Bards are terrific at everything, except holding aggro. Their songs generate almost no threat (even snares) and stun weapon procs in the hands of a bard add no hate. Your only option for hate generation is from direct hate procs like a blade of carnage. I suppose this would pair well with a druid CH because it generates no hate... Or HoT spells from the cleric.... But not much else. You'd be better off tanking with the cleric
Hmm... I really would like to make this comp work somehow. Absolutely no tricks to get bard agro? Hmm...
You could root the mob with the druid to hold aggro, but it would be a lot of repositioning every time root breaks.
Or can try tanking with a charm pet, but I don't think Bards get charm until lvl 27. Druid and Cleric heals at the low levels will pull aggro almost every cast from the Bard. Its not until you get the 75% heal that Druids have a no hate heal. It would be difficult to level that trio IMO due to the bard hate thing. I'd probably use a Pally or SK instead, then when at a higher level you can use the Druid to PL the bard up. Might be faster/less problematic overall.
I suggest picking any good trio that has a character or two good at powerlevelling (such as a druid). It sounds like you're going to want to experiment with a number of class combinations, and being able to powerlevel yourself will get you there a lot more quickly. You can settle on a main trio later.
I think if you really want to make bard/druid/cleric work, you can. Worst-case scenario, you just find a tank friend to level with. If you're leveling solo, use cleric HoTs (near-zero hate) to heal mid-fight and regular heals to top off the bard between fights. Keep the other toons out of melee range (mobs hate players more who are in their melee range) and be careful with sitting. Buy a BoC when you can. For DPS, learn to love damage shields and bard/druid DoTs.
Oh, and when he gets the 57? Druid % heal, it has no agro, and would make the bard more tanky-viable too
I feel like I should just play ench/clr/dru to 60 and then use the druid to PL others chars until I figure what I like. I just can't seem to get myself to do it though. It sounds so boring! Played an enchanter to 60 on p99 for years, and it just sounds kinda repetitive. I might do it. However, Bard/Dru/Clr sounds like so much fun! People keep telling me that they'll have problems with threat. I could honestly probably stand War/Clr/Ench, but people say wars have problems with agro, so I don't know what to think!! lol.
WOW! That's what I'm talking about. Is that kinda a one-trick-cheese-comp kinda thing, or is this something that could work on other stuff as well? People keep telling me two things: 1) bard/clr/dru has low dps and 2) bard can't keep agro. Somehow Taelor must have figured a way around that!!
Bards honestly might have the worst threat generation in the game. If you use a warrior, you just need to let him melee and get a few procs in before you start nuking/debuffing. But he'll be tanky enough to make it work. War/Clr/Ench is the holy trinity and can make pretty much anything work. Warrior aggro is really only "bad" when compared to knights. It's a little bit of both. First of all, Taelor is beastmode. You can see some of his exploits here: https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/trophy-trios-the-three-box-challenge.7599/ but secondly, zlandi can kind of be gimped -- i know people who do it with war/dru/cler, war/cler/cler, etc. He's not nearly as hard with luclin gear and AAs as the zlandi you know from P99.
I did Zlandi with SK/clr/mage. Lots of combos work, really. He's kind of a pushover. This is why he's perma-dead, heh. @Alphawolf, play what excites you, IMO. If that's bard, then get your prance on. You can always mix it up later if you get bored.
My bard is level 38. I've been levelling him with a variation of druid, shaman, mage, cleric. Pretty sure I've settled on shaman and mage at this point. I've had no problems holding aggro with the bard, and that's despite slowing, healing and using at least one dot from the shaman, sometimes nuking as well. It helps to have some decent weapons, obviously, but with what's available for so cheap in bazaar, it really shouldn't be a problem until high levels. Do some damage before you snare or heal, twist songs so you're generating as much aggro as you can - damage shield songs stacked with druid ds is good; just don't buff with druid ds mid-fight or the aggro for that mob will be attributed to the druid, and remember if all else fails, charm wipes the hate list, and puts bard solidly atop it. Pull with charm, and when it breaks you'll have aggro plus some buffer for your other toons to slow, nuke, whatever. I always keep charm and mez memmed for emergencies. Also, don't forget the root advice above. Obviously you'll have to adjust playstyle until you're high enough level to get mez/charm, but just keep an eye on the bazaar for the best weapons you can afford. That trio can definitely be done. You'll figure out a way. If there's one thing I love about bards, it's their versatility.
It also helps if you can laugh at yourself when you keep finding new and interesting ways to get killed. I have no doubt that once PoP comes out and I get fade, there will be a new learning curve of accidentally killing my clerics/shaman.
