This subject was raised by Rhimshot recently, but because it's a recurring
one on this list and on the Concert Hall (and because it's late at night and
I'm tired) I'll limit my comments. = ) Sorry if this comes out incoherently
- caveat lector.
Basically, around 18th level it becomes very efficient for bards to use
instruments instead of weapons, weaving CoD/DDD/Hymn and switching
instruments. The damage you can deal and heal at that level using a horn
and lute is very good compared to the hit points and damage dealing
capacities of the monsters you face. The problem with bardic damage songs
is simple, though: our songs increase in damage far slower than our
opponents gain in hit points, so it will take correspondingly longer for a
bard to kill monsters every level using only instruments. When you combine
this with the fact that monsters do more damage every level on average,
there's a finite lifespan to the preference for instrument-only attacks for
most bards.
By around 25th-30th level (depending on your equipment and the composition
of your groups) you'll often find weapons along with (e.g.) anthem, chains,
psalm to be better overall in terms of how much damage your group sustains
over the course of a fight. When you combine this with the fact that there
are many places (increasingly common at higher levels) where area effect
attacks will cause a world of hurting to descend on your party, and the fact
that, should you group with an enchanter, your AE songs will wake the
sleeping critters, it simply becomes inefficient in most cases to use AE
songs and instruments at higher levels (35+). You can still deal a lot of
damage with these tactics, but you have to decide whether (e.g.) the ~30%
attack speed slowdown of chains or the attack speed increase of a combat
buff like Anthem or Celerity won't cause your party to take less damage over
the course of a fight. As you get better weapons and group with tanks who
can do more damage, and as you fight monsters who hurt you more every time
they hit, these songs become more and more useful, and the instrument-only
attack becomes less and less common.
There are of course exceptions to this - maybe you're in a group with 5
clerics fighting hordes of blues - nobody is tanking (but you maybe) and you
have lots of healing to keep you going. It then might make sense to deal
steady damage to everything around and accept the aggroing you'll draw. = )
Aloro Sleepytongue (E'ci)
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