Jobius

[Allison]

Do you think you could give me some good bard tactics for groups? I'm learning a few things here and there as I experiment. And I've been reading some bard boards, but they are all waaay experienced and I don't know what the heck they are talking about half the time. First, if you have time, a couple of questions:

What exactly does the chant of healing line do? All the other heals say "heals," but this one says +x HPs every 6 sec. Is that different than a heal? And do you ever use this line?

I've seen people talk about the /face command. I haven't used it, but I assume it keeps you facing your target. If so, when your target moves and you move to face it, will this interrupt a spell? A related question: Are there spells that require your target to be in view?

The confusion line: Do you ever use this? I've heard people say that it's good for keeping groups running back and forth. But I've never tried it. The spell list says that it makes targets attack at random. What does that mean, practically speaking.

Any other tips/tricks you can give me would be very much appreciated. FWI: I plan on speccing high in Music and Nurture, Med in Regrowth.

Thanks :)

[Babylon]

here's what I know, Job is the ultimate authority, of course, having the practical experiance.

I just have "witness" experiance, hehe

Okie, the differance between the Heals and Healing chant... When you Heal, you target someone, cast a spell, and BLEEP! they get like, what? 100 HP? and it uses some of your power. With the chant, it's a lesser amount, but it goes to the whole party (like your speed buff, or endurance buff, or power buff...) and it doesn't take power, I believe.

/face - very useful, used by archers a lot, and others, hunting archers.... hehe. No, it does not interrupt casting to rotate, but it does interrupt to strafe (slide side to side, hehe, altho I think you should know that term from UT) and to move forward or back. An interesting point about /face, if you strafe, you don't lose the /face. Move forward or back, or rotate, and you lose it.

Related question - I think EVERY spell requires your target to be in view, doesn't it? :)

Confusion Line - This is the one I have the least experiance with, since I think Jobius used it once, in a dungeon, and never again, hehe. I wonder what it would do in RvR, hehe, hadn't thought of that.... that could be cool if it's like the Fear spells in EQ. :) From his description, the mob went randomly attacking ANYTHING, including it's buddies, but made it hell on the tanks trying to /stick to it and fight, so he never used it again. :)

[Boom]

I don't have to be facing the target to cast my heals or buffs, they just have to be in range. I do have to be facing the target to cast my poison or root.

[Be-gone[FT]]

Being a lvl 23 bard also maybe I can answer some of these questions.

First, the chant of healing is a song you play (with the Lute) and does not cost power and regens x number of HP every x number of secs. The first lvl of this song does 5 HP every 6 sec. The final lvl of this spell is 9 HP every 6 secs. (or so says http://camelot.allakhazam.com) Only time I use this song is when everyone in the group has been hurt or everyone has been rezed. But it's much more helpful to just run the Power regen song and heal everyone with the heal spells. Since that will also regen power for everyone else too. This song is not good to use when in battle. The endurance regen is much more useful.

Second, confusion line. This is a spell that you cast that causes the monster to attack players in the group randomly. So when you fight by your self the only thing this spell is good for is pulling. Now when this spell gets to the higher lvls the monster has a % chance of attacking another monster. Right now this spell has no effect at all in RvR. They are looking into adding something though. I don't use this spell much because it can be a bad thing sometimes. Since it will make the monster attack everything there is a chance that it will run for a healer and interrupt them during their cast. Now you might not need to heal as much though since the damage will end up being distributed more evenly. They other thing too is if people in your group don't know how to use /stick then the fighters won't be able to hit it since it will run all over the place.

Third, yes there are spells that require your target to be in view. All the spells that get casted on monster require it (the direct damage shout, mez, confuse). The heal spells and buffs do not need the target to be in view. You will see it say that your spell failed because the target was not in view on spells that do require it. So after a few times you should get the idea of which spells do and don't need to have the target be in view. One other thing, you can do your shouts while casting other spells. Do don't be afraid to click on a group member click heal button then click on the monster and click the shout button.

I think Babs covered the /face command well enough so I won't comment on that.