There is a derth of information regarding playing a 115 Bard in Torment of Velious I had hoped that the collective wisdom, experience, and expertise here could rectify this. I have chatted with a number of bards and here are some of their thoughts. The songs that appear to be relatively unanimous to be in a basic twist are: Sontalak's Chant of Flame (115 DoT) Malvus's Chant of Poison (113 DoT) Yelinak's Chant of Frost (112 DoT) Zlexak's Chant of Disease (111 DoT) War March of Radiwol (114 Haste) Arcane Symphony (115 Proc) * Note: DoTs become less viable if mobs are being turned to chunky salsa rather rapidly Omorden's Insult (112 Nuke) Omorden's Song of Suffering (114 Proc) Aria of Margidor (111 Overhaste) What does your basic twist look like now? As I pen this I am mindful that many situational factors come into song choice (group makeup, raid vs. solo vs. group play, et cetera), so please speak to that as well if you would. Questions? Using Amplification when using Frenzied Kicks (or have Cheetah) on? Using Jonthan's Mightful Caretaker in your twist? Do you use Chorus of Vhal'Sera and/or Zburator's Lively Crescendo as part of your typical twist? I have heard people speak of mana/health regen being underwhelming if parsed due to OOC regen. Which Aura do you typically use? Aura of Vhal'Sera (112 health/mana), Perhaps an earlier aura for a larger heal like: Aura of Xigam (107 health/mana), Aura of Margidor (115 overhaste)? Perhaps an earlier Aura like Aura of Begalru? *Traded out for Echo versions if you're pulling. Using Storm Blade for an extra group damage proc? This seems to be rather underwhelming amount of damage to me, but perhaps I am missing something. Just for interest sake, how long is your typical twist? With a 2.85 second cast time and typical songs lasting 30 seconds, a twist could be around 10 songs depending on lag, but are people making their twists that long? Does the Insult line of songs come up more than once in a twist? Has anyone parsed to see the most efficient way to do this (ignoring mana cost)? What is your gear priority? Many I speak to seem to prioritize Heroic Dexterity (especially Slot 5 and 7) followed by Luck. How do you balance between ADPS and DPS in your choice of song lineup? Thoughts?
I would be interested in hearing from somebody who has empirical evidence on why they've been using Storm Blade in the last two even three expansions.
My advice is dont try to write a guide based on other's advice. Practice it yourself and when you feel you know enough to write what you know then you can write a guide.
This is not an attempt by me to write a guide, but a offer for the bard community here to contribute together a guide in the vein of Sirenne's wonderful guide (https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...oper-care-and-feeding-of-heroic-bards.209160/), but with a specific focus on level 115. Some people might be misinformed, or not be players that parse so they do not have data to back up whether a decision has value, or are new to the game, or it's an alt/box thing and not their main focus.... I threw out what some bard advise that I had received as a starting position only. If you see glaring holes in it, please let us know and make a suggestion for its place. Should people have contributions that the bulk of the community agrees with then that can definitely form the basis of a guide.
I didn't see it as an attempt to write a guide, but rather to open a discussion so we can learn from each other. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not up to par, even after 20 years of playing a bard. I'm not a numbers guy and I haven't been doing my own parsing. I'm a talented puller, but my DPS is not where it should be, so I will be watching this thread to try and improve it. For instance, I recently learned from another thread that aura and overhaste stack... I'd always thought it was one or the other, and that they did the same thing, so I often wasn't running both.
ok ok ok now I had that song on netradio bombs over lkdlasd OP I will try and answer few questions. As a 115 raid bard, I here to help others, ADPS>DPS. (synergy) I adjust I adjust and well I adjust. While Dps is large and very common goal, I must adjust as needed. If that means I sing more heal proc stuff due weaker healer and AE heavy event i do it, if I need cure because i can, i cure. If i must dps because the group is weak without my dps peak, i dps. Now 90% of time I do w/e is needed for groupmates to peak. If you read these class forums there ton of info, several others added that info, and maybe your attempt is to combine all that modern info into 1 mega guide? IDK I agree with Sz on min max insults for synergy proc, I believe you adjust as you need to; for some mana based? on what roster dps you have, slower is going mean more mana focus/Faster less so. Subject to gear depth, if you use pings potions, AA depth etc.. Such a larger topic that is what I do, copy epicbardo_007. Dead ADPS Dead DPS is normally a factor of zero.// One the subject of Hstrat im pro Hint, but work Hsta and Hdex, but favor Hint, I do question myself often on this subject. >>>> For i must be able to max synergy for full event or i lose my #()@ as i feel im costing my teammates synergy procs.. Now on shorter events I switch to full Hdex and make sure I last long enought. I think about Hsta often, as hate recovery post death. I have pulled years. I there to help others and they want near them at all times; This full tbl and if win a role some tov armor; so im ok atm with buffs hp mana numbs. Us bards are here for others, we do what have to, I carry rez tokens for rangers and maybe rez zerk in group too. Strat to raid is different that bard doign full group vs smaller group etc. Generally ADPS is king for me, if the others are NOT mashing like they should be, then dots are option *subject to slots for debuffs. Im not into making a parse, im into it for the top 10 to chant my name.
I echo these words, having returned to the game after a 9+ year hiatus only rather recently. I came back to TLP a little over a year ago, and then moved to Live a handful of months ago. During OoW I felt I had a handle on the class, though I would never be so bold as to think of myself as a good bard. I get to Live and it is a very different game with a bazillion new clicky AAs and it is very different game. I would research my way out of this, but as I mentioned in the first post, there's really a derth of information out there at present to act as a solid foundation to build upon. Hopefully this thread can help a bit to bridge that yawning chasm.
Thanks so much Szilent. Wonder if those data still stand up. Has anyone parsed it in the interim? Thanks so much ptah, Interesting, I had not considered Heroic Intelligence as I have been focused predominately on Heroic Dexterity and filled other Type 5 Slots with Heroic Stamina. Mana is a resource that can be in short supply with over 3k mana Insults flying around in my twist.
hi i am a raid bard as well, i also focus mostly on my ADPS role in my raid group as well as support in other areas, and not as much on my personal DPS. When i parse for dps, i look for how well my group preform, and not my personal DPS. I do look at parse to see what work and what does not work. We have 4 bards on raids, so more easy to compare parses. My melody set up use 11 of the memorized songs, some i always sing - and some setups are for situation and what my group setup are (think i switch around 5 songs).I also have different song setup for different events - like metatas and wind (in tbl). I dont use personal dot songs on raids (mobs have limited number of buffslot and normally they are filled with better dots then those bard can cast). I use at least one 1 insult whenever it is up, but i dont use new insult regulary (still use good old non- moving one). i use storm blade when we need whatever dps we can get - it still add something, even if it is not much. i like to get a combination of hsta og hdex for aug (think i do them in a 2:1 ratio). i hope it gives you some answers, but as mentioned before bards are special and we need to adapt to group and raid events , so songs and playstyle will be different from player to player zhay
Thanks zhay, I like that the focus is on ADPS, and measuring group performance versus group performance is a great way to get an idea of which songsets are contributing the most to the bard's group. The buffslot restriction is definitely something I had not considered, since I never was using DoTs on raids before I moved to Live. Has anyone parsed what Storm Blade contributes? I haven't been using it, but enough people have mentioned it now that I wonder if it has merit.
The notion that bard dots arent worth casting because they take up slots for everyone else's dots is with tov just not true. Check your guild parses, any dot that isnt doing 30k sustained is worse. The hard part is convincing people to quit throwing next to useless dots just because they have them.
Just add in more, as i read more on this topic. Derd notion is spot on, and only if bard that singing dots has all the AA can he or see break that 30k point. Important to note, the hard is 100% convincing the weak line of dots vs limited cap. Very simple yet tough topic to get people to understand sometimes less of them (greedy parse chaser) is greater raid parse as whole. Some of those people only care about their dps.. could care less about others. Just me first, my showing is lower if i dont cast my 18 dots. Huge topic battle. That one. Now I hit the caps(soft cap for % gains) on Hsta, like Hdex, but need Hint atm. Our combat regen for mana is low, Hint helps both that and raw mana. I use a timer for what I need to do my ADPS job for events. 17 mins plus is my danger zone for missing mana, I general min max synergy proc when melody that nukes as much as possible with single non push nuke, and double up insults when I trigger allance for other bard. Hero AA is like drug of choice, I grind it, love it, hate it etc. A monthly review of event timers, mana cap and pool... and as post above i adjust the augs per event and month review. Each bardo is different situational so what works for me, may work for you, or others. That in itself is fun part of bardoism, you adjust and fill need as you see it. POV ideal setups are 100% subjective to your roster situation and or choice. Im a adps battery, so i value mana for insults>>synergy heavy. I hate death recovery so Hps is important. I bellow often so end is important and helps the raw Hps too. Its all good and tough to go wrong once understand how YOU bard. I want study what if i adjust to Hstr stack, I like balance of Hsta, Hint, Hdex on that Hstr aug super stack. If i recall right it edge out the balance 34 or 32s.. i need double check that. Dont overlook the lore 77 focus stat augs.. for each of your key focus. ***and while 10 more combat regen is huge.. 50 is. that extends my timer, Yes i use Mrods, Yes i try and use rally for myself, but i do use it to help a fallen druid, pally etc as needed. Pings packs are new to me.. so if i end up liking the 5k click, maybe i change my focus to Hsta or Hdex. ATM mana is king for bardo life for me.
Great thread; I don’t have any bard data to contribute but I am “maining” and bard and this is the kind of information I have been looking for. If there is a Discord channel out there about “barding” that I can join please let me know. I have almost 20 years playing the game off and on, I have played every class except the bard, it has always been somewhat of a mystery class to me. So far I am really enjoying the class and look forward to raiding with him as soon as I get him to 115 more importantly I want to be a competent player of the class.
as i glare at my white board, i wanta point this out Hdex does offfer dps gain to the bard but gains are singlar, Hint is much more adps based and indirect dps gains to the raid group that bards in. The difference is not much until you add in alliance gains that you normally missout on will lower gear, hero AA, Hint numbers mana pool. Now for higher dps raid roster.. maybe that window is smaller as events are shorter, but if the rad extends events longer that difference is huge. What does this mean? Each bard needs to understand when and if they run out of mana, what happens, when does this happen, does he just die too often to outside agro? Do see the different run normal setup and within that set remove synergy proc.. this is difference i stress out about. I stress each of stacks is minor and largely POV based on which works for you the best.
I would agree you have to look at your group and test your own song line up for the most part. I tend to be in melee groups so Arcane, War march, DOT DOT DOT instult insult - Margidor Aura for the overhaste Have a separate hotkey that puts in covenant before the insults when we are on a boss mob and not just adds when Sticks and stones actually has time to fire. One thing I do like to do if I am in a caster group is switch out war song with war chorus of protan because then all the tanks get the benefit that don't have a bard. Every swarm pet and pet get the benefit and little extra dmg shielding never hurts anything.
as far as bard mana/endurance regen.. no, not really besides using Rally Solo and mod rods. but with rally you cannot turn on attack or cast anything detrimental for the duration of rally or it will insta fade. if you mean for the group, you could mix in Pulse of Vhal and/or crescendo and dissident/dicho. you can also help the group with some mana using reflexive (disc ability)
I won't use the insult that has the push.. I'd forget and use it on a raid, and . not good things happen then.
