Two friends and I are going to give this game a whirl. They have their hearts set on Bard and Psionist. What should I roll to make playing possible/painless?

i would probably say some tank character

Bard and Psy?

You have no healer.

If you want a tank/healer type, go with a Cleric.

Otherwise, if you want a healer who can basically heal forever if played right, go with a Disciple.

Bear Shamans do good as well, but I always felt they were a bit limited.

Clerics can wear plate and have attacks that taunt.

Disciples can heal forever and the best dps for a healer. They can also feign death and mez mobs.

I have a 50 Disciple who I basically Solo'd the entire time. One of my favorite tactics was pulling a group of mobs, mezzing one of them, and then Feigning Death. The rest of the mobs would run back, then you stand up and kill the mob that you mezzed. The mez is a physical attack and takes some getting used to, but it was awesome some of the stuff I could do.

A Bard will compliment the group by giving the fastest movement speed, group invis, and increasing everyones DPS by 200% or more. I have seen bards increase the entire groups DPS by almost 300% in some cases. My Disc hits for about 2k-3k with each combo attack and i'm not epic geared. Have a bard in the group and all the sudden i'm doing 5k attacks.

A Psy will give everyone haste (melee/spell) and the best CCs in the game, incase things get crazy.

Edit:

I am not a pro when it comes to Vanguard, but I do have a 50 Disciple and a 50 Ranger. You are more than welcome to send me a message here on mmorpg.com if you want some more advice, etc. I love Vanguard, I think its one of the best MMOs on the market, I just grew tired of playing by myself after getting 2 characters to 50. There is so much to do in that game, especially with a group.

I was originally thinking Paladin or Cleric for the tank/healing role, but I figured I'd ask in case there was some undocumented synergy between a class I overlooked.

With a Psionicist, is the Disciple CC/pull trick necessary? Feign death would be nice as proactive wipe recovery.

A cleric would be a great choice.  You can take a LOT of damage, and heal a LOT of damage, but you don't do much damage yourself.  Where the Bard does a lot more damage than a cleric, and a Psy gives great CC and some pretty darn good buffs (plus dots) that I think that would be a good choice.  A paladin doesn't heal nearly as much or as well as any of the healers.  It's sort of a tank with a few minor healing spells.

Disciple is great too, they can do some pretty darn good damage, and have a pretty cool way of healing (you can use Jin, which you build up from melee attacks, to cast some heals, or energy to cast other heals).  It's rare if a Disciple can't cast a heal from one or the other pools.  You just might run into problems with aggro, but there is the "defensive target" so you don't have to constantly retarget between the mob and who you want to heal.

how about dread knight?

Originally posted by wacked37

Two friends and I are going to give this game a whirl. They have their hearts set on Bard and Psionist. What should I roll to make playing possible/painless?

You made excellent choices on classes. Both are very fun to play!

I cant give you a tip on a third class, but I will recommend you to start looking for a suitible guild early on to get into the community.

Good luck!

Originally posted by wacked37

I was originally thinking Paladin or Cleric for the tank/healing role, but I figured I'd ask in case there was some undocumented synergy between a class I overlooked.

 

With a Psionicist, is the Disciple CC/pull trick necessary? Feign death would be nice as proactive wipe recovery.

Sorry for the delayed response.

The Disciple CC/Pull trick is needed if you want a single mob, otherwise, you are correct in not needing it if you have a Psy, since the Psy can just CC the rest. I believe the Psy have up to 3 or 4 CC's they can put out.

I was just hinting the abilities that Disciples have, especially when solo. I solo'd with mine a lot, so I was just throwing in about how much I love Disciples. =D

In other news, Disciples also make decent tanks, since they rarely ever run out of heals, they also do damage to build combat points. So in combination of doing damage as well as healing, they tend to pull agro a lot. This is not a bad thing with your group since you do not really have a tank.

Edit: Because I can't spell.

Been playing Vanguard since release so just over 4 years now. Having maxed out a Bard-Dread Knight -Disciple-Tuurgin Shammy and a Rakuur Shammy i think i can speak.

Personally with a Trio i would go Tank= Dread Knight- Light fighter= Bard(great buffs including movement and levi plus invis and tons more enhancements) Last but not least i would go Healer= Cleric for the best buffs in the game.

This means you have two plate wearing classes and some serious buffing power from Cleric and CC from Bard. With this set up you will fly through all content that is not a raid.

Meh.

Bard and Psio are great support characters.

But if you have 3 people, you really would like to get tank and healer, so you can do dungeons.

If you dont, well you basically will suck.

Besides, at some places Psio will really suck, because CC is completely worthless there.

P.s.: Oh, and Clerics can NOT taunt. Not ever. Believe me. I have over 100 days playtime on my main, a Cleric. All we get is a rescue and the hope to have any effect with massive overheals. But no taunting whatsoever.

Dread Knight is the best choice if you still want to do dungeons with a Psio and a Bard, but dont expect it to be easy. Many dungeons will still be completely impossible if you dont have a healer.

A Disciple is the second best choice for dungeons. But dont expect any miracles, either.