From playing the bard/dirge class I've noticed a few things in general and have some quick thoughts and suggestions. 1)The basic scout skill "evade" is WORTHLESS! I figured at first it was because I only had the app1 version of this skill so I upgraded it to adept1. The skill's description states that it is supposed to lower aggro. Well, it doesn't. I've used it many, many of times when I grabbed aggro and the mobs never turn off me. On the RARE occasion that it does happen to work, guess what happens? The mobs forget about me and run screaming towards a helpless healer not the tank. This skill is broken majorly and needs some tweaking or looking into. 2)Our fluff song melancholy something(forget exact name) is not that great. First off, I thought I'd get to have a bit of fun in the groups doing this to people but guess what?, all the song does is make them lower their head for about 2 seconds and that's it! Heck the troub song makes people dance. At least you know when someone is messing with you on that song. Our song blows comparatively. People don't even notice when I do it to them, no joke! Suggestion: Make our fluff song the one you get when you have to sing to the orcs to become a dirge in freeport. That song is cool. At least if you played that song to a group member they would notice something is not right lol. 3)Song cancellation/recast - As it stands now you CAN'T click on a song's icon on the buff window to cancel it. It still remains up if you do that and still shows on the concentration window. You have to goto your self target window and click on one of your concentration bubbles to cancel a song. This is quite tedious to do and a hassle. Often you miss and pull up the group option menu. Suggestion: Make it to where songs can be cancelled just like stealth by clicking again on the icon in the hotbar. Also, along these same lines you should be able to recast the same song again to refresh it rather than waiting for it to disappear off concentration. As it stands now if you already have maxed conc and try to recast the same song that is alrdy playing you get an error message saying "not enough concentration" EVEN THOUGH it's the same song. Those are three suggestions I have so far. Don't get me wrong I love playing my dirge but they really need to look into the above things.
Xanusus - hopefully this will help: 1) as it is, yeah it can seem pretty worthless...however...it reduces aggro, not eliminates it. If you have built up enough aggro to pull off the tank during teh MIDDLE of the fight, thats a lot of aggro!! It definitely works better near the beginning of the fight. Anyway, two suggestions: a) slow down your attacks a little, try not to cast group buffs (like Bria's for example..I can AoE taunt with THAT song...) b) BEFORE you evade, do a cheap-Shot. I dont know why, but Cheap-Shot + Evade seems to do a GREAT job for me of resetting aggro right where it should be. Heck, half the time I use cheap shot, I dont even have to evade. 2) fluff song: Dont even have it, dont care about it...I do agree with you..the Orc singing one would be awesome 3) Song Cancel: Make sure you have your MAINTAINED SPELL window up. I turned mine off by accident, forgot about it, and was using the concentration bar for **mods 4 teh win!!1!** near on 10 levels. It wasnt until I went to use the UIBuilder and make a concentration window with REALLY BIG BUTTONS that I saw the maintained spells window and went "aaawww Nuggets!!" - I now have this window positioned in the lower 3rd, dead center of my screen, above my hotkey pads, and just above where the yellow messages appear. That way I can see what I have up, and can cnacel easily. This window ALSO shows the debuffs that you have applied (like from Lanets, etc), AND the color drains out of the icons so you can see how long you have left on them before a recast is needed. Hope this helps! Beefstick Malone 25th Troll Dirge ExtraOrdinaire Lucan D'Lere
Yeah on #3 as Pheon said....you can cancel songs and get your concentration back if you use the maintained window to cancel. The buff window that is on the left side of your screen. If you cancel on the right side buff list it wont free concentration only turn off the buff. You nave to cancel it on the left side. My experiences with Evade have been better then yours I guess. I only have mine to App3 but I hunt alot with a beserker and Ill many times pull, debuff it, then hit evade as he is hitting a taunt and it turns it right around. I know his taunt is a big part of the turning it but it seems like using the evade guarantees the turn. Sometimes when I dont do the evade it doesnt turn on his first taunt and he has to do it again. On the Fluff song....yeah I agree. I think by far bards got the worst level 20 fluff songs of anyone. I think our level 20 should have been the disguise ones we get at 40 and then at 40 we should get a different race disguise or I saw one guy suggest our level 20 fluff should have been we play a real little song.... a song that last like 15 seconds or something etc but we can end it by moving if needed. But at least that would have been semi cool to play a song in between fights.
Thanks for the non flame responses. I like poeple who understand that i'm not flaming just offering suggestions and guys, I have been beating my head in trying to figure out how to get my maintained window back up. I LOVED that window but one day when I logged on it was gone and I have absolutely NO clue how to get it back up...That would be great if I could but i'm clueless on how to bring that baby back up. Can you tell me how you have yours up? pretty please. I want mine back up!
nm guys I had someone explain in game how to get it back up..."alt m"... Thank goodness. Evade is still broken though... When I'm playing a full slate of songs and we get adds guess who they come screaming for? ME. Not the cleric, not the Tank but ME. so here's what happens I hit evade. NOTHING. They still are beating the heck out of me. I hit it again(health getting low now). NOTHING. They are still beating the heck out of me. LOL next part is funny. Healer sees i'm in trouble and heals, I hit evade again, BOOM dead healer and the tank can't do jack about it. That's why i'm saying evade is broken because it is.
well...there is a difference between actually broken and not as effective as you would like it to be. Not drawing Where that line of distinction is for you, merely pointing out that there is one, and you might want to examine where you placed it. For me, personally..I used to play a bard in EQ1, and I am used to being a punching bag for mobs until the tank can get aggro under control. In EQ2, I am insanely happy with the amount of effort I have to expend to rip aggro off the tank. And getting Evade into it as well is just gravy...no matter how well it works. I have not had any problems with evade. But again, I use cheap shot with it - did you try that? Also, later on, you get a spell that increases Hate on your target (so if that supercilious mage gets up your nose, you know what to do much more satisfying than playing a fluff song on him. and, if you are doing it, try not to cast group buffs in combat - between combats, I drops the buff songs and refresh them if they are down below a minute to go. HTH Beefstick Malone 25 troll bard Lucan
1: Evade is NOT worthless. Not a flame, just the truth. So far I can see 2 ways it works, one is what everyone else is saying (CheapShot+Evade) and then I have my way. I keep in close contact with the tank, this is always smart. I tell him "Taunt in 5 Seconds" and then immediately cast evade. So just as evade takes effect..the tank taunts and say hello shirly..the tank has the aggro again. No im not a bard, Im a brigand and i do alot of damage (more then the tank so i get aggro alot..specially when I do my triple threat attack Backstab Adept1+Sneak Attack Adept 1+Decieving Blade Adept1=Alot of aggro thanks to around 150 to 200dmg in a very short time.) So just talk to your tank, tell em to taunt in 5 seconds and then cast evade. It works sooo much better that way, since the mob now has a higher hate/aggro rating for the tank. 2:No comment..not bard, sorta stumbled upon the post. 3: Ahem yeh...maintained spells window is handy.
Ctrl or Alt + M i think. edit - ah didn't read the post under it And yes evade does seem to work, it works very well if you use just before or as the main tank is taunting. i don't think it works well enough to shift aggro back to the main tank from using it alone (someone has to Nuke, heal, taunt) but then if it did it would make it very easy. Message Edited by VelvetAcid13 on 12-08-2004 04:26 AM Message Edited by VelvetAcid13 on 12-08-2004 04:31 AM
Well Ill just share a little bit on my use of Evade as well. Im now level 25. My Evade is only App3. I group alot with my guildmates and many times Im actually the puller. Before you laugh let me explain... its actually much better to have a scout class pull then your main tank for a couple reasons. The main one though is if you know what your doing....the tank will always get the mob off you mega fast and it saves the tank a couple hits in the begining of the fight that you take. Last night I was in Steppes and we were fighting Yellow double arrow up Cents near tower 4. We had 2 tanks, 2 rangers, 1 mystic and me the dirge. The Rangers we had were wimps. I asked them if one of them wanted to pull and they said "Doesnt the tank have a bow?". I told them nevermind I will do it. I use my bow or mini bard nuke (hehe) to go and pull. I run back with the mob and run past the main tank. Soon as I get back I hit evade at same time tank is hitting taunt. I typically get hit once maybe twice at most and then start on debuffs and move to back of target for attacks. The combination of Evade and the Tanks taunt is practically 100% effective everytime when used this way. Maybe once or twice during hte night the mob will turn on me and hit me but once again as soon as that happens I hit Evade and the dodge buff we have (forget name) and the tanks hitting taunt and 99% of the time I take about 1 hit and it turns back around. Best I can tell Evade works just fine the way I use it. -Tekkor
Have you tried just letting the tank use taunt and you not useing evade to see which skill really matters?
( sorry for bad english it is not my natural language ) if i understand well you said that you cast song into a fight..... i hope you dont cast buff because casting buff into fight are the best aggro maker thing i ever know ! :smileyhappy:
I agree with you on your points. Maintained window or not, you should be able to refresh a song without cancelling first.
