Thread: Minstrel's Harmony Stance

Do not get me wrong, I think Harmony is a BRILLIANT idea, but the few circumstances it would be useful means it isn't used very often, people tend to either solo (in WS), or heal in 6man+ whatevers, meaning Harmony doesn't get much play time.
I would like to see Harmony made better, some of the traits that are in the Protector of Song trait line are pointless: Absolute Pitch etc, some better traits to increase healing or DPS would perhaps be a better option? Let me know what you minstrels think.

Well I use Harmony for 3 and 6 mans; for the little extra DPS, yes even on T2, never have a problem healing. Raids are a different story

I haven't tried to heal a raid in harmony, but generally run it for 3- and 6-mans. It's really the easiest and most efficient stance. But everyone has their own way of doing things.

Harmony is great in 3 and 6 mans. It would be great in raids also except that it has a targeting component involved and it causes issues with cc and tiering up as a result. Nothing like throwing an emergency heal on the LM and then hitting Major Ballad and waking up the thing he just cc'd. Similarly, suddenly finding you have no target for Major Ballad because you're targeting another healer for an emergency heal. And then there are those times when you just can't face the carnage and want to heal while looking into a corner...

Harmony is a great stance for players who like to duo. There are a lot of people who enjoy playing this game with their significant other (like me!), I always run in harmony when playing my minnie with my hubby's champion.

Well, my Minstrel occasionally duos with one of whh's characters. I'll try it out and see if I find it useful.

(Right now all I can do is solo at the Horsefields, because whh is busy soloing HIS characters at the horsefields, those that aren't in Thangulhad. But that will pass eventually.)

Originally Posted by redgold9

Harmony is a great stance for players who like to duo. There are a lot of people who enjoy playing this game with their significant other (like me!), I always run in harmony when playing my minnie with my hubby's champion.

I do the same when playing with my hunter husband. It's perfect for that situation. I can DPS or heal, whichever is needed.

Originally Posted by redgold9

Harmony is a great stance for players who like to duo. There are a lot of people who enjoy playing this game with their significant other (like me!), I always run in harmony when playing my minnie with my hubby's champion.

This is what I was thinking. Harmony was great for my duo.

Also, I'm probably crazy for this, but I accidentally stayed in Harmony for soloing some one day and I actually enjoyed that, too. Sure, there were no big-boom damage spikes, but the fighting was solid and I usually ended up with full morale and near full power.

I use Harmony in 3-mans, mostly, but I have also healed 6-mans and raids (including some T2 Orthanc) in it. The thing to remember about the stance and the traitline built around it is that it is for melee healing. Use Anthem of Prowess and Coda of Resonance, then go to town with traited Herald's Hammer for a significant amount of healing.

For raiding, I have used Harmony on both T2 Lightening and Acid with success (although I was only traited 3-deep in yellow).

When traited yellow, Harmony a power/buff beast. In three and six man fellowships, I can also be the main healer. Having a ~35 second anthem buff with a ~20 second cooldown means stacking buffs. (I.E. +phys/tact/range damage for 35 seconds, and when the 20 second CD pops, add the +icmr) and swap it up, you become a true perma-buff. Not to mention when going the yellow line there is a - power cost for all these buffs throughout the ENTIRE battle (yes this could be better, but people love the buffs I keep up, and it makes it way easier) As a champ as my main, I love seeing a yellow/blue mini, that means I will be forcing him/her to pull less threat on themselves (the +icmr) and they will make my blows that much more damaging, not to mention all the parry evade, and the armor and every other buff they can give me. Spoken as a Champ/Mini Hoped my opinion helped the stance and the yellow line in general.

PS I know you can run the yellow line out of harmony, but the stance is based on the line.

Originally Posted by jester31539

When traited yellow, Harmony a power/buff beast. In three and six man fellowships, I can also be the main healer. Having a ~35 second anthem buff with a ~20 second cooldown means stacking buffs. (I.E. +phys/tact/range damage for 35 seconds, and when the 20 second CD pops, add the +icmr) and swap it up, you become a true perma-buff. Not to mention when going the yellow line there is a - power cost for all these buffs throughout the ENTIRE battle (yes this could be better, but people love the buffs I keep up, and it makes it way easier) As a champ as my main, I love seeing a yellow/blue mini, that means I will be forcing him/her to pull less threat on themselves (the +icmr) and they will make my blows that much more damaging, not to mention all the parry evade, and the armor and every other buff they can give me. Spoken as a Champ/Mini Hoped my opinion helped the stance and the yellow line in general.

PS I know you can run the yellow line out of harmony, but the stance is based on the line.

Actually if you're traited deep yellow, the cd on anthems is only 5s. It's easy to keep up every anthem but Compassion, and you don't need that anyway.

Bowman99 nailed it. The biggest flaw with Harmony is that it's biggest asset (AOE Coda Heal) does damage and thus can break CC. I really like Harmony but it's too risky to use on any content where CC is important. So it's out for every T2 Orthanc trash clear. For my raid group it's out for Acid, Shadow and Saruman. It's great for Lightning and Frost/Flame.

My recommendation to Orion would be to remove the damage component to the Harmony Coda. Harmony would be the AOE stance and Melody the single-target stance.

I have this issue too with Harmony, so instead I tend to stay in Warspeech for up to 6-person easy content/starting fights and dropping out when heals are finally needed.

If I could hit the ballad and actually have something happen instead of an error message, it might be feasible.

I couldn't imagine duoing in Harmony, I regularly run with a trio and am always in Warspeech unless we are tackling a fellowship quest several levels above us (and then Harmony doesn't cut it, it's full ICMR food, scrolls and as many heals as I can keep up).



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

the only problem I find in harmony is that my Coda is resisted far too often, especially compared to WS. Saying that however, I enjoy running 6-mans in harmony for when the coda hits.... some of my biggest heals have come from a Coda of Reasonance!

I like to run in harmony for 3- and 6-man-content, too, and have occasionally even used it in raids. As long as there is no heavy spike damage, a harmony coda every 6-7 seconds will keep my fellowship's morale up better than any of my other healing skills and keeps all of my group anthems on everybody (except me ) all the time, too.

Just a question for those who frequently use it, what's the reason to go Harmony in a group and not just stick with Melody? Just the AoE coda? or the damage on the Ballad?

Because I like my anthems, run 4y/3b all the time... but just can't see much use for the stance... Melody-AoTA seems just too much to lose and the CoS-HoT with some Melody-Major ballads is often more than enough AoE ability.

I also use it for the Noble Cause cooldown. Healing with extra DPS is nice. It's not a stance for everything, though, and probably shouldn't be used when first learning content, either.

So I tried it last night, had a healing captain covering things in a 6-person Fornost Water, which I had solo healed with essentially the same group the week before, between Warspeech/Melody.

The trade-offs were too great for me. It was a pain to ballad up, as some targets dropped too fast or otherwise couldn't be attacked. Meanwhile the DPS was too limited. I suppose the purpose is simply to avoid switching stances, but we aren't burgs, we are designed to switch stances.

I stuck with it all the way through, but felt impeded at every turn rather than enabled. I guess one thing that would make it better for me would be change Major Ballad to work like in Melody, so don't need a damageable target and can get an Anthem up before the fight is over.



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

This is all really good stuff, but what I shouldve made clearer, is that I sorta meant the traits could be better. Some of them are great, but at the same time, are near useless, I feel that harmony hasn't reached its full potential, possibly because turbine didn't care that much? It seems pretty half done to me......

Originally Posted by bastiat1

Bowman99 nailed it. The biggest flaw with Harmony is that it's biggest asset (AOE Coda Heal) does damage and thus can break CC. I really like Harmony but it's too risky to use on any content where CC is important. So it's out for every T2 Orthanc trash clear. For my raid group it's out for Acid, Shadow and Saruman. It's great for Lightning and Frost/Flame.

My recommendation to Orion would be to remove the damage component to the Harmony Coda. Harmony would be the AOE stance and Melody the single-target stance.

Don't use the coda at the beginning of the trash pulls. If most the mobs are CC'd and you don't need to aoe heal, only the tank takes damage for the most part. Stick with raise the spirit and bolster until it's safe to aoe. I have no problem using Harmony stance on every trash pull in Orthanc.

Removing the damage component makes the skill and the stance much less appealing imo.

Harmony is great for facerolls (skraids/Draigoch). Any time there is a CC element, it's BAD, m'kay?

That said, having a skill that does 2-4k AOE damage and 2-4k AOE heals (the bias in either direction depending on traits of course) feels epic.

Originally Posted by Aedfrith

Harmony is great for facerolls (skraids/Draigoch). Any time there is a CC element, it's BAD, m'kay?

That said, having a skill that does 2-4k AOE damage and 2-4k AOE heals (the bias in either direction depending on traits of course) feels epic.

This sums it up perfectly. Plus, alternating ballads - anthem - coda is much more fun than just standing around alternating bolster courage and inspire fellows and twiddling your thumbs inbetween since there is hardly any serious damage coming into the group. And you can still drop down to melody if serious damage suddenly does turn up .