Bard AoE Dot stacking

Stoggieman · #1 12-12-2012, 01:08 PM

Ok, I'm rolling my toon tonight, and know that my solo toon will be my bard while my duo will be a necro. That's a different thread though.
This one has to do with how much damage per tic should I expect when twisting CoD and DDD in an AoE solo mass killing spree? I'm looking at the viability of this at lvl 18, and at level 2 for that matter...
And from what I have gleaned from the boards I should do this with either a lute or brass instrument in hand, which makes sense as drums for selos wouldn't help with the speed of the kill just with the speed of myself...

So which instrument in hand? Should I be swapping instruments, like I did on live LOOONG ago, keeping one on my mouse or as the diagonal "circles" are being performed is this not a viable option?

Lots of questions, I'm sure lots of answers.

Marmo · #2 12-12-2012, 01:21 PM

w/ instruments I was getting 16 and 20 in my low 20's.

Swapping Gypsy Lute and Horn

Twain · #3 12-12-2012, 03:27 PM

Sounds about right with the damage. As far as the instrument, you should switch out for each song. Without the switching, you will do a less damage. The damage isn't that much without the instrument, but you really don't want to spend more timing kiting than you already have to. I swarmed from 20-56. I still swarm for exp at lvl 56 but I keep 3 dots up and overlap them for max damage output. Currently get 13-15% a swarm in BW. Not that bad for 20-30 minutes of work.

Stoggieman · #4 12-12-2012, 04:07 PM

So the previous two plus selos chords at 48?

Twain · #5 12-12-2012, 04:25 PM

That is correct sir. The lvl 48 chords has a shorter range I believe. Excuse me for not knowing the name of the songs offhand but the low lvl one has a short range, 18 has the biggest range, and 48 has the smallest range. This is just from personal experience, I'm sure it shows the facts on the wiki. I have no problems keeping the lvl 18 one up at all times, but the other 2 I have to get in a little closer.

Stoggieman · #6 12-12-2012, 04:40 PM

Thank you very much. Should be a little bit before I get there, but figured I'd ask and use the wealth of knowledge out there. Can't wait to frustrate myself for hours only to have it reward me later on.