EZ Server

I hear they boost damage...improve defense and make your group that much better...

how exactly?

I have a bard with 4.0s and NS augs and I am really not that impressed...

what songs do you play?

I mainly use them for the epic click if my healer gets lom in a long fight with massive mana drain....that it...

A lot of things that help on a bard. Tempest Blade 3 drops in T5, and adds a nice melee proc. Its not that impressive on players anymore, since the melee delay changes, but its pretty strong on pets. Chorus of the Risen drops there as well, and does a ton to regen health, mana and endo, which can be an issue for some classes. Nillipus Stampede of the Wee bumps armor class like 4500 with bard epic, and provides other defenses. HUGE help while gearing up, especially when you first break into the next tier.  Elemental A Cappella II is also T5, and bumps resists (not over cap, though, which means its about worthless) but it also absorbs spell damage, and because of the way the higher epics influence spells it absorbs enough to allow many players to eat a DT and walk away. Helps a lot later. These are the later songs. Earlier versions exist for TB, A Capella and Chorus, and are worth checking out. War March is useful for the increased attack. Harmonious Composition increases the amount of spell damage (and proc damage) a mob takes by 15%.

Lots of other songs that help, too. Take some time and check the descriptions, and try em out. Often what seems like not that big of a deal stat wise on a song ends up a ton more powerful once its used with a higher epic.

All in all IMO an enchanter is far greater utility than a bard, and if you figure what both add to a groups offenses and defenses I see the enchanter as stronger.....but nothing preventing you from running both. :D And since bards can use NS augs that alone makes them worth running.

Bard. Part of the foundation of an end game group.


On rotation (levels vary):

Tempest Blade
Nillipus Stampede
Chorus of risen
Harmonous comp

Enc. Foundation to my end game group

GoA on Monk
Timeless haste (spell speed) and thunder
Breathless IV and the other dot spell
And tashin which adds 10% to incoming dmg.
Also, hit the tank with agro increase and reast of raid with agro decrease. (In T8 I use this and tank gets agro back instantly. (I do have some ninjas too)

How many toons are you playing?

Group 1:

War
Clr
Pal
Brd
Mnk
Rog

Group 2:
Shm (swap for 3rd ber in <t8)
Dru
Enc
pal
ber
ber

my set up is this;

1. warrior
2. cleric
3. pally
4. bard
5. zerk
6. monk

group 2;

1. cleric
2. zerk
3. zerk
4. zerk
5. zerk
6. zerk

The click on the 5.0 would probably make the bard more dps than any of the other toons in either of those groups. zerkers are great at ae...but more than 2-3 is probably a waste of time. the chanter is ok as a buff + support class, but better used out of group spamming group buffs for the epic proc. Sadly, the dps bard songs are almost worthless now, but they get a slow song, resist song and resist debuff song that are all amazing.

Tempest blade IV in T8 brings them back into the game a bit, esp when in that first group I showed.

That is a lot of zerkers.

Zerkers might be OP on DPS so I might need to tweak them.

Well if they were op dps, you would not need 5 of em z (just poking fun). I think people are using them because of large pulls in t5-6-7 due to their ability to aoe. However, they do not come close to ninjastrike ix-x toons in t8 up and you do not see them in that number in end game groups. 

It is also a class you can get decent proc dmg without a strike aug, so they are cheap to have.

In the spirit of transparency. Zerkers with 7.0 and UC2 do 500k (AE) dps. Add another 500k for FS9.

I do not know what top NS classes top out at right now so I can't speak on how balanced that is.

Em what was that you said


I believe that should read "Please don't nerf my Zerks!"

and yet a bard still adds more dps to the raid than 1 zerker.

move along hunter ...nothing to see here....:o

my poor zerks are so weak i only group them out of pity!!!:)

They arent. A wiz will do solid AE dps and superior ST dps to a zerk.

Zerker was nerfed already by having people not able to pull more than 1 or 2 mobs in t8.  I wasn't using mine as they are without "tweaking"

I stated zerkers are good for t5-7... I said in my group makeup that I switch out my shaman to a zerker in tiers less than t8 IE < t8. I also have a t8 necro, second war, ranger, mag, and second bard for group 2. So adjust the zerker as need, I can swap out whenever and it will not affect me in t8 or 9 a bit. The jist of what I was saying is that I do not think they are op, they are situational.

Bottom line,

My statement reads fine, thx ;)