How many songs can a bard twist maximum?

[Drosis]

What is the maximum number of songs a bard can twist? 4 or 5? I spoke to some high level bards and they said 4 but I think on the P99 wiki it says 5. Any clarification?

[Blango27]

Just did 5 on my 18 bard.

[Blingx]

I know on live you could keep 3 beneficial/detrimental songs up reliably and 4 beneficial/detrimental songs up with only 1 falling off every now and then for a split second.

Here it seems to be 4 beneficial pretty reliably(have not tried 5 beneficial because I did not want to limit my utility), have also been able to keep 5 detrimental up with only 1 falling off every now and then for a split second (snare, 3 dots, and a mez).

[Lazortag]

Just did 5 on my 18 bard.

Which songs?

[Blango27]

Anthem de arms, selos, Elemental Rhythms, Jonthan's Whistling warsong, Hymn of restoration.

[Lazortag]

Anthem de arms, selos, Elemental Rhythms, Jonthan's Whistling warsong, Hymn of restoration.

And they were all up at the same time, consistently? I'm pretty sure this isn't possible. I know that if you time it well enough though you can functionally twist 5 songs because Hymn only takes effect every server tick (so it would drop briefly but you'd recast it before the next tick). Does that sound right? Or are you just really fast with your fingers?

[Blango27]

/stopcast
/cast 1
/pause 27
/stopcast
/cast 4

just set up a couple hotkeys like that and its easy to keep them up.

[Blingx]

/stopcast
/cast 1
/pause 27
/stopcast
/cast 4

just set up a couple hotkeys like that and its easy to keep them up.

Does not a missed note completely sabotage that?

[Blango27]

^ yep, screws up sometimes and if the first song misses, than it pauses 27 anyway. Kind of annoying. But i assume once im not lvl 18 i wont have to worry about that as much ha

[Blingx]

I imagine that would completely nullify the cast bar disappearance "omg must have missed a note" reflex, unfortunately however, even at 54 I find my songs do miss notes enough to discourage a hotkey macro. (

Also curious about how a macro would interfere if say, a mob wanders into camp mid-combat and you attempt to mez. Seems like the hotkey would really make that situation more troublesome than it should be. Of course if you only want to be a buff bot and not worry about utility that may make it more viable I suppose.

[Blango27]

Your going too far in depth. The question was how many songs can ya twist. You can twist 5. I was simply answering the question :) Also if your group dies in the 2 seconds that /pause 27 takes, you should get a new group.

[Blingx]

Ah ya, sorry for the thread derail. Meant nothing negatively I just get curious easily and ponder outloud >.> I'd satisfy my curiosity in-game if I wasn't at work (

[Pudge]

/stopcast
/cast 1
/pause 27
/stopcast
/cast 4

just set up a couple hotkeys like that and its easy to keep them up.

/stopcast isnt a classic command. time to get nerfed

[Blango27]

i believe /stopsong works as well.

not sure if thats classic either

[nalkin]

You can twist 4, that is, have 4 bard song squares in your song effects window at one time.

[astuce999]

you can have 6 songs up at once with Breath of Harmony, but it will drop down to 4 every 12 seconds.

[Bassracerx]

there is also the server tic effect just because a song goes down for a second or two as long as the song is back up BEFORE the tick happens you get credit for the whole next tick.

also haste dropping for a tick every now and then really is not that big a deal it only effects the melee chars in your group wich is usually only half of your party and casters usually nuke the monster dead once its at 30percent.

i know that when i was in my day as a bard on live i could keep 6 mobs mezed but that was in LDON/GOD expansion when i played my bard so i dont really know whats different now vs then

[Barkingturtle]

i know that when i was in my day as a bard on live i could keep 6 mobs mezed but that was in LDON/GOD expansion when i played my bard so i dont really know whats different now vs then

I think your memory is fuzzy. 4 mobs mezzed was the max, even as far as LDoN and GoD. I can't comment on later expansions.

[Blingx]

I think your memory is fuzzy. 4 mobs mezzed was the max, even as far as LDoN and GoD. I can't comment on later expansions.

4 mobs mezzed was a decent bard, a knowledgeable/skilled bard could keep 5 mobs mezzed if you rolled your twist, and 6 mobs mezzed in a stress situation( where all you can do is target mez, target mez, ect) with a little quick thinking and ingenuity.

Edit: barring few if any resists

[Lazortag]

4 mobs mezzed was a decent bard, a knowledgeable/skilled bard could keep 5 mobs mezzed if you rolled your twist, and 6 mobs mezzed in a stress situation( where all you can do is target mez, target mez, ect) with a little quick thinking and ingenuity.

Edit: barring few if any resists

I'm pretty sure this is just mathematically impossible (ie, five times the casting time is strictly greater than the duration of mez). However in KC on a few occasions I was able to keep 5 mezzed if I kept my distance from the one that was about to break, since it would break but mez would land before it connected with me.

[Barkingturtle]

However in KC on a few occasions I was able to keep 5 mezzed if I kept my distance from the one that was about to break, since it would break but mez would land before it connected with me.

And then you're really kiting, rather than keeping mobs mezzed. Of course, for all intents and purposes it's still CC, and that's all that really matters.

[Quasimojo]

The only time I was ever able to keep 5 songs up was when one was Amplify, and even then one would have to drop when I refreshed it. I never used macros, because you can only effectively use each macro for 2 songs in your twist.

[Blingx]

I'm pretty sure this is just mathematically impossible (ie, five times the casting time is strictly greater than the duration of mez). However in KC on a few occasions I was able to keep 5 mezzed if I kept my distance from the one that was about to break, since it would break but mez would land before it connected with me.

I was actually quoting someone who was quoting someone about an occurrence on live where detrimental songs last about 3tick*6s = approx. 18s where cast time is 3s per song at 6 songs is approx ~18s. So not really mathematically impossible. The quick thinking and ingenuity kicks in at this point to stand back away from the mobs and your 6th mez would land a split second after it wore off. The next several mezzes would land fine without a wear off, then every now and then one would. Key is positioning.

Note: The time to stop your song and start it again is lessened considerably by rolling the twist effectively making it a 1 button push as opposed to pushing the button twice. Without rolling you will only be getting (time to start/stop a song)(#of songs in twist) + (cast time)(#of songs in twist) = (1s)(3 songs in twist) + (3s)(3 songs in twist) = approx 12 sec for 3 songs, approx 17sec for 4songs.
My math could be bad, I realize time to start/stop is different for everyone though I believe 1s is reasonable since latency is not factored in.

I have not actually been in a situation that mandated 6mobs mezzed on P99, nor would I want to as resists here are slightly greater.

[Mcbard]

Here it seems to be 4 beneficial pretty reliably(have not tried 5 beneficial because I did not want to limit my utility), have also been able to keep 5 detrimental up with only 1 falling off every now and then for a split second (snare, 3 dots, and a mez).

qft, 4 Reliably, 5 if you're stretching it and manage durations well.

[Blingx]

I was actually quoting someone who was quoting someone about an occurrence on live where detrimental songs last about 3tick*6s = approx. 18s where cast time is 3s per song at 6 songs is approx ~18s. So not really mathematically impossible. The quick thinking and ingenuity kicks in at this point to stand back away from the mobs and your 6th mez would land a split second after it wore off. The next several mezzes would land fine without a wear off, then every now and then one would. Key is positioning.

Note: The time to stop your song and start it again is lessened considerably by rolling the twist effectively making it a 1 button push as opposed to pushing the button twice. Without rolling you will only be getting (time to start/stop a song)(#of songs in twist) + (cast time)(#of songs in twist) = (1s)(3 songs in twist) + (3s)(3 songs in twist) = approx 12 sec for 3 songs, approx 17sec for 4songs.
My math could be bad, I realize time to start/stop is different for everyone though I believe 1s is reasonable since latency is not factored in.

I have not actually been in a situation that mandated 6mobs mezzed on P99, nor would I want to as resists here are slightly greater.

Would like to clarify the first term can approach very close to zero when rolling effectively making it (cast time)(#of songs) = (3s)(6 songs) = 18sec~

Note: Rolling would be instead of 1-22-33-11-22-33 as a normal twist you would roll your fingers from a number adjacent to the next song in the twist onto the next song in the twist. May look something like this 1-12-23-34-21-12

Another way to picture this may be to drum your fingers on a flat surface that is pretty much the motion applied to the twist above.

[Metric Ton]

qft, 4 Reliably, 5 if you're stretching it and manage durations well.

[Dr4z3r]

qft, 4 Reliably, 5 if you're stretching it and manage durations well.

For beneficial songs, this is your answer.

For offensive songs (Selo's Snare), they last a little longer, so 5 is doable reliably, but since you're probably soloing it's also higher risk.