Bard Hits New Low as Lost Ark‘s Least Played Class
As a long-time Lost Ark theorycrafter and content creator, I analyze Meta and population trends closely. And in November 2022, the unpopular Bard class dipped to just 2.83% playrate per Loawa class rankings. For perspective, that‘s nearly 5x less common than October‘s most popular class, Berserker, at 12.22% playrate !
As someone who loves innovating off-meta builds, it pains me to see so many players sleeping on the Bard‘s immense value. Sure, zooming around the battlefield as a massive Beserker dishing out city-sized attacks looks cool. But from my experience pushing progression groups to Valtan Hard and beyond, the Bard‘s damage buffs and sustain can more smoothly enable victories.
What Makes Bards Uniquely Challenging?
I totally understand why many gravitate toward big number classes instead of supports like Bard. We all love seeing our attacks utterly flatten bosses! However, Bards face a few unique perception issues among Lost Ark classes:
- Lower Personal DPS – Bard abilities empower allies over themselves. Less big crits on your screen is unsatisfying.
- Musical Aesthetic – The classical music motifs and singing animations distance some players.
- Methodical Gameplay – Rotating buffs and reactive healing isn‘t as frantic as pure DPS classes.
However, writing off Bards due to these factors overlooks how phenomenally they amplify coordinated groups!
Bards Secretly Enable Progression Groups
Lost Ark endgame revolves around Abyssal Raids and Legion Raids – the pinnacle of PvE challenges. And based on InvenGlobal‘s Legion Raid tier lists, expert Bard players consistently rank among the top desired classes for difficult new content.
Why?
Bards essentially break progression groups by providing:
- Massive Damage Buffs – Yearning provides 30% increased damage and 60% crit damage!
- On-Demand Healing – Strongest in the game with multiple instant cast options.
- Rhapsody/Guardian Tune – Enables ininity tanking otherwise lethal mechanics.
These kits address the core hurdles in emerging fights – damage checks, sustain, and learning mechanics. Anecdotally from my Legion progression static, our first Argos and Valtan Hard kills happened when we grabbed strong Bard mains!
And thanks to November‘s rework, Bards have even greater utility in endgame without needing perfect execution.
Why Players Are Missing Out on Bards
As someone who loves min/maxing DPS across all classes, I still make room for support alts. Mastering your class rotation while also watching for mechanics and team cooldowns creates engrossing gameplay. It‘s like playing chess compared to DPSing‘s checkers!
Plus, harmonizing your buffs and heals with spikes aligning feels incredibly satisfying. I live for those explosions of big boy damage pumped out by my DPS carries! Sure, my Crit number stays smaller, but enabling others just feels great.
And I firmly believe more casual players sleep on Bards because they simply haven‘t tried them past Tier 1. With Tier 3 engravings, gem levels, and relic gear effects, Bards become an entirely different beast. You provide so much value that groups will beg for you to join!
The Takeaway: Respect the Bard Life
While most players chase rankings and rewards by piloting the OP DPS classes each patch, remember the Bard mains quietly enabling those big numbers from corner of the battlefield. Beyond raw metrics, Bards bring something no other class provides – the power to empower others.
So if you‘re bored of competing purely for yourself every raid, I implore you to give Bards a try in T3. Attune to their unique rhythm of buffing, shielding, and healing between damage windows. You may just discover a whole new level of satisfaction in enabling your allies‘ full potential.
Because even as the consistently least played Lost Ark class, skilled Bards will forever have a coveted spot in progression groups. And those rare few willing to harmonize team success over personal glory deserve major respect.
