever he is in AE song range of the necro. My necro could non-stop lich without losing HP and between lich and bard song necro had insane mana regen. There was no downtime.

Well I thought I'd add onto this. I've created and leveled my berserker up to 20. Now that I've caught up to my wife's bard, we are finding that bard and berserker are a very fun duo. More later

Another quick and (relatively) safe manner of duo'ing (especially versus summoning/casting mobs) is mez/nuke. Basically you let mez pulse on the mob, a wizzy watches and times the pulse. He can then start casting and estimate it so his nuke lands RIGHT BEFORE mez refreshes. It can also make it easier if you sing it every three seconds instead of waiting for it to refresh on its own (click sing click sing). Doing this allowed me to duo most of my epic no problem, especially drolvarg warlord part. (HE HITS HARD :cry: )

Never knew how powerful Druid and Bard duo could be till my Druid began grouping with level 51 plus bards in Plane of Innovation. I would pull with ensnare, then keep critter rooted and Bard and I would slap 4 DOTS each onto it. We were killing with almost no down time. Add any other Dot caster and we matched any group of 6 under level 60 in the zone.

My roommate is a druid and we have duo-ed on stuff at various levels since we made these characters over 3 years ago. We got through a lot of our 50s doing golems and snakes outside Ssra Temple in the Grey. Yesterday, we worked the zone line of Ferubi in GoD for awhile. Only one death in about 20 pulls and we were averaging about 3% AA per kill. Even after the death and lacking C3, we were still making XP as fast as a full group in the same area.

Some tactics my SO and I use duoing... Bard and SK: In dungeons, SK tanks and bard keeps the mob slowed. SK lifetaps as needed and bard juggles in lute for regen songs to maximize HP regen. Bard hastes and melees. Mez-heal as needed. If you want some more DPS, charm a pet if possible. A pet can also buy time if you're really getting beaten up, the SK can FD aggro on to your pet for a few rather than mezzing the mob. If things go south, both classes have a "Get Out of Death Free" card to play. Outdoors, use the above tactic, or aggro kite. Bard and Ranger: You can aggro kite if you want. If the ranger doesn't like chasing the mob all over creation, or if you're in a dungeon, have the Ranger root the mob and dot and shoot (assuming Endless Quiver here), while you chant it. Ranger also keeps mob snared for when root breaks. This is kinda boring and hurts the ranger's DPS contribution, but saves a lot of tedious running in circles. On summoning mobs, we use the melee & mez-heal tactic. We've also been getting the hang of a modified charm kite. I charm a pet, ranger pulls another mob with jolt. Sic your charmed pet on the target and slow it. While your pet tanks, the ranger shoots. Stand back and twist haste and regen with Lute to heal up the incidental damage. When charm breaks, the pet comes for you and the other mob comes for the ranger. Re-charm, then the ranger roots the target or jolts to transfer aggro back to the pet. This method lets the ranger get double bow damage unlike most other duo methods. It's a bit riskier than the other methods, but it's fast and definitely less boring. :p

I like the Cleric/Bard combo. Works well with a 57 cleric and 65 bard. Great exp in POV. Marks and heals.... then chants and dots.... great combo. I get Karn off and they all heal the bard for me!!! With marr going I have the mana to release my hammer too! Sooo many hours of fun. *sniff* wish I wasn't at work! ~Love