Which is the more active class, Enchanter or Bard / How to play them?

[Evia]

Reading this thread I can tell who has grouped with skilled bards and who hasn't.

Bard class in the hands of a skilled player is literally the most impressive sight to behold in Everquest imho. I've seen 3 in my 18~ years playing eq. It's rare.

When someone bards like a multi-tasking phenomenon Jesus, there is no debate on who is most active.

[Egilmn]

You need song macros, first line /st and next line /cast #. No period. If you aren't doing that then you aren't doing it right. 1 press per cast, double efficient and half as annoying.

[Legidias]

Originally Posted by Egilmn [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

You need song macros, first line /st and next line /cast #. No period. If you aren't doing that then you aren't doing it right. 1 press per cast, double efficient and half as annoying.

This is terrible advice. No bard should ever use song macros as youll at max only ever twist 3 songs reliably without buffs dropping. If a add pops up, need to have mez / charm ready. If a song misses a note, need to be ready to cast it again immediately. If you have a clicky (i.e. BoH) need to stop cast to click.

[falkun]

Originally Posted by Legidias [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is terrible advice. No bard should ever use song macros as youll at max only ever twist 3 songs reliably without buffs dropping. If a add pops up, need to have mez / charm ready. If a song misses a note, need to be ready to cast it again immediately. If you have a clicky (i.e. BoH) need to stop cast to click.

Wrong. That is solid advice. By having two lines, one with "/stopsong" (or /stopcast), and the other with "/cast #", you cut your keyboard clicks down by half. For stopping for BoH (MH only, can't be combined with epic until epic patch that allows song modifiers in OH), just create another macro that stops your song (/stopsong). Having the /stopsong in the same button as the /cast will allow you to interrupt to cast that mez/charm, and works still if you've missed a note.

Every bard should have macros for their songs that precede the /cast command with a /stopsong.

Note, I do not recommend having multiple /cast lines within a single macro. That is "ghetto /melody" and, as you mention, breaks if you encounter a missed note.

[Pescador]

Originally Posted by Legidias [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is terrible advice. No bard should ever use song macros as youll at max only ever twist 3 songs reliably without buffs dropping. If a add pops up, need to have mez / charm ready. If a song misses a note, need to be ready to cast it again immediately. If you have a clicky (i.e. BoH) need to stop cast to click.

It's easy to twist 5 songs with a stopsong / cast # macro. Also, you can click BoH during the delay between stopsong and cast, so you don't even need to interrupt your rhythm.

The additional fraction of a second that double tapping provides isn't worth clicking twice as much, imo, especially since you can still keep 4 songs up 100% of the time. 5 is really only needed for special cases like multi-mob mezzes while maintaining buffs or something. If I'm grouping for 5 hours in Seb I'm not going to be maintaining a 5 song twist no matter what hotkey system I'm using. Plus, as soon as you throw in mezzes, charms, or bashes, you're better off with 3-4 songs anyways where double tapping offers no practical advantage.

[Egilmn]

Legidias is like a cantankerous old-timer who doesn't seem to understand how /st or /stopsong works, so he will argue with you regardless of how much better your advice is. If he just makes a song macro for each song like the way I said, then he will understand and wonder what he has been doing all this time as a bard.

So will all of the other 11, 22, 33 tappers.

[Legidias]

Originally Posted by Pescador [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It's easy to twist 5 songs with a stopsong / cast # macro.

Nope. Its just a pure time issue with the macro commands. You'll always have the last buff drop off as you cast the 'extra' song if you use macros.

And keep bein the lazy 3 song twist bard Egil. Lol @ "better" advice to make twisting slower. I never argued that its way easier to use macro. Simply for min/max it will never be the best method.

Anyways, back to the original point of the thread, the fact that we can debate purely on how much speed is necessary in twisting should show that bards are more active.