What makes a "good" bard?

K

Koeril

Dalayan Beginner
I've only just started playing here, but I've decided to make a bard and I love grouping. It is also always my desire to make the best out of myself, my character, and my class. There are plenty of sources about how to kite and solo as a bard, but I find that there is very few about bard grouping.

However, I came across this thread (http://forum.shardsofdalaya.com/showthread.php?t=17827) where a few people said that they look forward most to having a "good" bard in a group or desire most to find one and so would like to ask ... what exactly differentiates between a good bard and a bad one?

Knowing your songs? Having the right ones up and ready when things go wrong? What exactly?
 
SoD is a very easy game. What makes a good player is someone who knows not only what their class can do in any situation, but what other classes can do. Someone who is paying attention and not constantly afk'ing is also a plus. Quick reaction time is nice, but usually if you know the game well enough, you can anticipate things happening.

This pretty much goes for any class, and not just a bard.
 
Have best songs up for what you are doing without being asked.
Mez mobs that would increase effeciency of the group should they be mezzed.
Off tank mobs that would increase effeciency of the group should they be off tanked by yourself.
Don't afk frequently, and pay attention so that you are doing the most dps you can do rather than pausing 5 seconds on every incoming before turning on auto attack/playing your dps songs.
Like felyn said, know your class as best you can in addition to knowing everyone elses class and their abilities.

A good bard is very good for a group. When me and felyn actually played, I would threaten him should he not group with me.
 
Bards on live required a decent connection and some level of attention paid.

On SoD I've had bards afk singing clarity/mez and we didnt notice they were gone for almost an hour. Bards are dead easy here.
 
Lithan said:
Bards on live required a decent connection and some level of attention paid.

On SoD I've had bards afk singing clarity/mez and we didnt notice they were gone for almost an hour. Bards are dead easy here.
Click to expand...

I believe this anecdote
 
Every class is easy if you want to be piss poor at them :/
Koeril, as others have said, I find the most important part of playing any class well is simply to pay attention and react quickly, knowing what is the apropriate reaction for every situation will come with experience.
 
Lithan said:
Bards on live required a decent connection and some level of attention paid.

On SoD I've had bards afk singing clarity/mez and we didnt notice they were gone for almost an hour. Bards are dead easy here.
Click to expand...

Why do you compare a decent player on Live compared to an afk bot on SoD? This comparison makes no sense.
 
Lithan said:
Bards on live required a decent connection and some level of attention paid.

On SoD I've had bards afk singing clarity/mez and we didnt notice they were gone for almost an hour. Bards are dead easy here.
Click to expand...

I don't really get the comparison. You're saying bars are easy because they can go afk and play clarity?

Also, the mez part. Was he afk and mezzing? I can tell you that's impossible. You're just trying to cause trouble.
 
Bards are easy because what used to require a freaking AMAZING player on live (decent CC in a fast moving group) can be done by an afk here. And yes he was AFK. I assume he had left KLL playing (PBAoE mez).

Try that on live and the second a mob aggros you, you'll get stunned/interrupted and it falls. He had enough aggro he was getting chain healed at times (I was pulling and training mobs onto him to get them into his mez box) and the song never stopped. So either he was sitting there, doing nothing (no melee, movement whatsoever, responding to tells, etc) and just restarting songs when he got bashed, or mobs weren't stopping them. Add to that the fact that bard mez went from something that rarely could keep blues locked down to something that seems to (at mid levels anyway) lock down anything low enough level to effect (Anything <5 levels above bard if I recall) which dont get me wrong, I'd consider a GREAT change if bards still had to be conscious to get it to work, but combined with what I saw in these groups... this seems more imbalanced to me than entire plane kiting ever was... so far here bards have been VASTLY superior CC in my experience than enchanters, I'm assuming this changes at high end, but that being the case at even low/mid end is ridiculous, since CC is pretty much the chanters bread and butter.
 
A single bash at that level is all it would take to top the song so he must have been at the keys or extremely lucky. You are also correct in your assumption that it changes dramatically at higher levels.
 
Lithan said:
Bards on live required a decent connection and some level of attention paid.

On SoD I've had bards afk singing clarity/mez and we didnt notice they were gone for almost an hour. Bards are dead easy here.
Click to expand...
You compared a good bard on live with a bad bard on SoD.

Someone who plays the same songs all the time and rarely used detrimental songs is a bad bard. Someone who AFKs a lot is in general a bad player.

Mana regen and mez are the absolute worst songs to leave playing constantly. Mana regen caps in combat very low, so it's only viable to leave running in downtime. The exception being Lcea's and having another bard. AE pulsed mez caps at such a low level that its never even used once you get the higher level version.
 
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