help with playing my bard

[Santo Cristo]

Since I got back to UO I have been able to get my character set up. I have a good armor and my bard skills are 110 with a ring bringing them to 120...

However.... Either the bard professional has changed quite a bit or I simply for one reason or another can't play a bard anymore, something that I have been doing forever.

It seems that I fail very, very often on high end monsters.

Can anyone help me in any way for me to improve my playing with my bard?

For exemple, an exceptional instrument was all you needed to be effective. Do I really have to start using slayers and super slayer instruments now?

What about macros?

It takes forever now to use the bard skill on a repetitive basis and if you try to rush it it takes even longer. Anything that I can do to improve on that?

Once again, thank you for your help on how to improve my playing with my bard.

 

[Poo]

all the high end monsters are all 160 barding difficulty.

so ya, sometimes the RNG isnt with ya and it takes a while to get your bard off on them.

and yes, using a slayer will help a lot with that.

using the exceptional instrament will improve your chances 20%, where as using a slayer will improve it 30% so it is a marked difference.

as for making macros for timeing, i cant help ya there, i just count in my head when i play, haha

 

[Reinzeld]

If you're wanting to reuse the same skill on the same monster, you could always work out the exact recast time you need (with a tiny cushion added in) and then set up a macro to do that again and again (in UOA - use skill, last target, pause, use skill, etc.). Of course, you'll want to cut it off when you succeed.

(Disclaimer: I'd think this would work. My bard skills are currently 90/50/50/50, so I'm not exactly an expert. :O)

 

[Xanth de Orlig]

I have found with higher end monsters, area peace works much more frequently than targeted peacing ...

for area peace i have a macro that is set to use skill(peacemaking), target self

the wait is longer if you fail, but with area peace, though maybe not lasting as long, you fail much less, making it shorter time in between attempts

for provo ... i just have an invis ready to go if i fail, then come out with peace and try again

good luck, and welcome back!

 

[Santo Cristo]

I would like to thank you all for your advice. They have helped me a lot.
I have already started to use slayers and they make a difference.
The advice of using invisibility is great and it has also helped me quite a bit. I found myself using invisibility as oposed to peacemaking, and when I use peacemaking I am using area as oposed to one individual monster.
I am in the process of developing the macros, hopefully I will be able to give my feedback on that soon.
Once again thank you for the adivce and your time!