Yeah, Bard is either Pugilist or Lancer as the base now. It's a good change, even if it means I wasted 20 levels in Conjurer last weekend.
<theorycrafting>
I'm kind of excited for the class because it should be an AOEing machine.
I think you'll be able to round up mobs, dump a full TP bar worth of Quick Nocks into all of them, and then use the Lancer TP heal and your TP regen song to regain your TP to full (while kiting) in order to do it again. Plus you'll have access to Blood for Blood for +30% damage (Lancer 34) and Internal Release for +30% to crit (Pugilist 12) to help that first batch of Quick Nocks really hurt.
You should be able to farm like crazy with this class.</theorycrafting>