Bards - a mana regen question
 

So the typical situation, your group needs a mana break, some of the group need a bit of health regen to get them back to full...

The casters all need their clarity fix of course. Do you...

1. Twist just mana song (and afk perhaps)
2. Twist 2 mana hits and a restoration hit with lute applied?
3. Twist 2 mana hits and a cantata of soothing with lute applied?

What's the mana regen per tick on cantata vs mana song?

Asked group members to tell me but they come up with all kinds of weirdness.

Quite the dilemma I'm sure you'll agree!

Ideally, you roll a cantata (mana/hp over time) and twist in as many hits of cassindras (instant mana) as you can. Using the highest you have of either (Cantata/cassindra)

I think you can reliably get 3 pulses of mana song if you recast as soon as it hits. No?

How about starting with 2 or 3 pulses of mana song and a hit of Hymn (lots of hp regen) until the melees are at around 80% hp; then switch to 2 or 3 pulses of mana song and a hit of Soothing until they're at 95% hp; then let mana song run and give the tune-ticklers a break? Get that HP up quicker while that is most sorely needed, then shift the balance toward mana.

Chorus of clarity is a pulse, cantana and hymn are tic based regen, cantana and hymn also do not stack. Cantana and chorus of clarity, and chorus of clarity and hymn stack.

Chorus of clarity gives a fixed amount of mana every time it pulses. Cantana gives a bonus to mama regen every server tic. Therefore your fastest full hp and mana regen, in my opinion would be to twist cantana and three pulses of chorus (restart song as soon as it finishes) and then twist cantana back in and repeat.

If I have to afk I play cantana to cover both bases. If only health is needed hymn of restoration is more hp regen then cantana of soothing. Though it only regens one more point of hp then cantana of replenishment does. While cantana of replenishment also has mana regen.

IMHO, put on a lute, play Cantana of Soothing/Replenishment, and afk. Here's why:

(1) Even Bards deserve an afk break, and a pause from twisting. You don't get one if you twist during downtime. The best Mana song to leave just playing is Cantana, and you get the HP regen too.

(2) If the situation is really bad mana-wise, you could twist Cantana + 3 pulses Chorus of Clarity for max mana regen.

(3) But since the range of Chorus of Clarity is so small, it's not part of my normal combat twist since casters are almost always sitting OOR. I find more utility in twisting in other melee songs, but I leave Cantana in my twist, which hits a wide range.

(4) All classes have something 'they' want you to play. Your job as the Bard is to determine what songs are most beneficial to the group overall. It is very rare that your maximally beneficial role is not engaging in combat and just playing 2x mana songs in the corner during combat...but if it happens, it happens!

if the group is really alert/active i'll do cantata + 3 pulses
this means that melees engage mobs right away, position themselves behind the mobs right away, etc

if the group is lazy i'll be the same way

No truer statement has ever been said, a group needs to earn a good bard's effort, because that effort requires a whole lot of work.

I like these sentiments - hard to get into some hard twisting when the dps crew don't show up til a mob is half way dead and the cleric has had to drop heals he shouldn't have needed to.

Thanks for the advice guys, I figured cantata + 2-3 mana pulses was the way to go but now I know what everyone else sees as possibilities :)

Make sure to twist in Jaxan's Jig O Vigor because that's a good song too, and people love to dance a jig.

In fight a shielding song will help as well, can prevent a lot of damage (especially if the damage is somehow spread out) that healers then won't need to heal (and therefore wont need as much mana).