First of all, any Bard can increase damage of city/commune mates, but how significant is this increase? Somehow, I'm doubting it will be that much...and in group combat, when you pick off all the weak ones, and others gang up on the strong ones anyways...

The regeneration is nice, I won't deny it, but probably something people could go without, as it's one level each I believe...

Prevent anyone from setting up a shield on water...I can't really see that being a useful song, especially for a high stanza, but it depends on where you choose your battles I suppose

Princess Farewell only affects one, at least a week or so ago...It's very cool, though only really to the point that it stuns and blackouts...no affliction that absolutely requires a cure, no damage...

I agree with what Serge is saying. The Bard skills are cool, implemented well, and diverse, but none of them feel so important as to be absolutely necessary. The Bardic afflictions are easy to cure off, as octave is an extreme pain to use, as is perfectfifth solo...

I'm interested in what the Cacophony's battle techniques are like, as apparently combat-wise, they have a couple of the better Bard battlers right now...I'm hoping it's not a fully tarot-based strategy though...

Zalandrus, you forget Princess Farewell Aeon+Blackout+Stun, how can you believe it's not that powerful? And an entire group that listens to Crusader Canto = death to one tanky person then the rest will follow.

Ah, right, forgot Princess Farewell includes Aeon. I'll concede that point.

Crusader Canto just prevents people, occasionally, from applying salves. I can see how that'd be helpful, but consider the other 'offensive' songs: slower sip balance, periodic blind and prone (the other useful one, as it hits fairly often), Princess Farewell, chance of preventing eating herb or sipping potion, and no shield in waters (note that having the last two at the start of battle means you can't use princess farewell, or if you do, you'll have to work up to those last effects). The other songs can help the singer or an ally, or make angels attack faster.

The instant kill (for all Bards, since they're all the same) is slow though, and anybody with a system probably won't fall to it, provided a fair (ie, not everybody else spamming the victim with afflictions) fight.

I guess my point is that the path a Bard has to take to kill somebody seems much harder than the path for other classes. City Bards rely much more heavily on tarot and soulless, and the other songs just aid along that a little. I don't even know what commune Bards use to kill...

From what I've been able to gather, guardians tend to use sacraments/necromancy, with their angels/demons assisting, mages have a demesne to mess with a person while they use the tele's, wiccans go for toad, druids go for thornrend (has this changed with the changes to those skills?), and warriors just go hack and slash until their victim dies, maybe supplementing with sacraments/necromancy/totems...

I find it meaningful that a lot of good fighters (or at least capable) joined Bardic guilds at the beginning, and few of them still remain (meaning no offense to those who are still there). I think Bards -are- just meant to be a 'support class', and if they're given the ability to fight well alone also, they'll be on the border of over powered...

Eh? I manage to kill people with that plus the time has been lessened to around 8 seconds.