On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Jim Mattson wrote:
>
> 20 -- Largo's Melodic Binding. I found this to be a great "taunt"
> when I first got it. I could pair with a wizard and easily pull
> a mob off of him. However, I now feel much more comfortable
> with the targetted Consonant Chain for the same purpose.
The only real use I've found for it is when I'm grouped with
people lower level than me and we're fighting stuff that's
yellow/red to me. The AC reduction (which Chain doesn't do)
really seems to help them hit more often and harder.
Otherwise I prefer Chain. If we're in a multi-mob situation,
I'd rather use Lullaby or Strike than this song anyway.
> Lately, I've been grouping with druids who get pissed off when
> I've chained and they can't snare, or when my chains break their
> snare, so I'm thinking of reviving this one. As for the attack
> speed and AC adjustments, I've never noticed any tangible
> benefits. Currently never memorized.
Bah - as long as you keep it Chained, why should they
complain? Chain is superior to snare because it slows down
attack speed. It's also a pretty good taunt, and ask any
healer - they'd rather the bard in banded/plate be taking
damage, not the druid in leather.
> 22 -- Alenia's Disenchanting Melody. As far as I can tell, this
> doesn't do squat. Never memorized.
Someone on the www.harpers.net/bard message board claimed it
does reduce the duration of DoTs. I dunno, and at this point
I don't think I really care anymore. If figuring out what
this song does is this tough, then whatever it does can't be
dramatic enough to warrant me keeping it memorized.
> 23 -- Selo's Consonant Chain. Great "taunt" and as a bonus, it can be
> used to snare runners if you don't have a snare caster in the
It's better than relying on casters to snare/root because you
can chase mobs while singing this song - they can't while
casting snare/root.
> party (or on the mob). The attack speed slow-down is
> noticeable, and when combined with enchanter debuffs is truly
> remarkable. It quickly superseded Largo's in my collection once
Are you sure it stacked? I've been meaning to test it but
haven't gotten around to it.
> 24 -- Lyssa's Veracious Concord. Um. Why is this such a high-level
> song? As a wood-elf, I don't care about ultravision. If I were
> human, I'd have long ago come up with a decent light source.
> I've never checked to see if I can really see invisible with
Yes it does let you see invisible. Very useful for picking
out invisible kill stealers waiting beside you. And since
it's party effect, you don't have to explain to your group
what you're seeing - they can see for themsleves.
Be careful with this song though - the range is as great as
Accelerando. A druid friend was getting back to us in
Permafrost while invisible, and I sang this song so we would
be able to see her. She moved into the song's range well
before reaching us, the song ticked which blew her
invisibility, the mobs attacked, and she had to zone again.
> 25 -- Psalm of Warmth. Woohoo! Although new people are always asking
> me, "Do you really think we need cold protection," everyone
> loves the damage shield. Even those druids who already get a 15
> point personal shield are impressed by the 5 point addition. I
> always have this memorized, and I am almost always singing it in
> battle.
This was upgraded recently. When I got it at 25, it was only
a 4 point shield, 5 points at 29, then 6 points at 30. So
about the time I reached level 29, Verant changed this to
start at 5 points damage at L25. It's a very nice song if
you're in a small group, but not as important when you're in a
big one.
> 26 -- Angstlich's Appalling Screech. In the wrong place at the wrong
> time, this can be a disaster. However, I have used it
> effectively a few times as a panic button, giving my party (or
> what remained of it) time to zone. I guess it could also be
> used for reverse-kiting in safer areas, but I've never tried
> that. Because of its limited usefulness, I rarely have it
> memorized, unless I strongly suspect a pending disaster.
I vastly underestimated this song, and relegated it to
practicing brass skill. Then while we were in the depths of
Guk, I happened to have it memorized when we got in over our
heads. My friends all ran out of the song's range and died
within 30 seconds. I made it from the Lord room to the zone
(a 1-2 minute run) losing only 2 bubbles.
Later, after I recovered their corpses and they'd been
resurrected and were sitting out the resurrection effects at
the zone, someone dumped a train on us. So I fired up Screech
again, and I'll be damned it worked. The cleric had to heal
me once in the 2+ minutes we sat there waiting for the others
to finish looting and regain enough strength to move, but we
went from a really bad situation to a yawner with the cleric
"practicing" some little-used spells on the fleeing frogs to
kill time.
I think we will change our dungeon retreat strategy to me
firing up this song, and everyone sticking close to me as we
*slowly* make our way to the zone.
It's also good for Chain/Fear attacks (snare/Fear is probably
better as then there's less chance of the Fear effect wearing
off due to resists). This will significant cut down the
damage you take when fighting ultra-powerful melee mobs
(griffins, giants, cyclopses, etc).
> 27 -- Solon's Song of the Sirens. I was really looking forward to
> this, but once I got it, I was terribly disappointed. It seems
> that by the time I can type "/pet sit down," the charm is nearly
> expired. Does this last longer as my level goes up?
Silly - you don't type the commands, you convert some of your
socials buttons to hold the commands which you then hotkey.
:-)
> And can I
> really charm multiple mobs at once, as described in an earlier
No, you're only allowed one pet.
> 28 -- Crission's Pixie Strike. If this cleared the mob's shit-list,
> it would be fantastic. As it is, I find it disappointing. It
> is certainly no substitute for the enchanter's mesmerize. If I
> can really charm multiple mobs at once, then I see no real
> advantage to mesmerizing, but if charm is limited to one at a
> time, then I guess mesmerize could be useful as an alternative
> to lullaby. Still, it seems that when mesmerizing two or three
> mobs, I'd have to pull out of the fighting completely, whereas
> with lullaby I can still be in there bashing on the same guy the
> party is attacking. Not currently memorized, but maybe I need
> to experiment with this more.
My experience has been that mobs break out of Lullaby more
often and more quickly than with Strike. Also, I dunno what
weapons you use or who you usually group with, but each of the
folks I'm grouped with typically do twice as much damage as me
in a fight, and there are usually two or three of them. So
it's not a problem for me to drop out of a fight and stick to
just my instruments while striking two or three mobs.
Another thing it does is interrupt casters, which is great in
certain areas since it's not area effect like Lullaby. If
we're fighting something like a lizard herald or justicar, I
will just strike it over and over instead of singing any other
songs. Between me and the paladins casting stun, solo casting
mobs usually get off 0-1 spells during a fight.
> 29 -- Psalm of Vitality. Um. Okay, great disease resistance. (No
> poison resistance at all, despite what I've seen on some of the
> song listings.) Big whoop. Am I going to be fighting anything
> where people are going to care about this? The last time I
> fought anything with disease, it was the undead gnolls in Lake
It has a pretty nice AC bonus (same as Chant of Battle with a
drum), but then so does Psalm of Warmth, and that has a damage
shield to boot, so yeah, pretty useless. Maybe if diseases
really meant something, like they added lycanthropy, then this
song would be useful.
> I'd appreciate any observations that run counter to my own analysis,
> plus some insight on what's coming up for me in the 30's. Do any of
> these new songs really rock?
Clarity (L32) is probably the most anti-climactic song you
will ever get. Everyone wants it, you can't wait for it, and
when you finally do get it... nothing. You cannot see
*anything* this song does because it does not affect you in
the slightest (except the annoying spam messages). All you
get are reassurances from anyone who's not a bard, monk,
warrior, or rogue, that yes, their mana is indeed regenerating
faster. More like a whimper than a bang. :-)
--
John H. Kim
kim@...