Troubador Interview for EQ2 Podcast

[Rotacidare]

<DIV> <DIV>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <A href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#c8c1b5>www.eq2-daily.com</FONT></A> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>1. What do you like about your class?</DIV> <DIV>     a.</DIV> <DIV>     b.</DIV> <DIV>     c.</DIV> <DIV>2. What do you not like?</DIV> <DIV>     a.</DIV> <DIV>     b.</DIV> <DIV>     c.</DIV> <DIV>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?<BR>4. In general is it easy to find a group?</DIV> <DIV>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?</DIV> <DIV>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</DIV></DIV></DIV>

[Jehannum]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rotacidare wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <A href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#c8c1b5>www.eq2-daily.com</FONT></A> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>1. What do you like about your class?</DIV> <DIV>     a.<FONT color=#66ff00>Charm and Mez (Crowd control) - nice, effective and not so overpowered as to require adjustment.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     b.<FONT color=#66ff00>Magic dps adjustments (Aria, Precision, Zander's, Kian's, and Slothful Chant) - adds a fairly effective edge to the casters.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     c.<FONT color=#66ff00>Selo's.  Need I really say more here?</FONT></DIV> <DIV>2. What do you not like?</DIV> <DIV>     a.<FONT color=#66ff00>Melee dps adjustments (str/sta buff, haste) - minimal effectiveness at best, zero effectiveness (or worse, the waste of a buff slot) at worst, even in a full melee group.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     b.<FONT color=#66ff00>Avoidance/mitigation.  We went from being broken for avoidance buffs to barely having any effect whatsoever on incoming damage from physical sources.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     c.<FONT color=#66ff00>Magical mitigation effects - we went from being crucial on any magic/mental/divine/elemental encounter to being superfluous due to mitigation caps which can be attained quite easily without our help.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>Patient.  Soloing tends to be a little weak so while a group is where we really shine, it's nigh on essential to be in one for any kind of quick results.  That said, our CC does allow us to take things others find impossible, though it takes ages.</FONT><BR>4. In general is it easy to find a group?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>I often get random invites while harvesting; I can't say whether that's because I have a reputation as a quality troub, because I'm a level 60 and that just happens, or if it's just luck of the draw.  In any case I usually don't want for a group if I'm interested in being in one.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>Fairly even - by reputation dirges have a bit better dps than we do, so I'd imagine on that basis that soloing typically would be easier - by the same token though, we have superior CC ability so it wouldn't surprise me to find that we're able to take (for example) yellow ^^^ with more regularity, if substantially less speed.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</DIV></DIV></DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>Highest mob I've taken to 2/3 health and quit because I didn't have time was yellow and ^^^.  The highest mob I've actually taken all the way down was a yellow ^^, and that took close to half an hour (thanks to mez resists and poor procs)</FONT><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>There're your answers from my perspective - but bear in mind with a class as broadly capable as ours, there are probably as many different perspectives as there are troubs.<BR></P>

[VericSauvari]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rotacidare wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <A href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#c8c1b5>www.eq2-daily.com</FONT></A> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>1. What do you like about your class?</DIV> <DIV>     a. charm/mez</DIV> <DIV>     b. manasong</DIV> <DIV>     c. my bongo and guitar animation</DIV> <DIV>2. What do you not like?</DIV> <DIV>     a. lack of real identity..we do everything yet do not do anything truely defining</DIV> <DIV>     b. we are a mix of melee and caster buffs..it would be nice if they made us pure caster or pure melee (opposite of whatever dirge gets)</DIV> <DIV>     c.my bongo, guitar and singing vocal...for everything.</DIV> <DIV>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?</DIV> <DIV>           support and crowd control<BR>4. In general is it easy to find a group?</DIV> <DIV>           depends if the group if caster heavy...or if the leader still thinks we help out    melee</DIV> <DIV>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?</DIV> <DIV>     I am not informed enough comment on how dirges do...just i know they've replaced me in the main tank group.</DIV> <DIV>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can </DIV> <DIV>solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</DIV></DIV></DIV>     we can solo anything that is mezzable...if we have 4 hours of time to take down that blue single up.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>

[WorldsAway_Nybor]

<DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>1. What do you like about your class?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    a. Versatility; the range of buffs, debuffs and CC makes troubadours interesting to play</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    b. Finally getting Selo's!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    c. Aria, despite being toned down is still my favourite spell</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>2. What do you not like?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    a. Being more versatile has had a knock on effect on the power of our buffs, some of which are pretty weak </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    b. Being classed a 'caster' buffer, but given very little to offer priests (swan/dove song the key to fixing this?)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>    c. DPS is lacking, some spells/combat arts certainly need addressing, and only one self buff that requires concentration</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class? </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Generally I do not focus on doing damage in most groups, but rather on debuffing, crowd control then any damage that I can squeeze in. If debuffs and CC aren't having an effect, I still aim to add some utility to my play through interupts, stuns, snares and emergency mez when a caster has unwanted attention. If I'm buffing for casters, I might use my self buff and go all out damage. I feel least useful when buffing for melee and my utility isn't required.</FONT></DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> <DIV><BR>4. In general is it easy to find a group?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Normally quite easy</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)? </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>Dirge's appear to do more damage, but this I believe is evened out with our CC abilities. Dirge reflection seems to be a feasible spell compared to our non physical version, which is pretty much useless. Overall I think Dirges have the upperhand when buffing for damage dealing, but Troubadours have the ability to add to both caster (aria proc, precision proc) and melee (haste, strength buff) DPS. When grouped with several casters, the increase in group damage can be quite significant.</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think our solo ability needs some attention, in particular I believe bards should have stances so we can choose a tradeoff like other melee classes (at the moment troubadours only have one self buff which adds to INT and AGI). Linked encounters are generally easy because of CC abilities, and having a number of AoE spells which can proc from Aria takes them down in no time. Facing tougher solo opponents though is more difficult as we have to tank them. This is where we are let down, as we cannot switch to a defensive mode and must use our offensive self buff to try and take them down before we die. As group buffs are obviously less effective than solo buffs, using our defensive buffs does not really help a troubadour who wishes to go toe to toe with a difficult mob.</DIV></DIV>

[Jehannum]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> WorldsAway_Nybor wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#ffffff>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I think our solo ability needs some attention, in particular I believe bards should have stances so we can choose a tradeoff like other melee classes (at the moment troubadours only have one self buff which adds to INT and AGI). Linked encounters are generally easy because of CC abilities, and having a number of AoE spells which can proc from Aria takes them down in no time. Facing tougher solo opponents though is more difficult as we have to tank them. This is where we are let down, as we cannot switch to a defensive mode and must use our offensive self buff to try and take them down before we die. As group buffs are obviously less effective than solo buffs, using our defensive buffs does not really help a troubadour who wishes to go toe to toe with a difficult mob.</DIV></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Odd - I actually have the opposite feel - I can take any single mezzable target but if I have to deal with too many component ^ mobs I almost invariably have to run... I can take a low-blue group of such mobs but that's about the extent, whereas with a single mob I can take the aforementioned yellow ^^^ without too much trouble (though since it'd take an hour+ it's really not worth the bother)  Of course it's not a matter of tanking a mob like that but of hitting debuffs, damage and mez, then removing the debuffs to regen power while keeping it mezzed.<BR>

[Dali]

1. What do you like about your class?a.Aria of Exaltation (although nerfed)b.Flawless Shrill Master II - finally does what the line is supposed to do damage wise, but you have to spend a training choice on it.c.Selo's2.What do you not like?a.Power spread. We get sudden boosts in DPS post 50. I'd like to see those spread out more evenly.b. Lots of <b>very</b> situational buffs.c.Poor caster buffing - Swan/Dove Song near useless, STR & STA buffing, WIS debuff matters very little, Precision only makes us useful every once in a while. 3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?Depressed in MT groups, pretty happy camper in regular groups, jumpy when solo.4. In general is it easy to find a group?Depends on how many people you know. It takes some effort asking around in tells, starting your own group if need be, but once you have a fan base, you'll get invited now and then.5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirges)?Less powerful because we're more specialised. Caster groups (which could be a group with a Fury and two Mages) are rare indeed besides on raids. What's more, those groups are frustrating, because by the time you've hit three buttons, the mobs are dead, which makes you feel like you might as well auto-follow.6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?Solo mobs: yellow ^ if I'm carefulGroup mobs: blue even cons ^^^ within reasonable time if I get them debuffed early enough.<p>Message Edited by Dalinn on <span class=date_text>11-28-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:20 PM</span>

[AndyTheSlay]

1) A) Power Regain     B) Mez // Charm     C) Casters best friend 2) A) Bottom rung of DPS     B) Our Eli's spell line has low damage, long casting, and long re-use timer for a spell that suppost to be quick attack short re-cast     C) Our power leech spell line should'nt cost power to cast, should just get it back, or at least give power to the group 3) Group Play 4) Yes, pending on what time I get on 5) We are caster based, they help the meele and we work well together. 6) I solo slow but steady, I can to yellows and some ^^^ greens with kiting, but just takes awhile but I can do it none the less. <div></div>

[WorldsAway_Nybor]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jehannum wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>Odd - I actually have the opposite feel - I can take any single mezzable target but if I have to deal with too many component ^ mobs I almost invariably have to run... I can take a low-blue group of such mobs but that's about the extent, whereas with a single mob I can take the aforementioned yellow ^^^ without too much trouble (though since it'd take an hour+ it's really not worth the bother)  Of course it's not a matter of tanking a mob like that but of hitting debuffs, damage and mez, then removing the debuffs to regen power while keeping it mezzed.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>You're talking about heroic encounters :smileywink:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo and taking on non-heroic encounters, I inevitably take a heavier beating versus a single target solo (say a single ^) than against a linked solo encounter (eg 3 x vv, 2 x v, 1 x vv 1 x vvv). Against these linked encounters at blue or less, I normally take a small scratch, white to yellow I may dip to 60-80% depending on how things go or the way I approach it. A single blue ^, however (for instance the ones you find in Tears quest instances) can take me into orange, and if its white/yellow and things go bad I could be staring at a very close call. I don't want to have to mez a single non-heroic target as my best hope of success, to me the problem is we just don't have the capacity to buff ourselves when playing solo so that we can go toe to toe with the tougher non-heroic mobs. Maybe that's how we are supposed to be (afterall other classes have more difficulty taking on linked non-heroics due to more interupts) but I can't help but feel we need a defensive/offensice tradeoff in terms of self buffing.</DIV><p>Message Edited by WorldsAway_Nybor on <span class=date_text>11-29-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:41 AM</span>

[Vandileir]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Rotacidare wrote:<BR> <DIV> <DIV>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <A href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#c8c1b5>www.eq2-daily.com</FONT></A> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>1. What do you like about your class?</DIV> <DIV>     a. <FONT color=#66ff00>Mez/Charm: I'll take them over the Dirge Rez any day</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     b. <FONT color=#66ff00>Debuffs: The new changes to debuffs totally made my life as a Troub Easier</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     c. <FONT color=#66ff00>Selo's: I chose a Troub over a Dirge origionally knowing I wouldnt have a run speed. This was a nice supprise in LU13</FONT></DIV> <DIV>2. What do you not like?</DIV> <DIV>     a. <FONT color=#66ff00>Were Caster buffers as apposed to Melee buffers, yes? Shouldnt then our stat buff effect Wis and INT as apposed to STR/AGI as it does now?</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     b. <FONT color=#66ff00>Scouts are supposed to be tier 2 DPS? On a good day I can just eek out tier 2, IF, I'm shooting for PURE DPS. Usually I'm buffing my group, and take a hit in DPS, which makes me Tier 3.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>     c. <FONT color=#66ff00>Reqiuem of Reflection and Percision of the Maestro need adjusting. Both our big, new class defining skills are under powered. Percision of the Maestro especially when compared to the dirge counter part. Also, while on the topic of skills, power tapping needs to be adjusted on all of our corosponding skills since it's useless outside of a duel. </FONT></DIV> <DIV>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>Grouping obviously. Thats what bards do, they buff groups. I wouldnt mind a little more DPS so I can solo a little faster.<BR></FONT>4. In general is it easy to find a group?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>Much easier than on my Guard, I'll say that. Breeze is very desired, though some times I feel like a mana battery.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>With the exception of the class defining skills, and a couple of tweaks that could be made to a few of our skills to improve DPS/our caster buffing ability, I'd say fairly balanced compared to some subclasses.</FONT></DIV> <DIV>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?</DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>I have soloed a Blue ^^^ with great headache and lots of patients over teh course of 25 minutes.  Our DPS is fairly week soloing, which can cause heacaches. It also doesnt help that the majority of our skills are designed to assist a GROUP, not us personally.</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <p>Message Edited by Vandileir on <span class=date_text>11-29-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:33 AM</span>

[Sanju]

<span>[From the prespective of a raiding Troubador]<blockquote><hr>Rotacidare wrote:<div> <div>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <a href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#c8c1b5">www.eq2-daily.com</font></a> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>1. What do you like about your class?</div> <div>     a.   <font color="#ff0000">Decent caster/dps buffer.</font> </div> <div>     b.   <font color="#ff0000">Decent debufer.</font> </div> <div>     c.   <font color="#ff0000">Limited crowd control.</font> </div> <div>2. What do you not like?</div> <div>     a.   <font color="#ff0000">Limited role, as some buffs have virtually no effect on certain classes.</font> </div> <div>     b.   <font color="#ff0000">Requiem of Reflection (broken, waste of a concentration slot).</font> </div> <div>     c.   <font color="#ff0000">No true AEs.</font> </div> <div>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?   <font color="#ff0000">Grouped (or raid) utility.</font>4. In general is it easy to find a group?   <font color="#ff0000">Never had a problem.</font> </div> <div>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?   <font color="#ff0000">Fairly balanced, but can't really compare until I've leveled one to 60.</font> </div> <div>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?   <font color="#ff0000">I rarely, if ever solo, but the question is too open-ended. Do you mean soloing for xp (i.e. grinding on mobs), or soloing quests (and the associated mobs), or solo farming for loot, etc.? Depending on the situation we range from weak to good. As others have noted, Lullaby (and Bria's for mana regen) allows a patient Troub</font> <font color="#ff0000">to solo almost any single (or some small groups) mob given enough time. The lack of an offensive and defensive stance does hurt the Troub's soloability, though, as we must use 3+ concentration slots to gain generally worse buffs when compared the stances of other scouts.</font> </div></div></div><hr></blockquote></span><div></div>

[Andric_D]

<span><blockquote><hr>Rotacidare wrote:<div> <div>Hello Troubador's! We have a weekly feature on the various classes for our podcast at <a href="http://www.eq2-daily.com/" target="_blank"><font color="#c8c1b5">www.eq2-daily.com</font></a> . I am looking for some input from you all about your class to use in our discussion, in the form of this forum "interview." I'll post some questions for you all to answer, and then we'll talk about your thoughts. Please try to be somewhat brief in your answers, and please try to be objective. Thank you all.</div> <div> </div> <div> <div>1. What do you like about your class?</div> <div>     a. <font color="#ffff00">lot of choices to make, helping others perform better</font> </div> <div>     b. <font color="#ffff00">mellee + a bit of nukage</font> </div> <div>     c. emergency crowd control </div> <div>2. What do you not like?</div> <div>     a. <font color="#ffff00">no longer beign the class I originally chose</font> </div> <div>     b. <font color="#ffff00">a lack of real choices in buffing - to manyspecialised/useless buffs</font> </div> <div>     c. <font color="#ffff00">needing a particular type of group to be able approach our potential</font> </div> <div>3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class? <font color="#ffff00">group play</font>4. In general is it easy to find a group? <font color="#ffff00">never had a problem but since teh combat update have never been sought out just because of my class.</font> </div> <div>5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)? <font color="#ffff00">I think they are slightly better off but suffer from several of the same problems</font> </div> <div>6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)? <font color="#ffff00">depends a lot on the type of mob/s. yellow ^ usually np at all. hate kiting though so dont try other harder types.</font> </div></div></div><hr></blockquote></span><div></div>

[Jehannum]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> WorldsAway_Nybor wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jehannum wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>Odd - I actually have the opposite feel - I can take any single mezzable target but if I have to deal with too many component ^ mobs I almost invariably have to run... I can take a low-blue group of such mobs but that's about the extent, whereas with a single mob I can take the aforementioned yellow ^^^ without too much trouble (though since it'd take an hour+ it's really not worth the bother)  Of course it's not a matter of tanking a mob like that but of hitting debuffs, damage and mez, then removing the debuffs to regen power while keeping it mezzed.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>You're talking about heroic encounters :smileywink:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Solo and taking on non-heroic encounters, I inevitably take a heavier beating versus a single target solo (say a single ^) than against a linked solo encounter (eg 3 x vv, 2 x v, 1 x vv 1 x vvv). Against these linked encounters at blue or less, I normally take a small scratch, white to yellow I may dip to 60-80% depending on how things go or the way I approach it. A single blue ^, however (for instance the ones you find in Tears quest instances) can take me into orange, and if its white/yellow and things go bad I could be staring at a very close call. I don't want to have to mez a single non-heroic target as my best hope of success, to me the problem is we just don't have the capacity to buff ourselves when playing solo so that we can go toe to toe with the tougher non-heroic mobs. Maybe that's how we are supposed to be (afterall other classes have more difficulty taking on linked non-heroics due to more interupts) but I can't help but feel we need a defensive/offensice tradeoff in terms of self buffing.</DIV> <P>Message Edited by WorldsAway_Nybor on <SPAN class=date_text>11-29-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>05:41 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Doh!... Egg on my face I guess <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I was thinking in terms of "biggest" as a combination of level and massive HP, rather than in terms of "grouped" solos... yeah, grouped solos are definitely easier thanks to the combined effect of encounter-group debuffs and the reduction in damage dealt by v or vv (or even vvv) mobs.  Once it gets to the point that the "group" is bigger than an individual though I stand by the mez-to-death methodology, which of course only works on singles.  You're absolutely right though, a blue ^ or ^^ single can seriously hurt me if I'm not careful to turn off Kian and hit a mez occasionally.  Meanwhile, two non-arrows and a v are cake as I charm one and have him slaughter his friends with my help.  I know I don't strictly need to, but there's something in me that revels in the idea that he's killing his friends.  I did a lot of charmkiting in Velious.<BR>

[thorvang]

1. What do you like about your class? a. jack of all trades. crowd control, chanter abilities, ranged (magic based) and melee combat b. able to support both types of dds, melees and casters. though casters benefit more c. running speed <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />2. What do you not like? a. solo play is limited by lack of some serious dps b. being a bard i'm not able to make use of instruments! (shame on soe for poor bard design) c. the impact on group enhancement could be more noticable3. What kind of play style is best suited to your class?raids. most buffs do provide a bonus for groups, but some core abilities are most effective in raid situations. (with the downside to be some kind of a waste when grouping or soloing)4. In general is it easy to find a group?haven't been looking for a group since february, but back then it has been easy <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />5. How would you compare your class to your good/evil counterparts (Dirge's)?dirge's aren't a counterpart to troubs, they're available in both cities. however, troubs are more versatile than dirges. through eq2's gameplay defensive types of buffs are more powerful in most situations. and troubs receive superior offensive buffs <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />6. How do you feel your class does soloing? What is the highest lvl mob you can solo (i.e. yellow ^ or blue v)?there's not much of a limit when soloing as long as you're able to survive one or two swings from your opponent and are able to manage your mana regen. but constant and safe soloing ends by green heroics (triple up arrow).