Classes: The Bard

Bards - the jack of all trades. Each level is a new song and a new way to play. Handy with a weapon and able to wear decent armor, bards can hold their own in a fight. Plus, the ability to twist two to three songs without using mana gives the bard a magical ability like no other class.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the bard? Can they solo, and if so how? How should they best contribute to the group? What is the best strategy to develop your bard? What skills and songs are the most important for you to master? What equipment should you be trying to get for your bard.

Post your strategies on how to best play and develop the bard and read, rate and comment on what others have to say.

Forum Settings
       
Reply To Thread

Kiting....is this right?Follow

Kiting....is this right?
#1 Dec 20 2006 at 2:14 PM Rating: Decent
Ok I think I understand kiting with a bard, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm just returning to EQ after a lengthy absense. I'm pretty sure my bard is around level 30.

So basically I would try to Charm a mob in a group of 2-4 or 5. Then when he is low on HP's I use an invisible spell/item to break the charm. Then use my DOT songs to finish the first mob off then charm the next and repeat untill all mobs are dead.

If there is anthing wrong there I would appreciate a heads up.

I also have a couple of questions.

Could I use my invisibility song or hide seeing as my bard is a wood elf instead of an item? I don't have a few grand for an invisibility item like mosquito boots.

Are there any lower end items that would also work just fine?

Could I set 2 melody commands for both steps? Step one Charm, Snare, Selo's Accelandro and Heal. Step two DOT 1, DOT 2, Damage Sheild, Heal.

Step 1 by adding a Snare to the mobs will I break the charm or will it have any other adverse effects? For example the mob I've charmed is slower than the rest so they still aggro on me.

Can I also melee on the Mob with the lowest HP's to finish it off quicker? Or is it a waste of time and risk I don't have to take.

What should I have equipped in my primary and secondary slots? Is a percussion instrument in primary and a weapon in my secondary the way to go?

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Kiting....is this right?
#2 Dec 24 2006 at 2:24 AM Rating: Decent
well for me 67 bard, i have found that the charm kiting usually works the best if (1) the mobs are all the same speed. if they are not, may cause problems trying to kite them. (2) I personally never use any snare on them, as this changes mob speed and tough to do. invis, break charm, i use 51 song selos, but other items will work, hide occasionally works, but you usually lose the mob to the others and hence your exp. Best stick to what you KNOW will work. Hard part with with selos is knowing how much damge they do your your charmed pet per sec, and if you can get invis off before they kill it, the closer to 0, the less, dot kiting involved. Once you charm next mob, head back and loot previous kill, easy, easy, with practice. Gained me 56-61 in 1 day in PoN doing this technique, and 8 aa's.
Kiting....is this right?
#3 Dec 26 2006 at 3:58 PM Rating: Decent
**
436 posts
A quick question, When a bard Dots doesn't the dot's effect stop working if the mob is moving?
____________________________
http://eq.magelo.com/profile/1417516
Kiting....is this right?
#4 Jan 04 2007 at 1:57 AM Rating: Decent
*
204 posts
that's only with our AE line like DDD and chords of dissonance.
Kiting....is this right?
#5 Jan 04 2007 at 3:50 AM Rating: Decent
well, i dont know what eq you guys play, but you cant kite like that, if a mob is below i think 5% health they move slow, which makes kiting more then 1 mob at a time almost impossible <since the others will catch up to if you slow down>.

i think you would have to charm another mob and taunt the add, and then finish off the first mob which is almost dead.

so , could only do 3 mobs at once this way i think.
Kiting....is this right?
#6 Jan 04 2007 at 3:53 AM Rating: Decent
also, dont run the heal song during combat when soloing, use bind wound it is faster.

If you wanted to tank. then run absorb song instead it is stronger then regen.

Also, could you detail us how you got 5 levels in one day (at that high a level), when i solo, i get like 1 orange bubble every 30 minutes or so.

Edited, Jan 4th 2007 6:53am by Direchaos

Edited, Jan 4th 2007 6:52am by Direchaos
Kiting....is this right?
#7 Jan 04 2007 at 10:48 AM Rating: Default
"well, i dont know what eq you guys play, but you cant kite like that, if a mob is below i think 5% health they move slow, which makes kiting more then 1 mob at a time almost impossible <since the others will catch up to if you slow down>."

you run in circles when you do this kiting, the mobs follow you in
circles but they are not as fast so they run in smaller cirles than you do, which means they cant hit you, the mob that is lower hp runs even slower and runs in even smaller circles, but it is still in range for your dot songs and the other mobs are still out of range to hit you.

"Also, could you detail us how you got 5 levels in one day (at that high a level), when i solo, i get like 1 orange bubble every 30 minutes or so."

well first of all going off your 1 orange bubble per 30 mins:
there are 5 orange bubbles (each representing 20% of a level) per level, so:
5 X 30 mins = 2.5 hours
2.5 X 5 = 12.5 hours
which is less than 24 hours, so using your method you could also make 5 levels in a day. however charm kiting can get this exp quite a lot quicker as the mobs die at a much quicker rate (because all thier pals are beating on it and they can do more dps than you can alone, or a full grp could do for that matter)

"also, dont run the heal song during combat when soloing, use bind wound it is faster."

despite the fact that bind wound is pretty much uselss with the new regen system (and wasent much better before that) if you were to for some reason actually use bind wound you would have to stop running, which would, when you have a good 10+ mobs chasing you be not very beneficial to your exp bar. you use regen song when your charm kiting and get hit because you can heal yourself slowly as you run, personally tho, id stock up a good supply of celestial heal potions.
Kiting....is this right?
#8 Jan 06 2007 at 7:48 PM Rating: Decent
Thanks to everyone that posted.

On my way back to the world of EQ after about a 3 or 4 year lay-off, quit a little after the Frogloks came around.

Patching now, started at 3 hours and some change now its up to 6 hours so I don't think I'll be playing untill tomorrow. Pretty psyched though.
Kiting....is this right?
#10 Apr 22 2007 at 5:57 AM Rating: Decent
20 posts
Dot songs no longer work on moving targets...correct? If so this strategy is no longer effective.
Kiting....is this right?
#11 Apr 24 2007 at 6:21 AM Rating: Decent
20 posts
Correction: Dot songs do work on a moving target. But only on the specific mob you are targeting.
Kiting....is this right?
#12 May 06 2007 at 3:41 PM Rating: Decent
***
3,362 posts
Sorry Crayg, don't mean to be rude.
But the only songs that don't work on running are they point blank area effect DoTs, as far as I know. The single target DoTs still work as normal.
Kiting....is this right?
#13 Jun 10 2007 at 2:08 AM Rating: Decent
Hi there this is my 1st post ever, b/c honestly im lazy hate typing, and cant spell worth a flip. Aslo i have never needed help with anything that i couldnt learn by reading other post or asking in game which is prolly why i like the bard so much it presents the 1st challenge to me in 2 years of play.
let me begin by saying i dont know any bards in game so no mentor at this point.
secondly im trying to learn from others post, that has been difficult as so many of them are out of date and virtually worthless in my recent 32 lvls worth of xp all H2H combat so far.
now im ready to try charm kiteing and this post looks the closest to what i wanna know so thought i would see if i can get some clarification on certain things.
Ok so i have learned ae kiteing is a joke as far as the ddd line goes there not gonna land if mob is running. 2nd keep in mind my lvl no invis song for me and if so I would have to switch to a wind instrument before i played it as that is the message i get when i try to play it without wind equpied. Ok so lets try invis pot,
woot it worked but switched target from the mob i was charming to me hehe too funny im running in a circle eh 8 mobs chasing after and seem to have slipped into state of total retardation IE forget about the tab key to toggle back to last mob now i've got 8 mobs on me and the 1 mob thats down to 10% health is in there somewhere. so i use my = key that i setup on mage back in the day when raining mobs in POT and switching targets at random and telling pet to attack while raid force of tanks keeps em at bay.
Now i have reaquired my mob and start very unskillfully trying to twist in my only non ae dot in the book at my lvl (BBB). Hmmm this prolly good time to mention this is taking place in MS. I figured its not a hot zone atm so no crowds lots of room to make mistakes as im only one in there most times and mobs are semi social in that you attack a hopper and other hoppers assist when they hit help radius, you attack stoney guys and stoneys assist but not the hoppers and vise versa so im semi safe from half the mobs in zone and not much work required pull wise due to social lvl of the mobs and ammount of new meat roaming in on a reg basis.
back to the mob at 10% i have drum equiped to keep me a safe distance from mobs as sow pot alone just isnt cutting it especially when i tried auto circling. So im twisting regen selo's and BBB. this takes a long long while hitting mob for 17 damage a tic, and im thinking hmm is this it is this what a bard can do i would have been better of to click a ds potion and fight him h2h and heres why. 1st off i learned the hard way in the middle of this mess that i cant use /melody for charm, it seems to hang up and give me a message that i cannot cast this spell on my pet ok we do it manualy but since im lacking skill
i randomly miss a song while im trying to charm or switch targets or go from 1 2 3 to 1 2 4 anyway all mechanics issues that im sure will work themselves out as i practice. i also learn invis pots gonna switch my target never noticed that before or i should say i made note of it in the past but since normaly clicking a pot for a run this was 1st instance it was actualy an issue. another huge huge factor that i did not anticipate was when charm breaks and then lands again the recharmed pets seems oblivious to the fact that all theese other mobs were beating the life outa him and chasing me. now i have a recharmed pet that isnt attacking anything this requires another switch of targets and tell pet to attack or if im lucky i will get hit by another mob and he will then assist me if not target mob send in pet retarget pet i pointed and clicked pet window with mouse for this. im sure your getting the idea at this point :p
my questions are
1 drum issue peeps posting about brass vs stringed or whatever but i cant see being able to outrun mobs without drum equiped and bbb is singing anyway am i doing that part right?
2 charm song whats proper way to use it i dont sing it charm wears off i do sing it and i get a cannot cast message? also how would you break charm at my lvl?
3 finishing off the mob 17 damage seems pretty low would amp help with this well i mean be worth the effort to twist it in?
4 any suggestions on targeting and toggling of targets maybe easier way then what i am use to doing?
5 also if Ae kite is no good anymore is charm olny other means for a bard to kill besides h2h battle?
any new relevant info would be greatly appreciated most the post i have read refer to tactics that dont work anymore due to various patches either that or im not clear on how to make em work.
Im gonna go play now and try to answer a few of theese question myself thru the old beat my head against the wall method.
Thank you much for any insight you offer :P
Kiting....is this right?
#14 Aug 01 2007 at 6:29 AM Rating: Decent
It's interesting to see so many aspiring musicians trying to kite. I'll throw in some of the things I've learned.

1) I wouldn't even try swarming until you get your 39 charm and a few dots. I'd suggest around 42 when you should have your 39 song, Fulfill's Curtailing Chant (30), Chant of Flame (38) and Chant of Disease (42). Until that time spend time doing something useful where you can learn to minimize your group/pulling skills. LDON adventures, while not the best levelling experience really helped me hone my skills that would help me become the great puller that I am.

2). When you're ready, there are a few crucial things you need. If you don't have a clicky invis, set up bandolier to switch to your wind instrument and then drums so you can go back and forth quickly. Also set up Toggle Last Mob Targetted, and Toggle nearest mob. For convenience sake, I stack my dots in the first for slots and set melody /melody 1,2,3,4. I have Selo's in 5 (I used Sow potions until I got runspeed3, but Selo's is good to have when you need distance fast), Snare in 6 (good for that last mob), Invis in 7 and Charm in 8.

3.) Aggro is very key in kiting. You want to use minimal aggro to pull because you want your pet to be pulling aggro off on you. I prefer to use proximity aggro because it makes it a whole lot easier for the mobs to aggro your pet.

4) I can't remember where I first started swarming, I think it was The Great Divide and Eastern Wastes. The following technique is the one I used on the boats because space is limited. I'd swam only the upper and lower decks at a time, one at a time and use the last mob as my pet to send to the next up or down to the last one. Usually, before I pull I target one mob for my pet to kill, then target the one I want to use as my pet.

5) Charm your pet and immediately change targets and hit attack and get the hell out of the way. Now toggle back to your pet so if charm breaks, you can recharm the same mob. Should you charm your pets target, the previously charmed mob will not aggro the pet and will constantly be chasing you. Once your pet is on the target, then run around and aggro the other mobs. Don't do any damage to them since you want as little aggro as possible. Now run back to get your pet between you and the pursuing mobs. They should stick on your pet at this time. Move as far away as possible and let them do their work. In large outdoor zones, I use the F9 key to see if mobs are still pursuing me. In smaller zones its too risky getting stuck on a wall or geometry.

6) Now back to the invis part. If you don't have an invis other than song, simply begin casting song, hit bandolier for wind and bandolier for drums and begin kiting your pet. This may take a little getting used to since it does take some timing to get the mob down a ways and break charm at the lowest possible healther without the mobs killing pet. Hide will work sometimes, but can fail. Don't take the time to recharm another pet until your past one is dead. Your old mob is still going to be chasing you anyway so as long as you can outrun the mobs, it's all just cake. Chant him down..the moment he dies switch back to your first target that you sent your charmed pet on, which should be diminished in health by now, and charm it and sent it into the fray of the mobs.

7) There is no need to autocircle when you have a pet. Turn and watch the fray.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, I'm Elfvus Questley, 75 bard on Tribunal..shoot me an email or tell and I'd be happy to help out.
Kiting....is this right?
#15 Oct 10 2007 at 9:03 AM Rating: Decent
23 posts
at level 51 try the giant in garu'kar mesa, keep out of the cave they cant be charmed. I pulled the entire outside camp today in one pull with my bard minus the one that can summon. just get the attention of the ones you want and drag them back over the hill where the snakes and spiders are roaming around plenty of kite room just keep an eye on your track for black talon if he is up keep a weather eye, hes mean and he will eat you. as for the invis portion of this post personaly i use the invis song we have and not potions, if you do the armor quest in the mesa you get a descent head piece that acts as a wind instrument not the best mods buy hey your using it for invis how uber does it need to be, this way you dont have to switch out your drum to invis
Kiting....is this right?
#16 Oct 09 2008 at 5:09 PM Rating: Decent
OK a 80 monk and 2500 aa later i came back to mess with the bard again. Reread my questions and the answers given and used a little of my own past exp on dif toons.

here what i came up with. invis pots are my prefered method of breakin charm 2.5 min bard speed ftw at appopriate lvl made life so much easier. Then there a mage trick i used to use to pull mobs thru walla n doors that i couldnt get to make yourself a hotbutton that says /pet attak A . With that you have no need to switch targets from the charmed mob :P.

I can pull entire boat (windscorn) up to top deck by the monk epic guy charm one spam my pet atk hotbutton quit running round n round once a couple mobs atk pet run any that didnt agro back toward pet then stand n watch the carnage hehe.

While your watchin you can refresh run song loot corpses whatever also i will dot a mob till about 2% then toggle npc charm another and if 1st mod doesnt die to dot new pet picks em off quick.
Kiting....is this right?
#17 Apr 07 2009 at 5:31 AM Rating: Decent
ahhhh remembering PoN hehe.

I used my invis song to break. Why spend they plat on pots when you can break for free? The reasoning is it's an instant invis, so you can get your pet at a nice low health level (nothing like getting him at 0%, but still alive)

Here is my trick for using the song: once your pet is in the swarm and taking a beating you watch his health. When he gets low (I forget the % now. 25%? maybe 30%) start casting your invis song. If your pet is taking slow damage click the invis spell gem to stop casting and click again immediately to start casting invis. Repeat as needed. This will "lower" the cast time of your invis spell below 3s by having most of the casting done before you need the spell to land. Like proactive healing.
Kiting....is this right?
#18 Sep 11 2009 at 2:53 PM Rating: Decent
We all have our ways -- here are some of mine.

(look at the bottom of this post for a quick tip list)

Ok, we all have our methods, and the real deal with a bard is finding what works best for you. So the best tip is to get a hold of as much information you possibly can, try out various methods and find out what sticks with you the best.

To the charm kiters out there, you can also use another method at a higher level to make the finishing blow easier and it's all doable while still running.
------------------------------------------------------
Charm without invisi? yes, that's also possible, most charm songs only last for a certain duration, charm the mob, wait 10 seconds and then attack, run while waiting or if you singlepulled the charmed mob, just wait before you engage. this will in most cases if you time it right break the charm without any invisi at around 10% hp or less when you get the hang of it.

How to finish off something that is chasing you, well, if you break with invisi, you can throw up a dot before you charm the mob, this will provide you with a ticking damage while you own it, but once it breaks, voila tagged. for the higher level bards you have Anglstich assonance, slows the attackspeed and deals damage over time, gotta love it, cause it lasts for --> 2 minutes <--.

Now if this is too complicated, make yourself a hotbutton, cast your snare song, and line two, pet attack, when the mob charm breaks, hit the hotbutton, snare the damaged mob, target another mob, CHARM, look for the slowpoke, target him and hit HB again, very easy and not complicated, now you tow the train around while the pet kills off the damaged mob. rince / repeat.
------------------------------------------------------
dot kiting:
for higher levels i recommend using Anglstich assonance here aswell, slow what ever you're not focusing your chants on and they will slowly go down while you single dot one.
------------------------------------------------------
speacial treats:

Charm a mob, throw up your haste song, damage shield song, and if you got a clicky ds item, buff your charmed little buddy, recharm if he breaks, he will still be buffed. THEN look for a crowd of hooligans, send in your little hellion and watch the entire gang loose hp, when the pet dies/breaks charm, recharm, or look for another mob. if you do this long enough they will all loose hp, and you can end the entire process AoE style with your Direct Damage aoe - Denon's Desperate Dirge (level 43), about 367-395 dmg, 800 mana cost. if you do it right, you will see about 4-7 yellow lines saying "you gain experience". and find yourself smiling :D
------------------------------------------------------
Duo kiting with a caster - special treat:

"all you need is a sweet lullaby" - Sleep song, mez song, snare song.

mez, snare / split what ever. Get a single pull :D

Sleep the bugger when he's close. break song when he has stopped. make sure you have a signal with your mage in advance. signal, mage nukes. you start casting your sleep song 2 seconds after he begins to cast. aka. nuke, sleep, nuke, sleep. if your mob deal damage to any of you.. then you had a resist or your doing it wrong. this is fun and easy. rince / repeat.

------------------------------------------------------

quick tips:

Fading memories AA - drop combat at expence of mana, makes your pulling, kiting and survival go up by about 500%- bard must.

Single target dotting, melee targets - pull infinite amount :D
- NOTE - if you find yourself lagging, this is NOT recommended.
Pull your train - circle around until you got em all rounded up, this is the tricky part, hold up-arrow key, press enter - let go of arrow key, you are still running forward. now tap your left / right arrow key, depending on which way you prefer to run (yes this matters), tap the key until you eventually can hold it in, run in a tight circle and the mobs chasing you. then press enter again to lock the running pattern, when you get a hold of this you can do it simultaniously. but, if you lag you're DEAD xD -- now press F9 until you have an overview look of the circle, you can target with mouse, dot as you please, focus on song and go eat dinner (don't forget to leave sow on..).

There's more... if you have your previously mentioned Denon's Desperate Dirge DDAoE - toss that a couple of times, maybe even group with a necro to feed you mana (necro version not tested, i just had an idea as i wrote this, will test it in about 40 seconds)

i hope people enjoyed my post, and yeah. happy whirlpooling!

---

Wandee -- Antonius Bayle.
Kiting....is this right?
#19 Sep 11 2009 at 2:57 PM Rating: Decent
oh forgot one :D

with the latest expansion comes tank mercs,

Get a journeyman Tier 1 tank merc, buff his butt up. go to a zone with green / lightblue con mobs.

Pull as many as you can handle. use your AE songs. they will not break cause they don't move :D swarmkiting 2009! if you got a healer friend this is very doable.

--

Wandee -- Antonius Bayle
Kiting....is this right?
#20 Jan 19 2010 at 9:54 PM Rating: Decent
Charm Kiting is Simple.. all you need is run3+ and an instant invis clickie. like "Boots of the Mosquito" to break charm. it also helps to have a good drum for your dots. and sometimes a levitate clickie, and damage sheild clickie is good too =)

charm kiting works best with social mobs, ones that assist each other in melee.

to practice...

go to nadox with run3 and charm-break clickie, and invis to the firepit.

run past several mobs, (start with 3 to get the concept, then move up to however many you can manage) dont attack or cause hate on any of these mobs other than the proximity aggro you get from running by them. get all of them running behind you, and run in circles untill they "pack" closer together. this makes it less laggy and safer because of a smaller total melee range.

once they are packed, charm one, and make it attack another in the swarm. the rest should jump onto the pet. if they do not, run around the fight and pull the remaining followers through the fight and they should join in.

you can cast a Damage sheild on your pet with the singing steel bracer to make all the mobs HP smaller, so they die faster. better xp =)

when your pet is low on health, target it, then click the invis effect, and it will break the charm, then begin your 5 DoT /melody on it untill it dies. then target your pets target (because it will have the lowest HP) and charm it, and repeat. if the swarm kills your pet before you break charm, you get no XP, so break charm at a safe percent, not too high not too low.. your dots go a long way with a decent drum (blackfeather war drum is good untill Old Man McKensies')

at later levels, charm only can be cast at a melee-range, so you must mezmerize your target, (they stop in place) and run the swarm away, then circle back and charm the mob as its mez breaks, then continue. it can be a pain in the butt, but you get used to it pretty fast.

places for good charm kiting are PoN werewolves, Nadox Firepit, Nadox undead, Riwii (if you got low lag, and a levitate clickie), Icefall glacier mammoths, loping planes worgs, and loping planes gators (use the melee orcs nearby to melee the pet gators, works very nice)

Tenorous Vocalist
Erollisi Marr
Reply To Thread

Colors Smileys Quote OriginalQuote Checked Help

 

Recent Visitors: 4 All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (4)