1 Month until return to game:)

[blackmist03]

The thing about having a bard... someone said it earlier...and what they said was that I could take the time to gear and AA the bard, but in the end,he would have to pull and stand back and watch, and could not do any dps except for songs, becuase if my mage pets are tanking , as soon as the bard comes in to melee, SPLAT! So, I think I am pretty much sold on 2 mages and a shaman. I might even up the ante to 4 accounts if that works well enough and add in a druid, or enchanter. Maybe even add a wizard, it just all depends how it goes with the 2 mages and shaman. I am pretty sure they will all keep me busy, because that is alot of aa's to be getting, but im sure if i go to the right places, the aa will be fast. I will probably do dps aa on one mage while doing pet aa on the other mage, and then switch them out.

[Piemastaj]

Bards do need a lot of gear and AA because fade costs 900 per click. And in all honesty that starts to add up on a difficult split. They also, unless i am mistaken, don't get any mana regen from their songs or C from encs. Mage, mage, sham will tear things up. Learning to CoH pull with 2 mages can be difficult to time it, but once you figure it out you will be able to split pretty much any room you want/need to split. Make sure to get the pulling mage some decent HP gear and a high AC shield with a shield aug in it so that when you do get hit you wont go boom lol. Depending on the space of the room you will take a good amount of hits from spells or melee dmg.

[Zatpus]

But I DO want as much dps/pet dps as possible.

Mage, Mage, Bard. Nothing can beat that. I have a shaman and a bard. When I am grouping with my fixed group of friends which play together since ages I play my shaman. When I am out for boxing, the shaman has to stay at GL. On his account I recently growed another mage to 85. Shaman has changed alot in the last expansions. Now he's mainly a priest who can slow and do some buffage. That's still fine for a full group where are sufficent others around to deal damage. But if you plan to 3 box, you will already have 2 merc-priests around at least.

Some bardstuff which, different to the shamanbuffs, cannot be picked up in GL:
Just the overhaste aura will give your main pet about 12.5% dps more than without. The RS-Pet deals 25% more dps if in range of bard-aura. The nukes deal 24% more damage flat out as well. The focus from that aura is fix 24% and not random 1-24% like worn foci on gear. There are still 4 songs you can stick in a melody. Warmarch for attack +DS maybe, Arcane arietta for meeleproccs for your pet and spellprocs for you own nukes, Talendor will give another additional damage to all firenukes.

With 3 chars + 3 mercs you can easily have 1 tankmerc and keep without any problems also meeleing with the bard. But even if lateron in UF the bard is not going to meele any mob, because maybe you switched the last merc to a healermerc, nevertheless no other char can enhance the mages as much as a bard. A bard isn't a first rank Tank, hes not meant to be one. On the other hand he wears plate as well and can take a beat. At any time he can jump in and "onoff"-tank some rounds if a pet goes low on health. This goes very well with only pets on the mob.
Named killed pets on enrange .. naahh never happens right; never if we can manage to stop the pet at 12%. But if ... pull bards def disk and finish the named of.

You need more defenese? Swap songs and stack some defensiv stuff. If you want over 200AC more for your pets, you can have it. 200AC more for a pet is a difference to 200AC more for a PC, isn't it? Got a camp where you really don't want mobs to run away, snare it. Questing in tight quarters and have some unforseen adds, np, mezz 'em.

Downside:
Want to kill old raidmobs in old Raidzones? ... no mercs no priest ... you have to cleric your pet by your own.
Healermerc(s) get crazy and stop healing ... no priestchar to back it up (but you can still mezz the mob if needed).

___________________________

Short:
Want to grow up fast and looking for utility/dps: go for bard.
If you think you are better off healing the mob to death: shaman is the better choice.

[Zatpus]

Bards do need a lot of gear and AA because fade costs 900 per click.

Heh, my bard is mostly boomerang + Stalwart-geared and has 28k mana. I use fade mostly on an unexpected misspull or if I am lazy and want to split up a camp really fast.
But even if you would need 10 times fade to split up a camp, there's no harm to it. Once a camp is split you are not going to fade for a long while.
On most nights I don't fade more than 5 times the whole session. Pulling is no reason to go lom for a bard.

If you want to go max boost for your mages, you can use some manaconsuming songs like Aria of the Poet boosting spelldamage-focus to 33% and Grubers which pumps big chunks of mana to the group. That's going to drain you dry;) There AAs and gear comes to importance, because they decide if you will last 10 miuntes or more a full lesson burn.

[blackmist03]

Hmm, I have never really played a bard that much, but I know they are masters at pulling. I just dont know if I would want him to be sort of wasted later on by just standing there playing music and not doing any dps,but then again I guess he would be doing his part by making everyone else do more damage. That is something else to think about I suppose.

[bobipet]

HUMM shaman changed a lot in UF and they are mostly a slower and buffer class
i play my shaman since 1999 and won't change for any other class. (i enjoy having a mage to box also they rock )
we can solo heal goups /raid ,dps , park mobs ect.
can do 15 to 25k + damage per tic and finish most fight FM.

when i duo in UF zones i don't even use mercs usually ,pet only need to have HOT and some fast heals here and there while shm doing 2 to 3k dps doing this , if i have to kill UF nameds i pop both mercs healers tho.

well i don't really know how bards can add DPS bonus for pet / mage dps , if they not melee'ing in UF (if they have to tank trash or nameds ) so i can't really speak there,but i got a friend bard with most tower gears,and tanking UF nameds was not going good.

anyway,you are the one who will play those toons,go with what you enjoy the most,sure bard will let you pull much easier,COH pulling need much more practice to be able to pull efficiency and fast.
IMO shm / mage is a good start,u wont have to always have to beg for buffs /ooc paying for shm buffs pst many other class would fit pretty good with that duo / mage / necro / bard/druid / chanter / ect. melee ? u need good armors and aa's to really enjoy them ..good luck on whatever you choosing .

[blackmist03]

Yeah, I think I am still leaning toward mage mage shaman, with 2 diff mage pets so one can stun and one can backstab, or have to stun pets. The idea of working so hard on a bard and then just having him sit back and play songs and be no dps whatswoever, just seems like a waste. 2 mages 1 shaman it is...

[Piemastaj]

Go with 2 stun pets. All that stun makes the tank pet take little dmg, and then if 1 of them falls in battle you have a back-up tank instead of a water pet trying to tank mobs. Zatpus, I was talking about when you can't mezz the mobs to pull or lull which is where you need 2 fade to split the mobs out. Also, in zones full of mobs it can be a pita to try and mezz pull and its much easier to fade pull the mobs. And with that 28k mana, blackmist would be better suited getting both of the mages geared up so they can DPs instead of wasting gear on a plate class which is not needed since that class wont even be taking dmg more then half the time.

[blackmist03]

So, even without focus, and just diong AA, how far can i make it with 2 mages and a shaman? I know I am asking very situational questions, but I am just trying to get some answers , before I get back from afghanistan and make 2 mages and find out they arent as tough as possible

[Msha]

Well, I'm killing nameds in Pellucid Grotto with 2 mages and 2 healer mercs. But it's two tower geared mages though, both with EM8