Going back to my first bard.
It is very much by design far as I could tell, since it has been around for 7 years.

Bards are prone to being involved in gank kills. If you look at bard pbfs with , almost none of them are sub 2 in gank, and most of those who are played over 10 years ago. Of the top 5, only one managed to go below 2. Look at their deahs, most are also around a 2 for deaths. This just shows, when bards are involved in someone dying or dying themselves, it's usually not in a solo fight.

That's why Twist makes me laugh. Solo killing as a bard is NEVER the norm. The removal of mental vulns eliminated one of the primary avenues bards had for it.

The conditions are your GOM and how many people are ganging the target. That's pretty much it from my years of bards. The only way to have a decent GOM as a bard is to avoid cabal involvement and group fights, which however is primarily the reason people play bards. Though they are amazing for PVE too.

If you play a bard, kill one person in a 3 v 1, as KB or an assist. Next group fight you will see distracts. Higher your GOM, the worse it is. You'll see it even if your GOM is below 2, but usually less so. But even with a decent GOM, if you're going 4 on 1, it will still happen. It can screw bards in group fights. Conversely, you can use songs on groups to make them all attack you and use the chaos to make them miss you with a lot of skills while an ally or two tears them apart, though this does require quite a bit of prepping and risk.

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