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.