Necro + Bard Duo Box...

[Umbrello]

So I went for a Bard as my Duo Box companion. I like being able to run fast, I like having a plate character (not to tank, i just like plate), and Bards have lots of other "perks". Also like the fact that I will have quite alot more pulling options with a bard not only just FD splitting etc.

My plan with this is to eventually camp stuff and do some ldons and mostly group content. Probably wont be raiding much due to time zone differences.

That being said I wanted to post here in the hope that some others might have experience with this setup and maybe can give some tips.

So far my tactics are very very basic as I am low level and just coming back to the game so alot is just learning to play again, and also duo box at the same time.

Heres my typical fighting tactics:

Leave bard @ camp. Pull with necro, load dots up, when mob gets to camp, put bard on melee while twisting 4 songs. Then rinse and repeat, keep pulling until out of mana/health, then regen up. Usually can take a few blues/even and the occasional yellow at a time like this.

However, at higher level I am thinking this tactic will be better:

Bard on autofollow twisting 4 songs. Probably selos, dots, mana/health regen. Then just play necro as normal, aggro-kiting with bard on autofollow. But I worry autofollow could be buggy and he could glitch and stop following, or get hit by the mob.

Other idea: Leave bard stationary and kite mob past him to get dotted and recieve buffs. But that sounds alot harder.

[Vivamort]

In my experience, it is nice to just fight mob in camp while boxing. No worry about being out of range for songs, and less box management required. With Tank merc in group, bard can even add melee, without becoming the mob's target.

On a related note, a tank merc can take you into your 60s pretty quickly, all by itself. I am not advocating short cutting your way through your lower levels, but letting you know that it is an option. As long as you stick to PoP and before for your post 50th level Merc Tank PLing, you shouldn't have a problem, or even have the tank require healing.

I have personally never really tried kiting while boxing my bard, but only because I know I would have problems, since I use my laptop to play both (or all three) accounts, so auto follow definitly gets twitchy for me. As such I am not sure if bard would be in danger of getting aggro or not from mobs. I suspect it would early in the kite and not so much if bard songs kick in after you have built up aggro with a few dots.

[Jenocyde]

I box a bard although I could be doing it wrong. Currently I pull into camp and pet tank with bard just sitting stationary (or autofollow if I am crawling) playing Aria of the Composer, Lrin's Psalm of Potency, Arcane Chorus, Psalm of Veeshan, with Aura of the Composer running as backup for Aria.

Edit: Ignore everything I said as I just noticed your level. I agree with Vivamort though alot easier just to fight in camp when boxing for me also.

[AneXus]

I've been doing the necro/bard duo for a cpl years now, and I have to say they are definitely an amazing duo. Really until you get 61(2) for fade on the bard...can't remember what lvl it is been so long, its easiest to just autofollow on the bard while aggro kitting unless you want to go the merc route (which is alot easier, just more expensive). However Selo's and autofollow do cause some bumps depedning on the zone (the littlest change in geometry can cause autofollow to drop). Kiting around the bard is actually really difficult until around 65ish when you can max the beneficial range increase and get Sionche's Crescendo, because without those aa's the range you would have to kite around the bard is barely bigger than melee range. However having the bard assisting dotting is very nice and can save you alot of mana. If you do your /mel right you can do 5 dots and sustain selos, you'll have around 1 tick with only 3 dots from the bard though.

[Umbrello]

Awesome! Thanks for the tips guys!

I thought kiting around the bard would only work when you get the extended range bard AAs to increase song range. So I guess I will go aggro kiting/merc until higher levels. Kind of enjoying the merc a bit too because then I can actually do some fun content and dungeons and not wory to much about getting obliterated.

I am excited to get Fade and learn the various pulling methods with my bard.

Do you find camping items and things is easy with this duo setup? With all the tools, charming, invis, fade, slow, overhaste etc. It seems like this would be a great setup for taking out nameds.

Do the haste songs and buff songs all benefit our pets by the way?

[Vivamort]

Yes named killing is not a problem with this duo. As long as you have a tank, either a merc, or a pet with good foci/AAs and maybe some mage summoned gear.

Bard songs will effect pet if you have pet affinity AA (cost 12 AA, I forget what level it becomes availaible).

[AneXus]

Using the bard/necro duo I've only found one named and one mission (in HoT) that I can't really do without assistance, so it is definitely easy to camp stuff. Track makes things go smoother. And once you get all the bard pulling tricks down, there's not much you can't do when the mobs come single every time.

[Iluvthedead]

Reading about the bard makes me want to start one and box it with my nec and mage combo. That would be some firepower boost for sure!

One question tho, playing/twisting the songs how does this work and is it just a key press and forget type of thing? Does the song run on a timer?

I have no idea about playing a bard, just they have nice songs for my nec and mage.

[Bonesmasher]

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/wiki/eq:bard

Good little write up on bards, /melody, how to pull, etc.

[Iluvthedead]

Yep, some good stuff in there, thx Bonesmasher.

I also found out some info on the /melody command so I don't have to get carpal tunnel while smashing two other keyboards.

I just need to park the bard in camp, pull with necro, and autoplay uber songs while nec/mag + pets grind mobs to dust. Having 3 toons lets me mix and match combos of mercs to suit more difficult situations and there is always the option of throwing the bard at the mob as a last ditch stand if pets/tank mercs get eaten while mage pulls up another pet although mage pet generally goes quite well against MC/SS named (even unslowed), but it's a gamble sometimes.

Better restart that 3rd account and get to work levelling up!

[Umbrello]

Melody is amazing. It makes boxing a bard a DREAM.

I have to say I am having a blast with this. Got my mask of the deciever last night (I am kind of an illusion junky/clicky junky). So now my bard is a sexy Dark Elf. Now I just need to get the Casino mask for my Necro so we have a full DE team

Poisoned dinged 44 last night. So nostalgic. That first cast of DMF feels so damn good.

I know older players are upset these days about the quick dot nerf, but I have to say I'm having a blast again!

[AneXus]

One thing to mention, /mel isn't limited as far as I know on how long the song input can be, like I have a /mel that is over 15 instructions long.

Definitely follow the advice of that link...I wish that page had been that helpful when I'd first started with my bard. Remember to put /stopsong as the first line of any melody macro, because if you hit one hotkey that does /mel 1 2 3 4 and then hit a different one that does /mel 2 3 4 5 and there was no /stop or an "empty" /mel between the 2, you'll just stop singing everything.

Also something worth mentioning, you can click any instant cast clicky while melodying with no problems. If the items cast time is greater than 2s it will more often than not stop your melody. You can use any AA while melodying if the aa's cast time is longer than 3s (bards cast time on songs) like lesson, or orgin it while stop the melody after the next song and your aa's will continue casting. Also don't freak out when you click an aa with a cast time and don't get a casting box (it's just something with the way bards work).

In general, once you get 64ish and have bard slow your melody will generally be something like /mel 1 2 3 4 5 6 3 4 5 6 1 3 4 5 6 ( Assuming 1 is slow, 2 is 2min selos, and 3-6 are useful goodies. If you were using dots, you could go 3-7 if it was all dots, else you should stick with the 3-6 to minimize beneficial song drops. That said it is possible to make a huge melody that does 2 benefical songs and 3-5 dots without the beneficial songs dropping ever.

[Umbrello]

Awesome advice! So far my melody is only 4 songs so I always keep everything up. My bard is level 51 now with 13 AAs (bought run3).

So I sing binding song, celerity, and 2 AOE dots. Not sure yet if there is some better rotation for my level.

I discovered kind of a cool strategy yesterday. Its nothing really unique but something I found really helpful for this duo box setup and allows me to take more mobs at once. Basically I havent really used charm yet until last night. So what I do is pull a 2 mob camp, load up one mob with dots and bring both to camp. The second mob I charm. Then I put my bard, merc, charm pet on the first mob, FD to clear aggro, then begin pulling another. Load up dots, bring to camp. This way with bard, merc, and bard pet we really grind through the mobs. When charm drops i usually kill the pet and restart the process. Working charm into the pattern so far has increased killing speed since I am not using a necro pet right now. (leveling too fast to keep up with pets at the moment, and am spoiled by mage toys so I dont even like seeing jaboner without mage gear now. Plust his dps isnt too great yet, so not worth having the EXP drop from having necro pet up.

[Vanlor]

Couple notes:

At high levels with decent AC bards can take dmg like a champ (they are plate after all). They also CAN hold aggro much better than most anyone would suspect (probably better than devs intend...).

Charm can be ridiculously OP for encs for sure and this may translate some to bards too. A friend of mine boxing an enc in Sanctum Somnium Courtyard charmed one of the DB gobblins, slapped a couple weapons and haste on him, and the charm pet did 12k dps... (for reference, most raid geared DPS classes wouldn't come close to that kind of auto atk dps without discs). You always run the risk of the mob breaking charm and eating the group, but then EQ is only fun when there is some true danger involved

[Vivamort]

Your regular necro pet does not reduce xp for you. I remember those nerfs being taken away for regular pets. There still might be a penalty for charmed pets doing more than half the total damage though, but I am unsure on that one.