Bard Mechanic Questions

[Saisu]

First time ever playing a Bard, and I'm having a blast sticking to dungeons and grouping. I'm up to 34 and have enjoyed learning how to pull, mez, charm, and even tank at times. I've encountered quite a few questions about how Bards work, and I'd like to ask the forums rather than subject my groups to cruel prolonged experimentation.

If you have any answers to any of these numerous questions, I'd be very thankful!


Cantata of Soothing (34). I just got this HP/Mana song that requires a stringed instrument. When I've played it in a group, I get red error messages saying your spell did not take hold. The level 55 version of this song says on the wiki "stacks with all other mana regen except itself", so I would have expected the level 34 song to have no issue. There was an enchanter in group, so maybe the level 34 song doesn't stack with Clarity? Anyone know why the errors?
Does the Cantata of Soothing stack with Hymn of Restoration for multiple heals? In quick testing it didn't seem to stack, but I'd like to confirm because that would be powerful when we don't have a cleric.
Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity (32) "pulses" mana, but I don't understand the mechanic. After I was resurrected at low mana, pulsing this song didn't seem to raise my mana as expected? I have each song on a "/stopsong, /cast 1" type hotkey, and once I see the spell go off and the "your mind clears" message, I'd hit my hotkey and start another song going. Is this correct, or am I doing "pulsing" wrong?
Selo's Consonant Chain (23), this spell has both a slow and a snare. It's great for aggro, so when I need to tank for a group I use this spell a bunch (it also helps prevent runners at low HP). How does this interact with Enchanter or Shaman slows though? If a Shaman casts a 35% slow, does my song overwrite it? Or maybe it only applies the snare but not the slow? I obviously want the best slow possible on a mob if I'm Bard tanking, but SCC seems vital for keeping aggro.
Crission's Pixie Strike (28), how does this spell interact with Enchanter mez? If a mob runs at our Enchanter, I tend to throw a mez on the mob to help control the situation, but would the more powerful Enchanter mez then correctly overwrite my song? Or am I making the situation worse by keeping their mez from landing? Can you have a mob simultaneously Bard mezzed AND Enchanter mezzed?
Followup question on mez, is it important to have a wind instrument equipped for this song? From what I've read, the instrument doesn't seem to affect the reliability of the mez too much.
Further followup question on mez. While singing, I was getting a ton of back-to-back fizzles on mez. Since then I've leveled my wind instrument skill from ~10 to 90 and it seems to be much more reliable. I thought mez would use my singing skill to determine success, rather than my wind skill with no wind instrument equipped. Am I wrong? Or maybe just the past 3-4 character levels have made the spell more reliable.
Solon's Song of the Sirens (27), is charm being affected by wind instrument or charisma? Just like mez, I've heard neither of these things increase the reliability of charm much.
Does dexterity noticeably affect fizzle rate? I've heard generally "no", so have been gearing for HP, SvMagic, and AC.


Long list, but a lot to learn! Thank you for any info as I work towards being a better Bard.

[Terrel]

1. Spell did not take hold is either because Hymn was also playing, and it won't stack with Hymn, or because someone(s) in the group had a full buff bar. You can have up to 15 buffs, and if you attempt to apply another, that's the message you get.
2. No
3. Bards don't benefit from their own mana song, or any mana regen enhancement, other than sitting; 2 mana per tick as opposed to 1 standing.
Pulsing simply refers to hitting the key every time you can, vs leaving it on auto pilot where it "ticks" every 6 seconds. The Chorus line is all pulse based; i.e., your group benefits more from pulse than simply letting it tick on auto pilot.
4. Selo's Consonant will not overwrite shammy slow. It's great to stop runners and to get aggro. If you DON'T want aggro, don't cast this until the mob is about to flee.
5. The last mez cast is the one that wins, and cancels previous mezzes. So if you mez a mob after a chanter has, it's going to break soon, unless you keep refreshing or the chanter re-mezzes. If a mob is hitting your chanter, feel free to mez it, but be sure the chanter knows, either because you've discussed in advance, or you have a macro that let's the group know you've mezzed a mob.
6. Nah....wind instrument does exactly nothing for mez, at least that I've seen.
7. Level up all instrument skills so you don't have to worry :>
8. Charms are fairly consistent in duration; I suspect level affects charm much more than charisma. The instrument, again, has no discernible effect. My charisma has fluctuated between 120 and 170, and I don't go to great lengths to buff it. I don't believe it has a sizeable effect on charm.
9. No discernible effect on fizzles.

[Daud]

5. The last mez cast is the one that wins, and cancels previous mezzes. So if you mez a mob after a chanter has, it's going to break soon, unless you keep refreshing or the chanter re-mezzes. If a mob is hitting your chanter, feel free to mez it, but be sure the chanter knows, either because you've discussed in advance, or you have a macro that let's the group know you've mezzed a mob.

Mez overwriting order is based on the total duration of the mez effect, not the order of cast. Contrary to what makes sense, shorter duration mez effects overwrite longer duration mez effects. This is based on the total duration of the mez effect, and not just the time remaining.

Meaning, if I'm on my ENC, the 24 second mez's (both single and AE) will overwrite Entrance, Dazzle, etc. Entrance/Dazzle/etc will not overwrite mezmerize or mezmirization.

Since bards have an 18 seconds mez, they pretty much overwrite all enchanter mez's and none of the ENC mez's can overwrite bard mez.

[Terrel]

Mez overwriting order is based on the total duration of the mez effect, not the order of cast. Contrary to what makes sense, shorter duration mez effects overwrite longer duration mez effects. This is based on the total duration of the mez effect, and not just the time remaining.

Meaning, if I'm on my ENC, the 24 second mez's (both single and AE) will overwrite Entrance, Dazzle, etc. Entrance/Dazzle/etc will not overwrite mezmerize or mezmirization.

Since bards have an 18 seconds mez, they pretty much overwrite all enchanter mez's.

Daud, you're saying that if a bard mezzes a mob, and then 2 seconds later, the chanter does, the chanter's mez (of 24 secs or greater) won't stick?

You may be correct, but I've never noticed it.

[branamil]

Daud, you're saying that if a bard mezzes a mob, and then 2 seconds later, the chanter does, the chanter's mez (of 24 secs or greater) won't stick?

You may be correct, but I've never noticed it.

That is true. Ench mez will not take hold. Very annoying if you have both an Ench and bard in the same group. Let the enchanter handle it :)

[Daud]

Daud, you're saying that if a bard mezzes a mob, and then 2 seconds later, the chanter does, the chanter's mez (of 24 secs or greater) won't stick?

You may be correct, but I've never noticed it.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Mez overwriting is based purely on the total duration of the mez, and shorter overwrites longer. Mez's of same duration, like Mesmirize and Mezmirization (both 24s) will overwrite each other.

[Saisu]

3. Bards don't benefit from their own mana song, or any mana regen enhancement, other than sitting; 2 mana per tick as opposed to 1 standing.

Oh interesting, I missed that mechanic! Good to know I've been correctly pulsing mana, and not wasting my time and fingers.

Thanks Terrel for hitting all my questions, I definitely learned a lot.

[branamil]

Oh interesting, I missed that mechanic! Good to know I've been correctly pulsing mana, and not wasting my time and fingers.

Thanks Terrel for hitting all my questions, I definitely learned a lot.

I believe they'll also benefit from flowing thought items, not that you'd really need it though.

[Triiz]

Daud is correct. Bard mez will overwrite any Enchanter mez in the game, since Enchanter's shortest duration mez is 24 seconds. Like he said, shortest duration mez always takes hold it doesn't matter what order they were casted

I agreee with Terrel on everything else. I'm a subscriber to the idea that Charisma has a very minimal impact on bard Charm landing, and it has 0 impact on the duration since it's fixed. It does matter for Lull's, but just get a Kobold Jesters Crown (+30CHA) when you can afford it, and maybe a few cheap high CHA items (Gypsy medallion, +7cha bracers, Neriad Shawl if you ever get a chance to loot one for free) and swap them in before you lull. Don't be the bard running around wearing Opalline earrings all the time.

Bard songs "fizzle" so little that stacking DEX for anything besides proccing is dumb. Even when you do fizzle it's inconsequential, it doesn't cost any mana or anything.

Once you get to level 47, or 50 and can click a Breath of Harmony, Niv's Melody of Preservation will stack with Cantana so you can have two heal songs going. It's a Stringed song, so using the Breath of Harmony clicky will heal less than playing the actual song with an instrument.

[Saisu]

Don't be the bard running around wearing Opalline earrings all the time.

Nuts. This is me right now. Two earrings looted from my time in Unrest. Sounds like I have the mark of the noob!

[Legidias]

As an aside, for MAXIMUM mana / hp regeneration, you will want to sing 1 pulse of cantana / cantata followed by 2 or 3 pulses of pulsed mana regen (chorus).

[Triiz]

Nuts. This is me right now. Two earrings looted from my time in Unrest. Sounds like I have the mark of the noob!

Looting them yourself and the Bard being your highest level toon isn't the scenario I was thinking of, sorry. I was more thinking of the people that spend a bunch of money to twink a bard and still wear them all the time.

[Saisu]

Looting them yourself and the Bard being your highest level toon isn't the scenario I was thinking of, sorry. I was more thinking of the people that spend a bunch of money to twink a bard and still wear them all the time.

Hah, no offense taken.

[BCFinn]

Mez overwriting order is based on the total duration of the mez effect, not the order of cast. Contrary to what makes sense, shorter duration mez effects overwrite longer duration mez effects. This is based on the total duration of the mez effect, and not just the time remaining.

Meaning, if I'm on my ENC, the 24 second mez's (both single and AE) will overwrite Entrance, Dazzle, etc. Entrance/Dazzle/etc will not overwrite mezmerize or mezmirization.

Since bards have an 18 seconds mez, they pretty much overwrite all enchanter mez's and none of the ENC mez's can overwrite bard mez.

I find this interesting. I also play a Necromancer, and my 18 second mez will not overwrite an enchanter mez, theirs overwrite mine.

[Borak]

Another tip. If you're in a group with a good enchanter, and he has mezzes covered, you still have an important role - getting aggro in case the mob wakes up early. Sprinkle in a hit of the lvl20 AE slow song (Largo's Melodic Binding) every now and then so when the mobs wake up, they go after YOU rather than the cloth-wearing enchanter. This song will not break mez. The enchanter is free to re-mez any mobs that break early without getting interrupted, and you can take hits better than he can.