Has anyone worked on the bard class very much in Rift?

I've not been on in a week or so but I notice a lot of Rifts, and regular questing goes something like this: I send in my ranger pig pet...he begins tanking happily..I cast on the target he has agro on.....the other 4 mobs immediately turn and come pound on me. I end up tanking pretty much everything while he sits there and pounds on the one.

Before I respecced a bit I noticed as I got higher up on ranger that my pig-beast-thing seemed to be casting some sort of AOE taunt as he kept agro on all 4 pack mobs at the same time. I wasn't high enough to have greater pig beast or anything and I didn't have any new sort of spell. He just started keeping agro on 4 things at once. I'm liking the whole bard thing as it's a nice change of pace but I just seem to be horrendously wimpy.

I checked the rift forums but they're currently nothing but pvp/pve op class balance cry crys.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

I didn't have a bard build at all until I hit 50, but it's actually turned out to be a very strong solo spec. With max bard, it can take a little while to tear mobs down, but I can solo 2-3 person "Group" quests.

There's a spec on our guild boards - lanysrefugees.com - that merges bard w/ bladedancer with good results.

I can't seem to get into the guild forums. Registration is disabled, and I send a FB message per the notice to Waring on Fb, and have yet to hear back.

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Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW