Warning: I be writin' novels, yo. TLDR check your bard, cuz we updated it.
Tried RGL with your Bard before and didn't like it? Try it again, we've done a metric crapton of work which is ~10% heavier than a standard ton!
Derple has also done a bunch of work under the hood of this baby sorry TA, we mean RGL, and it is smoother and snappier than ever! This applies to other classes as well!
Throughout this post, I will refer to RGMercs- Lua! as simply "RGL", coined because all of the commands in-game use /rgl.
Warning: My language is colorful, especially when I think it will make people giggle (I enjoy being thought of as witty). I make no apologies.
My Esteemed Dudes,
I have been tinkering for some time with a new bard class config and I think it is ready for testing. Given the nature of bard and the sheer scope of options that have been added, there is absolutely no way one guy can do that alone, I tried and got bored like... as soon as I knew the stuff I wanted for me worked.
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO SHINE!
No, really, it is... and if you are using your Bard with RGL now, I don't think you have much choice, because we are pushing this baby live, raw dog, no lube!
I think you will be pleased, but there are some things you should probably be aware of:
1) The first time you start RGL on your Bard after the update, you may want to take a couple of minutes and set some things up (but the defaults should work fine for most).
I left the basic options as basic as I could, but there are still some decisions to be made about song selection due to the incredible variance in how EQ dudes use Bards. The default settings should work well as a general group support role for mid-high (~90+) level bards.
2) You have been given enough rope to hang yourself.
Since there are so many variances of playstyle, the only way to really capture l'essence du Barde (that's French for "the essence of Bard", Google Translate tells me) is to have the same huge variance in options. I have tried to capture all of the common song choices and then some; you more or less Choose Your Own Adventure here. If you ever read any of those, you know that they sometimes end in failure or character death... and this is no different. The largest issue with the number of options is that if you get click happy and select songs with abandon, your gems will be full of ass and your uptime will be worse than whiskeydick without Viagra. Keep it reasonable!
Speaking of song selection:
3) GRAB HIS SONG AND TWIST IT! ... or, not really. RGL Bard does not "twist" songs.
The script uses a priority-based system to select the bard's next action. You simply select the songs you want to use, and whether you want them sung in-combat, out-of-combat, or always, and the script will weave them together with any other combat or downtime actions. Advanced users can take advantage of special rules to decide under what circumstances certain songs are used, such as how much mana to preserve when using insults, whether to only use regen songs when under a certain group mana value, or even adjusting the remaining song duration thresholds that the script will use to choose when to refresh a song (with separate values for in- and out-of- combat). The sky is the limit, and if you find that restrictive, make sure to leave some feedback below! I am not opposed to adding or expanding functionality.
4) The only Charm in RGL is what you may bring to it (the rest of us rely on money).
(Image blurred to protect Derple's identity)
I apologize to the people who wish it was otherwise. Realistically, a charm module would need to be whipped up (akin to how RGL uses a special module to control mezzing currently). If this sounds like something you would consider working on, I highly encourage you to speak with @Derple about it posthaste!
5) Speaking of Mezzing, the mez options under the main RGL tab still dictate how and when you will use those spells.
However, mezzes will not be gemmed unless the appropriate options (ST, AE, etc) are selected to make room for other goodies (or baddies, however you'd prefer).
6) Lastly, when changing multiple song options in rapid succession, you may need to go to your Spell Loadout and hit the button to manually reload it.
Changing any option that requires a different gem to be memorized will trigger a loadout update, and as with other things in life, attempting to convince the script to process multiple loadouts at once can lead to undesired behavior. Sometimes the script is good with it, sometimes not, do you really want to test it? Also, don't try this while fighting... similar issues.
Conceptualization of RGL trying to process too many loadout changes at once, circa 1930's, colorized.
7) Lastly again, for real this time, if you are having problems, or have feedback, I'd love to hear about it.
Please post below and I'll do my best to get it resolved. What I need from you: If you think those things will help explain the issue, logs or screenshots are great (no character names please!), but they aren't a necessity. I really just need:
Messages of a personal nature are, of course, totally welcome!
Brain fried from too many words? You are likely good here. Go forth and conquer!
Alternatively, those who want to know more can instead stay awhile, and listen.
Showcase/Dictionary of Options:
Mode: As of now, this just serves as a means to differentiate your gem priorities. I leave this in general. Options like "Tank"will prioritize songs used for a tank party if you have too many gems, etc. One day this may be a toggle to select preconfigured loadouts.
Buffs and Defenses
This entire panel should be self-explanatory. Please note that when you change auras, or you scribe a new aura, you may need to cancel the old buff in your aura window (Shift+A by default) to avoid being spammed with the new one. I would like to improve this in the future, but for now, it easy enough to work around.
DPS - Group
Again, most of these should be self-explanatory. Dicho currently has a custom option to be used only during Quick Time so as not to interfere with rotations. I could theoretically adjust this if there was impetus to do so (Please note that Quick Time will be used during burns, so this option is already mostly a "during burns" option).
DPS - Self
Now we get into something we can play with.
Insults: Use this tier's insult, this and last, or none at all. Due to the nature of insult timers and Lua tables, I was forced to choose between push and no-push options. Out of safety I have chosen the latter. I can provide instructions on how to edit this, it is easy enough. Major exception: Since ToL is the latest f2p expansion and the 115-120 nopush is a NoS song, that tier uses the push insult. Again, user-editable without too much issue.
Stop Dots: Should have no issues with this, adjust to your taste, just note that a Named has to be in named.Lua (an RGL file) or your SpawnMaster ini to be recognized as such.
Debuffs
To be honest, this is starting to be more of a showcase than an outline of advanced features; this is all self-explanatory.
Mana/Endurance Sustain
This bears a little discussion.
Self Min Mana: Your minimum mana to keep in reserve, below this you will not use insults or alliance. Handy to make sure you keep enough to fade, for example. This setting is ignored during burns.
Self Min End: Same as above, but for Boastful Bellow and Dicho.
Group Mana % : If you have crescendo gemmed, this is when we will start using it. Also, we will use reflexive strikes here as well. I've found in automation, holding that too long ends up wasting it. Finally, if you have your regen configured as such (in the regen song use option), this will be the percent we begin to use your selected regen song.
Regen/Healing
Another showcase image. Nothing to talk about..
Utility/Items/Misc
This is where you can break your bard.
Most of these are simple enough. I'll touch on a couple.
Runspeed Buff: Note that prior to learning Selo's AA, this requires a little micromanagement, as you have to (depending on level) choose between duration and the best speeed available. You may need to adjust it once or twice during the low levels.
Use Vet AA: Uses Intensity of the Resolute on burns, uses Armor of Experience in absolute ohshit emergencies.
Emergency HP %: This is when your emergency rotation will be added to the mix, which includes healing and defensive AA, to include:
Use Combat Escape: ... Fading Memories. This is set to be used, if checked, whenever you have aggro, from anything, as long as you have a hater on your XTarget and you aren't the Puller or MA. Keeping this checked will help stop song-aggro during pulls in its tracks and will hopefully prevent a lot of death when your tank snap aggro hasn't quite manifested yet. Note that combat will break the invis immediately, but if this interferes elsewhere it may require some tweaking.
Downtime/Combat Threshold: A song won't be resung/refreshed until its remaining duration is this amount or less. This is how you will tune your bard exactly to your rotation, if you so choose, in your quest for awesomeness. Note that tuning this too high will greatly limit the amount of songs you will keep up, which you can actually use to your advantage, if, for example, you only wanted Aria/March/Arcane sung during downtime and wanted their durations to be near max every time you entered combat. Obviously setting this number too low will result in dropped buffs. The defaults should be pretty close to ideal for typical bard songsets and scenarios.
ONE FINAL NOTE for those who have stuck through it this long:
My options when choosing when to transition between downtime and combat songsets were a) when we have haters on XTarget, or b) when we actually entered combat. The former, which is the default, will sometimes have a brief pause when a hater pops up on your XTarget, and suddenly all of your songs are over the threshhold (but you aren't engaged and doing other things). This can be mititaged somewhat by setting your bard to assist at 100 or 99 (whatever you are comfortable with and tests well for you)... this will get the bard engaged and using those insults ASAP.
Why did I choose the XTarget option? Because, conversely, I did not want to start singing a regen just as four mobs came into camp, because I am not engaged yet. I find the slight pause to be better than engaging two seconds later, and I possit that being able to mez immediately will likely improve survivability. Again, testing a higher engage setting will likely end with the best-case scenario.
I feel like I should say something in closing but I also feel like I've been writing for hours so I'ma shutup now.
Tried RGL with your Bard before and didn't like it? Try it again, we've done a metric crapton of work which is ~10% heavier than a standard ton!
Derple has also done a bunch of work under the hood of this baby sorry TA, we mean RGL, and it is smoother and snappier than ever! This applies to other classes as well!
Throughout this post, I will refer to RGMercs- Lua! as simply "RGL", coined because all of the commands in-game use /rgl.
Warning: My language is colorful, especially when I think it will make people giggle (I enjoy being thought of as witty). I make no apologies.
My Esteemed Dudes,
I have been tinkering for some time with a new bard class config and I think it is ready for testing. Given the nature of bard and the sheer scope of options that have been added, there is absolutely no way one guy can do that alone, I tried and got bored like... as soon as I knew the stuff I wanted for me worked.
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO SHINE!
No, really, it is... and if you are using your Bard with RGL now, I don't think you have much choice, because we are pushing this baby live, raw dog, no lube!
I think you will be pleased, but there are some things you should probably be aware of:
1) The first time you start RGL on your Bard after the update, you may want to take a couple of minutes and set some things up (but the defaults should work fine for most).
I left the basic options as basic as I could, but there are still some decisions to be made about song selection due to the incredible variance in how EQ dudes use Bards. The default settings should work well as a general group support role for mid-high (~90+) level bards.
2) You have been given enough rope to hang yourself.
Since there are so many variances of playstyle, the only way to really capture l'essence du Barde (that's French for "the essence of Bard", Google Translate tells me) is to have the same huge variance in options. I have tried to capture all of the common song choices and then some; you more or less Choose Your Own Adventure here. If you ever read any of those, you know that they sometimes end in failure or character death... and this is no different. The largest issue with the number of options is that if you get click happy and select songs with abandon, your gems will be full of ass and your uptime will be worse than whiskeydick without Viagra. Keep it reasonable!
Speaking of song selection:
3) GRAB HIS SONG AND TWIST IT! ... or, not really. RGL Bard does not "twist" songs.
The script uses a priority-based system to select the bard's next action. You simply select the songs you want to use, and whether you want them sung in-combat, out-of-combat, or always, and the script will weave them together with any other combat or downtime actions. Advanced users can take advantage of special rules to decide under what circumstances certain songs are used, such as how much mana to preserve when using insults, whether to only use regen songs when under a certain group mana value, or even adjusting the remaining song duration thresholds that the script will use to choose when to refresh a song (with separate values for in- and out-of- combat). The sky is the limit, and if you find that restrictive, make sure to leave some feedback below! I am not opposed to adding or expanding functionality.
4) The only Charm in RGL is what you may bring to it (the rest of us rely on money).
(Image blurred to protect Derple's identity)I apologize to the people who wish it was otherwise. Realistically, a charm module would need to be whipped up (akin to how RGL uses a special module to control mezzing currently). If this sounds like something you would consider working on, I highly encourage you to speak with @Derple about it posthaste!
5) Speaking of Mezzing, the mez options under the main RGL tab still dictate how and when you will use those spells.
However, mezzes will not be gemmed unless the appropriate options (ST, AE, etc) are selected to make room for other goodies (or baddies, however you'd prefer).
6) Lastly, when changing multiple song options in rapid succession, you may need to go to your Spell Loadout and hit the button to manually reload it.
Changing any option that requires a different gem to be memorized will trigger a loadout update, and as with other things in life, attempting to convince the script to process multiple loadouts at once can lead to undesired behavior. Sometimes the script is good with it, sometimes not, do you really want to test it? Also, don't try this while fighting... similar issues.
7) Lastly again, for real this time, if you are having problems, or have feedback, I'd love to hear about it.
Please post below and I'll do my best to get it resolved. What I need from you: If you think those things will help explain the issue, logs or screenshots are great (no character names please!), but they aren't a necessity. I really just need:
- A clear explanation of the behavior that is occuring.
- A clear explanation of what behaviour that is desired or that you think should be occuring.
- Avoidance of diagnosing the issue in the first two. I want to hear every thought you have, but mixing this into the above two commonly leads to confusion in my experience!
Messages of a personal nature are, of course, totally welcome!
Brain fried from too many words? You are likely good here. Go forth and conquer!
Alternatively, those who want to know more can instead stay awhile, and listen.
Showcase/Dictionary of Options:
Mode: As of now, this just serves as a means to differentiate your gem priorities. I leave this in general. Options like "Tank"will prioritize songs used for a tank party if you have too many gems, etc. One day this may be a toggle to select preconfigured loadouts.
Buffs and Defenses
This entire panel should be self-explanatory. Please note that when you change auras, or you scribe a new aura, you may need to cancel the old buff in your aura window (Shift+A by default) to avoid being spammed with the new one. I would like to improve this in the future, but for now, it easy enough to work around.
DPS - Group
Again, most of these should be self-explanatory. Dicho currently has a custom option to be used only during Quick Time so as not to interfere with rotations. I could theoretically adjust this if there was impetus to do so (Please note that Quick Time will be used during burns, so this option is already mostly a "during burns" option).
DPS - Self
Now we get into something we can play with.
Insults: Use this tier's insult, this and last, or none at all. Due to the nature of insult timers and Lua tables, I was forced to choose between push and no-push options. Out of safety I have chosen the latter. I can provide instructions on how to edit this, it is easy enough. Major exception: Since ToL is the latest f2p expansion and the 115-120 nopush is a NoS song, that tier uses the push insult. Again, user-editable without too much issue.
Stop Dots: Should have no issues with this, adjust to your taste, just note that a Named has to be in named.Lua (an RGL file) or your SpawnMaster ini to be recognized as such.
Debuffs
To be honest, this is starting to be more of a showcase than an outline of advanced features; this is all self-explanatory.
Mana/Endurance Sustain
This bears a little discussion.
Self Min Mana: Your minimum mana to keep in reserve, below this you will not use insults or alliance. Handy to make sure you keep enough to fade, for example. This setting is ignored during burns.
Self Min End: Same as above, but for Boastful Bellow and Dicho.
Group Mana % : If you have crescendo gemmed, this is when we will start using it. Also, we will use reflexive strikes here as well. I've found in automation, holding that too long ends up wasting it. Finally, if you have your regen configured as such (in the regen song use option), this will be the percent we begin to use your selected regen song.
Regen/Healing
Another showcase image. Nothing to talk about..
Utility/Items/Misc
This is where you can break your bard.
Most of these are simple enough. I'll touch on a couple.
Runspeed Buff: Note that prior to learning Selo's AA, this requires a little micromanagement, as you have to (depending on level) choose between duration and the best speeed available. You may need to adjust it once or twice during the low levels.
Use Vet AA: Uses Intensity of the Resolute on burns, uses Armor of Experience in absolute ohshit emergencies.
Emergency HP %: This is when your emergency rotation will be added to the mix, which includes healing and defensive AA, to include:
Use Combat Escape: ... Fading Memories. This is set to be used, if checked, whenever you have aggro, from anything, as long as you have a hater on your XTarget and you aren't the Puller or MA. Keeping this checked will help stop song-aggro during pulls in its tracks and will hopefully prevent a lot of death when your tank snap aggro hasn't quite manifested yet. Note that combat will break the invis immediately, but if this interferes elsewhere it may require some tweaking.
Downtime/Combat Threshold: A song won't be resung/refreshed until its remaining duration is this amount or less. This is how you will tune your bard exactly to your rotation, if you so choose, in your quest for awesomeness. Note that tuning this too high will greatly limit the amount of songs you will keep up, which you can actually use to your advantage, if, for example, you only wanted Aria/March/Arcane sung during downtime and wanted their durations to be near max every time you entered combat. Obviously setting this number too low will result in dropped buffs. The defaults should be pretty close to ideal for typical bard songsets and scenarios.
ONE FINAL NOTE for those who have stuck through it this long:
My options when choosing when to transition between downtime and combat songsets were a) when we have haters on XTarget, or b) when we actually entered combat. The former, which is the default, will sometimes have a brief pause when a hater pops up on your XTarget, and suddenly all of your songs are over the threshhold (but you aren't engaged and doing other things). This can be mititaged somewhat by setting your bard to assist at 100 or 99 (whatever you are comfortable with and tests well for you)... this will get the bard engaged and using those insults ASAP.
Why did I choose the XTarget option? Because, conversely, I did not want to start singing a regen just as four mobs came into camp, because I am not engaged yet. I find the slight pause to be better than engaging two seconds later, and I possit that being able to mez immediately will likely improve survivability. Again, testing a higher engage setting will likely end with the best-case scenario.
I feel like I should say something in closing but I also feel like I've been writing for hours so I'ma shutup now.
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