The Dichotomic line was touted as "very powerful class defining abilities" in Holly's webcast and was a huge selling point for TBM. For bards, this description falls very very short of that. At its inception, this song used to return ungodly amounts of mana to the group. Admittedly, this was not as-intended and required tweaking, as it was too powerful and made groups with bards not manage their resources during longer fights. The issue is, this "class defining ability" has been down-tuned to near uselessness. Very very few bards include this song in their lineup. Bards are very often in groups with Beastlords and Rangers, who both struggle keeping mana in their mana bar 5-10 minutes into a fight. Allowing us to restore 10-15k mana and 5-6K endurance every 60 seconds is not too far out of line and would help us keep our dps team afloat, while still encouraging them to manage resources by using paragon chains, etc. Please consider upping the mana/endurance return on the bard song "Composite Psalm". Even if its just upping the singing focus modifier on the triggered effects. Singing, Max Focus: 100%Composite Psalm of Empowerment 6 Bard (250) Slot 1: Increase Current Hit Points by 6061 Slot 2: Increase Current Mana by 2292 Slot 3: Increase Current Endurance by 334 Slot 10: Increase Hit Damage by 2936. Scale: 1x per 1s, Cap: 10x (v433) Composite Psalm of Potential 6 Bard (250) Slot 1: Increase Spell Damage by 10826 (v286, After Crit) Slot 2: Limit Effect: Current Hit Points Slot 3: Limit Min Level: 106 Slot 4: Limit Max Level: 120 (Lose 5% per Level) Slot 5: Limit Type: Detrimental Slot 6: Limit Target: Exclude Caster AE Slot 7: Limit Target: Exclude Caster PB Slot 8: Limit Target: Exclude Target AE Slot 9: Limit Min Mana Cost: 10 Slot 10: Limit Resist: Magic Slot 11: Limit Resist: Fire Slot 12: Limit Resist: Cold I understand that returning a ton of mana and endurance every 60 seconds would be too powerful. Maybe find a happy medium between the original iteration of this song, and its current state.
Increasing resource returns would be nice. I'd be more excited by the ADPS being made worthwhile, since this song is used at a cost of bards' personal dps (Bellow+Shout). 6489 endurance is two Boastful Bellows for a combined 2.5M damage. Composite adds 32k per caster, 32k per meleer. Even if the whole group qualifies for both (the bard herself can't use the caster bit, but whatever), that's under 400k damage. It's possible that the resource return (Slot 2: Increase Current Mana by 2292, Slot 3: Increase Current Endurance by 334, per group member) can be mathed out to 2M damage in additional spells/combat abilities, but that would have to include an assumption that they're fully draining all the other resource they may have before the bard is tapped out. The bard who doesn't themselves get to benefit from Pulse, Chorus, or Crescendo, Skin, bst Composite, SE, or Paragon, Jann, Imperator, Tonics, Fires or Banners It's my perspective that bards using Composite are basically making a sacrifice to the ethical ideal of "support class", one that's not supported by the numbers
Bards aren't the only ones with poor dicho/dissident line of spells. The entire category should be looked at and rebalanced if the 3rd iteration appears (like the spell data indicates it will). But this conversation should be happening in Beta forums when launched.
