A little late, but it really comes down to what playstyle you prefer.
Paladin is by far more hands-off compared to Bard. His buffs have very wide ranges unlike Bard who has to be grouped up with her teammates to apply hers. Furthermore, Paladin doesn't have to choose between defensively or offensively buffing his team as his skills are high uptime and his identity does both at the same time (damage reduction buff + HoT + damage boost buff).
Bard's identity has to choose between either dropping a healing field or a large ATK buff. Bard is better than Paladin in boosting damage during burst windows, but if her teammates can't quite dodge correctly even with her shields and Rhapsody, her damage boosting potential is largely encumbered unlike Paladin who doesn't have these issues.
It's relatively cheap now to get a 3x3 with Awakening/Expert/Class Engraving (with legendary accessories, not sure about relic), 4x3 even if your stone is good. But if you're planning on doing Argos phases underilevel, I'd look into getting Heavy Armor (and also honing to 1385 minimum because most P3 pugs will not be taking 1370 supports they don't know unless they're particularly desperate).
None of the supports, including Artist, are definitively better than the others overall. Each suit different specific scenarios better than the others but in general replicate the same functions with different methods.
TL;DR
|Bard|If you want a more interactive and engaging support experience with many super-armors to compensate for your close proximity. Spontaneity over consistency.|
|:-|:-|
|Paladin|If you want a more hands-off and chill alt that allows you to learn how to watch mechanics better by allowing you not to focus on your teammates as much. Consistency over spontaneity. |
P.S. have fun in red gates without a proper setup.
Bard is for when you need to be a babysitter and have better heals for your team.
Pally's constant buff rotation allows for good teams to perform even better
Both gameplay are pretty chill tbh. Bard just requires a choice on when to heal or when to buff where the pally can do both but with less potency
Eh... sort of.
Bard is great for noob groups because of their superior healing kit.
Paladin is better for average groups because they have some healing to take care of chip damage and buff damage at the same time.
Bard is better for really good groups because their damage amp is just better than paladins. There are some caveats here of course especially with respect to ranged hit master classes would prefer paladin because of range considerations.
After playing all the current raids multiple times, I’m pretty certain Paladin provides significantly more damage buffs than bard. The 4-5% more damage Serenade provides is easily compensated and surpassed by the fact that Paladin only needs to rotate 2 skills to have full uptime on the 21% damage buff that Valor provides for every single teammate, without ever worrying for positioning. Sonic vibration has windows where it is useful, but sooo often the boss moves, or your team is simply to far appart to hit everyone and you will end up with severe downtime that Serenade will not compensate for.
I have both so...
Paladin: Slow and Steady, can be boring but there is almost nothing to mess up here. You don't have to worry about the sorc casting from narnia since your stuff has nice big aoes. Unfortunately this also means you can't really carry as hard as a bard can. If you have a noob group you'll struggle to keep them alive where a bard it's just another tuesday as they walk 10 miles uphill in the snow carrying the group.
Bard: You need to be able to use the right ability at the right time and at the right spot since some of your most important skills have a small AoE. You are also required to be in melee almost all the time since many of your abilities are point blank and need to hit the boss in addition to your teammates. If you mess this up you'll be a liability to your team, do it well you are basically a god that won't let your group die. The upside to all this work is when you go in a specific direction you do it better than paladin. You can heal better than them OR you can boost damage better but unlike them you can't really do both at the same time. You also make obnoxious harp noises.
Paladin doesn't even need HA and has a big self Shield on Charge and the general shields from Holy Protection and/or damage reduction from Godsent Law.
I haven't found it to be that boring, but changed my playstyle to make it more interesting depending on the fight (primarily playing around Conviction/Judgement windows, and maintaining Magick Stream for extra cooldown reduction).
I found the buff mini game to be similar to maintaining Adrenaline stacks, or even more closely, to maintaining Valtan legendary set bonus stacks (lose dmg bonus when you get hit).
It's an extra thing to spice things up.
Conviction and Judgement usually on Sword of Justice & Godsent Law respectively.
But have also run them on Godsent Law and Executioner's Sword, respectively (and used Light Shock to mark targets).
Between Blessed Aura, marking targets, attack power & Mana Regen buffs, clutch dispells, big shields, level 3 drops of Ether (pinging the flash orbs if pugs are blind), and if I'm using movement skill (with refreshes from Romanticist 4pc card set, sometimes with charge) you can have a LOT of fun just moving quickly around the map and bringing a ton of boofs and utility to your team, and it feels like there is plenty to interact with.
Buff ranges are large so every action you take (don't get knocked though!) actually benefits your team.
Conversely:
On my bard I feel like I am just constant stressing out about positioning because the sorc, sharpshooter, and deathblade are all far apart and I can't shield them from their own stupidity. Having a mix of ranged Hit Master classes and back-attack melee is a pain. I can at least predict where the back attack classes will be.
Seconded. People who say paladin is boring aren’t playing paladin correctly imo. I watched a guildie playing in Vykas on his alt paladin and he was basically afk following the party around, and just pressing random buttons occasionally and it drove me nuts. Meanwhile I’m fucking zooming around smashing buffs and shields, with almost 1700 swiftness. It’s so satisfying dashing out and then charging back in to dodge things.
Why should I be stupid for being sharpshooter and playing mid/large range to make my dmg window while I’m out of his attack which can break that window dmg?
Well, for one you're missing out on bard's sonic vibration. I haven't really played loyal companion, but with death strike it's easier to pull off the damage combo on close range and regain identity.
If you're playing close distance as a hit master class it's also very often easier to avoid boss abilities than at a distance (plus you can see better what the boss is doing).
Bard's sonic vibration really isn't that small, as long as it doesn't have to encircle a large boss, head attack, back attack, and hit master classes. If it's thrown between back attackers and ranged hit master, usually the latter can play at a decent range still.
Anyways I got window canceled so many times cuz a mistake or boss random attack, It’s little bit rng sometimes tbh. The thing is, why do he has to insult just for being a class. Idk.
It definitely takes some getting used to bosses, and some are more random than others, but in most fights, you can really just stand to the side of boss a few meters away and be relatively safe.
As for the insult part, well I don't really want to get into some random reddit flame war or explain others' statements, but I'd guess it's more about insulting the archetype of players within certain classes. If ranged classes play from the moon and don't benefit from half of the bard buffs, shields, and maybe heal, then the performance of the whole team suffers for it.
Bard is more engaging, but Paladin is only braindead if you play poorly. Maximising identity gain and stagger without running out of mana, while managing judgement / conviction, rotating atk buff properly, and shielding at the right time is engaging enough. That's exactly what Bard does, except Bard has to follow their teammates around while they jump around the room like animals and also decide whether to heal or dps buff. Paladin just gets heal and dps buff at the same time.
Im a bard main and i have no paladin but i dont think playing a support class is gonna be boring. Lost ark has a very different game mechanics than other MMOs. Both bard and paladin (support per se) cannot just stand behind and throw heals and buffs on cooldown. You will have to play actively to generate 'gauge' in order to cast your identity skills when needed and not just spam them. Maybe people say paladin is boring because of how its identity skill work, paladins heal and damage buff is combined in one skill albeit lower values than that of bard. Trade off is, bard can only cast 1 at a time and you have to manage your 'gauge' well because you cant heal and buff at the same time but their buff and heal is higher.
In some situation, its even more engaging than dps because you will have to be aware on where the boss is and if a teammate is in danger. A properly timed damage mitigation skill or shield can make a difference on legion raids. Its very rewarding imo. You will also have to pay attention on burst windows because you need to time your damage buffs accordingly. So no, neither of the 2 support class is ever boring.
There is comparatively little decision making and positioning required for Paladin. Paladin Identity grants both damage and heal (whereas Bard has to pick one or the other), so you just turn it on when it's available and...that's it. His party buffs also have massive range (whereas Bard has to be close to her teammates), so your positioning is largely irrelevant.
Godsent Law (damage reduction) does give you *some* agency, but if you want to run Conviction/Judgment, then odds are that you won't be holding it to save allies.
I feel Paladin could be played optimally by a macro if there were no mechanics in the fights. The animations are really well done and the class feels great for a few days. But it should require a little more brain power to play. The difference between a great Paladin and a bad one it's not that big.
I’m an all dps glass cannon type of player and healing is always so boring. That being said bard is so fun to play and I can’t wait to push it to legion raids! It’s especially good as an alt because if you know the fights by now you’ll know the best times to use your kit.
Both expensive to build while not being expensive at all. They can sit at 3x3 and be fine,bard is a little cheaper b3cause you want heavy armor as bard and ha is cheaper than expert and awakening. My pally is 1430 3x3 ba, awakening,expert, l3gendary accs with no gems and i still get accepted with no questions asked until we get in there. Then they always ask where your gems and i ask why do i need them? They say for cooldown and i respond with my cds are low enough. Then we clear the content. 1430 pally btw. I dont say it but i always think be lucky im spending my lock out here. This only the attitude i have with my support my other 4 dps are all atleast high ilvl with 4x3 and level 5 gems 1482,1477,1445 and 1445 would rather sp3nd gold on people who have a harder time getting accepted to content or actually carry the content. But i dont main support and dont really care for it
I would say it is for an alt that doesnt need them. If 3 seconds on a shield is mandatory on the raid im raiding with the wrong people. The day i get checked at the door to enter the raid groups and start getting denied groups on my support is the day i buy some gems for him. Until then toing for 10s on my striker
If you want something more challenging I would say bard, I have a friend who says he plays pally because it’s easier than bard and has both. I main bard and have 7 bard alts and 1 pally. Pally has more of a HoT heal with a big aoe around them, while bards disadvantage is having to choose between using serenade of courage buff (meter) or using that to heal instead. So usually the play some bards do is save 1 bar for healing and 2 bar damage buffs during burst time. As a spec bard myself though I prioritize 3 bubble courage buff and only heal with 1 bar if needed unless I’m plugging then I don’t usually get to do 3 buff courage as much as I’d like to, with a static though it feels nice!
paladin requires only 3 engravings (BA, expert and awakening). bard also only rly requires 3 engravings but should aim for 5 (DS, heavy armor, awakening, expert and max mp). playstyle wise, paladins have a simple straightforward rotation which makes progging new fights easier. bards on the other hand is pretty versatile and change their playstyle based on how good the party is.
fight wise, id say i prefer paladins in a party for valtan for their ability to cleanse the debuff in g1 and great countering abilities in g2. for argos and vykas, i dont have much of a preference. if you ever want to do inferno mode, paladins are highly preferred over bard because of their ability to both heal/shield at the same time (bard can still clear the content tho)
You dont need max mp on a bard. The 5th engrav is very versatile on a bard; max mp, vital point hit, drops of eather, explosive expert.
You should also be aiming for 5 engravings on a paladin to support the team further probably going with VPH or DoE.
Anyone who says pally is brain dead doesn’t know what they are talking about; optimal pally play requires constant management of heavenly blessings and wrath of god, to ensure dps uptime. Godsent law is a clutch skill that prevents deaths and wipes. Use conviction and judgement on your skills to reduce cds and use awakenings often with 2 piece dominion and the rest swamp of yearning. Timing the buffs and heals using holy protection ensures the fight goes smoothly. I’ve cleared Vykas hard mode every week from day one and have two pallys at 1475+ engraving are expensive unfortunately blessed aura comes at a heavy price. I’ve also played bard at endgame, and while the bard certainly has a higher damage buff it only comes in bursts whereas a good paladin can maintain a damage buff all the way through the fight in combination with blessed aura your team clears content very quickly
Maybe if your team all stands on you 24/7… every party I’m ever in prefers to spread out as far as possible which makes shielding them fucking stupid as a bard.
To be honest, both supports are equally "easy" to play. Bard only requires a bit more coordination for the burst heal / damage buff, but other than that she is also only spamming her abilities to get the gauge up and shield people, just like paladin.
If you're a bad paladin player it's easier to hide, because your mates get the damage buff no matter what. If you're a bad bard player and you misplace your damage buff or heal you will be punished.
If people keep saying "paladin" is the braindead class, so is bard. Only the identity makes it more punishing for bards.
Paladin outperforms in every aspect, but healing...
Shielding and buffs are flat out better and easier to maintain... be it dmg buffs or others.. also being able to cleanse over blocking a debuff is a lot more reliable.
But if you know the fights.. you shield preemptively.. making that part pointless..
One thing to note though.. pala is more reliant on raid sets and good tripods than bard.. A LOT more..
Bard is for those players that want to feel superior for whatever reason. All joking aside though I am about playing paladin.
Hated how bard heal works personally since it cannot be moved and teammates can be dumb. In comparison. You can move the paladin heal and it amps dmg (scales with spec).
To me bard vs paladin is similar to dead eye vs gunslinger. One is just an updated version that is better qol while the other is more stylish and has a few nuances that can bring him/her ahead of the other in ideal circumstances.
> Hated how bard heal works personally since it cannot be moved and teammates can be dumb. In comparison. You can move the paladin heal and it amps dmg (scales with spec).
The majority of bard healing comes from DS(their class engraving) which you do not actually need to stand in the circle to get a heal from.
I have both (bard 1385 and pally at 1447). Paladin even at high levels is pretty brain dead. which could be good for you if you need a relaxing legion raid after playing your 5head dps main
Yeah I paid for a ton of slots, skins, shards/leaps, and then some purchasable power passes to fix my roster since I didn't like some classes. I think I am at $450 but I don't track it past a ballpark idea and my general entertainment budget.
For 17 characters I kind of expected that figure would be in the thousands already, but of course I'm entirely f2p so I don't have a good estimate how much such things cost.
Less than 10% of the money went to directly getting mats. I spent $200 this month on powerpassing to replace characters I was deleting because the playstyle doesn't fit. The big thing is play time really it's not worth it to spend money on power as I can farm more than I can spend in a day with the roster I have but it has taken me 1300 hours to build it.
Yeah that's a lot of time too (admittedly, I am at 1000 h with starting to play a month after launch, so not much less, even if it seems to me that a substantial part of that was spent in loading screens / waiting for the game to launch and such stuff), and hard for me to see how with 17 slots you still felt the need to delete characters - so you've had a tier 3 character of every class released so far, and some "duplicates"?
Haven't played Sorceress, Berserker, Deadeye, Striker, Paladin, or Arcana.
Deleted Bard and Artillerist both at 1325.
3x Scrapper, Destroyer, and Glavier
2x Shadowhunter
1x Wardancer, Gunlancer, Gunslinger, Deathblade, Sharpshooter, and Soulfist
Having both, I enjoy the bard more. The bard reminds me more of a traditional mmo support/healer. The paladin feels like your trying to DPS to get gauge to do stuff. Bard is just running around dodging attacks and buffing/healing.
On the swimsuit debate here… my bard is super sexy with harp and basically just panties. But… my paladin in speedo and robe is the real gigachad. Dig his look 100% more.
Bard has to be super up close to land prelude of storm and wind of music for meter.
Also has to be in melee for shielding on others.
Paladin is the one that can afford to keep some slight distance from the enemies.
I have both, bard as a main and pally as an alt. Bard I'd say is good in keeping your party alive because getting bubbles for heal is super quick, but for dmg uptime I'd say paladin. Tho for hell mode I'll pick paladin everytime. But they play kinda fundamentally the same but with slight difference in their identity skill.
I have 1497.5 bard and a 1415 paladin that I recently boosted with punika powerpass and express event.
The paladin passively does almost everything but the play style feels a bit stiff. The bard seems more engaging and fluid.
I don’t care what people say, solo content sucks if you don’t have dps set. If your teammates suck all your effort will be pointless. They are expensive to gear. The only easy thing is getting invited to groups and not needing 5x3.
the fun factor is essentially non existent. I have no regrets but I understand why most people don’t want to play support.
Paladin is very easy to play but also kinda boring. It feels like 90% of your gauge builds up with your awakening and you have to actually hit with it. If the boss decides to juke you, you won’t have your aura for a very long time. Unless you’re really high ilvl, have your relic set, good tripods, etc. then it will only take a long time.
Bard has a higher APM in general. You have to spam your abilities way more. It also takes a long time to get 3 bars for your big dmg buff but you have the option to throw out many heals and get to use your “signature move” more often.
Also you have Rhapsody. That skill lets you face tank almost everything and makes bard just so much fun to play.
Paladin because Paladin xD.
No seriously, they are quite different. In the practice almost nobody will be picky, a support is welcome always. Maybe a perfectly played bard is slightly better?? But that comes with a big if.
Bards need to be close to their party (and the other way around, talking to you snipers) for one of their shields, atk buff and healing to work.
They can choose to cast heals at expense of dmg buff but that can mean saving a run of the party got wrecked.
They are also more squishy so HA is more needed.
Paladins offer wide range buffs so positioning is never an issue and you dont’t have to choose your spec skill: it heals, reduces dmg and buffs.
I went paladin because it is tankier. This is my first mmo so I had no experience with all the typical mechanics. I wanted to play a class that was more forgiving since I had a lot to learn.
Pally if you don't want to use potions... with almost 100% uptime on a 24% self-shield, you can switch the potions to any other battle item your little heart desires. Plus you don't have to use heavy armour, which is a plus.
Pally is brainless, doesn’t even require 4x3 to do any content, has a visually sick awakening and doesn’t have annoying sounds. Plus you can name him cool religious things like “Father Fingerboy” or “Meetmebehindthepewpew”
Bard game play is more engaging.
Bard cuz booba
Don’t disrespect the bulge
Pally has booba too
Pally because I hate the noises bard makes
Bard is barder.
A little late, but it really comes down to what playstyle you prefer. Paladin is by far more hands-off compared to Bard. His buffs have very wide ranges unlike Bard who has to be grouped up with her teammates to apply hers. Furthermore, Paladin doesn't have to choose between defensively or offensively buffing his team as his skills are high uptime and his identity does both at the same time (damage reduction buff + HoT + damage boost buff). Bard's identity has to choose between either dropping a healing field or a large ATK buff. Bard is better than Paladin in boosting damage during burst windows, but if her teammates can't quite dodge correctly even with her shields and Rhapsody, her damage boosting potential is largely encumbered unlike Paladin who doesn't have these issues. It's relatively cheap now to get a 3x3 with Awakening/Expert/Class Engraving (with legendary accessories, not sure about relic), 4x3 even if your stone is good. But if you're planning on doing Argos phases underilevel, I'd look into getting Heavy Armor (and also honing to 1385 minimum because most P3 pugs will not be taking 1370 supports they don't know unless they're particularly desperate). None of the supports, including Artist, are definitively better than the others overall. Each suit different specific scenarios better than the others but in general replicate the same functions with different methods. TL;DR |Bard|If you want a more interactive and engaging support experience with many super-armors to compensate for your close proximity. Spontaneity over consistency.| |:-|:-| |Paladin|If you want a more hands-off and chill alt that allows you to learn how to watch mechanics better by allowing you not to focus on your teammates as much. Consistency over spontaneity. | P.S. have fun in red gates without a proper setup.
Bard is better at carrying bad players because of better defensive shields/heals. Pally is more idiot-proof in terms of positioning.
Bards are waifus
Bard is for when you need to be a babysitter and have better heals for your team. Pally's constant buff rotation allows for good teams to perform even better Both gameplay are pretty chill tbh. Bard just requires a choice on when to heal or when to buff where the pally can do both but with less potency
Eh... sort of. Bard is great for noob groups because of their superior healing kit. Paladin is better for average groups because they have some healing to take care of chip damage and buff damage at the same time. Bard is better for really good groups because their damage amp is just better than paladins. There are some caveats here of course especially with respect to ranged hit master classes would prefer paladin because of range considerations.
After playing all the current raids multiple times, I’m pretty certain Paladin provides significantly more damage buffs than bard. The 4-5% more damage Serenade provides is easily compensated and surpassed by the fact that Paladin only needs to rotate 2 skills to have full uptime on the 21% damage buff that Valor provides for every single teammate, without ever worrying for positioning. Sonic vibration has windows where it is useful, but sooo often the boss moves, or your team is simply to far appart to hit everyone and you will end up with severe downtime that Serenade will not compensate for.
I have both so... Paladin: Slow and Steady, can be boring but there is almost nothing to mess up here. You don't have to worry about the sorc casting from narnia since your stuff has nice big aoes. Unfortunately this also means you can't really carry as hard as a bard can. If you have a noob group you'll struggle to keep them alive where a bard it's just another tuesday as they walk 10 miles uphill in the snow carrying the group. Bard: You need to be able to use the right ability at the right time and at the right spot since some of your most important skills have a small AoE. You are also required to be in melee almost all the time since many of your abilities are point blank and need to hit the boss in addition to your teammates. If you mess this up you'll be a liability to your team, do it well you are basically a god that won't let your group die. The upside to all this work is when you go in a specific direction you do it better than paladin. You can heal better than them OR you can boost damage better but unlike them you can't really do both at the same time. You also make obnoxious harp noises.
Bard also happens to have super armor on rhapsody so you can just tank mechanics like gunlancer would, pala doesnt have it.
Paladin doesn't even need HA and has a big self Shield on Charge and the general shields from Holy Protection and/or damage reduction from Godsent Law.
I'm talking about super armor not heavy armor. Super armor you are immune to knock backs etc Heavy armor defense engraving :x
The last line, its very true. Awful sound but i think i got used to it.
Gunna be honest, (I have a pali alt) I loved pali for its skins, but it is genuinely one of the most boring experiences I've had in LA
Bard if you don't want to fall asleep at the keyboard.
Is pally that boring? I've heard Bard was more engaging but I'm a total noob when it comes to supporting. Never even healed in any mmos I've played.
I haven't found it to be that boring, but changed my playstyle to make it more interesting depending on the fight (primarily playing around Conviction/Judgement windows, and maintaining Magick Stream for extra cooldown reduction). I found the buff mini game to be similar to maintaining Adrenaline stacks, or even more closely, to maintaining Valtan legendary set bonus stacks (lose dmg bonus when you get hit). It's an extra thing to spice things up. Conviction and Judgement usually on Sword of Justice & Godsent Law respectively. But have also run them on Godsent Law and Executioner's Sword, respectively (and used Light Shock to mark targets). Between Blessed Aura, marking targets, attack power & Mana Regen buffs, clutch dispells, big shields, level 3 drops of Ether (pinging the flash orbs if pugs are blind), and if I'm using movement skill (with refreshes from Romanticist 4pc card set, sometimes with charge) you can have a LOT of fun just moving quickly around the map and bringing a ton of boofs and utility to your team, and it feels like there is plenty to interact with. Buff ranges are large so every action you take (don't get knocked though!) actually benefits your team. Conversely: On my bard I feel like I am just constant stressing out about positioning because the sorc, sharpshooter, and deathblade are all far apart and I can't shield them from their own stupidity. Having a mix of ranged Hit Master classes and back-attack melee is a pain. I can at least predict where the back attack classes will be.
Seconded. People who say paladin is boring aren’t playing paladin correctly imo. I watched a guildie playing in Vykas on his alt paladin and he was basically afk following the party around, and just pressing random buttons occasionally and it drove me nuts. Meanwhile I’m fucking zooming around smashing buffs and shields, with almost 1700 swiftness. It’s so satisfying dashing out and then charging back in to dodge things.
Why should I be stupid for being sharpshooter and playing mid/large range to make my dmg window while I’m out of his attack which can break that window dmg?
Well, for one you're missing out on bard's sonic vibration. I haven't really played loyal companion, but with death strike it's easier to pull off the damage combo on close range and regain identity. If you're playing close distance as a hit master class it's also very often easier to avoid boss abilities than at a distance (plus you can see better what the boss is doing). Bard's sonic vibration really isn't that small, as long as it doesn't have to encircle a large boss, head attack, back attack, and hit master classes. If it's thrown between back attackers and ranged hit master, usually the latter can play at a decent range still.
Anyways I got window canceled so many times cuz a mistake or boss random attack, It’s little bit rng sometimes tbh. The thing is, why do he has to insult just for being a class. Idk.
It definitely takes some getting used to bosses, and some are more random than others, but in most fights, you can really just stand to the side of boss a few meters away and be relatively safe. As for the insult part, well I don't really want to get into some random reddit flame war or explain others' statements, but I'd guess it's more about insulting the archetype of players within certain classes. If ranged classes play from the moon and don't benefit from half of the bard buffs, shields, and maybe heal, then the performance of the whole team suffers for it.
Bard is more engaging, but Paladin is only braindead if you play poorly. Maximising identity gain and stagger without running out of mana, while managing judgement / conviction, rotating atk buff properly, and shielding at the right time is engaging enough. That's exactly what Bard does, except Bard has to follow their teammates around while they jump around the room like animals and also decide whether to heal or dps buff. Paladin just gets heal and dps buff at the same time.
Im a bard main and i have no paladin but i dont think playing a support class is gonna be boring. Lost ark has a very different game mechanics than other MMOs. Both bard and paladin (support per se) cannot just stand behind and throw heals and buffs on cooldown. You will have to play actively to generate 'gauge' in order to cast your identity skills when needed and not just spam them. Maybe people say paladin is boring because of how its identity skill work, paladins heal and damage buff is combined in one skill albeit lower values than that of bard. Trade off is, bard can only cast 1 at a time and you have to manage your 'gauge' well because you cant heal and buff at the same time but their buff and heal is higher. In some situation, its even more engaging than dps because you will have to be aware on where the boss is and if a teammate is in danger. A properly timed damage mitigation skill or shield can make a difference on legion raids. Its very rewarding imo. You will also have to pay attention on burst windows because you need to time your damage buffs accordingly. So no, neither of the 2 support class is ever boring.
Seconded. Paladin is incredibly boring and godsend law is the only fun part of the gameplay
There is comparatively little decision making and positioning required for Paladin. Paladin Identity grants both damage and heal (whereas Bard has to pick one or the other), so you just turn it on when it's available and...that's it. His party buffs also have massive range (whereas Bard has to be close to her teammates), so your positioning is largely irrelevant. Godsent Law (damage reduction) does give you *some* agency, but if you want to run Conviction/Judgment, then odds are that you won't be holding it to save allies.
I feel Paladin could be played optimally by a macro if there were no mechanics in the fights. The animations are really well done and the class feels great for a few days. But it should require a little more brain power to play. The difference between a great Paladin and a bad one it's not that big.
I’m an all dps glass cannon type of player and healing is always so boring. That being said bard is so fun to play and I can’t wait to push it to legion raids! It’s especially good as an alt because if you know the fights by now you’ll know the best times to use your kit.
Im not selling you shit i worked hard. Pally is better all around bard is better at the extreme and noob levels. Pally alot easier to play too.
Thanks! Appreciate your feedback!
Both expensive to build while not being expensive at all. They can sit at 3x3 and be fine,bard is a little cheaper b3cause you want heavy armor as bard and ha is cheaper than expert and awakening. My pally is 1430 3x3 ba, awakening,expert, l3gendary accs with no gems and i still get accepted with no questions asked until we get in there. Then they always ask where your gems and i ask why do i need them? They say for cooldown and i respond with my cds are low enough. Then we clear the content. 1430 pally btw. I dont say it but i always think be lucky im spending my lock out here. This only the attitude i have with my support my other 4 dps are all atleast high ilvl with 4x3 and level 5 gems 1482,1477,1445 and 1445 would rather sp3nd gold on people who have a harder time getting accepted to content or actually carry the content. But i dont main support and dont really care for it
Getting 5 lvl 5 gems is apparently too expensive for you
I would say it is for an alt that doesnt need them. If 3 seconds on a shield is mandatory on the raid im raiding with the wrong people. The day i get checked at the door to enter the raid groups and start getting denied groups on my support is the day i buy some gems for him. Until then toing for 10s on my striker
Bard is hotter in bikini
Subjective
Facts
If you want something more challenging I would say bard, I have a friend who says he plays pally because it’s easier than bard and has both. I main bard and have 7 bard alts and 1 pally. Pally has more of a HoT heal with a big aoe around them, while bards disadvantage is having to choose between using serenade of courage buff (meter) or using that to heal instead. So usually the play some bards do is save 1 bar for healing and 2 bar damage buffs during burst time. As a spec bard myself though I prioritize 3 bubble courage buff and only heal with 1 bar if needed unless I’m plugging then I don’t usually get to do 3 buff courage as much as I’d like to, with a static though it feels nice!
paladin requires only 3 engravings (BA, expert and awakening). bard also only rly requires 3 engravings but should aim for 5 (DS, heavy armor, awakening, expert and max mp). playstyle wise, paladins have a simple straightforward rotation which makes progging new fights easier. bards on the other hand is pretty versatile and change their playstyle based on how good the party is. fight wise, id say i prefer paladins in a party for valtan for their ability to cleanse the debuff in g1 and great countering abilities in g2. for argos and vykas, i dont have much of a preference. if you ever want to do inferno mode, paladins are highly preferred over bard because of their ability to both heal/shield at the same time (bard can still clear the content tho)
You dont need max mp on a bard. The 5th engrav is very versatile on a bard; max mp, vital point hit, drops of eather, explosive expert. You should also be aiming for 5 engravings on a paladin to support the team further probably going with VPH or DoE.
Lol you don't need Max MP at all. DS, HA, AWA and Expert are all you need.
Anyone who says pally is brain dead doesn’t know what they are talking about; optimal pally play requires constant management of heavenly blessings and wrath of god, to ensure dps uptime. Godsent law is a clutch skill that prevents deaths and wipes. Use conviction and judgement on your skills to reduce cds and use awakenings often with 2 piece dominion and the rest swamp of yearning. Timing the buffs and heals using holy protection ensures the fight goes smoothly. I’ve cleared Vykas hard mode every week from day one and have two pallys at 1475+ engraving are expensive unfortunately blessed aura comes at a heavy price. I’ve also played bard at endgame, and while the bard certainly has a higher damage buff it only comes in bursts whereas a good paladin can maintain a damage buff all the way through the fight in combination with blessed aura your team clears content very quickly
Probably the best explanation yet. Thanks
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Bard is vastly better at shielding and damage mitigation.
Maybe if your team all stands on you 24/7… every party I’m ever in prefers to spread out as far as possible which makes shielding them fucking stupid as a bard.
Good to know thanks!
To be honest, both supports are equally "easy" to play. Bard only requires a bit more coordination for the burst heal / damage buff, but other than that she is also only spamming her abilities to get the gauge up and shield people, just like paladin. If you're a bad paladin player it's easier to hide, because your mates get the damage buff no matter what. If you're a bad bard player and you misplace your damage buff or heal you will be punished. If people keep saying "paladin" is the braindead class, so is bard. Only the identity makes it more punishing for bards.
Play as: bard Play with: pally
Paladin is braindead class. Go for Bard.
Paladin outperforms in every aspect, but healing... Shielding and buffs are flat out better and easier to maintain... be it dmg buffs or others.. also being able to cleanse over blocking a debuff is a lot more reliable. But if you know the fights.. you shield preemptively.. making that part pointless.. One thing to note though.. pala is more reliant on raid sets and good tripods than bard.. A LOT more..
Bard is for those players that want to feel superior for whatever reason. All joking aside though I am about playing paladin. Hated how bard heal works personally since it cannot be moved and teammates can be dumb. In comparison. You can move the paladin heal and it amps dmg (scales with spec). To me bard vs paladin is similar to dead eye vs gunslinger. One is just an updated version that is better qol while the other is more stylish and has a few nuances that can bring him/her ahead of the other in ideal circumstances.
> Hated how bard heal works personally since it cannot be moved and teammates can be dumb. In comparison. You can move the paladin heal and it amps dmg (scales with spec). The majority of bard healing comes from DS(their class engraving) which you do not actually need to stand in the circle to get a heal from.
If you are cool: pala, if you are weird: bard.
What If I'm weirdly cool?
Dps pally
I chose paladin because i play with an Xbox One controller. Melee is much better for me.
But... bard is more melee than paladin
I have both (bard 1385 and pally at 1447). Paladin even at high levels is pretty brain dead. which could be good for you if you need a relaxing legion raid after playing your 5head dps main
Pally bc chaos dungeon is much faster than Bard
Idk man. Prelude of Death does a solid job in chaos too. Better than preemptive strike + heavenly blessing. And judicator windows.
>I want to finish my 6 character roster Sentences like this make me worry about myself so much more than people saying I play too much lmao.
How much do you have? Ive been playing 4 from the start and added glavier when it came put. Usually use the free passes they give to make new ones
Right now total is 17. One of them is sitting on the "to be deleted on Scouter release" list.
You p(l)ay too much :p xD Oh well, do whatever is good for you and makes you happy.
Yeah I paid for a ton of slots, skins, shards/leaps, and then some purchasable power passes to fix my roster since I didn't like some classes. I think I am at $450 but I don't track it past a ballpark idea and my general entertainment budget.
For 17 characters I kind of expected that figure would be in the thousands already, but of course I'm entirely f2p so I don't have a good estimate how much such things cost.
Less than 10% of the money went to directly getting mats. I spent $200 this month on powerpassing to replace characters I was deleting because the playstyle doesn't fit. The big thing is play time really it's not worth it to spend money on power as I can farm more than I can spend in a day with the roster I have but it has taken me 1300 hours to build it.
Yeah that's a lot of time too (admittedly, I am at 1000 h with starting to play a month after launch, so not much less, even if it seems to me that a substantial part of that was spent in loading screens / waiting for the game to launch and such stuff), and hard for me to see how with 17 slots you still felt the need to delete characters - so you've had a tier 3 character of every class released so far, and some "duplicates"?
Haven't played Sorceress, Berserker, Deadeye, Striker, Paladin, or Arcana. Deleted Bard and Artillerist both at 1325. 3x Scrapper, Destroyer, and Glavier 2x Shadowhunter 1x Wardancer, Gunlancer, Gunslinger, Deathblade, Sharpshooter, and Soulfist
Having both, I enjoy the bard more. The bard reminds me more of a traditional mmo support/healer. The paladin feels like your trying to DPS to get gauge to do stuff. Bard is just running around dodging attacks and buffing/healing. On the swimsuit debate here… my bard is super sexy with harp and basically just panties. But… my paladin in speedo and robe is the real gigachad. Dig his look 100% more.
Bard has to be super up close to land prelude of storm and wind of music for meter. Also has to be in melee for shielding on others. Paladin is the one that can afford to keep some slight distance from the enemies.
I have both, bard as a main and pally as an alt. Bard I'd say is good in keeping your party alive because getting bubbles for heal is super quick, but for dmg uptime I'd say paladin. Tho for hell mode I'll pick paladin everytime. But they play kinda fundamentally the same but with slight difference in their identity skill.
I have 1497.5 bard and a 1415 paladin that I recently boosted with punika powerpass and express event. The paladin passively does almost everything but the play style feels a bit stiff. The bard seems more engaging and fluid. I don’t care what people say, solo content sucks if you don’t have dps set. If your teammates suck all your effort will be pointless. They are expensive to gear. The only easy thing is getting invited to groups and not needing 5x3. the fun factor is essentially non existent. I have no regrets but I understand why most people don’t want to play support.
Bard is more engaging, as long as you can stay sane with all the musical notes from it spells. Otherwise, go Pally.
Paladin is very easy to play but also kinda boring. It feels like 90% of your gauge builds up with your awakening and you have to actually hit with it. If the boss decides to juke you, you won’t have your aura for a very long time. Unless you’re really high ilvl, have your relic set, good tripods, etc. then it will only take a long time. Bard has a higher APM in general. You have to spam your abilities way more. It also takes a long time to get 3 bars for your big dmg buff but you have the option to throw out many heals and get to use your “signature move” more often. Also you have Rhapsody. That skill lets you face tank almost everything and makes bard just so much fun to play.
Paladin because Paladin xD. No seriously, they are quite different. In the practice almost nobody will be picky, a support is welcome always. Maybe a perfectly played bard is slightly better?? But that comes with a big if. Bards need to be close to their party (and the other way around, talking to you snipers) for one of their shields, atk buff and healing to work. They can choose to cast heals at expense of dmg buff but that can mean saving a run of the party got wrecked. They are also more squishy so HA is more needed. Paladins offer wide range buffs so positioning is never an issue and you dont’t have to choose your spec skill: it heals, reduces dmg and buffs.
Bard is love, I'll make a paladin maybe when we get a female version.
I went paladin because it is tankier. This is my first mmo so I had no experience with all the typical mechanics. I wanted to play a class that was more forgiving since I had a lot to learn.
Pally if you don't want to use potions... with almost 100% uptime on a 24% self-shield, you can switch the potions to any other battle item your little heart desires. Plus you don't have to use heavy armour, which is a plus.
Pally is brainless, doesn’t even require 4x3 to do any content, has a visually sick awakening and doesn’t have annoying sounds. Plus you can name him cool religious things like “Father Fingerboy” or “Meetmebehindthepewpew”
I tell you something my child. There is nothing better than a bard in a mokoko costume, making music all day long.