EQDiva

Greetings! I'm not sure how to phrase this, so bear with me please. I know I can't skill up anything other than singing without an instrument, but for instrument songs, do I need an instrument for a song to be effective? For instance, with Selos, if I don't have a drum equipped while playing the song, am I travelling at Selos speed? Thanks much!

instruments are the bard version of focus effects for the most part all they do is make the song better. there are a few songs like our invis that require an instrument or item with instrument mod be equiped. and there are also a few songs like our slow that isnt effected at all by an instrument.

If the song requires the instrument you will get a message telling you that you cant sing it without said instrument. If the song is not affected, you will get no message. If the song will be better (ie, you will run faster, your dots will hit for more, etc) you will get no message there either. You will have to depend on your own sense of observation to let you know. Or you can research each song to see if you need to equip an instrument to get best use out of your songs.

[url="http://www.eqdiva.com/EQ/Guide.aspx?id=4&ForumID=132"]How Instruments Work[/url] from the Guides section (linkie on the left side of the screen).

I read the link but have one question, I know the instrument modifier affects how much benefit you get but what does the instrument skill do for you, reduce missed notes on songs that use that instrument or what. IE: If my strings skill goes from 20 to 40 will my heal song heal more hp's with a lute equiped or what? Elson

It does reduce missed notes. I'm not sure whether or not it effects the song itself. I know that the skill cap raises in TSS didn't effect songs, but before 146 skill it might have mattered.

In my experience you are basically correct. The higher your skill in an instrument the less likely you are to have a missed note (fizzle). Instrument modifiers are the factors related to the damage, healing, damage shield, buff strippage, mana drain etc etc. Instrument modifiers come in several ways, instrument, worn, augment and tribute.

If my strings skill goes from 20 to 40 will my heal song heal more hp's with a lute equiped or what?

Your heal song will get the benefit of the instrument modifier provided by your lute.

If my strings skill goes from 20 to 40 will my heal song heal more hp's with a lute equiped or what?

My take: No, skill ups will not improve the songs effectiveness. It affects only missed notes. I had a low-level bard (~12) tell me once that he ran faster when he got drum skill-ups. But "faster" is pretty subjective, and of course he didn't do any actual measurements. I've never seen any evidence that skill-ups affect the song's effectiveness. It's always been the case that if you look at the song stats on lucy.allakhazam.com, and then multiply the stat, etc. by the song's (instrument modifier / 10), you'll get the actual stat value increase without regard to instrument skill. For example, if you use a lute with a 21 modifier, you'll get 2.1 times the normal healing effect with the lute equipped. There are many songs that specify an instrument to be used, but where the instrument doesn't actually affect the song in any way. Mezz is one of those, though I have had people tell me that they get a lower resist rate when using a flute. I've never attempted to verify this. The enduring breath, invis, and the levitation songs are other examples.

[url="http://www.eqdiva.com/EQ/Guide.aspx?id=46&ForumID=132"]AFK Training Instrument Skills[/url]. Instrument Skill affects only "Missed Notes" or "Fizzles". The check is made against the specific skill whether the instrument is equipped or not. For example, singing a Brass song always checks against Brass skill to determine whether or not you "missed a note", even when you have weapons in both hands and no instrument equipped. There is no other effect of the Instrument Skill. The actualy effect of a song is determined by level (many songs, but not all) and instrument modifier only.