With OF ras coming.. which is better for solo and for grouping/small man? Also which do you believe will level quicker?

Minstrel>Skald
For grp: he's the only who got SoS
For solo: as now, if he is played well, he win vs all class

well played? You mean well equipped (poisoned weapons, charmed wild proccing, tough mobs like frost stallion )

Rocus wrote:For solo: as now, if he is played well, he win vs all class

at least mins won't lose...however it'll be hard to beat an ns or sb, which gets through his PA/BS without kiting...and if u try to kite them they'll simply stealth again, so u won't be able to kill them unless they let u

and versus a really good tank with thrust-weapons it'll be hard to survive several hits + slam + more hits...so maybe mins will have too few hp to start kiting (with maxed det and resis the stun will be over in less than a sec so there'll be no use for that either

For the most part tanks aren't any problem really. ^^

Minstrels will benefit greatly with OF RAs, so my advice is to pick them. Be aware though that there aren't any good pets at all in Emain atm, and no one knows when the staff will get around to implementing them.