Bard Guide for p99. part 1

[astuce999]

We need more bards on p99, not just level 1-20 twink bards, but high level bards. The following is an attempt at making some sort of guide to help the bard level up!

Today’s article will focus on one aspect of bards. Twisting

This is the pride and bane of the bards. It separates the men from the boys. All the songs on p99 have a 3 second casting time. The great majority of the songs last for three 6-seconds ticks, so depending on the server tick, a normal song will last anywhere between 12-18 seconds. These parameters dictate that a bard can create a twist of 3 songs (9 seconds to cast, none will ever drop), or 4 songs (12 second cast, 1 song will rarely drop), or 5 songs (15 second cast, 1-2 songs will drop frequently).

Why would a bard want to sing sometimes 3, sometimes 4, and sometimes 5 songs?

A 3 song twist is a staple of raids, when lots of stuff is happening and sometimes the screen or server seems to slow down because of lag or anything else. It’s also used when it’s very important that a song never drops because of a situation that warrants it. For example, if in a fight you are fighting a caster that uses a lot of magic based spells, twisting Elemental(or purifying) Rhythms, Guardian Rhythms, and Hymn of Restoration with a drums equipped is a very good idea, because even if one of the resist songs drops for even a fraction of a second you may get stunned/nuked and then all hell breaks loose (for extra credit you may twist in the lute when Hymn of Restoration comes due).

A 4 Song twist is when the group is in cruise control, facing mobs that are manageable and wanting to keep a good rate of xp. It is also used when kiting single mobs since a song dropping (even selo’s or chains) will not mean the death of the bard. An example for a group twist of 4 songs will be Verses of Victory, Niv’s Melody of Preservation, Chant of Battle, and Psalm of Cooling. This twist is used a lot with a melee-heavy group, offensive based.

A 5 Song twist is for those masochists that really feel like shining. There are two ways to go about the 5 song twist. The first is to play the 5 songs the standard way through. The songs will drop 1 or two at a time for less than 3 seconds each, all in order as you work your way through the cycle. The second way, is to keep focus on one song, and have the other 4 drop once in a while, so you play 1 2 3 1 4 5 1 2 3 1 4 5, and so forth and so on.

Why would you want to play a 5 song twist if songs are going to drop? The short answer is “because of the server tick”. Take Hymn of Restoration for example, it heals X amount of HP every server tick for 3 ticks. If the song drops at the end of the 3rd tick, because it hasn’t been refreshed yet, the players will not be affected until the next server tick, where the next X amount of HP would be healed, which is 6 seconds later. If before those 6 seconds are up, the song is active again (a song is 3 seconds to cast, therefore giving a window of 3 seconds to start casting it after it has dropped), the same X amount of HP will be healed as if the song had never dropped. So you can have songs dropping left and right during your twist (or wearing off in case of dots) but never effectively notice any downside to it.

Here is an example of a 5 song twist (as of 08/20/2010) that you can do at level 50 without any downside; Fufil’s Curtailing Chant, Chant of Flame, Chant of Frost, Cassandra’s Chorus of Clarity, Hymn of Restoration.


Feedback and comments are very much appreciated, so that this article may be edited and future articles follow a different pattern.

Astuce Subterfuge

[azxten]

I played a Bard from 1-25.. the last few levels my hands started hurting but I pushed on cause I don't care about my health like that. Eventually I was forced to stop from the pain and my hands continued to hurt for about a week afterwards to the point I had to stop using a computer at all.

Of course, that's because I would not only twist songs but also swap out instruments for Hymn, Chords, etc.

I highly recommend if you play Bard to say fuck it to swapping instruments in addition to twisting except on important fights. Also, setup a hotkey bar with 8 hotkeys that have...

/stopsong
/cast 1

With 1 being 1-8. Now you can click/press 1-8 and start a song instead of having to double tap to stop and start a new one. These two things alone will save you from the horror of not being able to use a computer for a week. The third component is not playing EQ 20 hours a day for a week straight when your life falls apart.

Also, Bards are rare because of the 40% exp penalty. Same reason people are complaining about a lack of tanks now that the various exp bugs were fixed (Ogres outleveling Halflings, 6x group member bonus when duoing, etc). Mine is level 30 though and will shortly be 50 so don't worry more are on the way.

[Tiggles]

I played a bard exclusively for 5 years on Sullon Zek and my left hand fingers are now permanently curved down.


I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[knottyb0y]

Thanks for the informative guide! I look forward to reading more as a new bard myself. Lets hope i can avoid physical maladies in my efforts to twist virtual melodies.

KNotty

[knottyb0y]

When playing a bard what is more important, Weapons, Instruments, or Armor? As a bard should i melee in the party or focus on singing/buffing. It seems to me that depending on the party composition I would play more as a melee or as a "caster/crowd control" but I'm learning on the fly, any tips would be lovely.

Knotty

[Loquan]

All of the above, and also Melee DPS/Twisting songs :P

[eqdruid76]

Try not to forget that bards still don't work as they did on live. It's gotten a LOT better, and kudos to Haynar for all the work done. But it's still broken.

[madara]

Yeah best of luck, I like your positive attitude but I got a bard to 11 and it was just way too painful. If the mob speed, AE and charm kiting issues every get addressed I would surely reconsider getting carpal tunnel. Great memories charm kiting in EW.

[ukaking]

Whats the fastest way to swap out instruments?

[guineapig]

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

Whats the fastest way to swap out instruments?

You can use inventory slots on hotkeys if you don't mind not having bags in those slots.