Are we the least played class?

[cyadra]

Just wondering if bards are the least played class, seems that way on server G.

[Zennestia]

Favored Soul seems to be the least played on Khyber, bard is fairly close though.
Does anyone have any statistics?

[Club'in]

My group last night was a favored soul, three bards, and myself (a pure rogue). Your mileage may vary...

[Zennestia]

In a tab on the grouping tool, I believe that you can list the number of people in a speciffic class from levels 1 to 20.
The size of the scroll bar gives some indication as to how many people in that class (including multi-class characters) are on the server.

[donfilibuster]

Perhaps they are all busy, healing and buffing somewhere, and thus not really looking up LFM ads.

[Ullysses]

See lots of bards and bard splashes on Argo, not a lot of FvS's though.

Also seem to not be a lot of Clerics or Rogues, but this could be due to my odd playing hours.

See lots of Rangers, Sorc's, and Barbs!

[Judo]

the least played, but most looked for lol

simply put, they are the single most boring class to play imho

and yes...i have one

[azrael4h]

Favored Soul costs to play. Which is why you won't see as many as Sorcerers, Wizards, or Clerics. They also likely have the same "stigma" as Clerics that come from other MMOs; that Clerics can only heal, and heal only. This makes them highly desired, and highly undesirable to play, even though a DDO Cleric is far different than 90% of MMO's Cleric/Healer classes. Compared to the rest of the free classes, Clerics are among the smallest population, though Bards are probably much smaller still.

The most requested and looked for class is the Cleric. I had to take my Cleric anonymous just to cut down the random invites. Even then, I get at least 5 a night if I spend any time in game. I've logged in and had 2 invites hit right after the initial lag died off! My Bard? Has not received an invite yet. Just one guild invite to a Drow-specific guild before I managed to get in touch with my guild's leader or any officers to bring her in.

I won't say that they're boring though. I enjoy running mine. But that's according to each player's tastes. I hate running Rogues or straight melee builds (Fighter, Barb). I prefer Druids, but end up with Clerics in DDO.

[RequiemVampie]

Bards CAN be fun to play, but it would really depend on the player and the build.

If someone has played mostly healer-type characters, they may want to try a Spellsinger for their support abilities and try to focus them on healing and such.

I, myself, have tried playing a bard and am now on my 4th attempt at one. And I like my Warchanter bard. I really only support the party with songs and buffs, not really built to heal. My first attempt was before the prestige enhancements. #2 I wanted to be a Spellsinger and I didn't like it. #3 was a drow Warchanter and he was great, till I got to Giant Hold, then I realized how gimped he was at that level. And didn't have the right gear that he should have had by that time.

Then one day I saw a build for a pure 20 halfling Warchanter, the ONLY thing I didn't like about the build was using the 1st level feat for a single martial weapon proficiency. Over-all I wasn't too interested in the capstone and thought "Why would I waste a feat to use one marital weapon when I could just take 2 levels of fighter, get ALL martial weapons and get two feats out of it".

So I love my bard. :D He's doing rather well and stays with the rest of the melee. One night my gf loaded up her cleric and wanted to run Delera's. By the time the party was full, he had 1 bard, 1 cleric, 2 favored souls, 1 wizard and 1 sorc. I could hear her from the other room saying "This looks like the squishiest party I've ever seen for this". :D So I reassured her that I had ran with the wizard and one of the FvS the night before and I could vouch for their ability to play. I was the tank and had a blast playing. :p

So I guess it really depends on the player and the build, IMO. Some people like them and can play them well, other can't. We have some kick-ass bards over here on Khyber. :cool:

[Humperdink]

One of my favorite things about playing a bard is, generally speaking, if you play your songs and maybe throw out a few buffs that's what most parties expect. After that, do whatever the F you want and they don't care. :) Fight, enchant, heal, crowd control, debuff, range...whatever.

[maddmatt70]

Bards flat out win quest/raids you name it. A well played bard means more to a party then any fighter, barbarian, wizard, cleric, FVS, etc.

[Angelus_dead]

Just wondering if bards are the least played class, seems that way on server G.
It seems that way because Bard is the class without another similar class available. Cleric=Favored Soul, Wizard = Sorc, etc. When a group wants a Bard, there is nobody else who can substitute in place.

[testing1234]

on cannith this holds true bards are very uncommon, oddly enough only competition they get is fvs/barbs on cannith, yes u heard right barbs are uncommon on cannith.

[Aerendil]

It's a d6 HP class with no evasion, horrific AC (stoneskin and displacement are your defense, but that's stripped mighty quickly against a true-seeing, hard-hitting monster) and only 3/4 BAB which translates to general squishiness at endgame and reliance on divine power clickies to hit certain mobs reliably. Not to mention the lack of feats if you want to stay pure (especially if TWF). And with only tierI of the PrEs available, in which one of those PrEs has had long-standing issues that haven't been addressed (Virtuoso), and the other one where end-game mobs are mostly immune to it's spells (Spellsinger).

So yes, I can see why Bards aren't the most played class. They're very difficult to build properly, and can be severely gimped as a result if you're not careful.

However, I think things will change if/when Virt gets a review and/or a facelift, tiers II and III are added for all Bardic PrEs, and if/when Spellsinger gets some more damage-oriented sonic spells (allowing them to be more than a simple CC/heal-specced Bard).

[Aashrym]

It's a d6 HP class with no evasion, horrific AC (stoneskin and displacement are your defense, but that's stripped mighty quickly against a true-seeing, hard-hitting monster) and only 3/4 BAB which translates to general squishiness at endgame and reliance on divine power clickies to hit certain mobs reliably. Not to mention the lack of feats if you want to stay pure (especially if TWF). And with only tierI of the PrEs available, in which one of those PrEs has had long-standing issues that haven't been addressed (Virtuoso), and the other one where end-game mobs are mostly immune to it's spells (Spellsinger).

So yes, I can see why Bards aren't the most played class. They're very difficult to build properly, and can be severely gimped as a result if you're not careful.

However, I think things will change if/when Virt gets a review and/or a facelift, tiers II and III are added for all Bardic PrEs, and if/when Spellsinger gets some more damage-oriented sonic spells (allowing them to be more than a simple CC/heal-specced Bard).
Bards don't get stone-skin either. That would also be from an item or from a Wiz/Sorc. ;-)

War-Chanters do get the Iron Skin chant, DR5 non-ablative, shorter duration. 3/4 BAB isn't really significant either. A bard with his inpires up hits just find compared to a full BAB class without inspires. It's the bard song that makes the difference for them too. I just turn off Power Attack if I'm having trouble hitting an it's fine.

I really am squishy tho. CC is my AC and immunities to tend to cause issues there.

Edit: Yup, I also use divine power clickies if I want to keep my Power Attack up.

[Aerendil]

Bards don't get stone-skin either. That would also be from an item or from a Wiz/Sorc. ;-)

Aye, I realize that. But all Bards should have a good UMD, and I consider stoneskin wands (and shield wands for that matter) essential :)
You should always have those buffs up!

[bartosy]

pure 20 bards yes by far the least played class.

axe singers/splashed bards no there all over the place..i think my realm
consists of 90% axesingers now got to love original builds :).