[Ennewi]

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RE: Newbie Armour for a Vah Shir bard By: Slipskin, Scholar
632 posts
Posted @ Tue, Nov 26th 8:44 AM 2002 Score: Decent[3.44]
One thing you will discover about bards is that they generate a lot of aggro - even worse than clerics. Since most bard songs are AoE that means you can be generating a lot of aggro from a whole lot of mobs at one time. Monks and rogues often find this problem since they tend to dish out more damage over time than a main tank class. Clerics have this problem since heals generate aggro, too. AC does reduce the amount of damage taken but HP allows you to take more damage. So, you want both.

STA does not generate enough HP compared to a straight HP buff item and STA items are hard to find. Yes, you want STA at 100 or a little over so you don't fatigue in a fight. But after that you get better return from HP buff items. Breath duration on a bard is irrelevant at level 14. You get an enduring breath song. I rarely have ever had to use zing song. Even then I twisted it in once or twice during a fight and a couple more times during downtime. I almost never have it memmed.

AGI doesn't improve your AC or damage avoidance enough to warrant putting a lot of investment in it unless you're a monk. Most seasoned rogues will tell you go for STR, AC, and HP. AGI is nice for raising defensive skills quickly but once they are capped the AGI doesn't do much.

DEX has the same problem except that it allows offensive abilities to improve faster. However, with bards, DEX also reduces your chance for missed notes.

STR is important since bards are a plate wearing class and secondary tanking class. Plate armor is heavy. STR increases your ATK rating which means more hits in melee and more damage delt to the mob.

CHA has recently been explained by SonyEQ on how that factors in - if the mez/lull fails a check is made on your CHA to see if the mob chooses to aggro you or not. High CHA reduces the chance of that happening. Check out the discussion boards on EQDiva.com for more info.

A note on bard aggro - you already know that healing generates aggro. Well Hymn of Restoration is a group regen spell (11pts per tick for me at level 25 with a Combine Mandolin). Now, 11 pts per tick is not a lot for just me. But in a full group fighting mobs that becomes 66pts per tick (6 members at 11/tick each). THAT will generate mucho aggro. Never mind Selo's Consonant Chain (slow/snare) and a couple of AoE DOT songs on top of that. Unlike those bards you grouped with I typically twist 3 songs while meleeing (I have a 60 bard friend as a tutor). If the tanks I am with do not taunt properly I am a dead kitty. Mez song keeps me alive a little longer but its hard to twist mezz since it breaks so easily. Try grouping in High Keep or Blackburrow a few times and you will see what I mean.

I grouped with a necro last nite and bumped around some gnolls in SK. I ended up tanking more than the pet did. It had trouble holding aggro with my song twists - Selo's Consonant Chain, Jonathan's Whistling Warsong, and Hymn of Restoration (the pet does not benefit from bard songs so I ran as if I was solo tanking). I used melee weapons instead of an instrument twist. No AoE songs since I did not want to draw adds. Worked well. Got a full yellow of experience in an hour. No deaths. Not even close. Did single and double pulls of yellow and red cons. During down time I twisted Hymn and Clarity. It was a great team.

Slipskin Ashenheart, 47 Rogue
Mewse, 25 Bard
Arcturos Redmane, 28 Monk


P.S. I forgot to mention that AC does not help against spells - only melee. When you get caught by that DD or DOT spell, after MR fails, the extra HP is the only thing that will help you.

Edited, Tue Nov 26 08:51:02 2002

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Author Thread: Agro songs
Sinfonian is not online. Last active: 11/6/2004 1:10:25 AM Sinfonian
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Agro songs
Posted: Dec 31 02 6:47 PM
I know I've read a post or two someplace on this or the old site about songs that increase agro, such as charm or mez, but are their other songs that increase agro. I am looking for something to pull off casters or simply avoid casters from being agro'd. I know the clerics of the world would LOVE if we of the many hps could take a few more hits than they of the few hps.

I know I should know the song list better but I am still working on it. Any help from you Maestros would be most appreciated.

Sinfonian

Maestro Sinfonian's gear... (inspect me)

Jarroll is not online. Last active: 11/5/2004 5:35:44 PM Jarroll
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Dec 31 02 10:51 PM
Song of Shields (level 49) does a good job of getting agro. Its like casting a 40 point rune on every group-member every tick.

Jarroll, Bard of Xegony

Mystaviant is not online. Last active: 1/25/2004 3:29:59 PM Mystaviant
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Jan 1 03 12:29 AM
Beside charm and mezz, the only other insta-aggro song i can think of is Denon's Desperate Dirge and also Brusco's Bombastic Bellow. Both deal an awful amount instantly, but if I remember right, one requires 800 mana, and the other is usuable once every 5 minutes or something. Mezz is a better option, and if you dont have a pet already, charm, especially if its below level 51, cause its GUARENTEED to make the caster lose all aggro, and you to gain it all, if thats what you want. Repeatedly mezzing while purposely meleeing to break it also works well.

Mystaviant BattleBard

Virtuoso

paeros is not online. Last active: 10/14/2004 7:12:58 AM paeros
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Jan 1 03 11:12 AM
Shield of song... any upper level mana/hp song, lvl 51 slow
song does a bit. Best agro I've had so far was doing 1 regen
and a few Shield ticks. Got pretty good agro out of that not
to mention stopped lots of damage... heh

gileas is not online. Last active: 1/21/2003 11:14:57 PM gileas
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Jan 2 03 7:22 PM
Highsun does a pretty good job of getting it off the caster *ahem*

I actually hear all about the agro from SoS, was even warned by bard buddy when I got it but half the time I swap the lute of howler into slot one and click it, once its cast I pop weapon back and twist the other 2 or 3 when we fight. Esp if we got a druid with shammy backup as healers or something, and I rarely do get the famed and feared SoS agro.

But I do keep Song of Dawn loaded in case I do, its pretty handy being all not-resistable, and if you talk to your MT ahead of time and ask him to sit down if the mob goes for you when the little shield appears on his screen it works REALLY well to get agro RIGHT off of you and back to him.

Serious, this combo works great if you are weak in the healer dept.

Gileas, who sings SoS a lot.
Gileas Equipment

Anulien is not online. Last active: 11/6/2004 12:15:14 PM Anulien
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Jan 2 03 9:01 PM
I will agree, Song of Shield does an awesome job getting aggro when in a full group. If your trying to puill of a wizzie good luck to you though, some will nuke to soon and getting aggro from a 1k nuke can be somewhat troubling. My suggestion is to keep lvl 55 Bellow memmed if you think one of your casters is going to pull to much aggro. The 5 min recast isnt to nice and the high resists makes it a little iffy, but in that instant where they are getting the snot beat out of them it is worth a chance with an 8 second stun. As for reducing aggro for your group members, no luck there. Keep yourself hasted, keep low delay weapons if you are tanking and all should be well.

Lyeric is not online. Last active: 3/3/2003 12:39:31 AM Lyeric
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Re: Agro songs
Posted: Jan 9 03 12:42 PM
Best way ive found to keep or get agro is to sing as many Dot/Debuff songs as you can.. if you pull its even better..

at 60 you can cast 30 slow.. 1 min dot.. than add 3 or 4 dots and twist those.. at 60 I could keep agro from a 60 warrior until he taunts or has his epic proc.. but you get agro back when you keep dotting.. But once that war epic procs again.. you think you might as well have been hasting the warrior.. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

At 62 you get 45 slow which is a lot better agro than the 30 slow dot.. but still taunt becoms harder the longer the combat lasts.

Saving casters from agro is best done with charm.. having a way to lose charm fast is nice too.. Mosquito boots or hide or invis up.

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Author Thread: Generates Agro/Snares in 'Death Walk'
cujomatic is not online. Last active: 1/24/2005 9:54:31 AM cujomatic
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Generates Agro/Snares in 'Death Walk'
Posted: May 14 03 7:33 PM
This song is great (like the 20 song) for grabbing aggro for the bard (ie if a caster is with the group and pulling from a distance, and you want to grab aggro incoming).

The song snares when the critter goes into its 'Death Walk' at around 20% health.

This song, unlike the 20 AE slow song, DOES bust mez.
Currently in EQII Krescendo, 29 Dirge...Faydark/ Bhandade, 29 Cleric...Faydark

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frymd is not online. Last active: 1/17/2005 12:36:30 PM frymd
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Re: Aggro in Hard LDon-- First Loss
Posted: Sep 10 04 2:24 PM
Your songs create aggro right off the bat if your singing when a mob is pulled into camp. No matter whether they are buff, heal, slow or whatever songs. You mez song will have a high aggro effect on it too.

I suspect you may have been the lowest level of the group or close to it so I imagine that didn't help either. In addition, tanks at this level will have trouble keeping aggro as taunt hardly ever works.

When you got rezed, your low life will draw aggro as well.

Bottom line, until your groups get higher level you will draw aggro. You will at higher levels too, but it isn't as much of an issue. Just turn off attack and back out of the fray if you need to, the tank will regain aggro. And, your mez will give you lots of aggro. You don't get a memblurr component on it till later. If your mezzed mobs break mez they will beat on you. If you keep them all mezzed, make sure the tank does a sucessful taunt before breaking mez or you will be beaten on again.

Good luck though and keep up the grouping. It will make you a better bard.
Wizzy of the 65th Circle of Knowledge; Bard of the 60th Silly Song; Beasty of the 39th Soloing Level; Shadow Knight of the 28th Level of Evil; There is always one more imbecile than you figur

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Eaeamien is not online. Last active: 2/17/2005 2:52:43 PM Eaeamien
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Re: Agro for tanking purposes...
Posted: Jan 24 05 12:52 PM
Ok, so you really really want aggro, hunh? Well I found 2 ways to get it , that actually work !!!!! A

...

Method #2
Spam Shield of Songs
Lets say that you decide you want to be main tank for your group cause the MT has less HP/AC/Def AA's than you do. Well heres the fun part....Remember that old school song "Shield of Songs" ? Well this seems to be the only honest aggro song we have. Probably a bug/glitch but it works, so use it. You cant twist a bunch of crap and SoS and maintain aggro...You just SPAM sos, over & over & over. I thought someone was pulling my leg when they told me about this, but ive used it in MPG and PoP and it works surprisingly well.

Ok, good luck being a tank.....I just pray you have at least the PoP defensive AA's.

Mose is not online. Last active: 4/8/2005 10:02:58 AM Mose
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Re: Agro for tanking purposes...
Posted: Jan 24 05 2:56 PM
Spam Shield of Songs agro doesn't work the way it used to...else i would be leading PoFire AE groups

however, the devs have looked at our chant agro bug and discovered its cause:

Bard Chant Aggo

♪ M o s e ♪
[Triton]
Povar

https://github.com/dbsanfte/eq-archi...rds/24205.json

When I'm explicitly TRYING to aggro a primary target (VS comes to mind), the songs I use are: This, 55 bellow and Charm. It works pretty well, even if none of them stick, since I believe MOBs get aggro from the potential effect, not the actual effect. I am usually the 2nd or 3rd to aggro VS, at which point I can slap on deftdance and keep him uselessly swinging at me while the tanks clobber him. My guild leaders don't know I do this, I have to sneak a rune onto me and do it behind their backs, since they are stuck in the "only riposte discipline people fight VS" mode, but we've never lost when I've done this, so I don't think I'm provably wrong. If someone has a BETTER 3-song aggro-the-primary-MOB songlist, I'd love to hear it.