Bard grouping & gear tips requested (lvl 52, blue)

[Snaggles]

Hi,

I've gotten back into playing the bard. Arguably soloing has made me very lazy (charming and fear-dotting mostly). Does anyone have any general tips for grouping and gear upgrades?

https://wiki.project1999.com/Magelo_Blue:Jangles

Not sure why I've held on to the weapons this long since I rarely use them. I get the feeling a couple chants with drums actually does more dps for solo but maybe that's just a bad hunch.

My first outing in the Hole and without slower or CC I went full-lute:
Largo's Absonant Binding
Verses of Victory
Cantana of Soothing
Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity (one pulse)

With the shaman I would hit the assist mob with Largo but quickly transition to an extra pulse of Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity when it was really slowed. When I realized everyone had Alacrity or better I stopped playing Verses of Victory for an extra clarity pulse. The added enchanter further reduced my necessity.

So that group had multiple levels of redundancy built in. Mostly I was playing the lute mana/regen song and pulsing the clarity song 3 times. If everyone was taking a bit of damage I'd drop some of the clarity pulses for Niv's regen and possibly switch to Hymn of restoration and then mix clarity back in when people were full healthy.

TL;DR

If slows are covered what do you focus on (non-epic) playing besides mez/charms and lulling if needed? Are weapons a fools-errand/placebo over an instrument?

If CC's and slows are covered, as odd as that is, is it better to crank mana or are certain rune/regen songs more helpful so the healers dont have to spot everyone?

I know a bard has to adapt to the situation and it's been very fun. Just curious if there are better ways to adapt and some songs that are underrated and I'm oblivious to them.

Thanks!