Well i'm retrying VG and my friend is going to play a bard. I want to play a class that will work the best alongside his. I do not mind what class I play, I enjoy heavy armored classes, melee dps, healers and spellcasters. Does anyone have any classes or any advice to help me reach a verdict?

Thanks.

I don't really know,

but it's often a good idea to have one class that has some sort of healing ability.

so a paladin if you were an armour,

any form of healer,

or a druid ?

I'm really not too sure though, as I haven't played a bard.
It's just a general rule that helps anyone :)

I would deffinately go for a Bear Shaman; Great melee buffs, Good healing power, near immortal in combat and your bleeds will do decent damage alongside a bard.

This is a really hard to answer question. Bards are the ultimate toolbox, and absolutely required for "perfect" groups. Otherwise they dont have that much, only a bit dps.

I would however suggest to make a healer, specifically one with high dps.

- Cleric would be a really bad choice for this. They cannot keep aggro against a Bard (I have a Cleric and believe me, I tried). Their low dps wont help either.

- Bear Shaman will work very well atm, but that is because they bug. Seriously, I had a group with a Bear Shaman on my Sorcerer, and I couldnt snatch aggro off him no matter how hard I tried. Thats something no tank could do ! But I expect this to vanish with GU6, since melee dps will be fixed (i.e. lowered) a lot at that time.

- Phoenix Shaman looks very ideal, because Energy Regen will allow the Bard to use more powerful songs, and you get all the good healing Shamans can do on a "infinite" mana pool (thanks to the energy regen buff).

- Disciple is also a very good choice. A complex class to play, but also very good at "infinite" healing (thanks to their ability to heal with Jin, and to refill their Mana pool with Jin), and their Fake Death will very likely prevent many group wipes.

- Blood Mage is intended to have best healer dps (and hopefully will get that after GU6). They are the only type of healer who has problems with adds (though they get a nice charm symbiote). They lack the other goodies of the Phoenix Shaman and the Disciple, though, and their symbiotes wont be as useful with a Bard.

Also check up on the often ignored system of weaknesses and exploits (Unless it has been removed?). All classes have the ability to bestow certain weaknesses on to mobs using some of their attacks. These don't do anything on their own. They're not debuffs or anything. But each class also has the ability to exploit certain weaknesses on mobs. Therefore it can be a good idea to pair up two classes that can exploit each others bestowed weaknesses. Don't ask me which class uses what etc cause its been so long since I played more than the uber casual way I play these days hehe.. there should be plenty of web sites with the details.

I'd go with a paladin. Paladin's and bards can do some mean things to creatues.  But if I were you I'd play a class I'd be interested in. I vanguard almost any two classes work fine together. Do what you want :)

Bard + Warrior ftw !

all you need is to find a third buddy to play a Shaman or Disciple and you guys would be able to 3 man all kinds of stuff!

Bard + Shaman would work well too - especially bear shaman...

But I would personally go with a big ugly duel wield warrior  =)

Something with heals and +end regen.

Cleric, Disciple, or Shaman (bear) imo.

When the game was first released, the Bard + Cleric was the best duo, in my view.   Second perhaps only to the Shaman + DK duo.

The Shaman can solo what a full group can barely take-down.  If you pair a Shaman with a DK, which is a very effective solo tank class, there is not much your group cannot do.