phulshof wrote:
I think bards will become more popular as party targets; they'll be the clerics of the 90+ cap. With the higher HP/MP and no new pot sizes, clerics and bards will start to be needed by Chinese characters in the future as well. The bard buffs are getting to be incredible at higher levels (since they are % based), their damage is quite reasonable as well, and at the 90 cap they'll get a 16 second party wide mana recycle spell (mana orbit) and I believe sooner or later they will also get a party wide noise spell (scream; can't find the starting level anymore).
Solo grinding on my bard/cleric is actually fun. I don't have to worry about aggressive monsters attacking me, and I can grind for hours on 1 stack of pots (using recovery division and mana cycle). The spells do not cause huge damage, but they are cast very quickly, which makes damage/second quite reasonable. It feels like grinding with a splashless nuker (I try not to attract too many mobs at this level; bard does have/get some nice splash based nukes as well).
+1
I love my 7x bard/cleric. Solo grinding isn't as fast as a wizard but I never have to buy pots. In fact, I usually come back with more pots than I went out with. As long as I'm careful to not aggro too many extra mobs, with RD and bless I don't have to worry so much about giants - I become an Int tank.
I can't wait for mana orbit - healing mana in high level parties keeps me so busy that I don't get to attack as often as I want to. Those high level wizards suck their mana dry so fast, especially on party giants.
Mana Breeze is so great when PTGTs appear - I can heal everybody's mana with one skill and go back to attacking and ks'ing the last hit from the wizards.
They've got a lot more respect for casting speed of bard skills now.
My favourite thank you quote from a lv80 wizard:
"Wow, I've been out of mana pots for at least an hour and never noticed!"
That's when you know a bard is doing their job in a party.
This guide helped me a lot when I was starting out. Thanks a lot for it.
