> From a pure experience/time perspective, it is always better
> to have more people in your group. This is especially true as
> a bard since your party songs multiply every person's
> effectiveness. The only time I turn down adding more people
> to a group is if they are known jerks, or if the spawn in the
> area will not support the extra people (i.e. there is nothing
> else nearby and we are already handling what's there with
> ease).
>
> If this was not the case, then I can only assume you felt the
> group's increased effectiveness with two tanks would not
> offset the decrease in experience. I'd suggest you improve
> your mixed tank/caster strategies then - the only remaining
> factor is poor tactics.
I do not have a steady group. This was a pickup group, as all of mine are.
This is very frustrating at times because I am forever explaining group
tactics with a bard present to groups at my level (20th) that are unfamiliar
with bards. "Oh you heal? Kewl!" Sigh...
We turned down the warriors after discussion for several reasons. We were
fading - it was 4:45am or so and we knew that we weren't going to be there
much longer. In fact it was my opinion that changing tactics at that point,
with us as tired as we were, could have spelled disaster. I discouraged their
joining. We felt like we could continue to hold the room and we did. One or
two hours earlier and I would have accepted their request.
> I thought Anthem no longer stacked with Guardian Rhythms? Or
> maybe it was Chant of Battle that didn't stack with GR...
I am quite sure... I was weaving Anthem, Guardian and Elemental Rythms. I
definitely verified that Guardian and Elemental stacked because I tested MR
with and without my drum playing one, the other and both. I did not check
stats will all three stacked together, perhaps the icon displayed without
yielding any results (which I would find kinda disturbing). Purifying and
Guardian Rythms do not stack as I recall. Don't know about Chant of Battle as
I haven't played that in a while (probably should dust it off and try it at
20th though).
> It's tough to appraise the effectiveness of MR against casting
> mobs because you don't get a message saying how much damage
> their spells did. The strategy I found worked best when I was
> in Permafrost was just to play Lullaby over and over (stop and
> restart it each time it pulses to minimize the interval).
> That interrupted almost every spell, and the goblins went down
> usually getting only 0 or 1 spell off, sometimes 2. I dunno
> how viable this strategy is at level 19 though.
I hadn't thought about stopping and restarting Lullaby to decrease the
interval. That's for the tidbit. In fact, I'd been unsure as to how lullaby
worked and was hesitant to stop it at all. If it's a pure "tick song" then
I'll definitely start weaving other songs with it.
The only evidence I have of additional MR being a Good Thing is that we fought
the Preacher twice and had a couple of fights with both a Diviner and Evoker -
when I used the drum and boosted our MR, I was always surprised at how high
everyone's health was at the end of a battle. Now with two wizards in the
fights they didn't last long, but when I played my "melee songs" in a similar
fight, the Cleric in our group would be healing away... Very subjective stuff
though.
> Set up a hotkey bank with four songs, your instrument melee
> slot, and an instrument inventory slot. Put the drum in the
> melee slot and pick up the lute with your mouse cursor. Play
> ER, then GR. When you switch to Hymn, click on the drum to
> equip the lute and place the drum on the mouse cursor. When
> you switch back to ER, click on the lute to equip the drum
> again. (The instrument inventory slot isn't really necessary,
> but I found it handy in case I needed to drop my rather
> valuable Mistmoore drum to pick up something else. :-)
>
> This also works with Hymn (lute), CoD (lute), and DDD (horn).
> Each song gets enhanced by its respective instrument, and it's
> not that much more difficult to do. It's still a hassle
> though and I only set it up occasionally.
I've read about switching instruments and weapons in combat. I have one
problem with that. I currently have about 800pp worth of weapons (Thulian
Claw, Barbed Whip, Dragoon Dirk). If I drop one of those, I stand a decent
chance of losing it permanently. If I purchase a MM drum for somewhere around
400pp that brings me to 1,200pp worth of stuff I'd be (literally) juggling.
Not my idea of a good time.
> If you were doing most of the tanking, then Warsong probably
> was appropriate. If the others are taking damage though, I'd
> consider using GR instead of Warsong. It has a slight AC buff
> (bigger than ER or PR) which is mostly negligible, but can
> make a difference in marginal situations.
Good observation. I will play with GR and break out Chant and play with it
some too.
> When you are the lowest level member of a group, you should
> concentrate more on party buff songs (which can't be resisted)
> rather than offensive songs (which can be resisted).
Which, although not fully formed in my mind perhaps, is what I was doing with
the exception of Lullaby.
> I'm curious if you found any basis for the claim that Lullaby
> nixes the hate list. Whenever I'm grouped with overzealous
> nukers, I haven't been able to use Lullaby to pull a mob off
> them. It goes to sleep, but when it wakes up it just resumes
> chasing the nuker. Finally after about 5 or 6 pulses of
> Lullaby it starts to attack me, but then the caster nukes
> again and the whole thing starts all over.
No, I didn't find that it nixed the shit list. I found that the mobs
continued to attack the caster that they were glommed onto and that Lullaby
would not break them off, even after several rounds. What it did seem to do
was provide the casters with time to cast without interruption, which is what
I was intending. So even though the caster might have a Gob in his face, he
could cast on it. It would awaken, pound my caster one time and then
(usually) nod off. Caster casts again... Repeat. Of course the mobs that
weren't engaged by caster damage were pretty upset with me. But generally
speaking I could keep them nodded enough that things worked out alright.
Occassionally I'd need a heal 'cause at 19th getting hit even once in a while
for 40-50 pts is pretty rough.
> Bleh - a non-twinked L20 bard has better weapons than I do.
> I need to get better weapons. Doesn't help that my friends
> and I aren't into camping...
I despise camping. It's the main reason that I don't have a steady group. I
get very restless very fast. That's yet another reason I started a bard -
like a lot of the others on this list I like to travel around.
Crier Sharpsong
Jason A. Farqu´┐¢
CDI at
http://www.pigging.com/