Theory craft: Best 4 songs to twist at 51 as a melee solo twink bard?
 

Yes, please don't tell me how awful bard melee solo is compared to charming/swarming/grouping/etc. I know but want to take this specific path in the game until it becomes too painful.

Now that it's out of the way, my bard is fairly well twinked with SBOZ/BOC/Seahorse 34% haste belt and Lute of the Howler(40% spell haste).

I'm thinking the best 4 songs to twist at 51 would be: Longo's for slow, chant of battle for stats, hymn of restoration for regen and Jonathan's provocation for haste. However I realized that Werewolf form is spell haste and it isn't stacking with Jonathan's which is 8% more. Few questions I have:

1. Is it worth twisting Jonathan's provocation or should I switch to something else that would be more beneficial than 8% extra haste?

2. What twink item should I spend my dkp on that would be a huge benefit to continue melee solo 51-60. Epic? Tunare/Koi Dagger? 41% item haste? Although I read piercing is lower than 1h/1hb so not sure if Tunare/Koi dagger is worth it.

3. Anyone have other recommendations on what would assist my journey of melee bard solo to 60?

I am not a bard, so take what I have to say with a grain of salt.

Slow and HP regen are obviously good choices. Chant of battle may not be worth it if you have something better to play, as stats are going to impact the battle less than big things like Slow and Regen.

I wouldn't play the haste song. You are already sitting at 74% haste with belt and lute. You can get a bit more haste with V2 Haste (Ervaj line of bard songs, up to 10%), but haste gives you the most bang for your buck at 34%. The last 66% of possible haste is only giving you 50% benefit, so you are really only getting 5% additional haste for your troubles. To clarify what I mean, the way the math works is for MOST weapons (except for weapons above 50 delay or so), getting to 34% haste will reduce the weapons delay by 50% of the possible reduction you can get. For example, my weapon is a 46/44. The best delay I can get on this weapon is 22 at 100% haste. However, if I wear a 34% haste belt and nothing else, the delay goes from 44 to 33. As you can see, out of the 22 possible points of delay reduction, I have already achieved 11/22. The difference between 74% haste and 84% haste is 25 delay vs 24 delay. It is an improvement for sure, but it is a small one. I assume you are dual wielding, so it will probably be even worse for your weapons.

Maybe Slow + Regen + Damage DoT + (something else like harmory or charm)? If you cannot think of anything else to put in the 4th slot, then yes probably the best stat/ATK boosting buff would be your best bet. I don't know enough about all the possible bard songs to know for sure what would be the best option.

I just realized your slow is also a DoT. So it would really depend on if you can stack DoTs, I have no idea how that works with bard songs. If you can, then Slow + Regen + Dot + Dot would probably work great on single mobs. If they don't stack, then probably Slow + Regen + Ervaj + Stat spell. At higher levels you will have stuns, which would help reduce damage further. It says you have a DD spell as well, which costs mana. May be worth it if no other spell you are using costs mana. Again I don't play bard, so I don't know the nuances of a lot of the spells, I am just looking at the wiki text.

Since you are using SBOZ/BOC, I can't imagine chant of battle being very good, since that gives you DEX, but you don't have any procs. So if you end up going the Slow + Regen + Ervaj + Stat spell route, you should use a spell that gives STR + ATK. I am guessing that is only Jonthan's Provocation at your level, so that may be ideal. If you can do Slow + Dot + Dot you will be doing something like 90 damage a tick. I am not sure if a bit of extra ATK and 5% haste (past 34%) is going to out DPS 90 damage per 6 seconds. You would probably have to parse that.

Epic for sure if you can afford/raid it. Otherwise get drums of the Beast. Sell your weapons if needed to do it so you can twist all 3 chant dots and equip the drum before each one lands swapping back to melee quickly. I’d probably add the slow song on top of this. Bard melee will plummet pretty hard once you hit 55 or so but then the drums will continue to last.

Good luck!

Don't bother with chant and haste song. I did the same thing on multiple bards that you are doing and it was really mostly situational. Regen song and slow/snare is clearly the best 2. For the other 2 you can do fear if you have the space and dot. If you do not have the space i would suggest either 2 dot songs, or 1 dot song plus 1 DS song. I preferred the 2 dot songs personally but whatever you get the feel for.

Also if the mob you are fighting happens to be a caster i would burn it down to 50% then just spam it with mez to interrupt its spells, heals especially if it's say a shaman.

This way of fighting is possible and is fairly fun imo.

Ohh and if you can afford to BUY an epic....then yeeeeah do that!

"Melee solo" is mentioned at least three times by the OP, so they're attempting something more along the lines of DAoC's Skald as opposed to Minstrel or Bard. While it is good advice in any other discussion, selling their weapons and buying drums defeats the whole purpose of the build/playstyle. For that, the epic would be ideal, or the ToV/PoG equivalent. At least that's when I've seen bards swing at raid and group targets, when they've attained one of those procs. Solo, generally I've only ever seen bards melee while fear kiting, so consider throwing that song into the mix, depending on the zone. It's all pretty situational though, imo, but then bards have an answer for just about every situation. 41% worn haste never hurts, especially since most of those items have all-around good stats tacked on. You might also want to consider obtaining a few clickies, such as a singing steel BP and jboots if you're going to be dungeon crawling.

If you don't have your epic melee solo can be sort of tricky. Tricky as in time-consuming. If it were me, I'd throw the following on my bar:
1: verses of victory
2: psalm of cooling (damage shield)
3: hymn of restoration
4: largo's or a slow/dot
5: a chant (probably frost as it's the highest dmg OR fear for kiting
6: song of twilight
7: solon's bewitching
8: selo's OR if indoors, kellin's for splitting

IF you have the epic, here's what I'd use

1: frost chant
2: flame chant
3: magic chant
4: snare/slow
5: hymn of restoration
6: twilight
7: charm
8: selos/kellin's/fear

With the above set up you'll be able to proc the epic for a stat boost and haste, then swap in and out your drums for maximum dottage. Start twisting the fear song with your snare and beat on the mob(s) while twisting moar dawts.

GL!

Thanks, I'll try Largo's, Hymn, Frost + Fire Chant as my 4 to see.

Don't have epic yet but will see if I can acquire. What's the reasoning for verses of victory on your none epic build? I was thinking give up haste if I have the 40% Werewolf form lute.

Do you think DS is worth using instead of another chant?

Eh, it’s been quite a long time since I haven’t had the epic. My apologies. I was thinking verses because in my mind I still added the epic proc. Let me try again.

1: Jonthan’s
2: Chant of frost
3: chant of fire
4: largo’s for slow or selos cessation for slow/dot
5: hymn of resto
6: song of twilight or fear
7: solon’s bewitching
8: selo’s or fear

If you’re fear kiting there’s no point for a damage shield. The only reason for the slow is the snare effect and if they turn on you when a fear breaks early. You always want charm in there in case you get an add, you can charm it until the first mob dies and then move on to your temporary pet.