Levelling a bard? How bad is it?

So, surprisingly i am contemplating leveling a character in hibernia, despite not thinking i would do it, and despite never being impacted by the realmswitch timer, the new change has spiked my interest

Bards seem to be a class that is missing a lot and since it was one of the first classes i RvRed with i thought i'd give it another shot.

How fucked are bards regarding levelling?
Am i completely group dependant at higher levels?
Any bard specific leveling advice out there?

Which weaponline is best to spec for the early levels, or does it not matter much and i should adapt to the weapons that drop? (or is it a lost cause anyways, even at low levels?)

PS:
To make sure i don't mess up, Celt with 15dex/ 10whatever right?

Final speccs also appreciated, even if it is still faaaar away.
43Nurture (speed5) / 37Music (first instant AOE mezz + yellow AOE mezz) / 10blades (sidesnare) / rest 31healing looks okay at first sight...or is going for purple-cast-aoe-mezz a good idea?

Thu 17 Oct 2019 7:49 AM by Cadebrennus

I can't speak to every situation, but I remember being kited to death by a Bard (while playing my Merc). This is also with NF Charge available on Live, so I also had a speed burst (of sorts) available. She simply outplayed me and literally had to play a perfect game or she was dead. Given enough time in a fight I would say it's a fair assessment that a Bard could 1v1 enough classes that don't have speed or significant ranged damage. She definitely wasn't weapon specced and had to use every cc tool and DD available to her to get the job done.

That being said though, once a meleer is on top of you a Bard will drop significantly faster than a Minstrel due to the difference in armor. (Reinforced vs chainmail).

Thu 17 Oct 2019 8:19 AM by Sepplord

yeah, bards should be able to kite most melees to death even if it takes very long...
i was more looking for their ability regarding levelling. RvR i will join groups or run smallmen with my friends-no plans of solo-battle-barding

Thu 17 Oct 2019 8:51 AM by bigne88

I mainly play bard, so I can give my 2 cents:

Levelling wise you are welcome in any party as healer, speed, rezzer, buffer, mezzer. If you dont get insta invited start to make your own party and whisper to anyone in your level range. If you find noone and you are forced to solo you can look for exp items: you wont be as fast as pet classes but it wont be terrible. Mix up song and the weapon line according to your best drops. I'm not a solo exper expert tough, there might be better strategies.

At 50 you have a couple of soecs avaible and the one you proposed sounds right. I play 43 buff, 37 music, 19 blade rest heal, and you will still have a big emergency heal. Remember that to sidesnare you can instaswap to sword than back to harp, so you wont lose your song. Autohotkey helps a lot too and you can put on the same button a spell that goes against an enemy and one that goes on friends, for example i binded on Q aoe amnesia and cure mezz, on E i have aoe mezz and cure disease etc. you got my point.

For solo pvp kite kite kite. Even aproaching a melee to sidesnare can be your death.

For the weapon choice during levelling: I read somewhere that most of mobs are vulnerable to slash, not sure tough. Anyway, check always the quality of the weapon: a 99% quality blue sword can be better than a 96% quality red sword. Experiment and red the combat log.

Thu 17 Oct 2019 11:17 AM by gotwqqd

Generally leveling won’t be an issue
Shroom bomb groups will invite you

Thu 17 Oct 2019 12:24 PM by Lipsi

Having started on Hib 2 weeks ago with a bard as unique class, and a small advantage of 5P that i traded from Mid, but except for that, totally new to server, people, maps, i think sharing my experience would be interesting to you.

With a playtime of about 3-4 hours a day :
Monday Level 1-10 basically solo and quite fast as any other class - 2 hours, including the time to get familiar with maps
Level 10-20 was offered PL by a much higher level animist leveling around 35 - 2 hours
Thuesday Level 20-25 Thidranki stop - xp on ennemies in the battleground - 1 evening / hit RR2
Wednesday Level 25-35 mixed RVR joining the zerg and a bit of XP - animist bomb group - 1 evening / hit RR3
Thursday Level 35-45 mixed RVR joining the zerg and a bit of XP - animist bomb group - 1 evening / hit RR4 - 10K-15K feathers
Friday Level 45-50 threw some money for Quest XP items + combined xp - 1 evening + raised salvaging skills to 1000+ (couple hours)
Saturday RAID Galladoria + Legion + Dragon - Get Galladoria Epic Chest bard + Chunk of Legion bracer for mana reg - threw the rest of the money on crafted 99% SC + Rogs + alchemy procs

So my experience as a new bard new to hiberia was in a week, get fully temped + lvl 50 + RR4+, with a bit assiduity but nowhere near hardcore gaming.
If you don't have the money for the SC, you can do your epic quest at lvl 50 - takes 5 minutes, and it salvages for about 1P500, enough to buy a proper armor.

It was both pleasant, and relatively easy, but required enough investment to have the satisfaction of deserving what i achieved.
Welcome to hib !

PS : regarding my spec as i leveled, i was following a curve that looks like my final RVR spec. Nurture-Music and low Regrowth. I didn't even need to respec a single time - except RAs. Final spec 43N/44M/10B/21R

Thu 17 Oct 2019 1:38 PM by borodino1812

If your class fit into the shroom/bomb hib group setup, you will be fine - if not prepare to slog it out, but it is not really a problem here. As a bard you'll be fine.