So, I've never played a Bard to max level and I have a question for you all. How do Bards rank in tanking at high 50's and above group and low tier raid content? I'm sure of course worse than Warrior/Paladin/SK. But after that where do they fall compared to ranger/bstlord/monk? (lets throw lvl 61 mage airpet into that mix for fun since that is what I used to tank end game group content with back on eqMac w/ cleric healing). Bards wear Plate, bards have some slow songs and parry/dodge/etc. On paper seems they can fill in, but I never remember seeing bards in this role after level 50. Im slowly gearing up to playing on this server more regular and i'd "like" to pick a couple classes ive not played yet, hence this question wonder if I can get away with bard in my "tank" role. Thanks
I would imagine their biggest issue would be holding aggro. Warrior/SK/Paladins all have taunt to "snap" aggro back to them, along with high hate generating spells.
Beaaden tanks on his bard. Maybe he'll chime in. I agree that aggro's probably the rub. I don't think even the single-target bard songs (slow/snare) generate much hate. Mainhanding a weapon with a good aggro proc might help. It'd be interesting to see what a raid-geared bard with an SoD could do.
Pretty sure bard procs generate no aggro, just like bard clickies. Because bards. They can only generate raw hate aggro from Melee or hate from their songs. The slow/snare song was pretty good at this for example.
Spaide has held pretty good agro working with my rogue/wiz as DPS. He was using charm to generate agro (would charm a mob, release, tank it, charm a new one while tanking previous one, release, rinse and repeat) Of course, bards can't do this indefinitely. In a pinch, it's not bad though in Kunark dungeons. No idea about Velious higher end dungeons.
Bards can actually grab and hold agro pretty well with one or two songs. I would rate them behind Pal/SK and ahead of Warriors for snap agro. Given enough time (staying alive) twisting 3 dots + snare/slow might hold agro on "raid" content. I duo'd Bard/Druid to ~60 with little problem holding agro for group content. The snare slow line of song was usually all I needed to keep agro off the druid who was stacking dots. That Bard pulled agro on Vindi when the MT died hit deftdance and held agro till heals started rolling, bard died eventually. I'm not sure where bards mitigation is? I assume it's the same as Knights? They can wear a shield but I rarely remember ever equipping one. With the right equipment it might work. I think maintaining long term hate would also be a problem. Grouping - yes Raids- not sure, would have to stack HP Tak
I'm with Jizmak. For example, I don't like to tank on my Monk just due to 'you try to crush XXX, but it blocks' spam. Even if the softcap was raised to 350 I'd probably still prefer not to lose 25% of my damage. Bards seem similar; the extra songs from not being bashed and being able to chain pull with overpowered pacify are more valuable than tanking.
A Bard is wasted by tanking...unless they just want to, I guess. I would imagine that snare/slow/debuff songs would be good aggro, but as was said wouldn't compare to snap from a Knight or a Ranger. I've always heard that they don't mitigate very well and generally don't tank well as a result. It's one class I've never played, so I don't know for sure.
I miss perma Pacify. Knowing the Deep would be a safe run from ent to invis bridge almost every time, so delicious.
Bards mitigate dmg pretty well actually. Holding Agro in a group setting is pretty easy, in a raid setting almost impossible lol. But yeah Agro is the thing stopping bard tanks from taking over imo
The agro part of it im not that worried about. Was more concerned how well/bad bards took hits. Would a cleric have to panic spam heal one like as if a wiz over nuked or....... We talking beastlord levels of mitigation?
Bard mitigation is actually gr8, high softcap, overcap returns close to knights. Moar inf0z here: https://www.takproject.net/forums/index.php?threads/how-does-armor-currently-work-here.4224/
I tank with my bard, but I can also FD to dump aggro with my necro. If I couldn't FD, it would be a considerable amount less practical.
I wouldn't use the word as bad as beast lord mitigation since bst tank great I've tanked everything up to full velious raid mobs and lived including ntov flurries, guardian wurms, plate cycle final dude etc I could prolly tank dain/velks
Fang also has tanked the Plate Final Dude. (he tanked the whole cycle) Ask Beaaden Not so interested in trying flurries though, but guardian wurms sound fun to try sometimes.
