On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Reid _ wrote:
>
> From: jhenders@...
> Well, it hasn't happened at L49 so I'm not holding my breath that it
> will happen at 50 as the song for that level appears to be an Anthem
> upgrade. The best damage you could probably do with songs would be the
> L48 song and CoD, as both are string songs, and they definately wouldn't
> beat the damage you could do with dual Ykesha's. In fact they don't even
> -----------------
>
> just curious as I am much lower level than you and thus my experience may
> not be quite as extensive, but are you working damage upon multiple mobs at
> once into the equation?
>
> Sure, one on one, I have no doubts you are correct. But I wonder about
> group on group.........
At the higher levels, the group on group fights are mostly a
thing of the past. If you get 3-4 high blue mobs attacking
you at once, either the enchanter mesmerizes them, or you
Strike or Lullaby them. If your group can't do this, you
might as well zone or evac because it's usually a lost cause.
Once the mobs are mesmerized/lullabyed, it's a group-on-one
fight so you don't want to be playing area effect songs like
DDD and CoD since those will just wake the mobs up.
I doubt the damage *I* do with my instruments will ever
significantly surpass the damage I do with weapons. However,
my feeling is that using only instruments, I can often make my
*group* much more effective than if I were in there with my
weapons. I'll have to reappraise this when I get Celerity
(which is singing), and Beserker's (horn - doesn't really
benefit from playing instruemnt songs unless you're willing to
swap instruments as you fight). The Psalm songs are also
singing, so you can partially substitute these for the Rhythm
series while still using your weapons.
I guess to summarize, the higher level songs seem geared more
towards singing, to allow your songs to be fully effective
without having to give up your weapons. Overall though, the
balance seems to be pretty close, and I find myself switching
between instruments and weapons on a per-fight basis depending
on what we're fighting, and what the make-up of the group is.
I think Verant intended this by design. Being a jack of all
trades means you can fill in for just about any job. If the
group needs more tanking, you can jump in there with your
weapons. If the group needs more magical support, you can
stand back and play your instruments.
--
John H. Kim
kim@...