It is scary to hear that people have actually been reading the various guides that I’ve written over the course of the past year and a half. I have never considered myself to be a great bard, simply average.  Apparently there are those out there though that think I have some odd knack for bardic stuff.  In response to many questions I’ve received over the past couple of months and to a specific request for a guide, I am writing a song guide.  This isn’t designed to explain what songs do, but rather, provide a song combination guide at various levels.  Keep in mind that the true power of the bard is in his/her versatility. Unlike many other classes where one can say “At level XX you mem spell A, B, and E” the bard’s song selection is based on individual preference, group composition, and area. This makes it difficult to give direct answers to the question “I’m level XX, what songs should I use?”. In order to answer this question I usually have to probe for what zone, what critters are being fought, what other classes are in the group, etc.  What I will attempt in this guide is to provide a basic guideline for general situations.  I will explain why I would use certain song combinations in certain situations. Knowing how to select your songs is the learning curve for bards and why so many bard alts and power-leveled bards seem to have little skill. I would suggest getting Reed’s Song Spreadsheet to reference to while going through this guide.  I used it extensively while writing this guide and having access to it will help. You can download it on my site (http://www.xegonybard.com).

Level 1 – 5

The early levels are odd since you don’t have very many options to play with.  During these levels you’ll want to start learning the concept of twisting (some servers use the term weaving). The level 4 song isn’t going to be used in combat so that takes your choices down to just a couple of songs. Typically I used 1 pulse of Chant of Battle (str/dex/ac buff) and 2 pulses of Chords of Dissonance (ae DoT – damage over time).  If you twinked yourself in all bronze or some other heavy armor and run out of stamina during the fight, you can throw in 1 pulse of Jaxan’s Jig of Vigor (sta restoration). Keep Selo’s Accelerando (referred to as Selo’s from here on) for fast getaways.

There isn’t much to explain during these levels. You are fighting in one of the newbie zones and really don’t have any casters to worry about.  Melee skills are typically still pretty poor so any extra strength you can get will improve damage when you are able to hit.  Small damage increases have large impact at these levels due to the small amount of hitpoints critters have. A general warning on Chords of Dissonance and all other area effect (ae) offensive songs:  you must be aware of your surroundings, song range, possible adds, and agro management when using AE offensive songs. Be aware you’ll gain agro from any non-kos mobs you hit with the song (including guards). If you are fighting in a group and have multiple critters, if your ae song is the only thing damaging all but the main critter you are fighting, you will probably be at the top of the agro list for those mobs and get beat on by all the extras.

Typical Group Twist: Chant of Battle, Chords of Dissonance, Chords of Dissonance

Typical Solo Twist:  same

Level 6-10

You get some very important songs in these levels. Song selection is still very limited though. The level 6 song Hymn of Restoration (group heal) will become a very important song. You’ll almost always have this in your twist.  For normal group fights you’ll probably be using Chant of Battle (up through level 9), Hymn of Restoration, and Chords of Dissonance. If you are fighting casters you should substitute Elemental Rhythms (group MR/FR/CR buff) instead of Chords of Dissonance.  If you are fighting solo, you should use Jonthan’s Whistling Warsong (self only haste, str, and AC buff) instead of Chant of Battle.  Once you reach level 10, you’ll want to substitute Anthem de Arms for Chant of Battle. Anthem de Arms is a 10% group haste and str buff song. You’ll lose the tiny AC buff from Chant of Battle, but you’ll more than make up for it with the haste. Anthem de Arms will become one of your main songs into your 30’s.

There still isn’t a lot to explain during these levels.  One thing to keep in mind is to use Jonthan’s when you are solo’ing or are the only melee in a group instead of Anthem de Arms. The haste on Jonthan’s will gradually increase as you gain levels, while Anthem will remain 10% forever. For example: at level 10 Jonathans give 17% haste, 10 str, and 2 AC.  Anthem gives 10% haste and 10 str.  So, if you are the only melee or are solo’ing you gain 7% haste and 2 AC from Jonathans over Anthem.  At level 20 Jonathans is 20% haste, 15 str, and 4AC.  Anthem at level 20 is still 10% haste with 15 str.  Jonathans will continue to increase the haste percent until you are level 45 and get the upgrade to Jonathans. I did not realize this as I leveled and cheated myself out of some AC and a lot of haste that I could have had when I solo’ed. Also keep in mind that you have Elemental Rhythms (resist buff for fire, cold, and magic). If you are not fighting casters its worthless and wastes a spot in your twist that could be better used.  This starts your situational awareness. Know what the abilities of what you are fighting. 

Typical Group Twist: Anthem de Arms, Hymn of Restoration, and either Chords of Dissonance or Elemental Rhythms if fighting a caster

Typical Solo Twist:  Jonthan’s Whistling Warsong, Hymn of Restoration, and either Chords of Dissonance or Elemental Rhythms if fighting a caster

Level 11 – 19

I am grouping these levels all in once since a majority of the songs you get during these levels are utility spells that don’t figure into this guide on song selection in groups. You gain a small direct damage (dd) song, more resist songs, mez, and an upgraded DoT. Song selection remains almost the same as in the previous levels. When fighting casters now you have two different resist songs to choose from now.  Elemental is the song you’ll want to use against wizard and magician class casters for the fire, cold, and magic resists.  When fighting against shamans and necros though, you’ll want to use Purifying Rhythms for the magic, poison and disease resistance buff. This again goes back to the point of know the abilities of the critters you are fighting.  If you are fighting something that is casting magic based spells and even with Elemental or Purifying Rhythms you are getting hit you can add Guardian Rhythms (MR and AC buff). Guardian Rhythms will stack with Elemental and Purifying.  This is a special case since most of the resist songs will not stack with each other. This brings us to the point of knowing which songs stack with what other spells and songs. These resist songs are only really useful when fighting casters, so if you are fighting only melee mobs, you’d stay away from these songs all together and substitute in the DD or DoT song for added damage. 

For added damage you could sing both Chords of Dissonance (level 2 DoT) and Denon’s Disruptive Discord (level 19 DoT). You would have to sacrifice a different song though to get both DoT songs going. The question becomes will the 4 hitpoints per tick healing per party member be more beneficial than the extra 8 damage per tick to the critter you are fighting. If the healer is able to easily keep the group healed without using too much mana, the DoT would be a good choice. If the healer keeps running out of mana you’d probably want to use the heal song instead of the extra damage.  This is an example of when group composition starts becoming important. Learning to understand how group composition works will allow you to identify what areas you can most benefit the group in.

These levels begin to open up song selection.  You have several different resist songs that can be tailored to specific zones and encounters.  You also have the choice between damaging the critter you are fighting or providing beneficial group effects (heal or buff). Remember, the healing song is more beneficial to the group if everyone is taking some damage since it heal all party members a little each tick, versus if the only person damaged is the main tank, the group benefit is less since only one party member is gaining the benefit of that song.

Typical Group Twist: Anthem de Arms, Hymn of Restoration, and either Denon’s Disruptive Discord or Elemental/Purifying Rhythms if fighting a caster

Typical Solo Twist:  Jonthan’s Whistling Warsong, Hymn of Restoration, and either Denon’s Disruptive Discord or Elemental/Purifying Rhythms if fighting a caster

Level 20 – 27

You song selection is growing now. If you managed your way through the teen levels congrats.  Now that you have gotten a bunch of the utility songs out of the way its time to start getting some group songs that are of real good use.  You get two mob slow songs during these levels, a mana regen song, and fear. All of these songs have their time and place for useage. At level 20 you get an area effect 18% slow song, at level 23 you get the single target slow that also has a snare component. Slowing a mob’s attack rate by almost 20% will save the tank 20% of the damage he/she would have taken.  This takes a huge healing burden off of the healer.  In a typical group with some melee, a healer, and a caster or two, I would use Anthem de Arms (for haste and str), Largo’s Melodic Binding or Selo’s Constant Chains (to slow the critter we were fighting) and Hymn of Restoration (to heal the group).  In this case, you are helping the group kill faster (due to haste), lessening the damage taken (slowing the mob), and healing the group (due to group heal). How many other classes can do all three of those functions at once?  Again, remember the resist songs if you are fighting casters. Caster mobs typically don’t melee as much, so you’d substitute the slow song with a resist song (elemental or purifying).  If you are fighting some of both, you’d have both the resists and slow songs mem’ed and simply change your twist depending on the current creature you are fighting. At level 26 you gain a fear song.  This can be a great tool when used correctly. You could sing Anthem (haste), Selo’s Constant Chains (for the snare), and Angstlich’s Appalling Screetch (for the fear) and fight mobs without taking very many hits. Depending on group composition, it might be better for a druid or other snareable class to snare so you could sing a DD or DoT song instead of Selo’s Constant Chains.  Again, group composition becomes a factor in the decision.  Also keep in mind that other classes have slow spells that will slow the mob more than your song. You can either do your lesser slow song and elevate that task from the other character so they can focus on other things (healing, dot’ing, buffing, etc) or you can use another song such as a DD, DoT, or other buff song.  Communicating with other group members as to what they are doing and how it relates to your selection is key to providing the maximum benefit to the group.

Notice that the mana song that allows you to regen 2 mana per tick is not listed in any of the twist combinations. You can provide a larger GROUP benefit by singing other songs. During any downtime or between pulls you could sing the mana song for the casters, but during the fight there are more GROUP valuable songs you can sing.  The emphasis of the bard is the benefit of the GROUP over any one individual.

These levels add several good songs that can be used.  You begin to see a division in the bard’s power compared to other classes.  From this point forward you will not be the best in anything other than running speed. However, you can fill in for a variety of classes. You can’t heal as good as druids, clerics, or shamans; you can’t slow as good as a shaman or enchanter, you can’t buff as good as a druid or shaman; you can’t melee as good as any of the other melee classes. You CAN substitute or add to any shortage of any of those classes though.  If a group needs more melee you can help; they need some additional healing, you’ve got it;  they don’t have a slower, no problem, you can handle it.  You are becoming the jack-of-all-trades.

Typical Group Twist: Anthem de Arms, Selo’s Constant Chain, Hymn of Restoration

Typical Solo Twist:  Jonthan’s Whistling Warsong, Selo’s Constant Chains, Angstlich’s Appalling Screetch (fear kiting) or Selo’s Accelerando, Brusco’s Boastful Bellow (bellow kiting) Selo’s Accelerando, Solon’s Song of the Sirens, and Hymn of Restoration (charm kiting)

Level 28 – 40

Notice the huge level range for this section.  In these levels you’ll gain individual resist buffs,  single target DoTs, upgrades to existing songs, an upgrade to your charm, and more utility songs.  Throughout these levels you’ll have lots of songs to choose from. Group composition and the critters being fought will play a large part of your song line-up.  As you gain upgrades to existing songs, you’ll substitute the lower level versions out for the newer ones. An example is Vila's Verses of Celerity (20% haste, agi, and small ac buff) is an upgrade to good old reliable Anthem de Arms. You gain a resist song specific to cold, another one specific to fire, another for poison, another for disease, and one just for magic (ok, the fire one is level 25, but you get the idea).  Each of these specific resists give a higher buff to the single resist versus the slightly lower buff to multiple resists.

At this level there are so many different combinations of songs that you’ll be using for specific encounters and for each individual group it would be impossible to list them all.  If you are in a typical group with some melee, healer, nuker, and support caster you’d probably have a line-up that included a haste song (Vila’s Verses of Celerity), Selo’s Constant Chain (if there isn’t another slower/snarer in the group), and Hymn of Restoration. In some groups you’ll find only one person is taking damage. In this case I’d switch out Hymn for an offensive song (probably one of the chant songs that is target specific).  If someone else is slowing and/or snaring I’d substitute a chant or a heal or mana song. If you are fighting mobs that have buffs or damage shields on I’d add Syvelian’s Anti-Magic Aria (targetable cancel magic) to dispel the mobs.  If the group was melee heavy and most people had weapons that could proc I’d consider adding Katta’s Song of Sword Dancing (huge dex buff) to the mix to help them proc more.  Of course you have the resist songs for specific caster mobs.

I’ve been in groups of all casters before. In this specific group we were pulling, a druid was rooting, and the other casters were DoT’ing the mob. In this case, there was heavy mana usage but no physical damage being taken. In this instance I decided that Cassindra's Chorus of Clarity (level 32 mana song that gives 6 mana per tick at level 40), Tuyen's Chant of Flame (single target, fire-based DoT with FR debuff), and Fufil's Curtaling Chant (single target, magic-based DoT with MR debuff). The main nuker was a mage that was using fire based DDs. The DoT’ers were druids using magic based DoTs.  So, I’m giving the 5 casters in the group mana, doing damage to the critter we were fighting, and lowering the specific resists the casters were throwing at the critter. 

Please note that this is for normal fighting and assuming nothing goofy or unexpected occurs during the fights.  At anytime during a fight you might get an add or a bunch of adds. If this occurs during the fight, the bard should be prepared to change roles mid-fight and mez and/or charm to take care of the adds.  You may start a fight without a healing song but find that adds or just bad luck everyone is taking damage so you ADAPT to the situation and change your twist to include a healing type of song.  The opposite could occur. You could be taking lots of damage and then get everyone healed and need to switch to an offensive song.  The trick is you only have 8 slots to mem songs in. I generally have my main 3 song twist, 2 slots for likely songs, 1 for Selo’s Accelerando (Selo’s Accelerating Chorus from 49+), 1 slot for my highest mez, and 1 slot for my highest charm. Of course, if I’m in an indoor zone I can use my Selo’s slot for something else; if I’m in Kael where I’m only fighting giants there is no need for mez since giants can’t be mez’ed.  Again, knowing the mobs you are fighting is important.

From the previous section and in future sections, there are lots of good songs added and upgrades to existing songs. Learning to adapt to changing situations within single fights becomes important.  In order to quickly make these decisions you have to know what other group members are able to do and that they are alive to do them.  If your slower is killed when multiple creatures are pulled, you’ve just become responsible for slows.  If the person responsible for crowd control drops (usually due to trying to control said crowd) its up to you. A bard can turn a certain wipe into a stunning victory. 

Typical Group Twist: Vila's Verses of Celerity, Selo's Consonant Chain, and Hymn of Restoration

Typical Solo Twist:  Jonthan’s Whistling Warsong, Selo’s Constant Chains, Angstlich’s Appalling Screetch (fear kiting); Selo’s Accelerando, Solon's Bewitching Bravura, and Hymn of Restoration (charm kiting); Selo’s Accelerando, Tuyen's Chant of Flame, and Fufil's Curtaling Chant (chant kiting)

Level 41 – 60 and Beyond

In your 40’s and low 50’s you continue to gain upgrades to existing songs, more targeted DoTs, a couple of more utility songs, some new variations (heal and ac in one song), and your first stackable hastes.  By these levels you should have a fairly good understanding of what most classes can do (because you’ve had to ask in previous groups so you can determine your niche in the group). At 39 you got the upgraded charm which is probably your most useful solo’ing tool. In the 40’s though you pick up your additional DoT songs and Selo's Accelerating Chorus (2.5 minute duration running speed song).  This will allow you to chant kite much faster than before. 

There isn’t any real specific advice I can offer at these levels without explaining specific situations and song usage.  As a general rule in most normal groups (i.e. melee, healer, support casters and/or nukers – balanced group) I try and use a haste song (if an enchanter or shammy haven’t already given a better haste), a stackable haste (Vah Shir song-line), and a heal/mana combo song.  Raids are a whole different beast to tackle.  Songs for raids depend on the target and nature of the raid as well as what other bards (if any) are doing.

Specific song usage can be found in my song guide which can also be found on my website (http://www.xegonybard.com). If you’ve paid attention through your progression of levels you’ll have a thorough understanding of what each person in the group is contributing (or if you aren’t sure you’re asking them). Knowing what your songs do is essential. There are many tools available to assist with this.  Reed’s Song Spreadsheet (which you should be familiar with by time you are level 40) is the best tool for determining specific song effects. The message boards at EQ Diva and The Concert Hall are other excellent sources of information on songs and how people have used each song.  If you can stand my way of explaining things and rambling you can see how I have used each song on the above mentioned song guide.

The advanced levels become a bit tricky with song stacking issues, not only with other songs, but other spells.  Remember that almost all hastes will stack as far as str, agi, atk buffs, but only the highest haste percent will take effect. Also remember that other classes can typically do what you can do, only better.  Try not to duplicate the efforts of other group members unless the double redundancy is needed.  Communicating with the group as to what you are doing and asking what others are doing when needed is key. Knowing the abilities of what you are fighting continues to be very important.

I hope that this guide is in lines with what has been requested and that it can provide a method to determine which songs should be used.  The only sure way to learn this is through practice.  Don’t be afraid to try song combinations that haven’t be tried before.  The versatility and adaptability of the bard is our unique gift in the world of Norath. Use it and apply it well and you will be loved by the masses (that’s the PC masses, not the NPC/Mob masses).

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