Played a bard for years back in the day but I dont remember dual wielding at the lower levels as I always hand an instrument in my off hand and twist instruments depending on the songs played. Do you guys bag your instruments to dual wield? Does not make sense to me. Love your input. On progression server if that matters!
I dual wield in most groups. Mostly because at level 31, our haste song is singing skill. So is our snare/slow song. Instruments seem to help with mezzing but most of the time I find myself in a group with an enchanter!
On TLP I see one of two types of bards primarily, and a third rarely. Type 1 has an instrument permanently in their offhand. They are about 80% of the population. Type 2 just dual wields, they are about 15% more. . The third kind actually swaps both. You only need to have an instrument in hand at the very second the song finishes casting. So you should be swapping instruments and weapons in and out for maximum effectiveness. I realize this isn't strictly necessary as things are easier now, but it kinda frustrates the purist in me. . If you don't know how to do this, you can drag inventory slots onto hotbars just like hotbuttons. So drag your secondary weapon slot onto a hotbar, and a few of your inventory slots onto it as well. Then just click on items and swap them around. Instrument only needs to be in the slot the moment the song "hits". Congrats. Now your instrument abilities have double effect. . This also means you can keep DW'ing and still cast things that require an instrument as needed.
For some reason I can't edit, but for clarity, with the "type 1" bard, I mean the SAME instrument permanently in offhand. They seem to hold their favorite there and never even switch for different songs with different instrument types.
There is a special program that does this automatically, and I would be very surprised to see anyone doing this legit.
3rd party automation programs are not allowed. Use at your own risk............ On TLP servers, I was not able to use the drag to hotbar method. It worked in the past but for some reason it just won't switch out on a TLP. I am bard category #2....Most of our songs can be sung without an instrument. You only get (depending on the instrument) like a 10 or 20% bonus. And if you are singing 4 or 5 songs, likely only 1 of those songs will be boosted by the instrument. So basically if you were a #1 bard, (specific circumstances excluded ), you would actually lose off-hand dps, and only 1 song would be boosted 10% extra... Which is not a good deal, in my opinion. -the only time i put a drum in my hand is on long journeys, or if dot kiting ( I dont do slow-azz dot kites ) -the only time i put a lute in my hands is if we are resting....everyone is low on health and our cleric is out of mana -the only time i put a horn/brass in my hands is if........oh wait, I never do that. ** If your bard has any kind of haste, then by being a number 1 bard you lose out on even further dps.
At some point, changes were made so that if you want to be able to move things around on hotbars, hotkey the inventory slot when empty - then place an item in it. If it's not empty, you'll get the blue icon which will activate the item when clicked, instead.
OH............. I had to read your statement a couple times to understand it. I think your telling me to drag my weapon slot when it is empty? I will try that when I get home tonight, thanks.
