- Normal melody: /melody
1 2 3 4
1 5 2 3
1 4 5 2
1 3 4 5
7 1 2
10- A Tune Stuck In Your Head melody: /melody
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2
7 3 4 5
1 10- Burn melody (2 nukes - also need A Tune...):
/melody 8 9
1 8 9 2 8 9
1 8 9 3
- Slow burn melody (only 1 nuke, maximizes ADPS):
/melody 8
1 2 8 3 4 8
1 5 8 2 3 8
1 4 8 5 2 8
1 10Why you should have a fancy/long melody key:Most bard songs last 18 seconds with the Extended Ingenuity AA. A few (
reference), do not - mainly Aria, Accelerando, and Harmony of Tone. Aria is our most important and highest ADPS song. Since our other songs have a longer duration, it is worth the effort of a complicated melody key to keep Aria up while maximizing the number of songs we can play. It is a huge mistake to make a simple /melody 1 2 3 4 5 key and let Aria drop every 12 seconds (this lowers you to 80% uptime - think of it as a 20% loss in ADPS). Similarly, it's silly to just do /melody 1 2 3 4 when you can add another song. The small amount of work it takes to make a long melody key is well worth the result (getting to play an extra song). It requires 0 effort beyond making the hotkey once.
Long reuse songs (Crescendo, Dichotomic) have a big benefit and should be included in your melody. Crescendo adds ~500 mana and 50 endurance regen, while Dichotomic adds ~200 mana and 30 endurance regen.
When to use different melodies:Normal melody = when A Tune.. isn't up, or when you're saving it for something.
Burn melody = Short-ish boss fight
For the burn melodies, I only use the 2 nuke burn (this is the high DPS one) on fairly short events that I'm certain we'll win. The drawback of using two nukes in a melody is you can only really play 2.5 ADPS songs for your group. The 1 nuke burn melody is reasonably good DPS while still letting you play 5 ADPS songs.
The best songs for your group:It varies by group makeup and raid event. There are a few things I'll point out about our different songs:
- Aria is by far the best ADPS song we have - the only time I wouldn't use it is in a tank group, where the overhaste aura suffices.
- Aria and the overhaste aura stack, so in melee DPS groups (and caster groups where mana regen wont help) you should be using both Aria and the overhaste aura.
- Beyond Aria, most ADPS songs are relatively low return. In order of ADPS (roughly):
War March > Song of Suffering > Arcane Melody > Nilsara's Aria / Fatesong / Potency
- The ADPS from the spell damage bonus songs is so small, I almost never play them.