Thread: Quick question about gameplay

When you play, do you spam one ballad, or alternate between two?

I'm curious, because it seems like Minor Ballad should be the best for damage-per-power, what with it boosting damage by 9%, but alternating between two damage ballads should do damage faster, but less power efficiently.

I don't know. All I know is, I seem to hold my Power from battle to battle better when I'm only using Minor Ballad, but I'm not sure if I should be doing that.

Minor-perfect-minor usually. Gets up buffs nice and fast.

Other perfectly viable option is alternating between minor-ghost swords-minor-call of whatever-minor-peircing cry.

You will probably have to work in minor ballads with your other bigger bang skills or, due to cd's, you will run out of stuff to spam.

I've also heard people like to minor-perfect-minor-coda over and over, but that seems pretty boring to me and probably only good against single targets.

Thanks.

I'm assuming that for healing, it's usually Major-Perfect-Major, to get Anthems off, use the Coda for that one anthem that grants power restore, and then spam Major and Codas to heal, while Antheming every time it's necessary.

When soloing, I've found that using skills like Echoes and Piercing Cry in between minor ballads works best.

For healing definitely major-perfect-major is the best because you really want to be tiered up to throw your anthems (particularly 3rd Age). The only exception to this is when you need to throw a heal in the middle of that process...then you can just hit major x3 since it will be off cooldown.

For pve dps, my ideal rotation is Echoes of Battle-Minor-Call of Orome-Minor-Piercing Cry-Minor-AoW-Call to Fate-Coda. That will finish most landscape mobs if you crit on any of those skills, particularly the last 2.

For pvp dps, I believe that getting crits on coda and call to fate is critical to victory in a close fight. Otherwise minstrel dps is sort of sad (call to fate's critical multiplier must be something like 3-4x, which is very nice). Therefore, I tend not to concern myself so much with getting ballad buffs up because the boost they provide is minimal. Instead I only tier up when the critical crys and calls are on cooldown, and then I do it quickly minor-major-minor to get the coda up.

Originally Posted by LoyKashka

When soloing, I've found that using skills like Echoes and Piercing Cry in between minor ballads works best.

agreed, when traited dps doin minor ballads gives you the best result, you will get about +21% tact damage instead of just 7 or 14. What i generally do is minor ballad-echoes of battle-minor-call of orome-minor ballad then keep using off CD stuff. When everything is on CD i use coda then start over

Originally Posted by Zachski

Thanks.

I'm assuming that for healing, it's usually Major-Perfect-Major, to get Anthems off, use the Coda for that one anthem that grants power restore, and then spam Major and Codas to heal, while Antheming every time it's necessary.

While healing I only use the coda for 2 reasons (remember codas wipe your ballad buffs on yourself)
1. Need power, so after hitting Anthem of composure, or
2. Need fast burst heals, so after hitting Anthem of the third Age, coda, bolster courage (which is inductionless after hitting the coda with AotTA active), chord of salvation, soliliquy of spirit (for the animation break)

Other than that I just use BC, RtS and CoS while maintaining AotTA and one other anthem (take your pick).

when solo/dps i use minor-echoes-minor-valar-minor

when healing, 3 options:
1. major-perfect-major if there's no particular rush
2. perfect-major-perfect if i need to be able to get into anthems quicker, since major ballad has a long animation delay (then usually will cycle a 2nd major in after initial anthem/heals are done)
3. cry of the chorus-anthem of compassion-song of aid before trash pulls in raids (have to time it close enough to the pull that your ballad buffs from cotc don't expire though). if there aren't a lot of mobs that might beeline for you, you can use a different anthem instead, but you'll still get into a buffing anthem quicker this way even if you use compassion first

When dpsing a single target I'll usually start with minor ballad and then nuke the mob to death. Usually doesn't take long. When dpsing a group, I'll start with minor/perfect/minor, anthem, Orome, minor and then the rest of my nuke type skills with a minor ballad use between the nukes. I find this usually works the best since I keep the ballad buffs up with in the long run means quite a bit more damage from the nuke type skills and it keeps a decent rotation going with little or no trouble with cooldowns on the nuke type skills. I personally don't use the coda much in warspeech except maybe as a finisher.

The only time I'll use a coda much is when in harmony. In harmony the coda is an AoE damage skill for up to 6 targets and an AoE heal for up to 6 targets so it make sense to spam it in that case. I also generally don't use Timeless Echoes of Battles except against a tough mob, usually an elite or stronger. I can usually blow through regular mobs so fast that it doesn't make any difference.

I use a very similar approach to healing that I do with dpsing except I start with major/perfect/major and an anthem. After that I'll work in the heals I need and majors ballads in between to get the 3 buffs from that ballad up. I will continue to use the major ballad if I'm close enough for it to reach multiple people who need the heal but otherwise leave it alone once the buffs are up and concentrate on induction heals and keeping anthems up as much as I can.

I've found overall that my two highest dps skills are the minor ballad and Call of Orome. The minor ballad hits rather hard when it crits and it's easily spammable for a rather low power cost and Orome since it's an AoE. Even when I've tried to do a coda spam rotation I found it did not do more damage in the long run than the minor ballad did.