Maximized DPS via Group Make up

[kuzko]

Hello all, I had a couple of questions regarding thread title. As I'm not a parser or much of a number cruncher, wondering if anyone had info regarding the differences of potential dps differences of the following groups.

Shaman + Bard + Zerker + Rogue/Ranger/Monk VS Shaman + Zerker + 4 other melee dps classes (loses bard for str8 dps).
Is the loss of the dps from bard melee songs made up by the 5th straight dps class?

If only one bard is available in the raid, would they be better served as a melee dps booster (in above group setup) or is the dps best if they are thrown in a nuker group. For instance Bard + Druid (for best healing + nuking combo) + Wizzy/Mag?

I know that some of this info is spread around on various somewhat related threads, but couldn't find a concise answer to my questions. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Khael]

I would say just the aura itself makes up for a 5th dpser (12.5% increase from each one, adds up to 50% of a 5th dps - I'm pretty sure that 5th dps can do that damage somewhere else in the raid, without the shaman). Then there are ATK boosts and proc songs and so forth... not to mention Fierce Eye and Quick Time.

Generally, bards don't fit so well with casters due to the range limitation on their aura (songs can be remedied with AA's, but Aura is unaffected). Only in certain events, where casters have to bunch up with all the melee and stay together, can the buffs from a bard really boost the casters a lot. Once they do, they're a pretty decent boost though.

[Aldier]

I would think the bard would be better in that group than a straight melee if you only have 1 bard.

If your raid is caster heavy one night and you have a bunch of wizards and mages instead of a bunch of rogues/zerkers then there is a chance the bard could be more beneficial with the casters (in which the bard could actually stand with the casters) and be more useful.

The question is often where is the bard(s) more useful instead of whether more melee would be better than the bard.

[Samanna]

See http://samanna.net/eq.general/effects.shtml#7 for a list of what class can give what +DPS buffs and same/other group restrictions.

[Brohg]

A solo raid bard's time won't be spent totally on the group he's in. They'll get the benefit of the bard's aura, his epic, and maybe one other song. The solo bard will be (or at least should be) using his other melody slots on Chorus of Restoration, Harmony of Sound, and Ancient:Chaos Chant. Since the aura is basically "fair" in melee vs. spell boosting, the bard should just be with whatever four dps are usually on top of the guild's parses.

[Merkreus]

[Brohg]

Make sure he's still doing the general stuff instead of group-focussed boosting. No matter what group the bard's in, it's more benefit to the raid altogether for the boss to be debuffed and everyone to have more mana.

[chordling]

Theres many reasons for a solo bard not to be in a caster group.
A solo bard as brohg said will be casting hos/A:cc/manasong, so he has 1 song slot left + aura + clicks.
You're better off using that 1 spare song to give 1 group a very large increase in atk (war march) than any other single song we can play.
Don't get me wrong bards can boost casters nicely, but casters require multiple songs to receive a decent bonus, explosive aria, arcane anthem, fatesong, crescendo, some form of haste for pets. No single song a bard can sing can boost casters significantly.

Give a melee warmarch and aura and the occasional epic click, fierce eye, quicktime and theyre as happy as pigs in youknowwhat. A solo bard should never be playing storm blade as it only provides approx 20dps per melee in the group and if the group has cougar/panther etc I suspect it can actually reduce the number of panther procs.

Another other issue is wizards already have familiars that do almost as much nuke focus (on a single element) as the bard aura.

The other issue is casters stand a long way from most mobs, so the bard cant melee if he wants to provide his aura to them. This is basically biting off your nose to spite your face in that losing the bards personal dps to provide a little bit more dps to the casters is probably not a net positive gain or if it is it will still be a far lesser gain than a melee dps group will get when including the bards personal dps. Even if its a ridiculously long fight (where bards drop lower on the dps list) bards will still be better off with melees due to mana issues. Until our aura range gets fixed this is gonna be one of the main reasons bards stay with melees 99% of the time unless your raid has a lot of bards.