Discussion - Bards and their sources of aggro

[juice999]

This is really stupid, but I'm a connoisseur of all things dumbass. So, we know Rangers get taunt and weapon shield which can result in some clutch saves in a sticky situation where you're down tanks. My curiosity is what tools do Bards get that would allow them to gain aggro? I've got a few of them together so far, but I'm sure there's plenty that I'm missing because I don't got much. So, I'll start by sharing what I DO know about and the use:

Mithril Breastplate [OMM] - 0.2s cast Bellow - +400 aggro
Orb of the Sky - Call of the Sky - Stun proc
Aggro glyph - Have had to use this in a shitshow of a raid I was in to attempt and off-tank some adds.

I know this post is a bit of a meme, but just hear me out. There's no negative to having +aggro on an active bard w/1% mana fade. I know that a Bard is far from a tank and lacks nearly any defensive skills aside from a couple long cooldown AAs and an on-hit stun, but being the jack of all trades that a Bard is; I like to keep as many tools as possible available to me. (Basically, I know this post is stupid as hell but please bare with me, LOL)

 

[Venjenz]

Beyond what is listed, the general stuff for bards - dots, snare, slow, etc. And all of that is worse than what almost any other class can do for gaining/holding aggro.

Aggro is not the BRD wheelhouse...like they are probably dead last in that department, even if they are really trying.

 

[TempusX]

Dissonant Chord is an AA on a 5min timer with Improved Taunt and causes others to generate 90% less hate. it's a short term thing, but that, with deft dance, hymn, and shield of notes will get you tanking for a while.

Then of course things like melodic binding should get you snare/slow aggro.

 

[darbes]

My experience, actual aggro "abilities" is nearly zero. But on the other hand, getting aggro often is very common and consistent just from playing your songs. At least in this expansion

 

[Oldman66]

My bards are agro for not having CWTN plugin

 

[juice999]

Beyond what is listed, the general stuff for bards - dots, snare, slow, etc. And all of that is worse than what almost any other class can do for gaining/holding aggro.

Aggro is not the BRD wheelhouse...like they are probably dead last in that department, even if they are really trying.

Well, I don't know if I'd say they're dead last in that department. They generate a ridiculous amount of passive aggro just from songs. That's the whole reason they originally gave them plate armor, right? Because they couldn't figure out how to code the songs without them generating a ton of aggro? I don't know, that's just something I heard. It's also partly why Bards have access to a spammable aggro drop.

Dissonant Chord is an AA on a 5min timer with Improved Taunt and causes others to generate 90% less hate. it's a short term thing, but that, with deft dance, hymn, and shield of notes will get you tanking for a while.

Then of course things like melodic binding should get you snare/slow aggro.

Those three abilities (and Dissonant Chord) are really the only thing that makes this a relevant conversation. In an absolutely DIRE situation, we might be able to pull something out of our ass and off-tank something. Deftdance is really a strong defensive ability.