Twisting with Instruments

This section is written with the assumption that you have mastered twisting three songs. Twisting multiple songs with different instruments sounds complicated, but after 10 minutes of practice it isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Why would you want to use instruments only? In the later levels, a bard can dish out over 170 points per tick in DoTs. Some of these DoTs also lower various resists of the target, allowing nukers to land their spells more often. Remember the talent of the bard is versatility. You may find situations where you use a string instrument to heal, brass instrument to haste or DoT, and percussion to DoT or increase your group’s resists. Most of the time when I am using instruments only I use two instruments (percussion and string). I did not start using instrument only combinations until after level 30 though, as I was more effective to the group using melee. Below all my explanations are some screen shots of the hotkey page as I move through the three songs using the different instruments.

The somewhat confusing ‘how this is done’ follows: I assume you have a hotkey page set up as outlined in the hotkey section above. In this example Song A is a string song, Song B is brass, and Song C is percussion. During the twisting there should always be an instrument on your cursor. Have your string instrument equipped, with your brass instrument on the mouse cursor. Begin singing Song A. When Song A goes into effect, stop it and start Song B. Once you start Song B you will have three seconds to switch from your string instrument to your brass instrument. This shouldn’t be a problem since your brass instrument is already on your mouse cursor. Click the brass instrument into the instrument slot. You now have your string instrument on your cursor. Move it over to your percussion instrument and click. You now have your percussion instrument on your cursor. Song B effects should just now be beginning. Stop Song B and start Song C. Once you start Song C, click the percussion instrument into the instrument slot. Move the brass instrument over to your string instrument and click. Song C effects should just now be starting. Stop Song C and start Song A again. Move your string instrument in the instrument slot and switch your percussion instrument from your cursor to having your brass instrument on your cursor. Yeah, you’ve just twisted three songs using three different instruments.

Now for the ‘maybe you’ll understand this’ example. Song A is the healing song, Song B is McVaxius' Berserker Crescendo (haste), and Song C is Elemental Rhythm (resist song). String instrument is lute, Brass is horn, Percussion is drums. Start healing song while lute is equipped. When healing effect starts, stop it and begin haste song. Once you start to sing haste song, equip horn and put lute in drum slot. When haste effects begin, stop song and start resist song. Once you start to sing the resist song, equip drums and put horn in lute spot. Spit, rinse, repeat.

This takes some practice to get use to. Until you are very comfortable doing this, you probably won’t notice what is happening during the fight. I recommend starting with two songs using different instruments and work with it till you’re comfortable. Once you can manage two songs, use two songs with same instrument and third song of a different instrument. Once you can do this, then try three songs with three different instruments.

The songs used in the below illustration are Chant of Battle (percussion), Hymn of Restorations (string), and Lyssa's Veracious Concord (wind). I simply used these songs as they use three different instruments and I didn't have a brass instrument on me at the moment. In the pictures below, Hotkey slots 1, 2, & 3 are my three songs.  Hotkeys 4, 5, 6, & 7 are blank. Hotkey 8 is my secondary (shield/off-hand) slot. Hotkeys 9 & 10 are two general inventory slots with my instruments in them.

As the twist starts (left picture) with Chant of Battle the drum is equiped. The lute and flute are in inventory spaces that are hotkeyed below the hotkey of my offhand weapon (instrument slot). After Chant of Battle takes effect start Hymn of Restoration. During the three seconds Hymn is casting, pick up the lute and equip it (center picture). Notice that I put the flute on the cursor in preparation for the thrid song. Once Hymn takes effect, start Lyssa's Veracious Concord. While Lyssa's is casting place equip the flute (right picture). Again, notice that after placing the flute in the equiped slot I put the drum on my cursor by putting the lute where I had placed the drum. This puts the next instrument I'll need already on my cursor. While twisting 3 different instruments you will want to keep an instrument on your cursor at all times.

This is very complicated at first as you are keeping the rhythm of twisting the songs AND moving instruments around. Most of the time I will only twist in two instruments between 3 or 4 songs. Start with two songs using two instruments and then move on to three instruments with three songs. This takes lots of practice before you can use it in a group situation. There are no ways really to just do it. Practice makes perfect in this case.

These pictures were created before the custom user interfaces were allowed.  The custom user interfaces allow you to place actual inventory slots along the side of your hotkeys, removing the need to hotkey the actual inventory slots.  If you plan on twisting with multiple instruments on a regular basis, I would recommend downloading or creating a custom UI. I will try and keep my personal UI available in the files section of my website for anyone to use if they do not wish to create their own.

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