In my experience bards tend to melee in 6 person groups.
Say you can twist 4 songs.
One of them is always going to be manasong, (people get seriously pissy if it isnt going 25/8) that isnt instrument based so no point there.
If there is no enchanter in the group then you are going to want to play a haste song, again haste isnt effected by instruments.
So generally you have 2 slots to play around with, bear in mind then bards do a lot of CC and pulling so if you arent locking down some mobs then you should be running off to pull some more. You arent always going to have time to get in the full 4 instrument twist.
Those two slots though you have lots of options, you could go the DPS route with your chants, This is a viable option and they get a nice DPS boost with a drum, but I really doubt its worth swapping out your weapons for it especially if your grp is killing fast anyway.
There are some nice slow/debuff songs but none of these are instrument based again...
There are the regen songs, nivs preservation and hymn of restoration these get the boost, but I tended to find these are best for downtime, playing both of these with a lute your talking about 27 HP regen per tick, without a lute about 13... again its situational but I tend to find your weapon dmg > than 13 or so HP per tick.
Ok to sum up:
1. A lot of your most important (grouping) songs have no instrument bonus.
2. In a fast killing group a lot of the bonuses you will get from instruments arent always going to be worth it
3. People liked grouping with my bard, I would say however my song knowledge was poor, what I think I did well was my situational awareness. As I say, mana song + haste + CC + pulling. a lot of the time those 2 possible song slots are really not important compared to your ability as a bard to maintain control of the situation and keep a steady flow of mobs inc to the camp.
4. Most importantly of all, its all situational. you have so many abilities as a bard you have to be able to think on fly - there are very few hard and fast rules you can apply to every situation.
heh I just noticed this thread was about gloves .... ooops
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] - (Lambent all the way)
Oh there is one important thing i forgot, the latter level mez, the pixie strike one is... wind instruments? That has a magic debuff component which is effected by an instruments. If you are trying to CC multiple mobs that con white/yellow/red then get out your instrument as it will help a ton to keep them locked down.