Troub's & Dirges

[Terayon]

No doubt this has been covered a hundred times, but Recently I got the hankering for a bard and started to wonder about the real difference between a Troubadour and a Dirge. Iv'e heard Dirges are better for Melee groups and Troub's for Magic. One of my questions is at the present patch what sorta ratio buff/CA/Spell wise does a Troubadour bring to the table.. IE 70%magic buffs 30 melee? or vice versa for dirge.(I know this is sorta a confusing post, but well.. its... Complicated..)<div></div>

[Yamoran]

<div></div><p>Thats really hard to tell, simply because bardic songs improve "dps" of all clases by great numbers so then a part of group damage can be counted as bards "dps".</p><p>Its....well......Complicated <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> </p>

[Mathe]

<div></div><p>Dirges on a whole are a bit better for soloing.</p><p>Troubadours are good in any party, Dirges can be slightly less useful in certain group set ups, but better in you have a more melee oriented party.</p><p>They are both good in their own ways. It isn't cut and dry that Troubadours are for Mages and Dirges are for Melee. They do have more to them than just that and both have some things that appeal to the other classes.</p>

[MrPhilPh]

<div>If you want to solo dont play either bard.  I play a dirge and its very painful everytime I try to solo.  I never solo for xp only to do personal quests, which I usually give up on anyway.  Your effectiveness In a large group is a very different story.  Although I agree with the post about its not cut and dry dirges/fighterscouts troubs/magespriests it really does help.  You have the ability to add to slashing/piercing or disruption/etc... and that means a Ton against orange mobs.  Misses/resists happen at ridiculous rate against orange mobs and the correct bard can basically solve that problem.</div><div> </div><div>Your parsed dps will always be the lowest of all the dpsers, but if there was a a way to measure your "presense" dps I am sure it would be towards the top in a long drawn out battle.  (+'s to attackspeed, hitting harder, less misses due to buffs/debuff's, procs, regens and less fizzles keeps the efficiency up etc) for the whole group! </div><div> </div><div>Against easier opponents I think of a group with a bard similar to the green ghosts in the final LOTR movie.  Your group literally rips through mobs w/ little downtime and selos keeps you going.  Very cheap <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div>

[Terayon]

<div></div>I take it, Dirges are more about returning and keeping health up for the group and Troubs for power? or is it Vice Versa? Heh, Ive only got one character slot left so I wanetd to fill it witha  group oriented bard.Also On things that make a Troub special, I was wondering about what spells are highly valued by Troubs? I understand you get a "charm" spell. Is this more a novelty "mez" or can you command the creature? What other spells should I look forward to?   If a Dirge could post some of their "staple" spells/CA's id appricate it.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Terayon on <span class="date_text">03-02-2006</span><span class="time_text">08:25 PM</span></p>

[Jooneau]

You can command a creature with your charm spell, but you have to keep in mind that it has a chance to break each time your thrall is hit so you can't use it to tank.