I've just recently been joining a casual raid group and see that I am generally at the bottom of the list of bards parsing - by a margin. So I want to look at what Im playing and see if I could be doing any better on choices. I generally play a 7 song melody of buffs and then add dichotomic and crescendo as needed. My thought is that maybe instead of all buff songs I should switch something out and play one or two insults if we would gain more than the we lose. Im here to ask if any of the songs I use are worthless for whatever reason - maybe dont do much or maybe another class's buff overwrites/blocks the effect of the bard song. So here is a list of the songs I have in my melee/caster/tank lineups. Please let me know if any should be discarded in raids, and why. arcane melody aria of maetanrus aura of maetanrus chorus of sionachie dichotomic psalm doben's spry sonata echoing barrier fjilnauk's song of suffering fjilnauk's spiteful lyric horthin's psalm of potency nilsara's aria pulse of sionachie rytan's reckless renewal silisia's lively crescendo war march of jocelyn
The best advice I can give to bards who are in the weeds... Learn what each of those songs do by reading info at eqresources.com or raidloot.com. While doing all of that, take a look at each one of them in your GGH on your combat dummy. Understand which songs have requirements such as mana, end, refresh timers, and those which must have a target to sing. Additionally, go through your AA tabs one by one and be sure you have a hotkey made for each AA which has a 'ready' line. Again, be sure you have those available to use in your UI and understand how to use them all. There are some clickies to help dps & utility, but that's a whole different topic... but must have items are epic 2.0 & bp click; the click buff sword from Tacvi? is nice too. ----- You have stuff on the list that I have never played, and you're missing stuff I always keep on my spell bar. Additionally, the EoK AAs will add a lot of versatility to bard song melody now. Maxing some of these lines will give you more dps via DD or even by mixing in a dot; which may not be bad depending on raid mix. Generally... for --melee-- raid groups these are the songs I keep on my song bar (order isn't melody order). Aria of M F. Song of Suffering War March (or War chorus from CoTF) Arcane Pulse Chorus optional (Dot for melee group) optional (Dot or DD) Tsaphs strike (DD) Dicho Crescendo optional (mez if needed) ** I box a bard during raids and we average 1 enc and 1-2 bards per event. We also are lite on dot casting classes in general. I try to keep the first 6 slots for songs which have no requirements (mana, endo, or target) in order to play. I have a simple melody for these which I use if I die or if the event requires the raid to change targets frequently. Along with the simple melody, you should have at least 2 other longer melody macros to be used with and without the - A Tune stuck in your head- AA. If you have multiple active bards, you could work together to make the new bard alliance work.
Maybe it will become more clear if I break it out into the melodies I use. melee group (in order of melody) 1 war march of jocelyn 2 aria of maetanrus 3 fjilnauk's song of suffering 4 arcane melody 5 pulse of sionachie 6 rytan's reckless renewal 7 chorus of sionachie I guess I could drop Fjilnauk's song of suffering to add Tsaph's? Or chorus if another bard covers. Im mostly in the melee group but here are the other melodies I have Caster 1 aria of maetanrus 2 nilsara's aria 3 horthin's psalm of potency 4 arcane melody 5 pulse of sionachie 6 rytan's reckless renewal 7 chorus of sionachie Again, could drop chorus if another bard covers. Or #2 or #3 depending on if i have no dotter or no fire caster. Tank melody may be most questionable since I dont get in tank groups much 1 fjilnauk's spiteful lyric 2 rytan's reckless renewal 3 doben's spry sonata 4 pulse of sionachie 5 echoing barrier 6 war march of jocelyn 7 chorus of sionachie Perhaps I have the most room to play here. Do tanks really need war march? Or echoing barrier or doben's? I mean, echoing barrier wont work on the boss (but maybe on adds), and dobens is 5 expacs old so the ac isnt that great. Not sure if those are really worth using. Could maybe even replace 2 of those and do Tsaphs AND Kaficus insults.
No Kaficus on raids unless the boss is perm rooted. It's either Fijlnauk+Kaficus (rooted mobs, e.g. The Incarnate Droga), or Tsaph's+Garath's
I'd drop Rytans and arcane melody for nukes outside of a tank group. Shaman splurge I'd crit capped. Tank group I'd drop sonata echoing barrier and possibly rytans. Depending on if the heal team plays properly for Rytans dropping. For casters I'd probably drop most of those spells in lieu of nuking outside of regen/aria. Insulting will be a net gain over Potency/nilsara (that's a guess they are very marginal in my experience)
Overall, you're valuing Rytan too highly, it has no place in dps group melodies. Nilsara & Horthin are trash. Aria>Warsong 1 & 2 pretty much regardless. War Chorus and Chorus of Sionachie do need to be up regardless of what group you're in, if you're the only bard. Very little chance Pulse is worth it in a melee group. Neither your list nor Nightops' includes Alliance? That's not right
The only reason to use Rytans in a melee group is because it used to make shaman splashes crit more. It does not anymore since they crit capped rains. Therefore it's a waste of a alot, because any shaman worth playing with can keep a dps group up between recourse, reckless heals, splurge, and intervention heals (let alone union of spirits) An argument could be made if said shaman was healing the MT however my counterargumemt would be the average raid heal is usually below the pre crit value, meaning most crit heals are overhealing thus wasted. Meaning Rytans really has no place in a dps group (in a tank group it might be helpful but it would really depend on how good your heal team is) In r egular grouping content it's a fantastic song though
Pulse may be worth keeping if the group is hybrid heavy I would say. Possibly sort of. Kind of a toss up?
My raid setup is: Aria, warmarch,pulse, song of suffering, arcane, spry sonata(swap as fit for group), one of the chorus depending on what other bard is playing..In tune(burn) I add amplification. Dichotomic whenever it's up or if I slack when I see shaman synergy. Aura is sionachie.
