Let's just get something straight here. (RE: PoTM)

[UltraSCSI]

I have noticed in multiple threads the complaint that troubs who use PoTM wish to have the daze removed from the equation so they can attack for the duration.  I'm all for the change, but am terribly confused as to the reason. We are not stifled or stunned during the PoTM duration.  I know that I, personally, spend the entire time autoattacking and mashing nukes and ca's.  The only time it doesn't work right is if the mob being attacked is killed before the timer is up, and the next mob is too far away to auto attack.  In that case I'm stuck doing ranged damage.  But any troub who pops PoTM from a distance rather than from directly behind the mob is missing out on a boatload of extra damage potential.  Is that really what's happening out there? :Weenconfused

[missing_peace]

<p>Precision of the Maestro has the drawback of turning of your autoattack and rooting you in place.  So, no, you are not autoattacking when this is active.  The main argument is that the damage given to the troubador (proc on every spell) is no better than standard autoattack for most encounters. </p><p>As the weapons available get better the benefit from using PotM becomes less and less.  If an encounter contains 4+ npcs then PotM is arguably better than autoattack, but for single target encounters standard autoattack can be better.  There will be a point at which using PotM will in fact *lower* your dps.  This will be most apparent with the next level cap increase.</p><p>Being rooted in place causes problems too.  Knockback, memwipe and other typical npc abilities can cause the encounter to move away from you after you have activated PotM.  Do you just stand there and wait it out or cancel and run back in?  What if you have to flee from melee range to survive?  You just have to cancel and your group loses the benefits and you just wasted it for that encounter.  Some may argue that this is a strategic choice that you must make, but I must counter that the additional damage from this ability factors less and less into the total as players advance.</p><p>With the many combat, equipment and class changes that have taken place since this ability was introduced there really seems to be no point to keeping the detrimental effects.  Keeping the ability in its current state only hinders the troubador class at a time when bards really need adjustments to remain fun.</p>

[Antryg Mistrose]

PotM has a Daze (no autoattack) and a root (no movement) for its up to 30sec duration.  So the "autoattacks" you are seeing are probably from combat arts - which still give the damage and animation as normal, but don't benefit from the spell proc. Because of the extra INT and the 100% spell proc, the obvious reasoning is you are supposed to spam cast spells during it (along with the rest of your group).  The problem is that troubs do not have a whole heap of fast casting spells to cast, so end up doing things like toggling debuffs (which presumably lowers the whole raid/group's dps/safety). I can't help but compare it to Dirges equivalent - Cacophony of Blades.  This adds damage to hits (melee and combat arts from memory), interrupts the encounter - and 5-6 people hammering interrupts are very good for avoiding even some epic's specials, and finally hastes (or is that dps? - been a while since i was a dirge) the whole group. All this while NOT stiffling/dazing/stunning/rooting the dirge.  Add in the increase to autoattack damage to 'rogue levels' that bards got recently, and CoB really starts to look nice for the dirge.  So the dirge gets full benefit, as do any other meleers (and talking groups now, not raids there will be a tank too whereas we don't always have many casters).  Its hard to see how PotM helps the group/raid as much - and its at the expense of the troubador, especially if they don't start turning debuffs on and off or on small encounters. Personally, when I betrayed a month or so back, I couldn't believe that PotM was the equivalent of CoB. I've also noticed (in comparing to an illusionist) that the troub 'crowd control' is pretty limited, and completely useless on epics.  That certainly leaves a lot less to do on raids than for dirges, which I believe has plenty to do with the attrition rate of troubs. Nobody likes being a buff bot - there for mainly for a couple of set and forget buffs.

[Vraneth]

I have said this in various other threads and I know others have aswell: PotM needs to change, I only run it if there is 3+ mobs in the encounter as the groups DPs as a whole will go up but mine slightly down, on a 2 mob encounter this spell is [Removed for Content], not to mention single targets. CoB which is the Dirge equivalent is a buff that goes up everytime it's available whereas our PotM goes up IF there is 3 or more mobs and it's available. And to even further the gap between the two spells Dirges gets 25 seconds off the recast time of CoB with only 3 EoF set pieces. Another thing to add is, if they decide to remove daze and root effects from this spell, that the recast need to start ticking as soon as the buff goes up and not when it comes down. CoB starts refreshing the second it goes up, PotM does not.

[BadManHip]

Seeing how the devs work, i.e nerfing other things instead of making us better they will probably add a daze and root to Cacaphony instead of removing it from us.

[Thrashercat]

Pfft, I certainly hope not! If that is the case, it makes their spell nearly worthless and nerfed worse than ours<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Antryg Mistrose]

Well, we'd certainly both have grounds for complaint over our 'rogue level' autoattacks .... I don't think the developers would be that stupid though, Dirge is a currently a pretty consistent and well thought out class.  Not really a whole lot wrong with them comparatevely to say coercers and troubadors amongst the other 'utility' classes (same scaling issues, and bad soloability as us, but thats all I can think of)