EZ Server

I have leveled my Bard to 70, and he is part of my group.

However, I am stunned at the lack of information about this class!  So, here is my attempt at collecting information, and putting it in one place.

Epics
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1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0 - Song that Increases critical chance by 30% (or increase crit dmg??)
3.5
4.0 - Click gives 50k mana + 50k endurance per tick
4.5
5.0
5.5

Songs:
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There are basically 3 songs series worth singing.

Ancient Call of Power  - There is a huge discussion on hasting and overhasting, just let it fall down to, if you have a bard, let them sing something!  Using  Ancient Call of Power adds this Overhaste + I believe this song increases your chance to proc by 30%

Selos (not the highest level one with levitate, it seems broken) Some say not to worry about it, but I like all my guys able to run the same speed.

Storm Blade adds a proc to your whole group.
or
Tempest Blade I II or III - adds a proc to your whole group
   I   Drops in  QVIC 500proc
   II  Drops in T2 1750 Proc
   III Drops in T5 for 3250 Proc



Augs:
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LDoN Charms:
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Guardian - (not sure what this does?)
Sorcerer - Since most add a Bard to increase DPS, this is the best choice.  This aug will actually increase ALL your teams proc damage. (is this true?)


Ring of Ages:
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Many have commented on how the use the bard to powerlevel.  The basic premise is, to get duel wielding 3.0 (due to high instrument rating), then group up with your noob.  

Run noob around getting aggro with Bard on follow.  Play the War March, Psalm of Warmth. ___ of Wee and Selo's song.

Once the DS songs hit a refresh tick, disband the bard and let all the mobs hit the noob. (do not do this in custom zones, as pulling more than 10 is a no-no) (Shaman buffs and Druid Regen help this process quite a bit)

MQ2 Tips and Tricks
For those running MQ2 here are some tips and tricks:
Most versions of MQ2 have the plugin for twisting (MQ's answer to /melody).  In order to use it, you must type

/plugin mq2twist

This will enable you to twist your songs and spells together nicely.  The command is easy enough, load up the songs you want and then do

/twist 1 3 4 5 

With 1, 3, 4 and 5 being the spell gems you want to cast.  Now since most will not be running their bard as their main guy, you will want a couple buttons setup on your MAIN GUY.  The first, is have everyone on your team load up the spells they will use, then save them all as the same SPELL SET name.  My system uses myspells.  This makes it easy after a wipe or whatever, you can tell all your chars to mem their spells (songs)

/bcaa //loadspellset myspells

The next button will be to tell the bard to start singing your selected songs

/bca BardName //twist 1 3 4

You need to be careful as your bard will always be casting these spells, so if you are trying to get your team to gate out then you will need to first send your bard a

/twist off

Once you hit Epic 3.0, you will want to include this in your twist.  In order to do this, you will need to find your MQ2Twist.INI file (found in your MQ2 directory) Find the section for say [click_10]

Replace it with this section below.
[Click_10]
CastTime=4
ReCastTime=600
Name=DISABLED
Slot=13

Now 10 will actually fire off your main hand right click cast.  So a command like:

/twist 10 3 5 will ensure your epic is always on.

More to come later, but these simple guides will help you get started.

Save for more info later

The 3.0 click increases the crit chance of spells and procs. It works on strike augs, and thus is a tremendous boost to the dps of a group.

Songs I'm running in T5:

Tempest Blade
Stampede (like 4k AC, rofl)
Niv's (more AC)
War March of Muram (hella ATK)
Ancient: Call of Power (overhaste)
Refreshing 3.0 once a minute

I haven't tested if the debuff song works with augs, but it's less annoying  to just leave a twist going of all buffs.

So you need a 3.0 in your main hand even though it means dumping my 4.0?
You can't click it from inventory?

I have not tried clicking from inventory, but probably you can use mq2exchange.

I will test one day, and post up how to go about it.

You can cast from inventory.  I put it in my attack key, but you have to remember to turn off /melody first.

I'm not sure if exchange is allowed here or not. Some sort of official word on it would be nice. It just moves stuff around in your inventory so I don't really think it's problematic, but it's really the bossman's call.

I just started using a bard for the first time and I gotta say it's making a massive difference to my group... just one question though - I want to use selo's (the 2nd highest level version) in my lineup but for some reason he only casts it once. I have it set to /twist 10 1 2 3 4 selo's being the 2nd spell on that list. Does it matter what order they are in? I dunno, any ideas would be appreciated.

Since it lasts X amount of time(longer than the other songs) he should recast it as its about to fade. So if it lasts 2 minutes he will recast it right before that 2 minutes is up. So he would go 1 2 3 4, 1 3 4, 1 3 4, 1 2 3 4 I may be wrong though.

Selos is useless on this server. It makes no difference in run speed.

The speed helps if not have T2 boots yet and lev part of it is nice in pod  :P

Selos brings you to 255 speed whereas T2 boots are only 200. The donor item is basically the same as instant selos.

Tried it with a lvl 70 bard with no buffs and no aa. Tried it with the 1.0 epic and whatever instrument it uses, there was absolutely no difference aside from the levitation.

I have also tried it with all other epics up to 5.0.

Are you using Selo's Song of Travel or Selo's Accelerating Chorus?

Use the latter, and do the following with/without it

/echo ${Me.Speed}

while running in a straight line.

I tried all of them. I move no faster with the songs than without them.

Natural run speed, (with aa's but no buffs) is 171.43. I tried all 4 selo's. Selo's SoT, Selo's Acc Chor, and Selo's Acc all changed my run speed from 171.43 to 165. Selo's RoS did not effect my run speed at all, left it at 171.43. The T2 boots put my run speed at 200. From there none of the songs effected it at all. I can fraps it if you want me to. I have tested this at various times on this server for the 4 or 5 years I have been playing here and it has never worked. I have also tested this on tit, sof, sod, and uf and got the same results. I have also tested this without mq2 loaded up.

Selos works for me. It's the only way my group can keep up with me while using the max run speed clicky.

Did you use the /echo ${Me.Speed} command to find out how fast you are moving? I have never seen it work on EZ.

Works for me. Did not use to but between when I played my bard and this week something changed in source. /shrug

Same here Selos has worked for a good amount of time.

Yeah, I am hearing others in game saying the same thing. Not sure what the deal is. Tried on 2 different toons that are 2 different races. Odd.

Selo's has stacking issues. If you have the buff bot pack buff (I think it's the BST group buff?), Selo's won't land.

Remember, it does a short-duration speed buff (2 minutes). It's not just the song pulse.

I tried it with and without buffs. It works on other servers but not here. Hell, I have even had to restart my eq client from scratch after losing a hard drive a while back and still no different.

And you're using the second-highest level song, right? The one without lev?

There's an obvious speed boost when I use it.

I used all 4 one at a time. Tried it in every various combination I could think of, (with and without epics, just one epic, etc.).

ss of nothing on bard runspeed and then another of fastest runspeed click and selo's both show the same speed boost and didn't seem to start working for me along time back til i got bard aa selo's enduring cadence no clue why

i remember there being a time when i first started that selo didnt work when i first made my bard but it most certaintly works now. After running around hoh all weekend with fastest travel i outrun my selo'd toons (although only by a very little bit) and anyone whos out of group who has to settle with guide journey is pretty much left in the dust every time. Stupid question but are you using underfoot? Im assuming you are, i remember it worked right around the time i made the switch from SOD, so maybe its based on what client your running?

using that neat little command Xiggie posted i get the following, seems selos and fastest speed are pretty equal

no buffs - [MQ2]200.00
selos - [MQ2] 256.00
fastest run speed - [MQ2] 255.00

Honestly I have no room for selos. Other songs are far more important.....especially Bashful Crusty Asians,  Tempest Blade 3 and stampede of the wee wees. I cant see why would chose a slight run speed buff over the bard's regen song or stampede, tbh.

you dont have to trade it off for anything really, selos lasts for 2 minutes. if you use MQTwist and include selos in your twist then it will only refresh it when its about to expire and twist the other songs in the meantime

the main reason to use selo's before the fastest travel click is when using a war to pull train's in zone's like t5 and t6 u can pop cleric tower of vie 3 grab mob's and get back in time to start healing before you die on war bout the best example that i can provide

Played around with Selo's last night in HoH while chasing Shadow around. My Bard still doesn't have his T2 boots and with the song off, he was lagging significantly behind the rest of the group. With Selo's on, the entire group moved more quickly and nobody got left behind.

I can verify it with echo when I play this evening, but it's pretty clear to me that Selo's a) works and b) is faster than anything but the reward clicky.