Bard EOK raid weapons and weapon augment questions

My box bard (main is magician) is getting closer to the point to be of level to use the EOK raid weapons that are rotting. The bard will basically single pull mobs, melody, and auto attack the majority of the time. Two questions-

1. Which of the EOK raid weapons would I want to go after? I am thinking possibly the one that heals the target's target to help with pet heals on named, although if there is a better DPS weapon that is more beneficial I will consider that.

2. What types of augments do bards put in their weapons? Straight damage? Damage and procs? If so which procs? Or just stat augs like AC or HP?

Thanks in advance for your answers. Yes I realize bards don't do much DPS but every little bit helps. Just want to min/max for my setup...

I don't feel too strongly about this and don't know what other folks do, but my bard bot is heavily utilized for pulling and the permanent vie from Wurmslayer is a big deal, especially for well-geared bards with high AC (Such that the DI values from mobs are generally low). I also regularly use a shield with him.

If you're trying to pull quickly, being able to take a few hits is very important, especially vs goblins (spinstun on pull) and spiders (snare). One way to look at it is that if you're not fighting because you're waiting for a pull, you're losing out on your entire group's DPS, so optimizing on fast pulls by having a defensively geared bard may be better than having an offensively geared ones.

I also use a bandolier (and have my mash keys set to activate a dual wield setup, and my throw weapon keys set to activate sword n board)


As to your answer specifically, I'm also curious. I haven't looked into maximizing my bard's melee DPS through weapon choice because his melee DPS is so low.

The HoTT blunts are great for group play and for your set up. From what I can tell, Bards in my guild tend to off hand either that or the Axe - the Axe is because it looks cool and with the poppy nerf to weapon speed on Daggers there's so little difference in what weapon to use. This is particularly true for Bards, their dps is terrible. My Magelo isn't lying. I use the HoTT blunt all the time when I bow and end up on heal parses.

For pulling with your box Bard I would think AC augs would be the way to go for extra condomization. Any combo of Stam/Dex/Agi it all helps.

My personal choice is Hornscale Blade, hands down. It gets you the most DPS, and I don't find the alternative procs very enticing.

I haven't parsed HOTT weapons in a while, but last time I tried one I was really disappointed. The thing about HOTT weapons is that the proc is not focused by many things (basically just heal amount, and maybe crit chance). Heal crits are capped at double the heal value, so we're talking about a 3200 heal that sometimes lands for 6400. That is peanuts for a mage pet tank. From my experience healing mage pet tanks as a cleric, they have an ocean of HP - using Remedy (40-60k HP) isn't usually enough to matter, pets need big heals.

Hornscale Blade (best DD proc) stats:

Code:

- Hornscale Blade - Perfusion of Plague IV (8000 DD)
- Procs in 10 min Combat Dummy fight: 254
- procs/sec: 0.423
- Non-crit damage: 8830
- Crit damage: 38818
- Crit rate (estimated by parse): 39.5%
Avg DPS = (crit rate * crit dmg + noncrit rate * noncrit dmg) * procs per second
Avg DPS = (0.605 * 8830 + 0.395 * 38818) * 0.423
Avg DPS ~= 8738

Ok, so maybe 8738 DPS is peanuts too.

Crash (best HoTT proc) stats:

Code:

- Crash - Remote Healing Blessing IV (3200 HP heal on target's target)
- assuming same proc rate
- 1243 Heal Amt = +310 HP bonus
- assuming 1% crit heal chance from DoN
- Heal amount per proc: 3510 HP
- Heal amount per crit: 7020 HP
Avg HP/s ~= 1498

So you get ~1500 HP healed per second with the raid heal proc weapon, Crash.
Depending on your priorities, maybe this is better, but I personally do not think it's very good - I prefer the DPS proc weapons (Hornscale Blade is super hot).

This is what I use in my weapons:

Venomous Tear - 8 dmg + 750 poison DD

Siren's Demise - 8 dmg + 600 cold DD

Other options:

Sigil of Thokk - 10 dmg + 306 lifetap

Orb of Tormented Rage - 12 dmg

Frost Blossom - 8 dmg + 510 disease DD

I can't find the parse for DD procs vs plain dmg, but the last time I parsed it, DD procs came out very slightly ahead (like ~200 DPS difference). I don't have the 12 dmg aug, it's possible it edges out one of the DD procs. Don't discount the bard proc AA's though (Flurry of Notes, Fierce Eye), bards are kind of proc machines.

For weapon augs, it's such a minor difference I think you'll be fine with anything. As you can see, I like the proc + dmg combo augs the best.

Ultimately for weapon choice, having extra weapons with special procs can be valuable. For example, using Flurry of Notes to get out of a sticky situation - if you're proccing every swing with that HoTT weapon, it will be a lot of healing.

Thank you all for the wonderful advice. It is much appreciated.

+1 to the "Flurry of Notes" with a HoTT weapon. Combined with Wurmslayer, it's been a nice "smooth out the damage as my badly boxed cleric gets sorted out to start healing again after dying/screen resizing/getting lost on /follow" thing. A month ago, a zerker wanted to see if he could take down Demiplane Mayong without a healer and the hott's kept him up combined with his other clickies.

Whatever you get, make sure you get a belt with "Boon of the Seeress" focus on it to improve proc damage, and as said above, we really are proc machines, so boosting that up seems a wise thing.

Jyve, you are the man!

Should see raid parses from warriors who aren't tanking and rangers/beastlords.

Can actually dual wield Crash if you don't Aug the second one with something that is LORE.

The heal parses are monstrous.

I run a heal weapon on both my bard box and ranger box toons.

Putting separate Lore augments in two Crashes renders the second unequippable? that's pretty funny

So… quick search… it's all about Brell's Hammer Ornament for that offhand?

oo, or Shard of Eternal Pain?

Ritana's Sandstone of Prowess exists, but no way that's going to be the better choice

That same problem doesn't seem to afflict Hornscale Blade, though…