Troubador seeking advice

[Loara]

Greetings fellow troubadors!I'm a level 39 troub who started playing 2 weeks ago with a large amount of people. I've always been grouped and such so leveling has been very fast, especially with the double xp weekends.However, during that time, I've been asking myself many questions about what the best way to use up my 5 conc slots are. Right now, I'm using Raxxyl's str/sta buff, bria's power regen, aria of 30% hot damage, ministrel's caster skill buff, and the haste song. The others that I think would be useful to use are the defense buff, the hp regen buff and alin's soothing serenade. Now my question is the following : Are there any situations where I should use the defense buff or the hp regen buff over the 5 songs I listed up here in a full group?::edit:: Also, when I'm grouping, I always find myself completely out of power when everyone else is pretty full. I try to keep every mob debuffed and dps at the same time, should I just stick to debuffing and autoattacking while using some dps CAs once in a while? Or am I doing something wrong?Thanks in advance!<p>Message Edited by Loarake on <span class="date_text">02-26-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:41 AM</span></p>

[ShiroiOokami]

I generally run with power regen, str/sta song, self agi/int song, defense song, and then haste if the majority of DPS in the group is melee, or magic proc if the majority are casters, for solo I tend to run with health regen up.On normal mobs there's generally no need to fully debuff in a group. I generally hit with our DOT/Wis debuff, then do DPS. On a named or long fight, you can debuff fully and then only use your power drain spell to essentially do damage for free, and one or two other power efficient attacks. Doing DPS and fully debuffing is a good way to drain your power quickly.Buying some good drink is also a top priority if you're still running out of power. As you get higher, there are power regen items you can look into. At your level, you might look into getting the Polished Granite Tomahawk heritage, and the Manastone heritage.<div></div>

[Warond]

I run raxxyls, selfbuff, aria, bria, opus when I solo mostly, change out opus for hp song when I solo named or anything major. Usually use that setup in grps as well, swap selfbuff for hate song.<div></div>

[shortfa]

<div></div><blockquote><hr>Loarake wrote:Greetings fellow troubadors!I'm a level 39 troub who started playing 2 weeks ago with a large amount of people. I've always been grouped and such so leveling has been very fast, especially with the double xp weekends.However, during that time, I've been asking myself many questions about what the best way to use up my 5 conc slots are. Right now, I'm using Raxxyl's str/sta buff, bria's power regen, aria of 30% hot damage, ministrel's caster skill buff, and the haste song. The others that I think would be useful to use are the defense buff, the hp regen buff and alin's soothing serenade. Now my question is the following : Are there any situations where I should use the defense buff or the hp regen buff over the 5 songs I listed up here in a full group?::edit:: Also, when I'm grouping, I always find myself completely out of power when everyone else is pretty full. I try to keep every mob debuffed and dps at the same time, should I just stick to debuffing and autoattacking while using some dps CAs once in a while? Or am I doing something wrong?Thanks in advance!<p>Message Edited by Loarake on <span class="date_text">02-26-2006</span><span class="time_text">11:41 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote><p>Greetings Loarake.</p><p>The 5 slots most commonly put up in groups for me would be Raxxyls (Str/Sta line), Power Regen, Aria (Proc Song), Self buff and the aggro reduce song. I occasionally switch out the Aria for haste but that does not occur very often. The main point of this set up is to ensure that you are pulling your weight as a member of the party (In addition to buffing the group that is).</p><p>In most xp groups mobs go down rather quickly, the haste song (IMHO) doesn't do much since people are usually spamming their CAs to get the mobs down. In such cases, getting the str of the melee members up should be sufficient to increase their dps from CAs and auto attacking.</p><p>The self buff adds quite abit to your personal mana pool and improves your personal dps by quite a significant amount (it also increase the damage of your aria proc and later on, the Precision of the Maestro proc). Since we are also a dps class (Although no as spectacular as the other classes), i feel it is important that we should try to put out some respectable dps when grouped. If i need the additional concentration slot for certain buffs in a middle of a fight, then it is usually the first buff to go.</p><p>As a personal thing, I rarely use a concentration slot on the defence buff and the caster skill buff. I feel the small amount of avoidence increase from the defence buff isn't really worth the concentration slot. If i feel that the tank is getting hit too much in a really hard fight, i'll just throw in an additional debuff or 2 and that should cover things up. The caster's buff skill is too specialized to be used in most xp groups. Unless you have an unhealthy number of mages in the group, i.e. 1 tank 1 fury 3 casters and a troubador, fighting yellow mobs. In such a cast i'd just switch out the str/sta buff for the caster's buff.</p><p>I don't think that you should throw on all your debuffs in every fight. Save the other debuffs for named encounters or really hard fights where you think that the tank will need more help. Like the other poster, i usually only throw on the Wis debuff (lowered resist) + dot  on most mobs. The Personal buff will also help you to increase your powerpool. So i would advise against throwing all your debuffs and dpsing at the same time, instead, throw on the aggressive debuff and dps away. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</p>

[Loara]

Thank you very much for your advice everyone. I'll remember that and see how it works. I didn't realize that some of the buffs I was using were pretty situational. I think I'll be a better troub from now on <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks again!

[mook85az]

I find that the debuffs really speed up the fight, especially if the group isn't full so I'll throw them up on anything heroic.<div></div>

[pera]

Debuffs are extreamly imporant, expecialy at later levels.  They can really make the world of a differance in solo/group/raid all the same.<div></div>