Bard melodies with Tune Change

Discussion in 'Hybrid' started by Niloiv, Nov 21, 2019.

  1. Niloiv Elder

    With the new (and amazing) change to "Tune stuck in Your head." I have been crunching numbers and have some questions as to what other bards will do on raids with their melodies.

    Song Cast time with Max AA: 2.85 sec
    Song Duration with Max AA: 34.00 sec
    So, given a melody with 12 songs (34.20 to cycle), the songs will have a 0.20 sec gap between them.
    BUT
    If given an 11 song (31.34 to cycle), the songs will "clip" off 2.65 seconds from each other.

    Should it be played safe to ensure the adps flow is not interrupted? Or after factors, such as lag, song interruption, and a gap of adps, is a 0.20 sec loss worth the extra song? Does siphoning 2.65 off each song to inefficiency demand the risk of an extra song?

    (note: I dont really want, at this junction, to discuss the songs being played, but rather posit the hypothetical maximum melody efficiency, which then can aid a song rotation study.)
  2. ptah Augur

    Ok I will assume your math is correct and I have not looked in game. And I question if I had 11 melody songs to cycle... I run throught it off top of my head. I read you dont want to discuss the songs.. but I its important to list them as its explains the why.

    Insult (synergy procs) (Alliance numbers)
    Aria (mega nice mod song)
    Insult
    Haste.. either group or AE (Haste/AE Haste overhaste and mod2s)
    Insult
    Suffering (proc meele)
    Insult
    Arcane (proc)
    Insult
    Dissident (mana return, mod to weapons plus plus)
    Insult
    Reckless (25% mod to crit heals) (second option to switchout if healer is either clr or non healing Drooler)
    ***love Dirge of LH or shardstubble

    That woud be 12 songs.. 6 support 6 insults, very minor drop and normally drop Arcane and run 10. This lets run nearly 100% support, with max effort on insult, and I cast Alliance and return to full melody.

    This is very very situational to the event, to roster, to the group. The Hardest thing about being a bard is so many choices or options to mod your teammates.

    Bardman is Adjustmentman.. Also 10 peak set lets it run and have room for a slow, or mez, cure, or Cresendo up.

    in the past i have saved sets to quick flopping 1 or 2 songs at will but have adjusted to less is more.. 93% of the time.

    Live>ADPS>joke telling>personal dps. All are important.
    Note I looked ingame to double check I songs listed correctly.. Im only 30s on duration not 34.. I must be missing something. Me not you thing.

    My goal was not get off topic.. but felt I could not convey an answer without details. Without songs, order we cannot list duration of melody mix.

    So in past people offered this /melody 1 2 9a 3 4 5 6 1 2 9b 3 4 5 6
    9a or 9b are long term dirge LH or cresendo. And these never address alliance clicks.

    So the question is how do bard? Some people will shorten it up.. and other will extend it to nearly a bot like melody with check in every 10 mins.

    I not sure I helped 1%.. but that is my musical puke on paper thoughts.
  3. Szilent Augur

    Insult will not actually sing that frequently. A melody structured to include it every other song is designed to sing Insult both 1/3 songs normally, and also 1/4 songs when QuickTime is active, without missing any chance to sing it. Despite appearing longer, your melody is not actually 12 songs, it's 9. Also, the Dissident won't cycle that frequently, so it's 8 songs in two thirds of its reps. Which is fine! Making sure Aria has 100% uptime is well worth sacrificing a bottom-of-the-melody song.
    Tucoh likes this.
  4. Svann2 The Magnificent

    Waiting to check it when they add the next level of tune aa, but right now for my normal raid song I do
    insult, dissident, 1, insult, dissident, 2, etc up to insult, dissident, 5, repeat once and then amp on the end. Im thinking instead of doing 5 songs Ill go 6.
  5. Niloiv Elder

    @Ptah
    When I was on Beta, the song duration for TBL spells were 34s
  6. Tucoh Augur

    What makes bard melody decisions less precise is that the drop-off in strength for adding songs after the most powerful ones (insult, aria, haste, reckless) is pretty sharp. For me it's less of a decision about the maximum theoretical set of songs you can keep on your group vs how reliably you want to keep the top songs active on your group through interrupts, item clicks, lag, group members being out of range etc.

    In addition to the above songs I also integrate Suffering, Spiteful, Arcane, Spry Sonata and Dirge of Lost Horizons depending on the scenario.
  7. Niloiv Elder

    Perhaps my attempt at a logical demarcation has caused more confusion then intended; in that, the song choice, of course, is very critical to the melody's cycle, but I was hoping to separate variables for the analysis of "how many unique songs should be in a melody given the new duration increase?"
  8. Niloiv Elder

    Here is what I am tossing around for a theory craft with the new duration change (set for a melee group):


    Aura: Aura of Begalru
    1) War March of Dekloaz (109)
    2) Arcane Ballad (110)
    3) Travenro’s Spiteful Lyric (110)
    4) Travenro’s Song of Suffering (109)
    5) Aria of Begalru (106)
    6) Pulse of Xigam (106)
    7) Qunard’s Aria (108) (or Fatesong of Dekloaz (107))
    8) Storm Blade (69)
    9) Sathir’s Insult (110)
    10) Dissident Psalm (106)
    11) Jembel’s Lively Crescendo (109)

    MA1 (max uptime – "normal" flow)
    /mel 5 1 2 3 9 4 8 6 7 9 10 11

    MA2 (Burns)
    /mel 9 5 10 9 3 4 9 1 2 9 7 8

    If an interruption happens, the "important" songs are front loaded or you can manual twist a few until you can get back on cycle. Just trying to start a discussion as a check for the update.
  9. Szilent Augur

    What you're calling your "burns" melody there will skip repetitions of Sathir's Insult while Quick Time is up - it won't be ready with only two songs in between and won't be tried again until two more songs have been called on by the melody. It will sing every 5th song instead of every 4th like it might, and definitely not every 3rd like you appear to intend.

    Also Qunard/Dekloaz and Storm Blade and Spiteful are all real bad. Dissident is stylistic, but if you're using it it's definitely for the mana, so any melody that includes it should pretty definitely include at least Pulse & Crescendo, and maybe plan on being the Chorus bard too.
  10. Niloiv Elder

    Does the "Hundred Hands Effect" decrease song cast time in addition to weapon delay?
    Slot Description
    5: Hundred Hands Effect
    9: Increase Chance to Hit by 79% with All Skills
    13: Increase ATK by 1080
  11. Niloiv Elder

    I understand they are not great, but isnt something better than repeating?

    Would you mind sharing what you propose as a better song choice and melody chain?
  12. Szilent Augur

    Quick Time is

    Quick Time VIII 0s 0s 2m+ n/a Caster Group
    1: Decrease Casting Times by 0.25s
    2: Limit Max Level: 110 (lose 100% per level)
    3: Limit Type: Exclude Combat Skills
    4: Limit Class: ALL
    5: Decrease Weapon Delay by 15%
    6: Increase Chance of Additional 2H Attack by 10% (2)
    7: Increase Chance of Additional Primary 1H Attack by 10% (1)
    8: Increase Chance of Additional Secondary 1H Attack by 10% (1)
    9: Increase Chance to Hit by 90%
    13: Increase ATK by 1368
  13. Niloiv Elder

    Awesome. I assumed the line just continued in the same vein through all levels (reading is hard), didnt realize it had changed at VIII. Will have to adjust melody for that then for sure.
  14. Szilent Augur

    I go for max Synergies by alternating Insults in the melody between all the buff songs. /Melody will try to Insult after each song, singing it if it's ready = every third song with no QT, every fourth song with QT on:

    Sathir Aria Sathir Warmarch Sathir Crescendo Sathir buff Sathir buff Sathir buff Sathir buff

    On the buff songs, the dps lock-ins are Aria WarMarch Suffering Arcane like you're using, and Pulse unless in a caster group (pulse for the mana for hybrids in melee groups; pulse for the heal focus for cle in tank groups). Also if not in a caster group I include Reckless Renewal outside Auspice (or always if I'm not micromanaging… tbh, that's most frequent). +1 AE song is about the limit I'm comfortable with from there; if I'm responsible for both AE songs then Reckless probably gets cut from the melody.

    If there's "loose" melody slots, my impulse is to fill with Jonthan's. Jonthan's is "just" personal dps, but it's at least good personal dps, instead of super shabby group dps. Jonthan's is dependent on the bard being geared properly vis-a-vis procs, though, since its core benefit is +proc rate. I see a distressing number of bards with lower damage sap/stun proc weapons instead of bigger DDs, or having no-proc damage augs :(

    Amplification is also an option. It's good to pair with Frenzied Kicks. A little investigation of Amplification's impact here.

    In a caster group with Pulse & Reckless not being really called on (probably caster group bards should be doing the AE songs, but…), can open up entirely with a double insult melody, like Sathir Tsaph 1 Sathir Tsaph 2 Sathir Tsaph 3 Sathir Tsaph 4. That'll drain mana pretty fast, though, so it's an uncommon avenue to take.