Wow, if this is true, then basically every template I can imagine is pretty near worthless. The only thing that makes sense is bard archer (yay, more benefits for archers!
).
Let's see bard/mage - can't cast spells so in order to use one mastery skill I'm gonna throw away the 360 points I have invested in Mage/Med/Eval as well as the 120 of the points I have invested in another bard skill. F-that.
discord/tamer - can't cast healing spells on pet from a distance and anything worth fighting these days makes it near impossible to stand next to your pet and vet. None of the bard masteries seem to provide enough healing/buffs/debuffs for really tough fights so I can't see any way someone would forgo healing to in favor of a bard song.
necro/peacer - yeah, throw out the whole necro part.
bard/melee - can't take damage. Totally worthless.
bard/archer - seems like the only thing that can work. provoke/discord & archery skills. That's awesome, we need another reason to make more people be archers.
Other than archer, the only viable bard template I can think of is "stand in the corner & do nothing" bard. You can't cast spells & you can't take damage. You can't heal your pets from a distance. Problem is none of the mastery skills is powerful or useful enough (not nearly) for it to be worth ceasing spellcasting or taking damage. If I'm fighting a champ or peerless, I can get far better results by dumping mana or sending in a pet than I could from any of the bard skills.
I can imagine where a "stand in the corner & do nothing" bard could be useful. If you're hunting with a large group against one of the bosses/peerless that don't move around or can be controlled in a fixed location (Baracoon, Neira, Lord Oaks, Melisande, some others), and you're hunting with a group that's just standing around dumping mana & arrows, then a stand in the corner bard can speed things up. But seriously, who wants to play a template where they are FORCED to not cast spells and not take damage? Boy, that's fun! Instead of hitting for 150-250 points per shot on an archer I'm gonna be the guy who stands in the corner and does nothing! Yeah, that's gonna make lots of people want to jump right out and become bards.