Quote:
Originally Posted by branamil
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You should not melee between the levels of like, 18, and 59. At 60 you should only melee if you have an epic. The damage is just so pathetic, you'll do as much damage with songs as weapons if you really need DPS.
If you really need to swap, you should get a new UI like duxaui, which has the hand slots right above the inventory slots. Then its just three clicks to swap.
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This.
At low levels bard melee is meaningful. From 20 on it drops sharply from the ‘decent’ range to terrible. By 60 a buffed shaman pet does more melee damage.
Whether or not to melee depends entirely on your group and your level. Some songs require instruments. Most do not. In general you are best off twisting your lv 6 regen hymn until 55 and then swapping to cantata with lute. Pulse mana bolus song liberally unless your group needs your haste. Nivs regen (strings mod) stacks. It will help your healers and your group kill more and kill faster with less down time than meleeing. If you have tons of healing and the instrument mods don’t add a lot of value, feel free to melee. Just know that my 60 bard does well to hit 20dps (it’s bad) which is below knight dps (it’s really bad). Imo it’s still better to find creative ways to support your group than spend time trying to add pretty piss-poor dps.
Epic changes everything. With epic, melee procs are really good for the group and it mods all songs by 1.8 (not bad).
I did clock an epic bard with ToV weapon and 41% worn haste at 40-45 dps melee dps. That’s not too bad but still half what you might expect from any other comparably geared melee dps.
Bards are armored CASTERS. If dps is what you want from your bard you’d be better off drum dotting it up. If your group just needs dps, though, they’re not going to invite a bard.
Play to your strengths — ie your song book. A well played bard is a huge benefit to most groups. A bard focusing on melee is mediocre at best ... and in general a waste of space.