> Grrr. The increase in effectiveness is entirely due to number
> of mobs. It's just nicer to have more party members because
> that increases your survivability, which is true anyway
> regardless of Psalm. Having more party members actually makes
> Psalm account for a smaller percentage of the total damage
> applied to the mobs - the mobs die quicker so they have less
> time to beat themselves against your damage shields.

That is the issue I missed before. More players brings more
collective hp to the table, thus you can balance dmg to players.
But as for Psalm, it's dmg ratio then decreases as more people
beat down the multiple enemies. So is the 5,6,7,8 dmg to each
mobs contact swing better than the bard with a lute and hymm
with some form of speed up attack in a big party? Despite the
fact healing will draw frenzy on the bard from mobs not being
detained.

I think you have different scenarios based on number of players.
A full group would most likely benefit from atkspeed/ac/healing
than trying to weave in a dmg shield from psalm. Still, it is
possible in best case to weave all of these songs together. I'm
just trying to be realistic in these days of lag and other bard
song enemies. keeping 3 songs steady is getting tougher. All
effects have to be off, the more mobs - the more polys to render,
the servers are getting much more laggy due to connectivity, etc.

Assuming multiple encounters:

Soloing melee - Psalm make work out beter.
Soloing magic - AE DoT damage songs with instruments are awesome.

Small Party melee/magic - John's formulas.

Large Party melee/magic - Full atkspeed,healing,utility (protect/mana)

Harmonic.