So my bard box is getting close to ToV, and I am quite aware of how I am playing it is sub optimal. I would really like to actually play the bard vs being a jukebox. However, i haven't been able to find anything that is current on song lineups and such. Hell, I am not even sure what to do besides Bellow and clicking discs now and again along with auto attack. I don't want a dissertation on being a bard (although I would be happy to read one!), just a framework to build upon. Songs? Do bards need their epic? Which epic? 4 DoTs? Heavier support? Which support? Etc etc. Thanks.
The easy question first... Epic is a must for a bard for ADPS. As far as how to play your bard. Would need a LOT more info. What level is your bard, how many AA, what classes are in your box crew.. Bards are very versatile and truly need to morph to the group because they can. So couple of songs I would have in my twist always, Arcane and Warmarch of your highest level. If you have all your synergy AA done than the insult level that will fire your synergy. Dot songs 111 through 115 can be very high DPS. But not knowing your group make up, it is harder to go from there. Bards played well require some attention. So for now use Fierce Eye, Quick time and click your BP for arpeggio. Use your spire.
Basically what you said is what I have been doing. Bard is 109, just two boxing with my BST, although I haven't been doing even that as I have been able to get groups. Just auto-grant AAs with an exception of about 100 sprinkled in here and there, so 16k or so? Doing 80/20 to make sure Clouding immediately gets 3/3 when I hit 110. I have been running a much more supportive song list, but last night I started to rotate in a couple DoTs. War March, Arcane, Crescendo, DoT, DoT and one other was the melody. I normally run pulse and such in there as well, but since I was running the heal aura, I dropped it for a DoT. I was doing burns on named and some of the more annoying high HP stuff as we were a bit light on DPS. I do need to get Fierce Eye into my rotation more consistently. I was not pulling as I am trying to get used to actually playing the bard, and repetitive wipes in HS wouldn't have been optimal. We had a SK who likes to pull anyway, so I was happy to hide my inexperience. As to the Epic, I assume the 2.0? I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious. I know the songs will change depending on group makeup. After song selection, for normal DPS it just feels very much like there is minimal interaction. I am so used to constantly casting nukes and discs with my beastlord, but they are a pretty button mashing happy class.
Ditch a DOT and replace with aria. DOTs really only become nasty in ToV with a decent amount of AA. 106-110 Aria of Begalru 111-115 Aria of Margidor Which aura are you running? Pre-110 Aura of Maetanrus 110 Aura of Begalru 115 Aura of Margidor
Now that I think about it, I was running Aria as the "one other". I was running Aura of Xigam instead of pulse. Is there a reason to run Maetanrus along with Aria? They overlap, but I seriously doubt they stack. Do they?
Apparently at some level they do stack. Someone did a parse and found that with both running a total of 19% more swings were achieved vs just running aria.
hiya some good info going on here, i repeat some and add some, and feels there more than 1 way to bardo. at 110 low AA, its all about supporting what group with, so for your example of bst maina and bard bot. I would play Aria, haste, suffering, acrane, as the core 4, and think about progression based tbm or tbl dicho line, that song is 1 handed weap delay reduce, with hp mana and end regen, power goes up as do progression.. You want synergy line AA up so start nuking, with max synergy that give proc damage bonus 45 48k? at 110 and 90k at 115. Its alot of AA, 100 a rank 10% success each rank, 200 at 11? Nice thing about insult synergy proc use is works on each target, and they got 1 tick to use often using faster, so as bard grows to proc it and get used more often. Get the AA, then work on mana, its a grind. Notice some songs are pre crit and some if most are just post crit add ones. And few songs mob more than just the group, but anything hits the target. Now your 111/115 plus and worked some AA, life adjusts. As grown up bard you have make some choice. We want insult often, if thats single nuke or double? situational use of either one is fine. Aria 100% use love use 100% Generally we want arcane, suffering and haste if anyone is swinging. PC pets merc etc. Support vs TOV dots? Huge AA investment into dots, 45 ranks most of them are 100 AA a rank its alot. If you teammates are good, you good supporting them, if light handed or other around are slow, we need think about using dots. Wait what dot and not support, no no no, we support sing when nothing is being attack, duration of songs often hit 32s. So we support buff out side of combat and DOT load when assist is called. The real mash or choice inside combat support vs these AA focued DOTS? its a choice, x4 dots under FE epic and spire, im using the dots, vs support songs unless my teammates perform over the magic line of damage, so if 5 teams out dps 4 dots, they get support, if dont im going to dot. support play output of group vs bard dot/part time support is question at hand. // this what im going atm as 115 main double insults, support core outside of combat, support song in combat is group is preforming, dot if dont cut 1M 1.5M does ( its number is number of dps difference of full time adps vs part time) Reckless the crit heal song is used most often, but pulse baseline mod is nice as well; dirge song for group rune is used as needed. Mezz is normalling an AE thing with single target mem when toggle or great number of target need mez due duration with AA focus; you a box bard just AE mez and recast when you need. AA, FE QT SPIRE, click epic, pretty much cool down use something knew is inc and need pause for 1 min. Have fun, learn try stuff for yourself, Adjust adjust adjust, once you figure you got something that works for you. adjust again.
while true, there really isn't a reason to stack them outside of the raid environment. About the only class that gets a large boost out of 19% more swings is the warrior, since their DPS is heavily weighted into their swings, which isn't true for the other classes. Even for the warrior, they're only getting a small (on the order of 4-5%, boost from running both. I tend to stack regens outside of raids for that reason, and things drop plenty fast. Of course, the aura works on swarm pets, so that is a consideration.
I'm curious if Aura + Aria works on mercs (so many buffs don't). I see them get the 25% over haste but I haven't tested the spell damage or triples, flurries (can merc's even do that?).
Pretty sure they don't get those benefits. I gave up on mercs, outside of the cleric, several years ago however. I don't even use the cleric for primary heals anymore, it's just sort of there for buffs and attention deficit moments
Rog mercs seem to get pretty mean when group with a bard. I've never cared enough to parse it out the specifics, but there is a noticeable difference.
This is where I start my group song setup, but adjust on class composition (note that this is not intended for raiding setup): Aura: start with Aura of Margidor for max ADPS 1- War March of Radiwol (114) 2- Arcane Symphony (115) 3- DoT 4- Ormorden's Song of Suffering (114) 5- Aria of Margidor (111) 6- Pulse of Vhal'Sera (111) 7- DoT 8- DoT 9- Sathir’s Insult (110) (to avoid pushing mobs) 10- Dissident Psalm (106) Before the discourse in melodies, it should be known that there is an assumption that the bard has Max AA Troubadour's Synergy, all 13 gem slots open, max song duration AAs, max Dicho, Max DoT AAs, and is at level 115. The layout uses the first 10 song slots for the primary melody, which allows slots 11-13 for utility (mez, snare, slow, etc etc) With the improvement of the “/mel” command to skip songs that are on cooldown or targeting an illegal target, we can construct our melody chains to force max uptime of dicho and synergies (as you will see below) while maintaining our normal songs. The main chains spam these because this one melody can span Qucktime's cast adjustments. (Thanks to other bards on the forums for showing me this style of melody) Main Melody (max synergy– resource intense) /mel 9 10 5 9 10 3 9 10 1 9 10 7 9 10 2 9 10 8 9 10 6 9 10 4 DoT melody (when low mana/dotfocus) /mel 3 5 7 9 8 1 2 9 4 6 inbetween pulls/group downtime, just run Pulse for resource management If your healer has a hard time keeping up, you can swap slot 4 Ormodren's Song of Suffering with Placating Accelerando 113, or Reivaj's Reckless Renewal 113. once you get used to this, you can start playing with your own melody lineups and adjust to your specific group needs. With max song duration, there's a lot of room to have fun with your bard in a group setting.
That's my observation too. I think I'll do some parsing to see if it's worth singing Aria in a duo group with tank and rogue/caster mercs.
