ToV: How do i do bard DPS please?

Discussion in 'Hybrid' started by Zaltan, Sep 13, 2020.

  1. Zaltan Journeyman

    Hello,

    My main is a warrior but i box bard/shaman and rogue. The bard currently is just a melody bot that pulls for the most part.
    I tend to run a full support setup of Aria > Warmarch > Reivag reckless > song of suffering > spry sonata > psalms of the restless. (Mix in dicho)

    Any suggestions to the song setup so i can start doing some dps on the bard? Or even just updating the support setup if thats the better option with my box team.
    Sirene_Fippy likes this.
  2. Szilent Augur

    Spry & Psalm pretty junky, go for Pulse of Vhal`Sera along side RRR if you want another "tanking" boost, for the stronger heals.

    For dps, start by including Sathir's Insult as much as possible for Synergy procs, and then go for dots. Suffering is questionable. It works out if fights are super short so targets swap a lot, but dots are much better damage even if they only get a couple ticks.

    Insults like :

    Sathir Aria Sathir WarMarch Sathir song Sathir song Sathir song Sathir song, etc

    Whether or not QuickTime is on changes how many songs gotta go between Insults, so trying it between every song ensures that it's getting used as much as possible.
  3. Zaltan Journeyman

    Amazing thanks for the info. How come you think spry is junky? 367 Ac and some spell resists seemed like a decent boost when i spend most my time duelwielding. Just curious :)

    Iv tried it out with 4 songs Aria > Warmarch > Spry > Reckless > Dicho > Dot > Dot with the nuke inbetween each one and dicho mixed in a few places for it to trigger nicely. For the most part the dots only drop off for 1 tick without quick time on a training dummy.

    If you dont mind and you play bard could you post your song setup and melody for comparison ? Cheers
  4. Szilent Augur

    367 is just the base spell data. You're not gaining 367 AC on your warrior. Check directly in game, or compare that base number to the base number of 7734 on warrior's Courageous Defense (you're sure not gaining 8k ac from that :p). From my bard's rk3 of Spry Sonata I gain 148. Not quite nothing, but I struggled to find a illustrative parallel for its scale. Spry Sonata's less effective by more than half compared to any 111+ debuff I could think of (Restless, Ro, Cripple, EyeGouge, RavensClaw); only a touch more AC than ranger Cloak of Rimespurs which takes 0 fight time to maintain and doesn't have the Spry Sonata's big gotcha - if you take any spell damage, Spry falls right off. The debuffs I mentioned do have to be recast for each battle, but only once and, as observed, don't fall right off when there's any spell damage.

    Kellek's Spry Sonata Rk. III 113 3s 0s 12s+ n/a Target Group
    1: Absorb Spell Damage: 100%, Total: 10
    2: Increase AC by 30, Raw: 404
    3: Decrease Offhand Damage Shield Taken by 184%
    4: Increase Chance to Resist Spell by 15%
  5. Zaltan Journeyman

    il look into those debuffs as im guessing cripple is what my shaman does with the slow combination.

    The others dont look familiar so il have to see if i can fine em to read up. Cheers for the explanation.
  6. aozs Augur

    As Szilent mentioned, insults and DoTs are good for DPS. The exact melody you want will be situational because insults drain a lot of mana and can't be sustained forever, so you'll need to experiment to fit your playstyle/kill speeds. I think the most optimal setups will involve starting/stopping melodies constantly, but you might find it takes too much attention and want to just leave something running all the time.

    For my box crew's bard I have 2 basic melodies I use, one which uses mana/end with dissident/insults/Placating Accelerato, and one that is pure sustain. There is a lot of room for optimization but it generally works and requires no extra attention.

    I do want to mention, not sure if you're alt tabbing or broadcasting, but with a mash key Placating Accelerato can greatly enhance your shaman's healing output by allowing it to chain cast the 115/110/105 Reckless line in a multibind with no refresh time between cycles. My group runs a DPS/heal paladin, and with Placating running I can basically spam Remonstrate and Protective Consecration nonstop and almost never need to heal with the shaman. It can be a pretty significant defensive tool, but it does take mana.
  7. Zaltan Journeyman

    I just box 3 or 4 characters manually on 1 machine. Iv not noticed any reduction to my dps or tankyness dropping the songs mentioned above so thats been great. Iv been adding in 3 dots atm as my bard is still new and doesn't have max synergy. Cheers for the info :)
    Szilent likes this.
  8. Cuuthbert Augur

    When you max your synergy, I would recommend, Arcane, Warmarch, Sathir's, Fire Dot, Sathir's, Disease Dot, Sathir's
  9. Zaltan Journeyman

    Arcane even though i mainly box melee guys? My main team is warrior/bard/shmy/rogue or i replace the shmy for a mage sometimes if im just hunting PH's for achievements. I did some early parses with arcane with my melee team but it seemed to be the lowest damage % on my Gam parse when comparing with other proc songs like suffering etc.
  10. Filter Augur

    I know virtually nothing about my bard but I have spoken to others on what melody's do they use which I have all melee toons (war, 2 x zerkers, bard and shammy). I use warmarch, arcane symphony, Omorden's Song of Suffering, aria of margidor, chorus of vhai'sera, velketor's psalm of potency (when I have my nec friend with me but really not part of my melody).

    My bard is so under utilized but I wonder what more I can do with him if I were to change up the melody to add direct dps instead of focusing on adps. The gains I get are noticeable to my melee group so I just do what I have always done. This thread has got me thinking so I will give Cuuthbert's melody a shot when I'm grinding. My bard's synergy is max but really not much else in the Focus tab.

    I enjoy reading other players suggestions hopefully this will continue.
  11. Soon Augur

    Curious about what so good with Arcane? It seems the proc dmg is very low even comparing to suffering. And does the stats boost from Aria stacks with Aura? Still new and trying to learn.

    My daily melody is Aria, dot, War march, dot, RRR, dot, psalm, dot

    I only have 15k aa's so I don't have synergy yet.
  12. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    Why I use both when boxing is they have slightly different bonuses to key melee affects, I only use Maeturnus on my Bard as not on a live server but the reasons to use both are the same.

    Aria has a much higher Triple attack boost
    Aura has a much higher Flurry chance boost

    Were you a bard in a Caster only group you could possibly consider using a different aura if you don't mind losing some of your own melee dps.

    Aria of MargidorBRD/1111: Increase Spell Damage (Before DoT Crit) by 46%
    2: Increase Haste v3 by 25%
    3: Limit: Effect (Hitpoints allowed)
    4: Limit: Max Level(115) (lose 5% per level over cap)
    5: Limit: Spell Type (Detrimental only)
    6: Limit: Target (AE PC v1 excluded)
    7: Limit: Target (PB AE excluded)
    8: Limit: Target (Targeted AE excluded)
    9: Limit: Combat Skills Not Allowed
    10: Increase Chance to Triple Attack by 40%
    11: Increase Flurry Chance by 6%
    12: Increase Pet Flurry Chance by 35%

    Aura of Margidor EffectNoneIncrease Spell Damage (Before DoT Crit) by 32%
    Increase Haste v3 by 25%
    Limit: Effect (Hitpoints allowed)
    Limit: Max Level(115) (lose 5% per level over cap)
    Limit: Spell Type (Detrimental only)
    Limit: Target (AE PC v1 excluded)
    Limit: Target (PB AE excluded)
    Limit: Target (Targeted AE excluded)
    Limit: Combat Skills Not Allowed
    Increase Chance to Triple Attack by 25%
    Increase Flurry Chance by 22%
    Increase Pet Flurry Chance by 28%
    code-zero and Szilent like this.
  13. Szilent Augur

  14. Sancus Augur

    Also note that Aura of Margidor lands on swarm pets whereas songs (like Aria) do not.
    Jennre and Hellowhatsyourname like this.
  15. Cicelee Augur

    So on my box bard I currently go with Aria, Warmarch, Poison DOT, Cold DOT, Disease DOT, Fire DOT, Pulse (regen plus heal crit) and I think Suffering (the melee DD proc that lowers aggro). The Suffering helps bard aggro (I find the DOTs raise aggro a lot, and I block Suffering on the pet). I might also do Arcane, but I think that is one too many songs. I also do not have anything done with Synergy, which is why there is no Insults.

    Having said that, I feel for my current AA and situation it is the best lineup for the box bard. It is quite nice when all four DOTs crit at once, and the support songs help all my people in my party (magician, pet, bard, merc healer, and either merc caster or second merc healer)...
  16. Hellowhatsyourname Augur

    Bards are now focused on personal DPS with only Aria and Warmarch being consistently played. Also, use the Aura corresponding to Aria for the reasons mentioned earlier (aura hits swarm pets). Get your activated AA's (that should be kept on cooldown) and your epic 2.0.

    Lots of insults, lots of dots.
  17. Filter Augur

    I need to change everything now. Bard has almost 16K aa's but has all synergy finished. The rotation for someone that doesn't attack with bard does it change anything? Since I'm attacking with 2 zerkers, 1 war, healing with shammy and no software to help me do this makes me just use the bard to boost everyone else via melody only.
  18. Jennre Band Leader

    Speak for yourself. There is a hard debuff limit on mobs. If all 8 of our bards are spinning 4 DOTs, a ton of stuff bounces, including things like Funeral Dirge, Alliance, Necro DOTs, etc.

    Sure, if there are only a few bards in a raid, sing lots of DOTs. If not, though, you are doing the raid a disservice.
    Duder likes this.
  19. Atrocity(Zak) New Member

    How about as far as group DPS? I don't raid with my bard, but he is max AA. My group is SK/Rogue/Cler/Enc/Wiz/Bard. The rogue and wiz sometimes rotate with mage or shaman. I've tried full adps, and 4 dots + sathirs. On a dummy obviously the DOT setup is more dps for the bard, but with adps the overall group DPS goes up a larger margin than the bard gains from his dots.

    Just kinda curious the thoughts of people that actually know bards on which way they prefer to go in a group. (these are boxes so there's no "well I like doing dps". I care about group dps not individual, but want to make sure I'm not missing something)
  20. Szilent Augur

    do you mean these exclusively? because no one here has advocated for *no* ADPS. because that would be dumb.