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Bard question

CrisbeeCrisbee Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
edited December 2024 in General Discussion
Hey everyone,

I’ve been having mixed results with mana management in groups. Sometimes I’m fine, but other times I feel like my group constantly runs out. I can’t quite figure out what I’m missing. I suspect it might have something to do with the weapon skill tree and optimizing my use of resonance stacks.

To be honest, keeping track of resonance stacks feels like a chore at times. I love the class and its mechanics, but I often catch myself casting just for the sake of building stacks rather than playing strategically.

Do you have any tips for improving resonance stack management or advice on how to optimize the weapon skill tree for better mana sustainability? I’d love to hear how you approach this aspect of the class!

Comments

  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    At level 12 "Music Mastery: Crescendo" helps allot. Adds 50% power to the songs. Mana management with Hymn of the Mind keeps teams going. Remember to auto attack as well, that makes mana for the team when singing your mana song.
  • CrisbeeCrisbee Member, Braver of Worlds, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Thanks for the advice! I’m currently level 17 and already have Crescendo, with 3 stacks of Wonder always active. That said, I ran into trouble with a group at Seph yesterday—I just couldn’t keep their mana up, no matter what I tried.

    I saw someone in chat mention something about the weapon skill tree affecting finishers. Apparently, there’s a setup where your finisher activates twice, instead of consuming 4 stacks of resonance, it uses 8 at once? Does anyone know how that works?
  • SmileGurneySmileGurney Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    Use Pensive Melody, Crescendo, and one of the Themes which gives the blue Mystery mask which increases mana regen effects and prestack it 3 times, Hymn in the AoE mode. Take Song Mastery: Harmony and Anthem of Alacrity (25% buff just for yourself). Mind the positioning when casting the Hymn and make sure all people are in the range of the passive mana regen.

    The final piece: I would try out staying in melee and cleave multiple mobs with a fast weapon like 1h spellsword or scepter. In my experience thanks to cleave and attack speed you maintain better mana regen rates, than when staying at range even with something like short spellbow or wand.

    Learn to get into the rhythm of casting few abilities, and then spending the Resonance stacks with the finishers of your weapon. I noticed a lot of people underestimate the importance of finishers in their attack rotations.
    My lungs taste the air of Time,
    Blown past falling sands…
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    How fast can you level up a weapon skill if you switch to a new weapon? Will it catch up?
  • SmileGurneySmileGurney Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    nanfoodle wrote: »
    How fast can you level up a weapon skill if you switch to a new weapon? Will it catch up?
    Initially levels on high level mobs? Pretty quick. it's worth doing anyway, as currently if you have unequipped weapon types in your inventory, then you trigger their finishers, even when they are unequipped. As you can imagine bards love that bug.

    Also this makes you more flexible with random weapon drops and allows you to adjust to the game changes quicker, try out new playstyles.
    My lungs taste the air of Time,
    Blown past falling sands…
  • VhaeyneVhaeyne Member, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I have recently learned that lag may be causing us to miss "ticks" of Pensive.

    I have also heard in high lag areas you will not get every "tick" of your food during it's duration.
    TVMenSP.png
    This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
  • XeegXeeg Member, Alpha Two
    edited December 2024
    Crisbee wrote: »
    Hey everyone,

    I’ve been having mixed results with mana management in groups. Sometimes I’m fine, but other times I feel like my group constantly runs out. I can’t quite figure out what I’m missing. I suspect it might have something to do with the weapon skill tree and optimizing my use of resonance stacks.

    To be honest, keeping track of resonance stacks feels like a chore at times. I love the class and its mechanics, but I often catch myself casting just for the sake of building stacks rather than playing strategically.

    Do you have any tips for improving resonance stack management or advice on how to optimize the weapon skill tree for better mana sustainability? I’d love to hear how you approach this aspect of the class!

    It's not your fault.

    It's Rangers and Mages that don't use auto attacks and just spam their abilities. If you are running low on mana, take a look at who is consistently dropping first. They will be soaking ALL of your resonant weapon procs.

    Not sure, but i doubt that their DPS is that much lower with a few weapon combos mixed in, plus you might even be able to run the 10% dps melody with crescendo which may add more to the overall team dps than their sacrifice for a few weapon combos.

    Probably need to test this and get a feel. Also, it might just be better to let them dump their mana and rest, as long as everyone is aware that its not the bard fucking up. Test it out with your group and try different things.
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