I was looking through a website earlier, and I saw some things that for some reason sparked my internet is switching to the bard archetype.

As is, I'm an Ebonguard. The guild is...mostly inactive and to be honest, I suck at warrior combat. One of the main problems I have with the warrior archetype, though, is the amount of gold and credits that goes into being a suitable warrior.

Sure, you can not spend any credits and be okay, or a bit above mid-tier, but to be cosidered "good," you're going to have to shell out massive amounts of gold for equipment, and quite a few credits for weapon runes, on top of credits for skills.

So then, would anyone be able to provide a list of pros and cons when it comes to bards? Any advice, suggestions, or anything else is welcome.

Come to Blacktalon.

Uhh, I've got nothing.

I would not base your decisions on wanting to be 'considered good' 90% of the Lusternia would not be 'considered good' by some. Others would 'consider good' about half of the people.

Decide based on what you enjoy. If you enjoy 1v1 combat, if you enjoy helping the team, if you enjoy getting kills, bashing, winning 1v1 combat (the first time mentioned also includes enjoying losing), guild interaction, etc etc. Choose your criteria carefully, then ask again for suggestions, opinions, and guild advertising.

Well, I do kind of miss BT in the way of interaction. And while I was good at the combat, it eventually got old in the fact that there was no mobility. Not to mention, nowadays the combat spectrum for BT is covered by you or by someone else.

As for what I prefer combat-wise, I honestly don't know. When I first start at combat for a new class, I suck horribly. That's to be understood, but my problem is that I get really frustrated with myself when I lose. 1v1, in groups, it doesn't really matter, I just enjoy winning.

One potential problem I see with Harbingers, though, is that most of them seem to be sort of upbeat, "I wish I was charismatic and manipulative" sorts that don't quite fit with Tyngh or Glomdoring as a whole.

Edit:
Honestly, now that I think about it, I really do enjoy the idea of being a bit more of support than front-line. Obviously, bards are able to provide this, and they are also able to do well-enough for themselves combat-wise, as well. I'm thinking I just might switch to Harbinger.

If you want kills or to be considered a threat on the battlefield(in any sense of the word), you can't stay warrior. As a non-demi, non artied warrior you are a meat shield and little more. You don't do much damage, and fights don't last long enough to build any real wounding strategy. The mini warriors running around when I raid are a problem only when they whore stun. Other than that, they are usually shrugged off and killed at leisure. With the advent of trueshield, you can watch yourself flail uselessly against all flavours of archetypes. Fun? Not so much. I also found that warrior has a really steep learning curve. Not that it can't be effective without arties (i.e. Ceren), because it can. It's just difficult. Could always be a choke whore, though. Fun stuff there.

Also, I did find the Ebonguard to be a little flat.

Sadly for you, your alternative (harbinger) kind of sucks too. You'll be better off than Cantors and Cacophony, but less effective than the SS. As a non demi, you also won't be very scary in terms of damage, which is what bards are. Damage whores. You also run into the problem of bard combat being simplistic. It's tediously dull, as you can kill with damage, kill with aurics (aka damage), or kill with deathsong (which doesn't work 1v1). Bards are, in my opinion, the least challenging in terms of combat to learn. You don't have to really need to have an understanding of afflictions as yours are all passive or totally random. You'll follow shuyin around bnote/pfifth/manabarbs or minorsecond or deathsong and call it a day. You'll probably get a few kills, and your passives will knock out a few lowbies. Go human or faeling and pile on some buffs and you can get Indigo to 2k+ damage. That's always fun to see. Bard was easily the least interesting of the guilds I've been in, in terms of combat. It's just so...bleh.

Oh, and people will like having you around for songs, so it makes you feel kind of loved.

What kind of combat also is important. If you are a jumper like Izekeal or Talkan, then BT is not for you. If you like to prepare and go into super fortress mode, BT is great. Doesn't even need to be your meld as you have access to all your skills (sap, raise cudgel, etc) in another druid's demesne. Treebane and camp the trees with effects up and you are really, really hard to catch. Druid also has some punch behind it with sap and strong tertiaries as well as a recently buffed cudgel. You also get the lovely "first target" badge, and outside of the forest, you really suck. It's a trade off.

Everyone likes winning, but you're going to lose. It's inevitable. You're also not going to win unless you lose first. Practice, practice, practice regardless of what guild you pick. From the looks of it, I would suggest Harbingers. It's easy to pick up, straight forward, and passives are always a huge boon.

How is EG inactive? You have Shuyin. By definition you are active.

<3 Celina.

Thanks.

Shuyin doesn't count. He's just an ass-kicking bot with a well-designed AI.

You don't like Tracker?

I continue to be confounded by people not finding Tracking to be the utmost fun.

Tracking is okay, but meh.

Bard is fun, most people don't use them to their full potential. Most Glamours bards just whore maelstrom and hope to god they can damage kill someone. Weaving illusions as a bard is very useful though I don't know many besides myself and maybe Narsrim that did it. Warrior really isn't that hard, it just takes some common sense and a nice paycheck. Ceren and Melville did pull it off just fine without arties, but then again there are plenty of artied warriors who are scrubs too. I guess it's just whatever you're comfortable with is what you'll do good as. In combat if you get all tense and whatnot you'll end up making mistakes, if you can stay calm and get a rhythm or something like that you'll do good.

I am also considering yet another guildhop (sorry!) as I am just suffering an all-time low for my Lusternia interest. I won't be able to even consider learning combat (yes, I am willing to actually sit down and try) before the summer comes as my crappy connection spawns 20-60 second lags on regular intervals. Harbingers or Blacktalon would be likely choices for Saaga...

(Still waiting for Hallifax, pretty please, Estarra? No? Ok.)

Illusions can actually mess systems up, I used to play with sap/aeon/colourburst/cleave illusions in the past, although I was discouraged from using them in group fights since they mess team mates up, too. (Estarra, release a targetted illusion skill, please!) Glamours is a good choice if you want to be flexible in combat(read:Xiel) aaand Glamours is fun to play with! Also, what Vathael said above

I don't know about all of you non-current bards, but for me at least as a nexus-connecting crap-system semi-non combatant, I've found that if you want to have fun, get five of your bard-y friends around, go to your non-peaced village revolt, and spam colourburst... first skill in Glamours, so it's not terribly credit-intensive; although I would agree with the above-stated that it's not a terribly complex attack strategy. However, it's useful to be able to mess people up with things such as glamours, or stack a few extra annoying afflictions when you let the demigods do the heavy hitting with colourburst.

Mind you, my view of bardic combat comes entirely from Glamours up to glamour, wildarrane up to refrain, and acrobatics up to contortion, but hey, You can still be decently useful, and with five of your bard-y friends, you can get indigo instakills!

fixed

Well if you want to be above mid-tier don't go Harbinger. Go Geomancer, they have the same combat strategy. Only the geomancers can actually do something with it while the other can only do a timed instakill.

Otherwise known as Skynet...

Skynet has to be the stupidest evil AI this side of the milky way.

It's all about Hal.