The new one that says it pushes the mob really doesn't move it. It may move it 1 pixel or something as a stun to stop casting but it isn't noticeable.
It may not be noticeable to you, but as someone responsible for monster positioning on the regular, lemme assure you that it really does move mobs, 1 is noticeably more than 0.5 that's on some other abilities, and they add up quick. "real", active bard positioning abilities with no nuke are only 2.5-3.1 Raid guilds are correct to strenuously discourage use of Omorden along with the enchanter Poly-nukes
absolutely sure! tho the push isn't far... it's enough to be annoying... also think if you had 2+ using a push insult every 3rd song.. that's a lot of push.
So my question is- If a bard does not have all the DOT AA stuff, then is it still worth it to cast DOTS? And if not, then what other songs besides Aria and War March should the bard sing at 115 until the bard gets said AA to improve DOTS...
There are also situations where dots aren't functional, even with the good AA amplifying them. Super short battles, or like wanting to not-quite-kill giants in Avatar mission or Restless missions, for instance. When dots can't be played, or when missing AA makes them shabby: (you already called out) the core: Aura of Margidor Aria of Margidor War March of Radiwol for dps: Omorden's Suffering Arcane Symphony for healer, also for mana using classes bst/rng/dru: Pulse of Vhal'Sera Reivaj's Reckless Renewal Jembel's Lively Crescendo if mana is a Big issue (grinding raid basepop so medding is a pita, etc): Chorus of Vhal'Sera Dissident Psalm if your /melody feels super loose so you can sing for straight up self dps: Jonthan's Mightful Caretaker is stronger than Amplification it's virtually never worth it to sing these for extra procs, but technically they're adps songs: Omorden's Spiteful Lyric Storm Blade
It's a weird one for tanking, since all the non-tanks in a regular group also get the 3 +agro procs, not just the tank. Those 3 procs aren't, imo, worth singing for the adps. But you're right, the AC boost is neat for the tank. And I did include Pulse & Reckless in a section on my list, which technically are boosts for a regular group's one healer, like Spiteful's AC would be for the one tank. It's been my experience that the boosts to healing do more for my longevity tanking than the AC a bard can add…
I think we generally agree. It used to be that Spite and Suffering did not stack, now they do. ADPS can block Spiteful to avoid the +hate mod. It's mainly a tank group song.
The nice bit with Spry Sonata is the Darkened Breath of Harmony. The difference between Kellek's and Doben's is pretty small (about 100 AC), so I just have DBoH as part of my Bellow macro.
20ac for DBoH click 120ac for Kellek's Spry Sonata Rk. II not large. chief problem, of course, is the same one the Sonata has always had - the entire benefit is lost once a player takes any spell damage.
Aye, if folks are taking irresistible spell damage it can be better to sing level 49 Shield of Songs instead, for 2x the mitigation. It's worth a bug report since the spell shield (SPA 78) hasn't improved since the line was introduced in Kunark (level 56 Niv's Harmonic) and spell damage has vastly increased in the past 20 years. The song line should have some chance to last its base 2 ticks duration in today's environment.
I left this on one day while boxing - I use my SK to position the mob for my zerkers/bard - and after a few nukes I out ranged my zerkers melee, if its noticeable with 1 bard its going to be really noticeable with multiple bards using it on a corner tanked raid mob.
Corner tanked is great - or wall pin, whatever. That's the ideal time to bust out Omordens for a "free" (lil more mana) damage boost! Walking minis across the ice in Great Divide or the boss over a log in Griklor or off the platform at Servant - those make the Omorden (and PoTime Pestilence Strike, and enc Polynuke) a menace to society
I noticed when testing that Jonthan's Mightful Caretaker (self only) will replace if you are playing War March and also block it! So if you are in a group it's better to stick with a group song like War march of Radiwol.
Also for fun I was testing Amplification. I am in the GGH and auto-attacking the level 120 warrior dummy from the front. I had on me some shammy focus buffs and ranger atk buffs. All tries are 10 minutes long (600 seconds). randomness also applies of course so the test is not too scientific, just for fun info. I got 39358 aa. No burns activated. Parsing with Gamparse 2.0.0.88 beta Aura only: 69696dps, #ofprocs:207 Aura, Aria, War March: 75714dps, #ofprocs:195 Aura, Aria, Jonthans: 83263dps, #ofprocs:339 (Jonthan's has procs number bonus) Aura, Aria, Amplification: 79018dps, #ofprocs:204 Aura, Aria, War March, Amplification: 84768dps, #ofprocs:193 So it looks from these numbers that using the "base bard trio" or "BBT" of Aura, Aria and War March, you might by adding Amplification gain approximately 9k dps. But it takes up a song slot. I looked at my not so important dmg numbers for the test, and saw that over the 10 minutes I got 45,5million dmg using the "BBT" and by adding Amplification I got 51,1 million dmg. (Remember all auto atk incl kick auto attack of course.) So if the fight were 1 minute long its 600k dmg, or you could say approximately the same difference as if a dot song had crit twice, in stead of two normal hits. Just to add perspective.
Are you kicking as well, Amp ties into your kick. /autoskill kick And since it lasts for a minute, you only sing it once, then 19 other songs, then it again.
Yes autoskilled kick As for Amplification, I guess you could mem it out and in again if that's what you mean
Just tack Amplify at the end of your melody. It can refresh the buff every 60 seconds and doesn't have a recast timer. Personally, I wouldn't mind having more short refresh abilities to click. Melody was a good change for my wrists, but not a good one for showcasing skill. Clicking AAs/Discs are something for the adhd bard to focus on.