Hi! Since Morshoth has been a busy little bee with his real-world obligations, and I, on the other hand, have no semblence of a life to speak of, I figured I'd try to get the ball rolling on some (yes, you guessed it) discussions on LoralAria.

For the most part I'd like to touch on how the specialization measures up to the other bard skills, while taking suggestions for possible changes that can be made via Envoy reports. Though I'm not a well-seasoned combatant, I do understand the general gist of how our skills work, and what the pros/cons of each of them are. So if you're not completely familiar by just perusing the list, I can elaborate on things as we go along to keep the discussions afloat.

Note: Some of the finer details may be wrong, but I'm sure someone will show up and holler at me until I fix them.

LORALARIA

CrystalSong
- Allows the attaching/detaching of harmonic gems to an instrument, up to three at a time. 10p (to attach)

BlueBerceuse (1-3)
- Single sleep hit per song tic, chance of two with turquoise gem. If target is already asleep when hit, causes damage, 100% psychic.

JadeGrazioso (1-3)
- Heals bard and allies, more with jade gem (~400-500) per tic.

CrimsonCourante (1-3)
- Increases balance recovery for bard and allies, while decreasing equilibrium recovery, effects boosted with garnet gem.

LoralChord
- Damage, 50% cold and 50% asphyxiation.

AureolinAubade (1-3)
- Lusts target, afflicts daydreaming with beryl gem. Targeted.

ChromaConcerto (4-6)
- Gives bard and allies 10 Elemental DMP, 20 with opal gem.

MidnightMinuet (4-6)
- Causes 1s balance loss, 2s with onyx gem.

FleckedFortissimo (4-6)
- Knockdown and stun, stun time extended by bloodstone gem, targeted. 3p

VioletVibrato (4-6)
- Afflicts with one of the following on tic: clumsiness, deadening, dizziness, epilepsy, omniphobia or vapors. Chance of two with amethyst gem, masked.

Crescendo (4-6)
- Hallifaxian damage boost.

EmeraldGrazioso (7-9)
- Cures one affliction on song tic, chance(?) of two with emerald gem. Restrictions (reportedly) identical to allheale.

SkySforzando (7-9)
- Single hit of aeon and short stun, chance(?) of double-aeon hit with sapphire gem. Targeted, target must be lusted. 3p

RedRubato (7-9)
- Timewarps and damages enemies, damage based on level of timewarp. Damage boosted by ruby gem, 100% cold. Single hit of timewarp.

ClearCapriccio (7-9)
- Gives Alacrity to bard and allies, cures some number of afflictions with diamond gem, ends song. 10p

Convergence (7-9)
- Flings target to random room in the area, single hit of aeon and 4s stun. Ignores movement and summon resist, target must be asleep, ends song. 5p

Funebre (7-9)
- Deathsong. 3p

The obvious problems are the lower stanza targeted effects. It seems like the intended strategy of use is to repeatedly go through your song, finish it and start over from the beginning, which could potentially be useful (especially if you make good use of stanza swapping for the stun targeted song), but seems like it'd be a waste of time during which you should be be up-keeping octave and aurics. You cna just make use of only the passive song effects you have to help try and sleep lock people to set up for tarot which you are OBVIOUSLY intended to use. CrimsonCourante supports this, It's obviously for use by tarot bards, which is really lame, as it makes glamours an even crappier choice for you folks then it is for all the other bards. It's another case where certain tertiaries are marginalized /shrug.

Uh. It's not letting me edit my post so:

I've got a chart with what song effects I'd use under various conditions as well as what gems I'd have attached. Unless I'm missing something, it seemed pretty obvious. I like that it looks like they tried to do something else with bard mechanics (giving you a reason to end your song and sing it through again) but I don't think it's worth it to do, and envoy reports should focus on trying to make those effects passive/non-targeted so that they see use. I think a report like that is already up, in fact, so I don't think I'm alone in saying it!

Also, I'd slap you if you had up crimsoncourante while I was hearing and had me allied...

What is the chance on BlueBerceuse with the gem - in my experience with it, it double sleeps fairly often.

Of the five actives (not including deathsong), the only one I can see being used is SkySforzando. The others all suffer from being lower stanza, high power cost, bad tradeoffs and/or hard requirements.

BlueBerceuse is mostly useless given its nature as a sleep skill, which is compounded by the fact that it does not strip kafe and RedRubato will also wake the target with its damage. On top of this, Symphonium has no way of stripping metawake, so this skill can largely be negated at the cost of some mana drain anyway. Even though this skill can be made slightly more effective with the gem, there are better gems to use with other skills.

CrimsonCourante seems misplaced, being a balance boosting song at the cost of slower equilibrium. Obviously this is targetted at making tarot easier, but imo, the tradeoffs as far as bard strategies go is much too great for it to be beneficial to the user. This also leads to another issue, which is that while hunting, they pretty much have to use only two low stanza powers, because this has no use while hunting and the only other option is an active that also has no use while hunting.

AureolinAubade is already being envoyed.

Vadi:

What is the chance on BlueBerceuse with the gem - in my experience with it, it double sleeps fairly often.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. When I've gone through and tested it, as well as reviewing a few combat logs, I'd have to say it's around 50%.

BlueBerceuse is nice, in theory. I have to say timing a sleepcloud with a (hopefully doubled) song tic would be amusing, just to see all hearing enemies flop over at once. But yes, with no way to strip metawake, it seems preeetty useless. And yes, AureolinAubade is going to be the focus of our first report, so I'm not overly worried about how horrid it is just yet. The biggest problem that we seem to have (a sentiment echoed by most) is that we're pretty lacking in a forward focus. We've got a sleep requirement for Converge (which no one in their right mind would ever use, ever), with a sleep effect that will never keep you asleep. Our seemingly most effective song effect (SkySforzando) requires lust, tying in with AureolinAubade. We then have the timewarp option with RedRubato, but are left without an option to build it effectively. We mesh well with the other Hallifaxian guilds with a bit of work, but for 1v1, It's slightly overwhelming.

Add into that the generally-bad synergy with Glamours, aside from the slight benefit of compounding mental affs. Tarot really isn't awful with it, but most of my confusion comes from, "Okay, as a Researcher I had to set up X and Y, execute A before B, and fling Soulless". Now I just feel like I'm left with about fifty different options of prep-work, none of which is wholly effective.

And yes, Rika's hit the nail on the head with every point addressed!

EmeraldGrazioso is about 50% with a gem too. Convergence is 5p, not that it's much use tbh. Midnightminuet seems to be shorter, but maybe the 2s is boosted by gem? Someone will have to clarify that. VioletVibrato is ostensibly masked, but they're not really from a systems perspective - have a look at WHATISCUREDBY EAT KOMBU ingame (That's right, possible affs are a direct copy from the kombu-cure list. They are nice afflictions though).

eritheyl:

Add into that the generally-bad synergy with Glamours, aside from the slight benefit of compounding mental affs. Tarot really isn't awful with it, but most of my confusion comes from, "Okay, as a Researcher I had to set up X and Y, execute A before B, and fling Soulless". Now I just feel like I'm left with about fifty different options of prep-work, none of which is wholly effective.

Well, let me tell you a secret. Most bard specs/terts don't actually synergise that well with your "kill" condition (support report 757!), so don't feel like you're the odd one out.

Raeri:
Convergence is 5p

Woops, fixed.

Midnightminuet seems to be shorter, but maybe the 2s is boosted by gem? Someone will have to clarify that.

Also fixed, verified myself.

VioletVibrato is ostensibly masked, but they're not really from a systems perspective - have a look at WHATISCUREDBY EAT KOMBU ingame (That's right, possible affs are a direct copy from the kombu-cure list. They are nice afflictions though).

For some reason, that statement took a while to sink in. Like...since I got the skill until now, that long of a while. I just realized how sort of lackluster it is, masked or non. But yes, the afflictions are nice if they stick.

rika:


Well, let me tell you a secret. Most bard specs/terts don't actually synergise that well with your "kill" condition (support report 757!), so don't feel like you're the odd one out.

Technically, could build soulless rubs and fling just after VioletVibrato and hope it gave vapors, but that's a bit meh :S

Clearly, I need to follow the suggestion that was voiced earlier:

Whine long enough that bards get our own special tertiary, a la Shamanism.

Raeri:

Technically, could build soulless rubs and fling just after VioletVibrato and hope it gave vapors, but that's a bit meh :S

Employing CrimsonCourante, that strategy actually has some nice potential for constant repetition. No power, just speed rub and wait until the fling gets lucky. Not the cleanest tactic, but I'm sure you could catch someone at least once with it :P

Edit: But, does blackout hit immediately when afflicted with vapours before becoming periodic, or is there a small time before the landing of the affliction and the actual blackout? I'm assuming the former.

Instant, lasting for about 1-1.5 seconds.

Razenth:

Instant, lasting for about 1-1.5 seconds.

And reoccurring on a timer, if the affliction isn't cured?

Yeah, long timer though, and I think it prones too. Haven't had vapors in a while.

Alright, excellent! Time to turn this back to the original point, instead of letting it devolve into the 'Eri is a nub' thread.

eritheyl:
Alright, excellent! Time to turn this back to the original point, instead of letting it devolve into the 'Eri is a nub' thread.

But, but, but, but…

eritheyl:


Employing CrimsonCourante, that strategy actually has some nice potential for constant repetition. No power, just speed rub and wait until the fling gets lucky. Not the cleanest tactic, but I'm sure you could catch someone at least once with it :P

Edit: But, does blackout hit immediately when afflicted with vapours before becoming periodic, or is there a small time before the landing of the affliction and the actual blackout? I'm assuming the former.

Except... soulless rubs consume equi, not balance.

Wait so... What is crimsoncourante for? I guess you could swap it in right before you throw anything, then swap it back out. That's the only way it seems useful. You never have to eat the eq balance malus because you can just swap it right out before doing any sort of eq action, but still...

Songs only take effect after you refrain it, so no, you can't just "swap it" in and out as you want to use tarot.