Felt useless, 1st time ever

[Schozie]

So, I finally hit 55, feeling like a "proper" bard now :D

anyway, got a party in boyhada tree. The party was going ok, SC was doing alot of damage etc, about an hour into the party the thief says "schozie could you please not sing songs?"
This baffled me obviously (the thf wasnt english so it took some explaining) but it turns out he wanted me to refrain from singing any party buffs until he'd SATA'd onto the tank. Apparently the song animations cause you to freeze up and not be able to engage for a few seconds? (i've never played a melee job)
Now, i agreed to do this, but considering we were starting fight with SC piercing arrow > SATA viper bite (something like that) and then MB the thing was basically half dead by the time i even started singing my songs, making me feel kinda useless. Whats more the pulls were coming fast, so there really wasnt time for me to buff the other melees inbetween pulls, so I just sort of stood there waiting for SATA to go off, doing nothing (the thf wasnt exactly speedy either)

I asked LS members and they confirmed this does happen with song effects, thf friend said it took him a while to get used to, but felt the effects of the songs were benefitial enough for him to put up with it.

I cant believe that i've got to lv55 before ever finding this out or anyone mentioning it to me. I was just wondering what peoples opinions on this are? should I just ignore it unless someone else mentions it in another party, or is there something I can do to help with this that i've been missing out on all these months?

thanks

-Schozie.

[Rogan]

yep same thing happens with Cures, you freeze up for a second, not always annoying cept maybe to a thf or drk/thf 60+ cuz it only takes a second

[Vilurum]

If I recall, it only happens if you're standing still when the animation starts. Keep moving around and you'll move with the animation and won't get frozen.

[Rones]

If they are going as fast as you say, then you should be ok just buffing in the middle. My buffs I do right at start usually wear at the very start of the next fight if I don't refresh them right away. So in reality, you could sing them half way through the fight or near the end of the and have the same result as long as you are consistent on when you sing them. When working with a thf I usually wait until after the sa+ta because I've accidently pulled hate just off my songs before and messed up the sa+ta when the thf is so slow that the first provoke is almost worn off. :sweat:

[Rakuyo]

You could mention to the thf to turn off the animations that directly effect him/her. See if that makes a difference. I know it does when I am trying to cast spells. (Config menu)

That way you could continue to buff your pt and work more effectively. There is no reason that your job should be less effective because of another players personal configuration.

[Coinspinner]

I hate getting hit with Ballad right before the SC starts when I'm resting... and I can't get up to Magic Burst because those damn sparkles are pinning me to the ground. :mad:

[Fooma]

Adjust your tactics. Make sure they have a refreshed melee song that won't expire before the sata, and pull in with elegy instead of a party buff.

On pull in: mages should have recent balladx2, melee should have a soon expiring song set. pull in with elegy, wait for thf, then recast your melee songs, then run back, ballad 1, do a cure/finale/debuff, then ballad 2 (so both stick on you, or at least 2 will).

If the target isn't dead by then, go up and refresh the melee songs again, then run back and ballad 1/2 yet again.


Never have times where you're just standing there. Always be debuffing/curing/singing, or meding mp, if you can keep the songs refreshed before next pull, you can have your members always have songs on and never wear out, not only helping the thf (or ninja) not worry about locked animation, but also improves your image as a good bard (pt's that see them never having songs for like 30 seconds can ruin a bard's reputation over time...)

If this still doesn't help you, suggest them doing a quick equiment change macro (like remove and re-equip a footgear or something), the blink out of equipment change canceles the animation lock (some good ninjas I know use this inside their utseumi macros in places where they recieve constant status cures like torma or tigers)

[n8236]

I'm a 61 brd and i feel extremely useless whenever i try to kill stuff solo. I knowI know we're pure support class, but still, our solo skills are P A T H E T I C.

Easy Prey = Death to all bards lol

I'd wish there would be some improvement in this class.

[Vilurum]

Solo skills? We kill stuff extremely slowly to the point where it's not worth the time to do so, but ...

If you can sleep it reliably, and it doesn't seriously slaughter you when it's awake ... well ... you can kill anything.

At 60 or high 50-something I solo'd an EM Robber Crab in Kuftal. At 73 I solo'd an EM Flamingo in Ru'Aun. We can kill anything, given enough time. (The crab took 1.5 hours, the flamingo took 2. In both cases, it was because most of the time was spent sleeping and rebuffing Blink, Stoneskin, and ballads.)

Is it at all reasonable for us to solo? No. Is it possible? Yes.

[Layoneil]

I'm a 61 brd and i feel extremely useless whenever i try to kill stuff solo. I knowI know we're pure support class, but still, our solo skills are P A T H E T I C.

Easy Prey = Death to all bards lol

I'd wish there would be some improvement in this class.

this reply is suppose to be offensive, so if you take offense to it, good.

you suck.

Easy Prey = Death to the mob if i have an hour or two.

there's very very few Easy Prey i can not kill if i want to. if you think an Easy Prey can kill you, you're lacking skills in the soloing department.

learn how to use Elegy, Lullaby, Stoneskin, Blink, Ballad, Paeon. skill up your Sword, Dagger or Staff to a respectable level.

it may take a long time, but if i can sleep it and it can't kill me in one round (Triple Attacks for 400 damage per hit) i can kill it. and i don't even have the uber solo gear yet either (Joyeuse, Genbu's Shield).

also a BRD is more capable of taking multiple mobs than most other jobs. if you get 2 or 3 Too Weak mobs that are almost Easy Prey, they can kill most melee jobs like DRK (if they don't run away). as a BRD i can kill those.

there was a 70+ WAR in Monastic Cavern with a Lv 60 something THF, and the WAR got killed by a bunch of Orcs, when i fought 3 of them at the same time. i killed 2 and got bored, since the THF was in the clear, i zoned than came back to Raise.

if they want to give BRD some more abilities to kill stuff faster, i would welcome it, but if you know what you're doing BRDs are not "P A T H E T I C"

---

for the main topic, yeah THFs have this problem, either you wait a little bit or they wait a little bit. in my experience, when the battles are going that fast the songs will last the whole time, so it's not that crucial for you to sing them at the start, you can sing them towards the end of the battle so that they will have it to start the next one.

[Sebazy]

I killed a 21 exp Easy Prey goblin at 66 solo inside 10 minutes the otherday and I'm a wussy little Taru

Bards are noway near on par with with the power house soloers, but unless its something horrible like a cactaur or scorpion, an easy prey shouldn't really be killing you either.

[kaply]

If the party was killing that fast, maybe the bard should pull then.

1 - bring mob back
2 - sing madrigal/minuet, thf should have been able to SATA before you finish with your first song.
3 - run to back line sing ballad 2/1.
4 - cast stoneskin and/or blink.
5 - run out to find the next mob. If mob has a lot of HPs ( >1/4)left go and bring the mob back to the PT. Sleep the mob when you get there. If the mob has few HPs ( <1/4) wait at a comfortable range for the mob to die then bring the mob back to the PT.

I actually did this for a set PT between levels 64-67. Could I have done more if I stay with the PT, maybe but heals were covered and mobs were dying fast so it worked out better that I was the puller.