No disrespect Harmonic, but what is it about level 50 that makes players so
elitist?
I've been on three successful dragon raids now at level 41 and out of all
three of those raids only ONE of my party members has died. That sole death
was due to our Cleric having gone LinkDead early in combat against Lady Vox.
What I'm saying is that weaving Guardian, Elemental and Celerity (three
songs) with MM drums in raids on both Vox and Nagafen, I was able to keep my
tank groups alive and largely unfeared. As a matter of fact, of those three
raids my groups have received the kill experience for two. Of course we
took battle damage, and on the last run with the LinkDead Cleric I survived
with only half a bubble of health, but I did survive and the rest of the
party was above half health.
Harmonic, don't forget that although the songs at higher levels have
improved, our percussion skills are already maxxed at 41. Our party buffing
abilities (other than perhaps by new songs) aren't going to improve. I have
never done a single point of damage against a dragon and might never. That
simply isn't my job. My job at those raids is to be a mana pump and
in-battle buffer. Just as a cleric is a healer and a buffer, just as a
warrior is to bash things, a wizard to nuke, nuke, nuke, etc. I don't
resent my role, I understand it and embrace it as do the others in a well
balanced and successful dragon raid.
I twist three songs during dragons raids without dropping much at all. Here
are my tips:
First turn all Hits and Misses off in the chat filters, the spam generated
from 30 people pounding on a dragon and vice versa is enormous. I learned
this the hard way having just mine and others Hits on for my first raid.
The text messages from songs changing scrolled by so fast in some cases I
never saw them at all and was just counting out to know when to change
songs.
Turn particle density to OFF. The visual cues that you're used to for
changing songs will be gone, so use the text messages.
Reduce the clipping plane way down.
Reduce resolution if applicable. I normally play at 1024x768 on a TNT2
Ultra, but reduce to 800x600 for dragons.
If you get into battle and find that it's chaotic, or that video lag is
terrible, simply look at the floor. It's not the best seat available, but
it helps with video lag considerably. Watch those text messages.
Wear all the heat/cold/magic boosting equipment that you can muster up. In
my case, unlike Harmonic, I never swung a blade so my need for DEX/AGI stuff
was supplanted by other stats. To my recollection I've never been clawed by
a dragon, only breathed upon for damage. This might not have been the case
if I'd been swinging a blade.
Don't watch the health of the others in your party. IMO that's the cleric's
job. I don't even watch my own health - it's only a distraction and could
cause you to panic. What are you going to do? Run? My job is to twist
those songs without dropping, so that's what I concentrate on.
Crier
> It's not worth your time to twist those songs. Here's why from
> my limited experience in both planes, and inside info from
> other servers dragon raids:
>
> 1) Lag. You will be lucky to even get twisting in.
> With my P3-450, 128MB, TNT2 Ultra machine with all options
> off... detail, pc names, effects, my misses, your misses,
> your hits, all spell, all song, I still got lagged something
> horrible. It's the location server trying to update 30 people
> in a very tight area, nothing you can do about it.
>
> 2) You will get more attention than you wanted, starting and stopping
> a song draws attention, an adhorrent thought so as it tripled me
> for 135. Cazic Thule thought so when I twisted and he clobbered
> me in the 170s. That said, oh well, you gotta twist, so twist
> the right stuff ;)
>
> 3) Ok, so you are gonna lag and get beat up a little. You still
> need to twist. Here's the kicker. Your COLD/HEAT bonus from
> those songs doesn't do much. AE Breath will hit for normal if
> your resistance is 25 or 125. Take it for what it's worth,
> and you may not believe it, but it's confirmed. Now, you may partial
> resist the dmg, but it's barely accountable to the resist level.
> The biggest single problem is the AE fear when doing dragons.
> The best save vs. that fear is being L50... a fear on you even
> with MR over 200 at L40 will stick.
>
> 4) Your damage counts. I've seen so many people say, Argh! He
> only had a sliver left. Think if you added your 400 - 500 dmg
> into the attack? You've got weapons, use em!
>
>
> Oh wait... hehe, L41 is mystic shielding.
>
> Verant was smart in this way, they gave you a song that boosts
> MR by 60 (at L50) without using instruments or twisting songs.
> Verses of Victory is amazing... ac20, str30, dex30, atkspeed inc.
>
> I never went on dragon trips because you need the right people
> for the job. Extra people or wrong people just clutter up the
> scenery and lag everyone. Back in the day we only had like 40
> L50's, now we have over 200. It's just a matter of picking and
> choosing.
>
> No disrespect, cause I love ya a lot girl, but L40 bards aren't
> cut out for dragon raids, unless the server is scrapped for people
> at the time of the raid. Simply because the songs you really
> need are higher up, and the level difference really hurts your
> DragonFear resist and ability to strike the monster. As much
> as I wanted to go to do them in the past, I had to defer the
> work to someone more experienced. Which is exactly what I did.
>
> Bust your ass so we can fight together at full power (L50) again.
>
> Harm.