Try this if you are fighting bigtime casters, put on a drum and sit that
melee out, play guardian AND elemental rhythms, and see how happy everyone
is with 100+ magic resistance.
As far as playing hymn of resotration during a fight, I was always of the
opinion that it is just not worth it, especially when not holding a
mandolin/lute. The 5hp or so per pulse can not keep up with the dmg the
party is taking. I say put the creature down as quickly as you can. Maybe
until you get to 23, Anthem and 2 Bellows, while boring, is most effective
and i think that is exactly what i did. then AFTER the fight, put on a
mandolin and heal up the party. Once you get to 23 you will be using chain
a lot to slow down the mobs from running and their attack speed. At level
26 having appaling screech memmed may save your life in many occassions.
Once you get to 32 you will be singing mana song a lot after fights. At
level 36 you can stack chant of battle and celerity to give the whole party
a STR, DEX, AC, and AGI boost. What will happen is the higher level you go,
the far less you use Heal or Bellow. You will be grouped with players who
are blasting for 400+ dmg, so your 20 dmg or so bellow is not as important
as buffing everyone elses melee abilities. And it is a very rare occurrence
to play heal, as there is always a cleric or druid in your party who can
heal 400+ hp in one spell, and your mana song regenerates their mana far
faster than your heal song can regen their hp. so don't despair, there are
nice songs in the future.
Personally I don't like being "ordered" to do anything in a group, by leader
or other members. They do not play a bard, therefore they can not know all
of our benefits to a party. If the group asks and we agree on a strategy,
no problem. but if it pisses you off like it does me to be ordered around,
just tell them "next time you tell me to play that song will be the last
time i play it." usually that shuts them up, especially if it is the mana
song =)
Shada Silverleaf, Level 44 Bard, Mithaniel Marr
>
> I'll also use Guardian or Elemental Rhythms if we're fighting
> a spellcasting mob. Has anyone else noticed that Elemental
> Rhythms actually increases your magic resist the same as
> Guardian (at least up to L20)? The only advantage of Guardian
> is that it gives me 1 extra AC, and that didn't happen until I
> was L20. Before then, Elemental was either the same or
> better.
>
> --
> John H. Kim
> kim@...
>
>
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