When did playing a bard become useless?

[Dragon Slave.]

I come and go from this game in cycles, I have 2 accounts, and 14 characters. I also recall the days when my gm music, gm peace, gm provoke, gm taming, gm lore, gm magery, gm eval use to own entire dungeons. I know many changes have come and gone, but my bard today has 120 music, 120 disco, 120 peace, 120 provoke, 110 magery, 110 eval, 20 focus. And he sucks.... I fail at just about everything. The only thing I can ever count on is area peace. I thought today i'd take him to the town invasions, what a joke. Only thing I could suceed at was provoking drakes on to other drakes. I'm glad that I have 480 skill points invested, and I can't even peace a dragon anymore. I'm thinking of just dumping all the skills and making a different character class. Bards got hit to hard by the nerf stick.

 

[Salty Pete]

I come and go from this game in cycles, I have 2 accounts, and 14 characters. I also recall the days when my gm music, gm peace, gm provoke, gm taming, gm lore, gm magery, gm eval use to own entire dungeons. I know many changes have come and gone, but my bard today has 120 music, 120 disco, 120 peace, 120 provoke, 110 magery, 110 eval, 20 focus. And he sucks.... I fail at just about everything. The only thing I can ever count on is area peace. I thought today i'd take him to the town invasions, what a joke. Only thing I could suceed at was provoking drakes on to other drakes. I'm glad that I have 480 skill points invested, and I can't even peace a dragon anymore. I'm thinking of just dumping all the skills and making a different character class. Bards got hit to hard by the nerf stick.

You are using slayer instruments, right?

 

[phantus]

Bards are some of the most powerful skillsets in the game. When played right they can do amazing things. You are obviously doing something wrong.

 

[Cazzador]

Bards By themselves got Nerfed Hard. Now bards with other skills on their templates are diferent. But I think he's talking about a pure straight Bard. Those at moment blow. I use mine just for Bank sitting. That's about what they are good for right now.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

FP/FPR that is what bards need. LOL faster playing and playing recovery mages have it why not bards?

 

[EDA_GL]

I come and go from this game in cycles, I have 2 accounts, and 14 characters. I also recall the days when my gm music, gm peace, gm provoke, gm taming, gm lore, gm magery, gm eval use to own entire dungeons. I know many changes have come and gone, but my bard today has 120 music, 120 disco, 120 peace, 120 provoke, 110 magery, 110 eval, 20 focus. And he sucks.... I fail at just about everything. The only thing I can ever count on is area peace. I thought today i'd take him to the town invasions, what a joke. Only thing I could suceed at was provoking drakes on to other drakes. I'm glad that I have 480 skill points invested, and I can't even peace a dragon anymore. I'm thinking of just dumping all the skills and making a different character class. Bards got hit to hard by the nerf stick.

Have you thought about dumping just peacemaking off? I have a character build that can completely solo doom, including the DF (along with harrowers, if in the correct dungen).....If you would like more information please feel free to PM me.

 

[Spree]

My disco tamer can kill all most any thing.

 

[sapphirediablo11]

My disco tamer can kill all most any thing.

That a challenge??? my ninja herder will take you on!!!

 

[UOKaiser]

Yea a pure bard dont have the stomach anymore well pretty much nothing pure has any power anymore because of all the nerf done to skills over the years. So now you have no choice but to mix skills. Also the big nerf done on everyone when they scale the difficulty of monsters up and not only nerf skills but also made you require power scrolls to fight the same monsters you used to be able to take on at gm essentialy removing 7 skills and forcing you to choose only 6. Really sucks but hey what can you do.

 

[phantus]

There is absolutely no reason for the template he described to be useless in any way. I can destroy 3/4 of any spawn or monster with that template with ease.

Discord + provo can kill damn near anything. Discord the target you want to kill then provo onto it. Use slayers if you have them. Nothing wrong with bards. If they are given any more power they will be too powerful. Don't provoke 2 monsters onto themselves and expect that strategy to work anymore. It doesn't. It was too easy when it did.

I just don't understand where people are getting this weak bard crap. Tell me what shard you are on and I'll show you the power of a good bard.(asuming I have one there...hahaha)

 

[sapphirediablo11]

Yea a pure bard dont have the stomach anymore well pretty much nothing pure has any power anymore because of all the nerf done to skills over the years. So now you have no choice but to mix skills. Also the big nerf done on everyone when they scale the difficulty of monsters up and not only nerf skills but also made you require power scrolls to fight the same monsters you used to be able to take on at gm essentialy removing 7 skills and forcing you to choose only 6. Really sucks but hey what can you do.

ummm pure mage much??? but yeah... :\ :/ :|

 

[Maplestone]

area peace is one of the most powerful effects in the game.

(I have to admit I've never really gotten the hang of provoke/discord though ... not my style)

 

[Canucklehead73]

Well I don't know what your doing Dragon Slave, but if your saying your only able to provoke drakes and cannot even peace a dragon you must not be at 120 skills across the board... Did you mean Greater Dragon?

But anyways, any end level PvM critter or "boss" have been made to be basically impossible to bard with any sort of regularity, bards can discord the "boss" (sometimes only after many many attempts) and that will make peacing the "boss" easier but never "every" time.

While I believe you exagerate your plight, I do agree that having 480 skill points invested in 4x 120 (Legendary) Skills, a template should be fairly powerful for PvM. So yeah it sucks to fail over and over at peacing when you have so much skill invested.

Personaly I have specialized to a point... To free up skill points for better skills.

My provoker has no peace. Works great for doom...

My melee bard has no provoke since he bashs all his victims.

 

[Lord GOD(GOD)]

Pure bard template (480 pts) has always been fairly pointless imo, with prov and peace basically being opposite effects. The delay is too long for it to be worth having 480 pts of your template on it.

Up until this invasion I would have agreed with you, pretty much everything added since AoS in the way of worthwile content was non provokeable.

However this invasion is awesome for my bard (120 mage/med/resist/music/disc/prov), he far out damages my tamer with any pet combination (even my chiv dexxer tamers).

For example, on Atlantic Brit invasion has just finished. I go in look for mage generals (I'm after a max mod mage book), discord it. Then Provoke it on ancient wyrms/dragons/drakes/greater dragons the ancients and greaters do like 150+ melee per second with breaths at over half hp doing 170-180. The generals get wrecked in minutes. Similar story in moonglow the fallen warrios doing 100+ per second each.

The chances are still really low (as always) but I'm just happy they finally included bards in an event.

 

[Redxpanda]

When did playing a bard become useless?

Ever since they nerfed provocation it went straight downhill and that was a long time ago.

 

[Arch Magus]

It's obvious OP cannot play his class.


Some of the most powerful pvm solo'ers I have ever seen have been bards.

Cry less, learn more.

 

[phantus]

Ever since they nerfed provocation it went straight downhill and that was a long time ago.

/faceplant

I have a bard with the following skills:

120 Music
120 Provo
120 Disco
80 Stealth
100 Hiding
110 Magery
What's is left over I put in med or spellweaving depending on the shard.

With this character I can kill champ spawns boss'(not harry). I can kill greater dragons(not exactly easy.) Honestly the only thing I can't kill is a peerless solo. I can kill DF's with this temp but it takes too long. Disco & provo is a very very very(ad nauseum) combination. I destroy spawn like a machine. In a group I keep people alive and progress the killing process by provo.

I have chest full of garbage from the invasion. Like others I go into the invasion and find general mages(using stealth), then kill them myself. Since the top 3 damagers get stuff I usually gate in a couple friends when they are down below half life. Rinse and repeat.

I use this very character to get peerless keys. All of them. By myself.

Bards are some of the most powerful templates in the game. I have no idea what you people are talking about.

 

[Arch Magus]

A Bard is the only character I've ever seen kill Rend.

 

[5% Luck]

The fact is provocation is so freaking powerful you need fails to keep it in check! If we didnt fail we wouldnt have any chalange at all.

Peace and provocation are at odd. One undoes the others job!

Ive barded since i trained it to gm through a wall a "cat" on to myself!WOOT 98!

Anyhow it waas then an still is the most powerful crowd control in game!

 

[Fink]

area peace is one of the most powerful effects in the game.

Agreed, but a Confusion Blast potion does pretty much the same thing now, so in a pinch (which is when you need area peace) you could probably just use one of those & save yourself 100-120 skill points

I have a 4xBard/T-hunter and I'm thinking of doing just that: stoning off 120 Peace & using Confusion Blast potions instead.

*edit* To the OP.. I recommend toying with the bard calculator for a while & seeing what your chances are against various types of spawn.

 

[Leeda]

I know the feeling. I spent a long time geting my bard skills up. I find the same problem. Only thing I can use is area peace to save myself from dieing. When you do, alot of people groan cause they have to retarget. Barding was one of my favorite skills. Along with lumberjack went down the tubes.

 

[Old Man of UO]

A Bard is the only character I've ever seen kill Rend.

You should visit the Labrynth more often. I've killed them with two different pets, and magery/spellweaving on another character. But it really wasn't worth the effort.

 

[Surgeries]

There is absolutely no reason for the template he described to be useless in any way. I can destroy 3/4 of any spawn or monster with that template with ease.

Discord + provo can kill damn near anything. Discord the target you want to kill then provo onto it. Use slayers if you have them. Nothing wrong with bards. If they are given any more power they will be too powerful. Don't provoke 2 monsters onto themselves and expect that strategy to work anymore. It doesn't. It was too easy when it did.

I just don't understand where people are getting this weak bard crap. Tell me what shard you are on and I'll show you the power of a good bard.(asuming I have one there...hahaha)

I know you have one on Pac...mine has 3.8 Disco to go to get to 120. Then he is done. Legendary in all Bard Skills, and 120 Magery.

He can solo the DF, and he is pure...nothing wrong with Bards, at all! Unless they are not played properly.

 

[Dragon Slave.]

Ok well I use gm made insturments. Good Slayers don't just fall of trees. Infact carps should be able to craft slayer insturments. So if all I'm doing wrong is not running around with a pack full of slayers, then I guess thats on me. Simple fact is anything high end and worth killing, takes to many attempts to suceed. Most times after the first and second attempts to provoke and or peace, if you don't suceed, then your most likely gonna die. Especially in high spawn areas. The delay between attempts is way to long, and at 120 skill accross the board, it shouldn't be taking so many attempts to suceed at something, Guess I'm Oldschool.

 

[Salty Pete]

Ok well I use gm made insturments. Good Slayers don't just fall of trees. Infact carps should be able to craft slayer insturments. So if all I'm doing wrong is not running around with a pack full of slayers, then I guess thats on me. Simple fact is anything high end and worth killing, takes to many attempts to suceed. Most times after the first and second attempts to provoke and or peace, if you don't suceed, then your most likely gonna die. Especially in high spawn areas. The delay between attempts is way to long, and at 120 skill accross the board, it shouldn't be taking so many attempts to suceed at something, Guess I'm Oldschool.

I get good slayer instruments off low level NPCs all the time. Ettins, Earth Elementals, Lizardmen.... Pretty much every thing in Despise.

 

[J0KING]

Odd that you are having trouble with a bard/mage... Mine happens to be one of my favorite characters to play (120 Mag, Med, Eval, SW, Music, Provoke)... So far every event that has occurred he has been able to waltz right through it with little effort...

Actually, after reading all of the posts... I am thinking of swapping out SW with disco...

Have Fun!!!

 

[HD2300]

A full Bard + magery + med is one of the most fun PvM templates to play. You need Meditation now because they NERFED mana regen. It is the thinking person's template.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

When did playing a bard become useless?

Pub 16 I think...??

 

[drinkbeerallday]

When did playing a bard become useless?

my bard makes me all of my gold. it is far from useless. (necro/peacer)

 

[Viper09]

Pub 16 I think...??

Mmm, yes, but no at the same time. At 60 prov. i was able to provoke any monster at all. There was no need to actually raise it any higher. In my opinion pub 16 fixed it and added in difficulty into the skill. While I did dump provocation after pub 16 (which I now wish I didn't), I believe the fix was for the better. It is very useful even now. All that is needed is slayer instruments to make it easier. I know plenty of people who kicks arse in PvM with barding and make tons of gold.