Guidance Needed for Bard

I have been trying to play Drya as a bard, but am realizing I know very little about the skill. I have googled every combination of search terms I can think of, but have been unsuccessful in finding a comprehensive guide to this new skill. (Yes, I read Greagio Pendragon's Guide but it is just a restatment from what one can get from mousing over the skills themselves)

What food buffs benefit bards? Do they need dexterity for their nimble fingers or intelligence for remembering complicated compositions? I have been casting the Intelligence buff on myself for my Life skills, but is that the best choice for a Bard? Again, might the Dexterity buff be best? Strength does not seem logical, but illogical things have been known to be programmed into this game. At present, I go for the +5 Intel Devotional and the + to Combat Health Devotional as I get such incredible aggro when I bard.

What type of armor benefits a bard? I am finding bard aggro makes cloth armor undesirable as the huge amount aggro my songs inspire among the undead at ERG makes playing bard songs in cloth a short term event unless my group has a very competent tank. Are there any any benefits or negatives to wearing cloth, leather, chain mail or plate? If so, what qualities should I have enchanted onto my Bard armor? I prefer to wear cloth so I can toss out fire rings at ERG, but my experience there has me wondering if the Escape skill actually does anything at all. Is it broken? Does it actually deserve a spot on my active spell bar? I find myself switching to my chain mail set if the group has no tank to improve my survivability.

Additionally, is there any way to tell how effective my skills are in helping the group? At present, unless someone decides to comment, "I love that sweet Sonata," I have no idea whether most of my skills are actually having any impact on the team. I do see Rhapsody of Recovery and Melody of Mending in the Combat chat, but I don't see the impact of Anthem of Alacrity, Savage Sonata, Refrain of Resistance or Psalm of Stagnation. Someone told me casting Mesmerizing Melody around the tank was helpful, but though I tried casting it repeatedly, I never saw any skelies that appeared to be stunned anywhere around me unless I am far from the tank and all the damage. Any truth in this advice?

I also worry a bit that I will appear to be doing very little in a battle as I've been told that the apps that use the combat chat to access who is the strongest dps or does the most healing don't record the bard skills that most actively benefit a group. As I often do PUGs, especially as my guild's presence in SOTA declines, I would like to be seen as a participant that would add positively to a group for more than my heals or fire ring yet fear that my character gets no added desirability for my bard skills. There are many groups now who do not go into Looking for Group, but form private groups to which they invite players they KNOW will make a positive addition to the group. I'd like to continue to get invites to such groups.

And what about the bard melodies themselves? What happens when two bards cast Savage Sonata? Does the stronger one take precedence or the weaker melody? Do they stack? Do they alternate? Is there any limit on how many bard spells can be active at one time? Where is the information about how the various melodies interact? Do some melodies perhaps enhance each other? I have never seen anything on this topic, yet there are often two bards casting in a group. Given the desirability of the Savage Sonata effect, I'd think two bards are often casting the same melody, but could easily be totally aware that an avatar just a little way off is casting the same overlapping melody. There seems to be so little information beyond the bare minimum from mousing over the skill itself.

My last observation: I find Melody of Mending generates such incredible aggro it seems more like a tank skill and I've removed it from my bar. The only time I use it at all is when my bear and I are about to take on a wyvern in Ulfheim. Is that working as intended? Seems like a bit of overkill for what is a very low level ability in the bard tree to make it go from no aggro to tank worthy.

Any help with improving Drya as an effective bard will be much appreciated.

 

greetings @Drya while i would in no way consider myself an expert on your topic i do have a few thoughts that may give you at least some information to ponder.

the role of the bard (at least IMHO) is very similar to that of a healer and of a tank. not a glorious profession but a necessary one that provides a great (but mostly thankless) service. it can feel odd at times but i would not take a lack of communication as an indicator that what you were doing did not help. as a tank, if i do ERG i have about 1 DPS and rarely receive a thank you for taking the pounding tanking ERG, at least for me, is a non-stop frenzy of taunt, heal, defensive buffing, and repositioning after i get zipped to different spot... for nearly an hour solid. very active compared to other roles. where i take pride is in how many attacks i pull vs the rest of the party members. every attack on me is an attack not on a party member. since no stat tools really provided me information that i could use as a gauge for my tanking i ended up writing one (see my sig). your mention of no real gauge for a bard sparked me into thinking maybe there is something i can add to my stats tool that can see that. it all depends on how the information is reported in the chat log. if it is reported as a normal heal other then it would show as it is now. the other bard benefits there is no real way to show performance that i am aware of but will take a look.

the bards i have encountered in game have all been bard+something. i have seen very successful bard/life, bard/archer, and bard/tamer setups. with those setups come the different gear associated. i personally use some of the bard skills as a tank but am also heavy spec so i am usually in plate or at least a plate chest and its actually better to get the aggro from barding. primarily i use mending and savage sonata. if i am in ERG, for my tank style i will use mez if a bard is not providing it. statistically it cuts how many possible attacks happen during an ERG session by up to 2/3 so well worth it. i think when doing an ERG run it is important to communicate roles and who is providing what. a healer needs to be aware of the tank and bards need to know what each other are laying down. coordinate with the other bards and decide who will be laying the different buffs. other than mez or stagnation, the buffs should be laid on the DPS core in the back. Sonata, Alacrity, Recovery, and Mending. i can personally say that i love when a bard keeps mez on my position full-time. it gives me just a second or two more to taunt and if i am not the one laying it then i can taunt and keep my defenses up non-stop. if i have to mez there is a 10 second delay of when i am not taunting that opens the party up to attack. that is me though and my tanking style. best to ask the tank if they would like that and if so, know that it is appreciated also note that mez is broken once a mezzed enemy is attacked. you mentioned also laying fire ring so it may be hard to see the pause if your fire hits them they will keep on going.

one more thing of note, i believe how mez and stagnation work are different. stagnation only slows the enemies in range at the time you finish singing. mez will mez any enemies entering the radius for the duration of the song. so for ERG mez would be better. for something like providing support for zombie farming use stagnation.

i will leave it to others talk to more things as i just have a tankers perspective

 

Thanks very much for your response! I will definitely add Mesmerizing Melody to my repertoire for tank support. When I group up with my guild everyone knows everyone and roles are clear, but more and more lately I am looking LFG to find a group and my experience has been there is little communication beyond who's tank and who's heals, if any. I was watching the bars today and it appeared that there were two effects on the combat bar for barding which were cycling through the various songs being cast and the various strength of the songs cast by different but unnamed casters. Still, trying to read tiny announcements as they cycle past no doubt led to many inaccuracies in perception. I was also trying to compare stagnation and mesmerizing. I was casting fire rings between where the undead enter and the control point platform. Stagnation slowed them appreciatively causing them to stay in the fire ring longer and take more damage. We had two fire mages and he took the center ring around the tank. Mesmerizing did not appear to be effective in that situation, as the fire ring broke it almost immediately. Again, thanks for your response. I'll definitely use Mez around the tank as long as no one is dropping fire rings in that area.