Of the many styles I've played, pure bard seemed the most OP. But then, I never really gave empaths a fair shot. Singing up weightless, 7x asg 15, while hunting on a traveling mana node (and sanct via song of peace's delay, incanting 1030. . .optional 7x shield/7x weapon with double flares and no need for a bless, etc) and he was only mid 60's training. And--not optimised cause he was also my picker.(picked -870, disarmed -287, not bad for 64 train bard imho)
Course, I never was much for pvp so I guess that could be different.
For context, --all my guys are mid 60's,
Immolation wizard (also did rapidfire 901 with air lore)
Pure bard (previously lancer)
Ranger archer (was voln brawl/archer, went straight archer after UAC)
Mstrike warrior --twc blunts (had the splitting hammers, 7x bonded fun times! only got to 8 focused not quite 10 focused. (like 4 trainings shy of that milestone)
Cleric - (untouched from gs-3, still trained Poles and bows in addition to casting/spellaim
funtimes had by all.