I'll reply to multiple people in one letter. Why not.
> > So it seems that you don't get any chance to increase your skills (hand-to-
> > hand or any other offensive skills) when using the Lute. As far as I could
> > tell, you don't increase in Dodge or Defense either...
>
> Your hand-to-hand skill will indeed go up while using an
> instrument.
This was the kernel of info I was looking for.
> It may be one of those skills that doesn't go up
> except upon success. I spent a half hour running around with
> a level 1 monk wondering why he was rarely hitting for more
> than 1 point of damage when I finally got the "You have become
> better and hand to hand (1)" message, after which it went up
> pretty quickly. (Doh - remember to train at least one point
> in each weapon skill. :-)
I could believe this. What I was suprised by was not so much that my HtH
skill wasn't increasing, but that none of the other combat skills were
either... I suppose I could understand Dual Wield not going, since I had
my second hand occupied, but Offense? I'll have to try it more.
> Hmm...I wonder how much a barbarian warrior can punch for at high levels
> with a maxed hand to hand. 10? 20? I *think* I punched for 6 once, but I'm
> not sure...average seems to be 2 to 4, with lots of misses.
He hits pretty hard. Toss in Chant of Battle with a Lute and he's got
140 STR... I suspect he's doing more damage with kick though...
> > Anyone with more experience in the support-bard role have any tips for a
> > battle-bard? I was pretty impressed at how effective I am at higher levels
> > with just songs...
>
> Well, lullaby just gets better and better...I hadn't used it for a few levels,
> because it was such a hassle finding a spot where I wouldn't sleep people
> in other groups. (On Rallos Zek) But lately, with Cazic having 10-15 people
> on average, I've pulled it out again, and have been rather amazed how well it
> works. 5+ lizzies, almost no resists, very few of them waking up early...its
> beautiful.
Invaluable song, once the party understands how it works.
Last night was with a party and all the other tanks but myself had to leave.
Was just me and two Wizards. Had a combination of a bad pull and someone else
dumping things on us, left us with 4-5 blues for 3 of us. Fired up Lullabye
and we took em out one by one, except for the one wizard that decided to attack
a different critter than the one I had targeted... She dumped her 100+ point
spell on it and it frenzied on her. I turned to attack it so she wouldn't
die, she starts saying
"HEAL SONG HEAL SONG!"
"No, not now"
"I'm about to die!"
"Not as fast as if I let these two Spirit Stalkers loose..."
"I'm OOM!"
"Then walk away and sit down and med."
I kill the Dark Stalker on her and we are now down to one Spirit Stalker.
I've got 35 HP (I checked), she's down to a bubble of health and both finger-
wigglers are out of mana. Get hit again, down to 27 HP. Pull in a Bullnose
Snake who happened to be walking by.
"OK, you two med up till you have enough mana to kill this thing."
I equip my Lute to make sure they don't break the lullabye very often. Hit
again and down to 21 points... Start punching the snake to death so he
doesn't get the chance to get in a lucky strike and poison me. The other
wizard bandages me (smart!) up a few times to keep me alive. I hold the
Stalker at bay for several minutes while the wizards med up. We agree to
try to root and dump on it. Works flawlessly.
If I had a copper for everytime I've been able to stave off certain death
with Lullabye, I could make a fortune selling money on eBay.
> Lull has proven useful lately too. Nice trick: Invis up, sneak past what you plan
>
> to pull, lull the stuff thats within agro radius that you don't want to fight yet,
> then
> have your puller pull the mob. This way, with almost no risk, you have 3 fewer
> mobs incoming...
Also invaluable tactic.
Now if I could just manage to convince the Rangers that I group with that I'm
better equipped to be puller than they are. Just because you have tracking
doesn't make you a good puller. I'd rather have Accelerando, Lament and
Bellow for pulling, and Lullabye for when things go badly...