An Appeal for Healthy Expression and Discussion

[*Neptune*]

Greetings.

I've decided to take some time to elicit some feedback from you guys in the form of a simple
question to all players, and hopefully instigate some healthy discussion. Mind you, this is not
a question that's meant to disparage nor is it a question that's meant to provide reason for
one person to hijack the thread. This is not a question meant for people to ridicule others
for their choices. Let's just stick to the opinions related to the question itself.

What's your favorite area and why?

Try to include the classes relevant to your opinion. If there are multiple areas dependent upon
the class that you play, then tell us about that as well. We want to know! Feedback and the ability
to delve into the minds of our players is one of those things that allows us to take an informed
direction when adding new content. What is that one or two areas that gets your heart pumping?
Which mobs where? What group areas vs which solo areas get you excited to run?

As always, thanks for any and all participation. Let's keep it civil, though. If you have a suggestion
pertinent to areas in particular, go ahead and include that, too. Otherwise, let's keep in mind this is
not a discussion about equipment or mobs in particular, but rather the areas as a whole, for whatever
reasons you hold your opinions.

Ok, ready, set, go!

-Neptune

[cyprimus]

For me, with myriad alts... each areas different... for example..

Monk- ip- mainly stays on bh. for greek forest- good coins, decent exp. minimal casters to maladict or blast you.. also do monks in kroms-easy mobs for my size fairly safe exp. this areas small for me but they do not require webbing, Catacombs-also good large area.. variety of ranges of mobs from 25 k ish zombies to multimillion soloable master undead. Webbing required, so not an area i do all the time... mostly clears history for greek forest.

Lyme-oly pilgrims about all i do... some of the street mobs in town.. can do tigers and even terracotta warriors in ck, but not efficently yet.

SS-Cnetaurs, kender... murkwood and skeep..

ah-- usually hit the beach, eskimoes.. penguins... newbie areas... fun and safe.. castle black for sport and better exp..


Tank-solo mostly chasm. Sometimes do other areas... but charms my favorite solo for him. Ogres was, but no longer beaconed... so rarely bother running. Usually i just group..

Druid-mana sink..-sheol cemetary on ah. castle black
Lyme-realms, oly, tiger temple, terracottas... about all i do there.

I do not solo a lot..


For groups:

class is less important.

the easy to lead areas are best for me. this is matterhorn, castle on bh. tomb..
for AH mordin, possiplane, and crypt. Chasm again for small groups
For SS ud2, fiends.


Overall pattern is, areas that are easy to lead... mostly linear.. and few if any aggros.

Hardest thing i have seen lately is getting a leader/tank/healer ....that's not burned out and actually wants to lead..

[Teron]

If we only take into account an area theme, then the Desert is my favorite. It feels like a vast, dry ocean with an oasis in it. Maybe it's related to my previous experience in camping for marid in S3.

Other area characteristics depend on who I am playing and my goals.

I've played a warrior more, than any other class, and here are my favorites for different levels.

Warrior solo

Tiger Glen
- nice theme and descs
- small mobs to hack at lower levels.

Autumnal forest
- nice theme
- Thick expy mobs to chop with a warrior, very short runs between them.
Cons:
- the kender is annoying, since he steals items from the inv
- the aggro cleric is annoying too, since he wanders, is sanced and blasts.

Sakura
- a variety of mobs to progress through ac/levels: archers, swordsmen, possessed travellers, slimes
- a condensed area, means little running
- corpses add the adrenaline running, though if they catch you, it sucks, because they drain your strength.

Ogres
- a variety of mobs for similar ac/difficulty
- some mobs dont need webbing.

Cons:
- hard to run to, unlikely to get a recall/raise, even if someone knows you are there.
- does get boring killing the same mobs over and over. This makes me prefer Lyme solo.
- guards bash, which wastes mvs on entrench. Very annoying and probably doesnt add much exp to the mob.

Desert
- few people know solo mobs there
- danger makes the place interesting
- the area is very detailed, lots of rooms, fascinating descs/scenery, etc.
Cons:
- the aggro sultan makes travelling annoying.

CK
- great solo exp, if no one hits it.
Cons:
- great exp comes at a price of a possible death, if screwed up.
Have no idea why soldiers were nerfed there, now it's just another exp area, not the first place to go to.

For a thief:
Infirmary - great exp from the lung patients/poxes, with some risk.

Xanth
- nice area theme
- nicely designed stab/blast mobs
- the ghosts are well done: low hitroll, blast proc, great exp

Cons:
- Just dont aggro the patrol or the bush. Ruins the easy run.

Crypt of the Yuan-ti
- lots of trigtraps
- nice exp for the effort
- aggro mobs to keep you on your toes.

Areas favorite for leading

DemonWeb:
- a huge area with nice descriptions
- lots of exp mobs to hit of various difficulty
- includes a regen mob
- pops nice EQ
- is dangerous enough to make it interesting
Cons:
- an insanely long run through aggro mobs. Forget invis/fly and you are toast.

Moria:
- a nice theme with a familiar background story
- a huge area with nice exp mobs to hit - dwarves, custodian and king/queen are great
- the Smaug egg trigtrap and the slippery staircase make it interesting
- lots of dangerous things to keep in mind, such as wargs/orc guardian/Shelob, keep you on your toes
- lots of eq, though most of it is cps
- also, nice solo exp for 2-5x40. I enjoy soloing here much more, than leading, because I can walk as fast as I want and no one minds the extra tts.

Cons:
- there arent as many exp mobs there as in other areas, compared to DWeb. It might compared to the amount of mobs to fiends, but the runs in fiends are much shorter.
- the runs between mobs are longer, than desired, - you need to run through the ladder twice to attack Smaug - and often through underwater/fire/extra damage. I don't mind, but it reduces exp/hr, so people don't like this, I think.
- it takes time to switch between Smaug - ether mobs - and solids again
- have to kill balrog and then walk back to custodian to kill it, since you can't open the gate without custodian, even with a pass. It's possible to ambush the skeletal dragon for solo, but for a group it's unrealistic without a gatable spot beyond the custodian. I should set a beacon at the baths and convo for the custodian, I guess.
- lots of danger and specifics demand from people to pay attention, which they rarely do. Diff mobs hit different amounts of damage, the Smaug proc makes them run around the place - through the shaky ladder, etc. People just don't like this, because it throws them out of balance, they need to actually do something other, than rely on autoblasting/autohealing/autorescuing.
- some of the eq there is outdated: +hp +hpr eq for it would've rocked in mid S3, when I sent these suggestions, but now it's almost useless, except the sardonyx ring - it's the best in slot ring for valkers. The -1.1 +3hpr ruddy scale shield forge is questionable as well: too much effort for +20 fire resist, since it's not the bis shield.
- the crystal helm is hard to forge w/o killing Tiamat, which no one does these days. Get more players, fix Tiamat?

All in all, people would tolerate it, if they know they'd be getting awesome exp or eq there, but overall the runs there are meh, because I'm moving slowly there through trigtraps, using a mine pass, cast mass wb, etc. Which is why I'm doing Moria after Dweb/Ettins/Fiends/UD2 and usually skip Smaug due to his proc and the ladder tt.

Ogres
- the large mobs there are awesome exp
Cons:
- there are too few of them
- the run is long, unless you are a hoser.

UD2
- a very condensed area with lots of great exp mobs. Great for nocap runs.
- it's a nice variety from a typical jungle/cave
- even the run through a beholder is not as annoying, because it is a short one.

Fiends
- lots of nice exp mobs
Cons
- mobs they are thick and hit well, so it's the 3rd exp area I hit on SS
- the run is really long. I think it pales in comparison with the DWeb run.

Upper Dweb
- lots of great exp mobs in a very condensed area
- mobs here are a bit thicker, than in UD2, I think, but exp is nice, too.
No cons, unless you count that you need a larger group to kill here.

The Mount of Mordi
- again, lots of exp - so good it's worth doing in nocap days. Comparable to UD2 in this regard.
Cons
Very easy to roast newbies, though killing the leopards is as easy. Some newbies die at Ithaqua or require lots of mana to keep alive.

Ice Glen
- a nice theme
- good xp mobs
- nice eq
Cons:
- too few mobs for the amount of rooms
- eiroks/neiroks are annoying and probably don't add exp to the other mobs.

Dragon Mountain
- a huge amount of mobs
- a variety of mobs to hit for different group sizes, starting from 2-3man to huge.
Cons
Very easy to roast newbies at the queens.

Saurian Frontier
- lots of mobs with insane amount of exp that you can chop.
- mobs vulnerable to an element is a nice touch: I'd love to see more of these.
- safe runs between the mobs
Cons
- the area requires lots of people, especially, the diplodocus.

Volcano
- a huge area with different mobs
- the paths between exp mobs are short, but indirect
Cons
- mobs there now are way too thick with high damage *and* hitroll - regal/armor/weaponsmaster - they drain groups fast, compared to Castle/Tomb/Dmount. I'd even prefer male black dragons to the volcano mobs. Panther/wizard are ok, more or less. Chert beast is nice, but small.

BH Castle
- alchies are great exp
- great for 1x40 solo
Cons
- it's been run to death.

Honorable mention: Ravenloft

I really like the theme of the area and it used to be awesome exp in early S3, but now Georgi/Ivan just hit just too well and are so thick they aren't worth it. Georgi's robe is now almost useless, compared to drachma robes and firebane. Give it +30 fire resist, maybe?

Ravenloft is still ok exp for thieves/monks and 2man, though barovian wolves are thicker, than a typical stab/blast mob.


I like the chinchilla guardian and Salazar for exp. If you want to make good 40-50m exp mobs, look at these.

Also, I like soloing huge mobs with other mobs. This practice seems to annoy imms, but it's nice to use your skills and pets to make mobs with earthquake or flame/frost area to fight others. Given that it's very dangerous, I think it compensates the exp/eq gain. You can only do it once per repop, too.

I think it pays to add more mobs, where people have to use their wits to kill them, rather than rely on brute hack & slash, which is boring.

So, as you can see, I like areas that have:
- lots of mobs
- mobs are great exp:
+ moderate thickness, average hitroll so with debuffs, don't hit tanks as often, high damage is ok as long as the hitroll can be mitigated with ac/debuffs - Salazar - you can also bash/stomp him. UD2 mobs except Kalamari.
+ thick mobs with low damage/low hitroll, so you chop these - Ankylosaurus, red sash in Dweb, chinchilla guardian
+ being bashable makes the mob so much better even with high hitroll/damage - Salazar.
+ no annoying procs, such as toss/oven, mass web or paralysis.
- short runs between mobs
- safe runs between mobs
- less tts and complications for grouping, more for soloing
- nice themes that are different from a typical jungle/cave and not necessarily include a blood-thirsty cult.

Good procs for mobs:
- lightning proc
- cleric/mage type
- kick 70% bash 30%
- immune/resist to one element: fire or ice
- disengage
- vulnerable to an element or dispel evil
- enrage at awful
- demon bind proc.

Bad procs:
- high % of bash to non-tanks - just messes with the group and rescues
- webs, especially through resist webs - Lolth - slow down the group
- resists to fire & ice at the same time
- disappear - Wurragurr/Hrio - slows down the group
- toss/oven people other than tank - makes ppl lose exp
- paralysis.

Also, I like the mobs that hit well w/o debuffs, but start missing after debuffs. Red and green dragons in dmount are a good example. BH castle and Tomb king/wolf lord, too.
Sometimes it seems the mobs weren't tested for hitroll and debuffs just dont do anything for them. And the exp on some of these mobs isn't great, either.

I may have other areas I lke, but this is all I could think of atm.

[Yasik]

I dont think it is a good idea to reply to this thread, we uncover what area we like (=easy and beneficial), those areas will be changed, 'rebalanced' or nerfed.
It happened before, especially for me: all VK, Autumnal in particular (I ran there a lot), Catacombs BH, CF - as if some powers made a goal to make me leave. You're one step from reaching this goal, I am no longer addicted as much as in early years, and have a lot to do irl.

[Teron]

Yasik's post has some truth in it.

It'd be lame to post what's left of rarely hit mobs on lyme, so they quickly become as unaged as others.

As for CF, in S3 it used to be the favorite area of mine:
- it's a small area, close to town
- has a nice theme
- it poses a challenge of killing stuff w/o blasts or healing
- provokes lots of adrenaline from running through rats, remoras and being locked with the king underwater
- has a trap in the form of a door that locks after you go through it
- used to offer good gold
- since I played a 4xnon-caster, this was the only area, where I was on par with the mobs and maybe even better, than some other players.

Since the area now has little gold, no worthy exp and little eq - let's face it, -0.7 +20hp guards are almost useless - it offers no more, than the challenge of killing dragons in nocast and a chance to pop the cp for a valk forge that everyone needs. This forge isn't enough for ppl to hit the entire area, obviously.

The newly aggro guards, Salne and slugs make the area uninviting, because you can only rest outside the waterfall or before the dragons. I have no idea why would anyone walk in to kill smuggler guards now.

I understand that 6 orchids must've been too good for gold, but really, the gold from the area was removed, not moved to other mobs within the area.

For the record, I do run dragons from time to time and had even popped those guards, but it's not as beneficial to run there any more.

Share what areas you like to play in better areas

That being said, immortals do need feedback about areas to make them better and we as players should provide it, if we want more interesting areas instead of areas that flop. It takes lots of effort to build the areas and create mobs/items, so it'd be more beneficial for everyone, if there existed a feedback loop in the process.

I think that if we bring the best practices of project management and agile development to the area creation, it would allow imms to get specific feedback and address that demand in areas, which would allow the players get the areas they'd love to run in.

So, share what you like in areas, be as much/little specific, as you want: Sloth needs your feedback.

Thank you.

[Unsub]

Hi Folks
Things I like in an area.
Larger is generally better. It not only makes it worth doing, an area larger than a single run gives a yardstick. As in I used to be able to 3 mobs per run and now I can do 15.

If the way you hit the area changes as you grow, it provides a feeling of accomplishment. An example would be the chessboard on VK. Starting out, you hit pawns and flee the knights that would crush you. Then kill single mobs of larger stature and flee when they summon help. Then clear the area, starting with small mobs and moving up so none will summon help. Then attack the big mobs and wipe out all that they summon. A nice growth path for using the area as your character grows. (Better area can beat more areas)

Areas that are easy to travel to are preferable. If you can’t readily get back in the area to get your corpse, I am not going to solo it.

Not a deal breaker, but I prefer not to have alignment issues. If I lose my clerical pet for running the area it slows me down.

There should be some danger or unpredictability that requires player input.

How I chose an area to run.
Unless I am working on quests or a specific piece of equipment, I will go to the continent which has extras running and run the best 3 to 5 areas, that I know of, for gold or experience or sellable equipment (aka gold).
The areas must be standout in either experience or gold or equipment for my level. There may be a lot of areas that are well runnable for a mid-level player such as myself. But, I am only going to hit the three to five of them that gives me the best result.

I am not going to hit an area with only 2 good mobs. If there are 10 areas, all having half a dozen decent mobs, I will probably pass on them all and look for an area where the experience or gold is more of a standout.

My observation
I want to hit 3 or 4 large areas with the best gold/exp I can get. The problem is those areas don’t change every few levels. They may change with forty levels but sometimes not even then. If there were a clear ladder of difficulty for areas that I could work through as my character progresses, I would hit that wider variety of areas. And if the gold/exp improved on that ladder, I would regularly change areas to move up.

[celerra7]

I'm throwing my hat in with Yasik also. Nerfing has greatly reduced my interest in playing areas that I used to like, especially on BH for prime solos, and VK for alt solos. BH Catacombs used to be a blast to see how hard and fast it could be run, plus getting some good xp and gp out of it. Now, its not worth the effort.

VK has been nerf'd so much, (my opinion only) that the "push" to get everyone off VK as soon as possible has been achieved. No one wants to stick around there anymore - the slog to get value out of adventuring is not worth it.

I don't have a huge prime to play Lyme, but I don't play just VK with alts. It's the nerfing of the middle-of-the-road, common areas that has basically removed my desire to play, and so I'm hardly interested anymore.

[*Splork*]

I think some people's memories are too good and they are remembering changes from years and years past. They are not remembering anything from recent history, and by recent I am speaking about this version of Sloth.

Neptune brought the thread up to hear honest opinions from players so that we can build better areas or fix ones that no longer get ran. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you don't want to post, please stay out of the thread. If you are tempted to post about something which has nothing to do with this thread, please start a new one.

Splork

[Marvel]

Disclaimer: I do have an immortal, although I think everybody knows this. I tend to play a lot more as a mortal in short bursts. The opinions provided within are mine only. I prefer bard primes and characters that rely on trickery rather than straightforward hack & slash. At times I do like playing as a mage prime just for frostbolt and ether runs.

I also intentionally do not visit Lyme.

Valk:
I really enjoy thug hideout and autumnal forest as they both offer patterns and reward out of the box thinking. JJD in AF is a straight bonus. I enjoy Farmstead a lot, due to the variety of mobs there and the offbeat equipment (rainbow medallion, rhinestone necklace, hummingbird buckle, etc available). Shadow playground was a lot more fun until it got rebalanced, but is still enjoyable due to unique properties like moonstaff and rechargeable forges.

I enjoy areas with way more mobs than rooms. Cram more of them into a room and I'm happier!

Aisholm:
I don't like AH due to all the crazy connections and taking 20,000 moves without march of the heroes is just ridiculous for low level players. That being said, I like Raven Glade due to all the autoquests. I really like Manor of Fiscia because of its story/AQ line, it is basically an entire AQ area alone. Dark Dreams is a wonderful self contained area that several classes enjoy, plus it parodies BH allowing us to slip into an alternate Sloth vision. Areas I do not like: Chasm, Posi Plane, the elemental planes (too small), Herbalist II (sorry, Idjit) - too deadly to solo if not huge burly avatar and way way too far to run to end up in traps, but I do like Herbalist I. Sakura Garden is probably the best thematic/fun area on AH for its variety of mobs, story,like mix of types of mobs (ether, warriors, ninjas, slimes). I also enjoy the hidden things like teleports to the shadow realms via blood diamond which lets you save MVS and take shortcuts.

BH - I hate how everything here is melee world with limited ether / tricky areas. Luna's Crypt and Moon Temple is about as tricky as it gets. King's Bazaar and High Plain are both fantastic low to mid level solo areas for all classes. Far far better than anything else. Temple of the Winds has a lot of fun random pops to go with decent exp and gold. Slavers is decently different for melee due to the random repop and mobs. Kara'sa is a bit too big for my chars but I've liked what I've seen. Coliseum is fantastic but is an unique area. Don't like dmount, Matterhorn, tomb, draconian lair, or volcano.

Island - well... Tarot Maze is fun for splorks, taxabi wilds is offbeat and pretty fun with its variety of roadblocks but allows you to beacon past them. Eneas temple has massive exp and gold assuming you can kill the burly mobs. I really like amaryllian pass, but am not a fan of thal, thal palace (200000 rooms in palace and like 20 mobs, while town has false routes and dead ends). Fireworks is nice, if you can survive there. I want to see more mobs allergic to elemental spells. LAAAM is interesting.

SS is the continent I know the best and my favorite areas reflect that. Mansion of the mourned, infirm (strange mobs, effects, but great exp), xanthippe, phantom creek, ravenloft (mobs and theme), tower of nexialism (love wurragurr proc and all the hidden procs and fun mob variety there along with eq and forges and brews and aqs, complete area), temple ruins is also a lot of fun for me but only if you have a death proof way back in, and MAGIC with its unique effects is a lot of fun. I also really enjoy the total offbeatedness of myconoid realms even if the mobs and forge are so bad. It is just so much fun doing the odd area teleports to get to the end of the area. My favorite area on SS though is probably opera symphonia due to the variety of mobs, eq, and the insane amount of procs/mudl/flavor text.

In short, I like areas with patterns, crammed with interesting mobs, eq, aqs, and variety.

I do not like boring old areas or huge group only areas. Demonweb is a lot of fun, prior to the Citadel. Citadel adds in fun stuff for solo and group, but would really like to see more areas with nonbashing mobs.

Those are just points that came immediately to mind - there are several other areas I love as well.

[Marvel]

To counterbalance the above post - here are the areas I believe need some work done somehow on them:

Valkyre:
Shadow Playground - or the addition of another ether area. There aren't enough ether mobs on Valkyre and some of them are just plain mean clowns (the insane ones).

Would also love to see a new largish area stuffed full of good mobs for levels 2-7 to help cut down on requests of what's good after newbie school, especially if they aren't ptesting. We have good areas for levels 7+, but nothing really before level 7.

Newbatia Downside - almost worthless apart from the insanely cool weather witch and Gelvyr.

Bal Harbor:
Krom's Temple - Jake's Temple: mobs are outdated, far too difficult for their benefits.

The Entire Bal Army Encampment: Am I led to believe that the Sieged Castle is actually being held hostage by their own army? And why cannot I join a different army, say... the dwarven army of Settlestone? I honestly would love to see this entire encampment just removed but keep the main army mobs and relocate them elsewhere.

Dragon Mount / Draconian Lair: Would love to see the secret key (prismatic gem) at least not crumble.

Aisholm:
Expand all the planes. All of them. It's a joke to run so far for such small areas.

Castle Roogna: Such promising material butchered. Mobs are too thick/choppy and produce bad experience overall. Thus, nobody ever runs this area except for the forge, AQs, and eq. Then again, possibly just high expectations due to the source material. Can use this for a jump-off point into a vast world of possibilities.

Elk Meadows: Have you ever seen anybody run this area? Me either.

Titan's Island: This has to be the smallest frickin' area on the entire mud.

Settlestone:
Myconid Realms: The ethereal flames are ghastly exp for their difficulty and the equipment frankly speaking is pretty worthless. I still can't figure out a good reason to forge a band of hematite without making it a cp of another forge, which means it's useless to wear.

Rita's Temple: Add sac tablet back to this area.

Island:
Ghost Mansion: Still not much of a reason to run this area. Recently rebalanced, but still think the gold is a bit light.

[Toxis]

I love areas like Greek Forest, Shadow Keep, Demon Web, Chasm... areas that have a good variety of exp mobs in about the same level limits.

I really like Chasm because you can start a group there with any sized group. I like how I can go from killing a few small mobs with two or three people, to killing the larger mobs with 6-7 (group total levels depending, of course). It has a mild difficulty level just under medium and people still die there, so It's a ten to me.

Demon Web where Baphomet and other demons are... I just love this layout. The mobs are a bunch of level sizes, which makes running groups fun. Start at the hard mobs, end at the easy. If the group gets too big, you can move into Lolth's Web, which makes it a double feature area. I'm not a fan of areas that have a bunch of junk eq, but dweb has eq that even low and mid level characters can wear. Not optimal, but could be worn.

I also think Mystica is about the most brilliantly designed area except too many carnivorous apes. And those cps should pop more often for the amount of cps and difficulty of them all.

Other fav areas: MH, Hades, dmount, fiends, ettins, burbalangs, underdark 2, pos energy plane, greek forest, and draconian lair.

-Toxis

[*Neptune*]

Thanks a bunch for all the suggestions and notes. As noted by Splork, it is not my
intention to address areas that are currently ingame. After years of building areas and
somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 areas on two different muds, I merely thought
a fresh perspective on directions that I can take when building future areas. Again, I
have zero plans to fiddle with old areas at this point in time nor do I honestly have
the desire. There's just too much work that yet needs to be done in enhancing the
remaining continents with NEW content rather than rearranging a few variables here
and there in existing places.

So, if you guys think that by abstaining will keep me from tweaking other areas, you
are dead wrong on at least two levels. Furthermore, it's really pointless on multiple
levels, as well, to post that you aren't going to post. In fact, I'm liable to approach
it as an attempt at comedy rather than drama.

So, please, everyone is welcomed to join the conversation and provide any and all
insight into what makes areas good for you so that I can integrate some of those
ideas and things into the future areas. Otherwise, you have no reason to fear any
alterations from me on existing things. The more information I have, the better.
The more options I have in my arsenal, the more options you guys have as players.
And beliee me, I'm taking notes on any and all comments regarding the topic.

It really is that simple.

Enjoy, and thanks again.

-Neptune

[Hung]

Mostly I play as prime monk and spend my time soloing xp. Prime monks' solo mobs are quite same as prime mages'. We both prefer thin nostab or ether mob carrying huge amount of xp.
Therefore on ss I run Xanthippe, Mansion, Barovia(my favourite area), Phantom Creek, moria. After reaching avatar I'd also going to try Temple Ruins.
On lyme my favourite area is Necropolis. It rewards with great xp, but the price is very high death rate. I die there more often than in other areas.
Also on lyme I visit CK and Desert.
On AH I really like Air Plane. It's not really rewarding in terms of xp. But tempests pop quite valuable rings. Also they may even drop a gem.
Also Onyx Tower has bunch of grip mobs.
BH and Island lack monk areas.
Also I play as prime bard. Prime bards are hard to solo xp with. Therefore I mostly use it either to follow or to lead. And my tastes here are quite common - group xp areas.
Demonweb, Ettins, Opera, Theris, Ogres, Moria on SS.
Positive and Negative Planes, Iceglen, Crypt, Chasm on AH.
Tomb, Dragon Mount, Draconians, Castle, Covenant on BH.
Orc Mines and Saurian Frontiner on Island.