On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, James Schuldes wrote:
>
> My next thing to try is a series of song that can be drum enhanced. Say
> Anthem, Purifying, Curtailing. This I think could be a good combo against
> the Kith undead when you have 2 or 3 other melee-er's in your party. If you
> have good MR and sv Disease buffs already, then Chant, Warmth, Curtailing.
Anthem is singing based. I have yet to see any evidence that
Curtailing (and other chant songs) is enhanced by a drum,
despite being listed as percussion-based.
The combo I usually use when grouped with a melee-heavy group
is Celerity, Chant, and another song depending on situation.
Warmth or Cooling doesn't make much sense if you're only
fighting one mob at a time and that mob is dying quickly -
although it affects all party members, since a single mob can
only attack one target at a time, Warmth's effect is not
really multiplied by having more party members. I usually
drop it for a song which does benefit everyone.
> Also, I have been thinking about varying the songs used throughout the
> fight. Open with: Anthem, Purifying, Guardian. Let the mob get engaged
> with tanks. When the mob is getting stunned and bashed and I see
> interuptions switch to: Chant, Warmth, Curtailing. When the mob is going
> down and turns to run: Chains, Anthem, Bellow.
Don't forget Binding. I've been grouping with rangers and
druids a lot lately, and dropping Chain in favor of Binding.
It is disappointing when they blow their jobs and let a mob
get away and I can't do anything about it, but that's become
increasingly rare. Hopefully Pixie Strike will be fixed soon,
so I can just use that to stop a runner and give the snarer
time to get his spell off.
> So that's 7 songs? Anthem, Purifying, Guardian, Chant, Warmth, Curtailing,
> Chains & Bellow. Nope 8. Hmmm, have to drop one to make room for Clarity.
> I guess it would be Bellow or Curtailing. Need to keep the one that is
> resisted less. Bellow would do 18 dmg in one series of song while
> Curtailing should do 40?
In theory, yes. But I've found Curtailing Chant to be
resisted much more than Bellow. I still use it if lowering MR
might be advantageous, but so many spells are fire or cold
based...
It gets worse as you gain levels. I regularly use Hymn, Chant
of Battle, Elemental/Purifying, Guardinan, Chain, Binding,
Celerity, Clarity, Siren's/Strike, Screech, Lament, Accel,
Clouding, and Anti-magic. 14 songs, 8 song slots... I'm
getting better at swapping songs as I need them (hint: NEVER
drop an escape song like Accel or Screech - chances are you
will need it 5 seconds after you drop it). But it's still a
PITA when Anti-magic takes 45 seconds to memorize and you feel
you *have* to drop it because it's least likely to be useful
in the immediate future. If they reduce the time it takes to
memorize songs, that will help tremendously.
BTW, does anyone know why it takes longer for some of our
songs to become available after memorizing than for some
spells after a caster has finished memorizing? I mean we
already take 10x longer than them to memorize a song, is there
really any need to make it even longer? (And yes I know the
trick about start/stopping another song to make the new one
immediately available.)
--
John H. Kim
kim@...