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Message ID: 671
Date: Fri May 14 11:32:48 BST 1999
Author: J.M. Capozzi
Subject: Re: Which song for soloing?


----- Original Message -----
From: John Kim <kim@...>
To: <eqbards@onelist.com>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 1999 3:53 AM
Subject: Re: [eqbards] Which song for soloing?


>From: John Kim <kim@...>
>
>On Thu, 13 May 1999, J.M. Capozzi wrote:
>>
>> >Melee:
>> >I would take preferance to singing Anthem, and switch to healing (and
step
>> >back from the fight to avoid the shit list effect) with my mandolin.
>>
>> Once again, when we're getting hit in excess of 60 points per swing, even
>> with my 11 per tick with a lute, it's not worth the loss of my blades.
Dead
>> mobs give you plenty of time to heal. Live ones don't.
>
>If you're in a good group, everyone should be taking damage.
>If everyone is wounded, and if the song heals just 5 points
>per tick with your weapons equipped, for a six person party
>that's 30 points of healing per tick, which can substantially
>offset even 60 points damage per swing.
>

Well, when you get hit as an individual twice in 2.5 second round, 4 times
in a tick, in the 60 point range, Hymn has negligble effect. I do 6 per
tick standing without an instrument, plus the natural 1 point regen. That's
7 damage healed per tick. A tick is 5 seconds. 84 hitpoints per minute.

Most of our fights last 45 seconds or less, so if I sang Hymn full time
that's 54 points damage healed per member. One hit from the monsters we
fight. Not singing Hymn in lieu of another song, such as Melodic Binding,
is much more effective. With Melodic binding, I probably stop that mob from
making half a dozen swings. Proactive damage avoidance.

We have a good group, and we try to spread damage as much as possible, but
it's just better if I don't sing Hymn in combat now. It was great when we
were bashing gnolls and orcs and goblins in the single digit levels, less
great in the teens, and a pretty obsolete tactic after 20th.

>I don't think there's any right answer to which songs to use.
>It all depends on the circumstances. Figuring it out is the
>fun of playing a bard. :-)
>
>> Switched to an old standby instead..Lucid Lullaby. I'd rather the caster
>> not cast, than take my chances resisting the spell. Lullaby does an
>> excellent job interupting the casters.
>
>Another use I found for Lullaby is saving your party when a
>hopelessly red train gets dumped on it. The song *really*
>pisses off the monsters, so you fire it up until you have
>their attention, then hit accelerando and lead them away from
>your party.
>

Good tactic, but not something that can be done indoors, nor even in most
outdoor dungeons. For getaways now, I use the 26th level song, Appalling
Screech. Area fear song, clears a room in a hurry.

>I heard the maximum number of mobs affected by it was limited
>to 4 for playbalance reasons. I have no problem with that,
>but it seems to me that even when the song is already working
>on 4 mobs, it still gets other mobs nearby (who are not being
>affected by the song and are normally non-aggressive) mad at
>me. It's hard to keep calm when 4 mobs are beating on you and
>3 more join the fray, so I can't say I'm certain about this.
>But that's the impression I'm getting of how it works.
>

That's correct, all bard AoE (and most AoE spells in general) have a maximum
of four targets now.
>--
>John H. Kim
>kim@...
>
>
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