Stacking Bard songs [HoF]

Manveru123

I don't think there's a discussion about this yet. As I believe that pretty much everything works on Core, I was hoping to look at this from the perspective of HoF.

Have anyone tried to stack a Skald and Vanilla bard in one group, to have both Skald song and Sith chant on his party? While two Bards might seem like an overkill, other party members should be plenty strong to make this combo work, as long as you stack some heavy damage dealers.

Having summons and 4 damage dealers constantly rocking buffs from two songs sounds good on paper, but have anyone tried it?

bob_veng

i haven't tried it personally but i think some of us have already agreed that it would be a pretty strong party build.

for example:
- bard, skald (support, adequate arcane)
- fighter/thief, fighter/cleric and a paladin kit (more frontliners = more benefit from bard songs)
- sixth character is not necessary, anything could work, maybe a fighter7/mage dual for 9th level spells in hof; or archer

molloy

I tried several bard-heavy groups and it is working pretty well. You can't stack same songs, but Skald + Sith and maybe Tymora on top of that is pretty powerful.

Lord_Tansheron

There is a degree of diminishing returns here, because Bards can't do anything else while singing. At some point, the bonuses from the Bard Songs are less of an overall gain than you would get from simply another attacker.

Where that break-off point is however depends on party setup. Personally I'd run a Skald at most, and no other Bard; I don't think it's worth it. But YMMV considering the gazillion possible setups out there.

bob_veng

yeah but you also have a lot of flexibility because if you tenser one bard or cast with him you'll still have another for song support

Lord_Tansheron

@bob_veng‌ True, but imo flexibility is overrated. IWD battles are incredibly simplistic. Just whack things until they die, and little more. I find that all the spells and abilities you use are simply those that increase damage, to plow through the huge HoF HP pools; and maybe tank buffs. No real need for more, as there is little going on other than 20 mobs beating on you.

Wowo

If you like the idea of stacked songs then just take a vanilla bard and give him the simulacrum scroll to let him and his clone sing different songs.

However, overall the most efficient choice is 1 skald plus 5 dual classed weapon masters chewing it up with 10 APR. Give your bard Project Image and Improved Haste to accomplish this with ease and consider the choices of speed weapons.

At some point this is too easy though while being quite tedious in terms of maintaining buffs on 5 characters and you realise that you can just play with 1 FMC as the tank and 1 FMT with Mislead dealing obscene damage, it's really hilarious.

Manveru123

I've been testing this double bard setup and it works remarkably well. The rest of the team is F/M/C, Berserker/Druid, Swashbuckler/Fighter and an Archer. These four plus summons mow down anything, while being very durable. I do find the need to micromanage less to be a blessing too..

Give it a try, folks. It's surprisingly cool.

Wowo said:

At some point this is too easy though while being quite tedious in terms of maintaining buffs on 5 characters and you realise that you can just play with 1 FMC as the tank and 1 FMT with Mislead dealing obscene damage, it's really hilarious.

Yeah but you can also have F/M/C and F/M/T be a part of a bigger group, and do more damage overall ;p