A Bardric PSA (Whiney Rant)

[Llewndyn]

I play a bard.

I know for about half of you, this first sentence has caused you to click the (X) in your browser window, as you already know what I am about to whine about. To you.... well so what.

To the rest, listen up. I play a bard. I CAN heal. A little. I don't LIKE to be primary healer. If the PRIMARY healer should start having trouble, or I see a lot of deaths, I will start trying to heal, but it's a LOT harder for me to heal than it is the cleric. I did not build my bard to be MOAR AWSUM HJEALS PLOX. When you accept my party request and see a Warforged bard come jogging up, that should be clue 1 that I don't really care about your HP bar. When you start running low, yes, I will try to hit you with a heal, but I have 895 Spell Points. I do not have 895 "HJEALZ MEH" points. If I am in your group and the cleric runs out of SP early on and said cleric has 1200sp to my wimpy 895, this means one of 2 things: The cleric is terrible (and I know the cleric, he is a very competent cleric) or the group is not set up to zerg. When I start playing enthrallment and all of the melees die before I can finish and throw a heal, that's not my fault.

I have cure light wounds mass, cure mod wounds mass, and 500 heal scrolls. So when I need to throw a heal, I have a few choices: waste a **** ton of my precious spell points on mass healing EACH of you since none of you stay together, or scroll heal. When you see me heal you and do a scroll animation, that's your indication that the next heal is going to take a few seconds. Stop whining or start helping yourself. If I see that in between heals you are going down faster than... well I won't go that route but when you incap during the scroll cooldown time and I don't see you using a potion or trying to move out of harm's way, I move on and will raise you later. When we wipe, me and the pure cleric out of SP and me 41 Heal scrolls and 11 raise dead scrolls lighter, the raise dead on my ring and my bracers exhausted as well, and you say "wow we woulda done a lot better if we had any CC", I am not going to respond nicely. I am not going to cool off and think maybe I overreacted later. You have ruined it for everyone else who I HAVE stuck my neck out and solo healed stuff for, with GREAT success, because I am using my last blood of the dragons tonight and getting more CC spells to replace the 2 healing spells I have. I am not healing anyone, anymore. Heal yourself.

If this was a first time thing, I would be fine with it but apparently people see bard and assume I can: (1) keep the entire party alive, no matter how ill-equipped to zerg we are, (2) completely stop EVERYTHING in it's tracks so that the entire mission is a cakewalk, (3) haste/GH/blur/displace EVERYONE in ADDITION to all of the songs I play while you are all running around in circles instead of waiting patiently with me in the beginning (songs take time to play, shut up and wait. They are VERY beneficial), and (4) take all the blame when we wipe - ALL while adding to DPS and all at the same time. There are probably a few bards who can do that. I am not them. I am not one of them. I will still buff the pants off of anyone who takes me along, including sustaining song, and if the group is going well or trying hard will hit people with heal scrolls, but that's it. If this post makes you not want to take me along, I understand and thank you for your time.

[Munkenmo]

snip

tl;dr - his mistake was not duoing with the cleric, he's blaming some pugs for his error.

[Llewndyn]

What was my error, exactly? Tell me, I am actually puzzled as to how this is my error?

[Munkenmo]

What was my error, exactly? Tell me, I am actually puzzled as to how this is my error?

#1 you entered a pug
#2 you continued to rez people

I mean sure i could say you seem to know your toon and were prepared, but where's the fun in that, i'd bet you and the cleric (if what you claim about him being good is correct) could have carried some soul stones.

But you didn't you proceeded to raise 13 times.

[Enoach]

As a former bard the first thing I want to say is: Don't do anything Rash...

Next on the spell selections:

Keep 1 Cure Spell - Single Target
Keep 1 Cure Mass Spell

You have already indicated that you never intend to be anything more then the secondary healing member of your party, so don't dedicate so many spells to healing.

If you want an off timer Mass, Cure (since you are willing to stock 500 Heal scrolls which is generally 300 more then you will ever need) carry Mass, Cure Moderate Scrolls.

Next on CC, while Fascinate and Enthrall are some of the best ways to stop monsters cold, the problem actually stems from other party members not understanding that you don't want to hit everyone of the standing still with little music things coming out of there head - they don't get the pink circle either...

Otto's Dance is one of the best single target controllers - Not SP efficient to use on a whole room but still great way to control 1 or 2. Otto's Sphere is great when working in a stationary position, not so good if your constantly on the move. Use this with Mind Fog and it can become a very interesting Dance Party.

So now we are down to the following problems - Those that are too good for Bard buffs - fine let them go forward, don't give chase or send them tells/yell to stop and get buffed (Prepare for the 10% hit). Don't rush to their aid if they get in trouble while buffing. Finish and then make your way to them. Don't Raise them right away, make sure that the living members of the party are in good shape and that there are no additional threats to contend with. Want to make sure it is safe to rez them...

Bards can be powerful assets to any party, the problem is to many are to worried about the extra 30 seconds to get all the buffs, because it will eat into their killing time - cause we all know how important the Kill Count is...

[Jaid314]

one of the sayings i recall reading in a cleric thread went something to the effect of...

the other player's first death may be your fault, or it may be that player's fault. the player's fifth or sixth death is always the fault of the person who raised them in the first place.

[Llewndyn]

Let me have my nerdrage; it's cathartic!
Stop injecting your "logic" into my whiney threadz!
I am usually of the school of if I HAVE a resource then I should spend it, as a wipe with 100 res scrolls is a failure on my part, something that started first life as a cleric, lamented in my second life as a sorc, and now impossible to unlearn now that I am not really expected to be able to as a bard.

#1 you entered a pug
#2 you continued to rez people

I mean sure i could say you seem to know your toon and were prepared, but where's the fun in that, i'd bet you and the cleric (if what you claim about him being good is correct) could have carried some soul stones.

But you didn't you proceeded to raise 13 times.

[Llewndyn]

My cure serious hits for around 80 or so, and like I said I hate using spell points on that when a heal scroll will do twice as much and use NO sp... and up to now (actually barring the last 2-3 days almost always) it's been more than enough to provide a little buffer for the actual healer, so I ended up taking clwm and cmwm so I can help in shroud... I go through a LOT of heal scrolls, not because anyone is gimp or anything, but I have an 85% chance to hit on them and can verify and prove that only 3 out of every 7 hit if I move at all while using them... but that's another whiney thread (that's NOT what happened here, I was standing still so most of them were hitting).

I have pretty much given up on using enthrallment unless I am soloing, but will try it a few times to get people out of a jam, see that no one knows what the music thingies mean, get annoyed, and go back to soundburst/shout/ice storm/ Otto's like I've been doing...

I like to nerd rage and say I am not going to heal anymore but I know my role and for the most part enjoy it, I just don't like getting blamed when I spent 10s of thousands of plat on a failed venture. I sound like the Rodney Dangerfield of Bards here.. hello new sig line!

As a former bard the first thing I want to say is: Don't do anything Rash...

Next on the spell selections:

Keep 1 Cure Spell - Single Target
Keep 1 Cure Mass Spell

You have already indicated that you never intend to be anything more then the secondary healing member of your party, so don't dedicate so many spells to healing.

If you want an off timer Mass, Cure (since you are willing to stock 500 Heal scrolls which is generally 300 more then you will ever need) carry Mass, Cure Moderate Scrolls.

Next on CC, while Fascinate and Enthrall are some of the best ways to stop monsters cold, the problem actually stems from other party members not understanding that you don't want to hit everyone of the standing still with little music things coming out of there head - they don't get the pink circle either...

Otto's Dance is one of the best single target controllers - Not SP efficient to use on a whole room but still great way to control 1 or 2. Otto's Sphere is great when working in a stationary position, not so good if your constantly on the move. Use this with Mind Fog and it can become a very interesting Dance Party.

So now we are down to the following problems - Those that are too good for Bard buffs - fine let them go forward, don't give chase or send them tells/yell to stop and get buffed (Prepare for the 10% hit). Don't rush to their aid if they get in trouble while buffing. Finish and then make your way to them. Don't Raise them right away, make sure that the living members of the party are in good shape and that there are no additional threats to contend with. Want to make sure it is safe to rez them...

Bards can be powerful assets to any party, the problem is to many are to worried about the extra 30 seconds to get all the buffs, because it will eat into their killing time - cause we all know how important the Kill Count is...

[grodon9999]

Can I haz songs?

[Llewndyn]

Can I haz songs?

Stay classy Grodon

[Irinis]

Don't let a bad pug change the way you play. Well, except for learning that sometimes you really do have to let a group wipe so they learn to play better.

And ask for reimbursement on those scrolls. Bard healing isn't cheap, even with haggle, just because we end up using more scrolls. It's only your pleasure to provide that to a group that deserves it by working together and giving a fun run.

Can I haz songs?

NEVAR!