Bard Songs

[Maximus]

For the most part bards are working pretty good, but there are still some bugs present within the casting of their songs.
Whenever a bard casts a song, the timer box will spawn letting u know when the song will be done casting. if u successfully start to cast a song, this will pop up about 60% of the time,while the other 40 it will cast the song without putting up the timer box.

When a song is put on for a period of time, it is not giving the message of its action everytime it lands, only on the first cast as a spell would. for example, if i am using the lvl 15 mezmerize song, it will say " A Orc warrior's head begins to nod" only on the initial casting, and not every 6 seconds after when i leave the song on him.

There seems to be a rare bug with starting a stopping the songs quickly that will lock on to the song that u started, and will not let u cast any other song until u backtrack to whatever song was bugged and click it until it decides to turn off. it's hard to tell how this bug is acquired as i do not yet understand how it begins, just how it ends.
Whenever you are in the midcasting a song, if you are stunned by a mob, i believe it should prompt a message somewhere along the lines of "Mythoxxus's song was interrupted." this message is lacking for the most part and the spell gems continue to be darkened as if nothing had interrupted it, as opposed to lighting up to let u know u can retry the song.


I hope some of this information can help out the bard race.
Also, my woodelf bard was created with bash and taunt, is this classic?

Maximus

[girth]

bard was created with bash and taunt, is this classic?

I know taunt is, IDK about bash.

[Shin Noir]

This is a EQEMU bug with the "locking spell casting bar" part. It's really aggravating, and the reason I wouldn't play a bard on P1999. As you know on live there's a lot of broken things on bards, and on EQEMU there have been many attempts to perfect it. My personal theory is a clash between the client and server on stopping song playing, some op code being expected by the client the server isn't sending. /melody has the same issue. The fix was to allow a #melody command, but that one is too powerful on the emu's that do it since it never fizzles, and isn't interruptable. You have to say #melody again to stop it.

Your bash and taunt buttons are likely due to titanium, but if you try to use the buttons, it won't work. Just remove the buttons, and I don't think you'll even find them in ALT+M (menu buttons -> actions or whatever).

So these kind of bard mechanic things are stuff that you would have to wait for a smart dev to put focus on and try to resolve, I've peeked at it a bit and my theory is above, and I know other devs who tried to mess with it usually get lazy and go for faster fixes (#melody), so yeah.

In regards to the casting bar bug, I usually try to change targets, and cast it e.g. on myself, and it will some times fix the chain "can't cast" bug, another is to wait ~3 seconds to let the server finish casting this song it thinks you are, and then the client can sync up with timing and you can cast again. Not a great fix, but it some times work.

there's talk about hotbuttons of /pause /cast /stopsong etc too.

I don't envy playing a bard on EQEMU without #melody, that's for sure. :P

[bequietpirate]

I wanted to also second that since I've started my bard, I haven't seen the song interuptions that Maximus mentioned, nor the "You missed a note and your song has ended." Wasn't sure if this was wrapped up into this entire bug or not. My group members can see my "bard fizzle" but I cannot.

[Akom]

Blah... I wish I'd known this before I created my bard. I am only level 4, but those first few levels are rough enough that the thought of doing them again right away makes me shy away form wanting to play at all.

I think I'll stick with my bard and pray ; p

[SirSpankAlot360]

Yes, in my opinion this is another priority issue to be resolved along with ac/mitigation being bugged.

[Deric]

Maximus nailed down the major technical problems with Bard atm. Its still playable and not nearly as "broken" as the population seems to think. But it would seem between these glitches and the exp penalty bard receives that people want to avoid leveling one as it can be a headache at times.

The missed note message not appearing for the bard is pretty key to timing the twisting of songs. Not knowing you missed a note while trying sleep adds can spell life or death.

[solomon]

Can someone confirm if instruments are not helping any songs or if it's just Chords of Dissonance?

[Arkanjil]

I also want to add that in addition to the mentioned bugs, there is also a casting bug for songs that the bar will actually complete casting, but the spell will not take effect. I've noticed it happen mainly with detrimental songs such as chord line and dd line...the spell will finish, it isn't resisted, but the song will not take effect. Every now and then it will happen with a beneficial song such as selos or regen. All in all, it is a big headache and not a terribly bad ordeal while in a group, but when you are solo kiting and you don't have a song land, it can have serious consequences; which is why I try to steer away from soloing more when I can.

Just thought I'd add that to the list.

[Arkanjil]

Can someone confirm if instruments are not helping any songs or if it's just Chords of Dissonance?

The use of instruments in the chords line won't necessarily help it do more damage...if I remember correctly from classic it made the AC debuff greater when using an instrument. I might have made the DoT tick for a little more, can't remember offhand, but I know it definitely made the AC debuff part of it better.

[guineapig]

The use of instruments in the chords line won't necessarily help it do more damage...if I remember correctly from classic it made the AC debuff greater when using an instrument. I might have made the DoT tick for a little more, can't remember offhand, but I know it definitely made the AC debuff part of it better.


Yes, it did increase the damage of DoTs too, not by much but there was a difference.

[solomon]

If I remember correctly on Chords of Dissonance specifically it was +50-100% or so damage (cannot confirm % but can confirm increased damage) using a store bought lute. Any word on, say, drums working on chants?

Also, as far as the cast bar completing and nothing happening, I have observed that on lull, too.

[solomon]

Bump. Fix my class, please.

[Skurd]

A few issues with songs :
- Cinda's Charismatic Carillon (lvl11)
supposed to raise your faction level with your target by 1-2 ranks, currently instantly draws aggo (independently of your faction standing with the target, info (http://eq.stratics.com/content/gameplay/classes/bard/songs/song11.shtml)); maybe set to offensive instead of friendly or something similar?
- Kelin's Lucid Lullaby (lvl15)
used to be an AE mez in classic, currently only works as single target (info (http://eq.stratics.com/content/gameplay/classes/bard/songs/song15.shtml))
- Shauri's Sonorous Clouding (lvl19)
bugs a lot on the initial cast (nothing happens, way way more than other songs, maybe due to the fact it requires a wind instrument to play?), the first two ticks often do not work (displaying "A soft mist surrounds you" and "You become visible" one after the other, maybe the effect of invising is considered an action and breaks invis at first?)
- All songs
->Recurring messages do not display, like for the song above, "A soft mist surrounds you" was displayed every successful tick, it currently doesn't, same for Hymn of Restoration and all kinds of songs that you leave on for several ticks
->No "worn off" messages on songs like Chords of Dissonance(AE DoT) or Largo's Melodic Binding (slow).

I feel like these are issues that are not related to the general timing issues that cause all the other bard song problems and should be able to be solved fairly easily.

[Tollen]

I had that happen to me too with the faction song, but didn't think much of it.

the 15 mez is not AE http://lucy.alkabor.com/spell_724.html has best spell info for our server imo.

invise song is lvl 19 and should require wind instrument to use. yes it means you cant invise for CR unless you buy a new wind instrument.

[Insidious]

best info?

Use the wayback machine, that's the real best info.

[Skurd]

Another issue with songs :
-lvl 28 bard charm song (Siren)
once charm fades the mob HP gets stuck at 100% (visually only, people kill it normally) and you cannot hit it with meele attacks (only you, your group can for example)

[Gildiss Gram]

Another issue with songs :
-lvl 28 bard charm song (Siren)
once charm fades the mob HP gets stuck at 100% (visually only, people kill it normally) and you cannot hit it with meele attacks (only you, your group can for example)

I've never had that issue so far.

invise song is lvl 19 and should require wind instrument to use. yes it means you cant invise for CR unless you buy a new wind instrument.

Are you stating a fact? This has nothing to do with the problems this song currently has.

The way I've found around it is to play the song for a tick and if it drops early or right before the refresh I sing it again until it works without fading at all. Hasn't let me down so far just requires a couple start ups like an old lawn mower.

[mroletta]

My friends and I were testing some of the bugs regarding the bard song successfully casting on the client side, but then no song actually registering and seemed to have narrowed it down to the following:

- My bard will cast a song and the cast bar will move down but nothing registers at the end of casting.
- Every time this happens, other people register "Soandso missed a note.", but that isn't being relayed on the bard's client and hence the song continues playing but nothing happens because the server registered it as a missed note (and relayed it correctly to other clients). It seems that this is where the disconnect/mis-sync occurs.

Hope this helps in addressing the issue because I loved my live bard and hope I can continue playing this one.

Edit: This actually makes sense now that I recall my bard on live. There were times when it would start to play a song only to register "You have missed a note." about 200ms later. I'm curious if on live they implemented a recheck for the bard's client that was a band-aid solution but was 95% adequate.

[guineapig]

To answer the question about the faction song, all spells that are supposed to help faction are currently broken. Enchanter faction spells also draw agro the same way that the bard song does.

I also wanted to bump the fact that holding a lute still does not increase dot damage like it should.

Can anyone confirm that it helps with hitpoint and mana regen? I haven't had a chance to test it, don't have a parser and frankly, I don't trust the hitpoint numbers on my inventory window. They always jump around like crazy.

[Haynar]

To answer the question about the faction song, all spells that are supposed to help faction are currently broken. Enchanter faction spells also draw agro the same way that the bard song does.

I started looking into the faction spells, and why they aren't working. I have a few ideas, but still not totally sure where the problem is. But I am working on it.

Haynar

[Deric]

Good info mroletta~ seeing missed notes would be a welcome change. ;)

Also, seeing when song effects drop from mobs would also be very welcome! (lull fades, Charm break, Slow drops, etc)

[guineapig]

I started looking into the faction spells, and why they aren't working. I have a few ideas, but still not totally sure where the problem is. But I am working on it.

Haynar

Hey man, I know you guys work hard at all this.

Honestly, the enchanter faction spell is mainly useful with the brownie merchants for now (if your agnostic). It isn't until Kunark and Velious where they become uber important. Of course I have no idea what people who picked deities are feeling right now...

I'm sure you don't need it but I'll hapily be a guinea pig if you want help (pun intended). Just toss me 100% rezes afterwards. ;)

[Revol]

Faction song still ineffective.

The "Elemental Rhythms" song is also not getting a bonus from using drums.

"Selos" appears to be functioning as it should though.

[ryandward]

/bump.

Recurring messages do not display, like for the song above, "A soft mist surrounds you" was displayed every successful tick, it currently doesn't, same for Hymn of Restoration and all kinds of songs that you leave on for several ticks

Chords of Dissonance always gets casted on everybody in the group, and they have the animation of a bard playing a stringed instrument.

Small, but annoying looking glitch, when using Selo's Accelerando, or any song, when you are moving, the original location you were retains the animation of the song. So, it looks kind of silly to have a bunch of stationary light orbs where you and your party was when you pulsed Selo's.

[Lyrik]

Bump.

Bard songs do not get 'spell worn off' messages, (mesmerize, snare, etc). I'm fairly certain they did on live but I'd be happy to discuss it if it came in after classic.