Welcome! This is a little web page I whipped up to show my opinions on many of the bard songs of EverQuest. I'm not level 50 yet, so there's still a few Bard songs I can't sing yet, but here's my analysis on many of the ones I can.

Chant of Battle Adds STR and DEX to party - uses percussion for added effect Chant of Battle is a nice stat enhancing song. Since it's the only song you get until level two, and is a rather useful one, it's pretty much the main song to sing in combat. Also, it wouldn't hurt to just go ahead and sing it all the time, I suppose, to increase your singing skill. Now, my experience with this song mainly came when I was a newbie myself, and in those days I wasn't too knowledgeable on stat effects and such. Looking back on this song, I can tell that the effects are rather nice. In fact, using a drum at much later levels, the added STR and DEX are astonishingly nice considering that this is a level one song. I haven't really used it in quite some time, but in the appropriate situation I need to do some experimenting with it. Chant of Battle stacks nicely with Jonthan's Whistling Warsong (level 7), and with Villia's Verses of Celerity (level 36). It doesn't stack with the popular Anthem de Arms (level 10), though. Actually, I have heard that it is better than Anthem, although I haven't experienced this myself. I had just assumed Anthem would be better and neglected Chant after getting Anthem for myself. As for the stacking capabilities with Celerity, (which also doesn't stack with Anthem), it seems as if Chant could be quite useful again at level 36. I'm level 36 myself, however, as I've not bought Celerity yet, so I haven't really tested out that idea.

Chords of Dissonance Area Effect damage - uses strings for added effect I've heard quite a bit of conflicting opinions regarding this song. Seems to me it's the kind of song people either love or despise. Some people like the fact that it can deal out damage to many opponents at once, while others hate the fact that this can cause you to accidentally get more baddies on you at once. Also, one must constantly remember to stop singing this song when approaching guards and other friendly NPCs lest they turn against you. Pets also find this song annoying, and so using it when grouped with someone who has a pet is just a bad idea. Playing on a PvP server, I've found it frustrating to be using in while fighting in crowded areas, since people who wander too close can be hurt by it. All this being said, though, I have found that Chords of Dissonance is a pretty good song. It does a nice little amount of damage and is nice when you're fighting more than one baddie. You do have to be very careful with it, and only use it in the right situations. It may take a bit of practice, and you might just receive a beat down or two before you learn how to use it properly. Don't just avoid this song because it's tricky and you don't want to fool with having to be careful with its use. Many later bard songs are even trickier to use, so don't be too lazy to learn how to handle this one. As it is, this song can be a fun, useful song for the first few levels or so. At later levels, I've heard of some people who had success using this song with strings and twisting it with other songs for a nice damage boost. I've experimented briefly with that, but not done too well with it, but maybe that just depends on your style of play. You may want to experiment with it later on, just to see what you can do.

Jaxan's Jig of Vigor Increases the group's stamina bar when it goes down - Can use percussion The name of this song sounded pretty cool, and by level three, I was happy to get it. At that time, I really didn't know what it did, but it effected my whole party and by the title and the fact that it was a level three song, it became my group song of choice instead of Chant of Battle. Now I realize, that, since this song just helps keep stamina up, it's not too useful for low level groups, who usually don't lose much stamina anyway in battles. Chant of Battle, I would think, would be a far more useful song for combat, which just goes to show, that many bard songs at low levels can be used at higher levels as well, and are often a better choice. Anyway, I've not found much use for this song. It was helpful once in Befallen, when I was grouped with a bunch of people trying desperately to recover out bodies. Forgoing food and drink, stamina plummeted, and Jig was helpful in keeping it back up. As I've gotten higher in level, I've noticed that stamina seems to drop more, especially with heavy weapons. I figure that this song may be of use in later levels, although I still don't really use it.

Lyssa's Locating Lyric Locates target's body and points you in the right direction to find it - Singing only This is a pretty nice song to have around, especially if you're new to an area, which was the case for many of my newbie levels. This song can lead you right to your body; simply target yourself and start singing. It can also be used to find other people's bodies, and you can help out a lot of people this way. After awhile, though, when I became familiar with the land of Norrath, (or at least the parts I mainly hung out in), this song wasn't much use. However, I sometimes use it to find a shortcut to my body if I don't want to take the familiar, (and possibly longer) path to the spot where I got beat down.

Selo's Accelerando Increase speed - uses percussion for a bloody cool boost to the already fast speed Well, here we have it, Selo's Accelerando, in my opinion, the best bard song I've tried out. You get it at the early level of five, the same time you get percussion, too, which enables you to go even faster using a drum. It's a great song, and gets better and better as you increase in level and or skill, (I'm not entirely sure if the speed increase is determined by level or skill in singing/percussion, but it does most certainly get better). Anyway, eventually you can go so fast that you can outrun bad guys even if you have barely any health left, making it possibly the best way to escape many opponents. I remember before I had gotten level five, I was told that the level five song was "SOW". Just a note, Selo's Accelerando is very different than the Spirit of Wolf spell, (aka "sow"). For one thing, once your get better at it, you can go so, so, so much faster than sow by playing Selo's on your drum, allowing travel and escape from baddies at low health much easier. However, this isn't to say there's no use for having sow cast on you. In many instances, I would rather have sow cast on me than any other buff in the game. However, when I actually have to go fast, I can always left click the sow icon to get rid of it so I can use Selo's again.

Hymn of Restoration Healing over time - Uses string for added effect Now this is an awesome song, too. For each tick of the song, you heal back some hit points, and using strings you heal back quite a bit more than by singing. Sometimes it can be nice to sing this during battle, but without strings, you may not be able to heal too much, so I don't use it in battle much, except for early levels. Anyway, though, it is an amazing song to heal after battle, equipping your stringed instrument and recovering in amazingly little time. Well, really amazing, I should say, I would guess that bards have the least amount of downtime of ANY class. Every other class has to sit and wait awhile to heal and or meditate awhile, both of which can be extremely boring, in my opinion. With my trusty lure, I can be ready for battle again in hardly any time at all. In group situations, this song is also great, helping everyone heal back and lessen downtime. This song, as well as Clarity at level 32, (which helps casters recover mana), are two of the best songs in helping the rest of your group have as little downtime as you do. Hal also gets better every six levels. For example, at levels 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, etc, you can heal 2 more HP per tick with it, with the lute at least.

Jonthan's Whistling Warsong Increased STR and Attack speed to self only - Singing This is a rather nice song, although it only ha an effect on the singer. You can twist it with chant of battle, too, which makes a good combination in battles. Back when I used it, it was kind of hard to notice the increase in attack speed, but from what I recall, I did seem to end up doing better in battle when I used it, so I figure it's pretty good.

Kelin's Lugubrious Lament Lulls target NPC so it is less likely to attack or assist its pals in attack - Can use strings This is a most excellent song, enabling you to take on one baddie at a time. Especially nice if you want to take on a camp of baddies, who like to help each other out. Just lull all but one and pulled the non-lulled one, while the others just kind of stand there. It's not a foolproof lull, though, and can be resisted. Also sometimes a lulled baddie seems to come along anyway, so you have to be careful. I've gotten into the habit of lulling some baddies two of three times each even if none are resisted, just to make sure the baddie won't come. Not sure if this works or is just superstition, but I seem to do okay with it. As for resists and lulls that don't seem to work, well, just use Selo's to run away and zone or whatnot, and then try again. Using strings with it may make the chance of resist less, although I haven't analyzed it enough to be absolutely sure. From what I've seen, it can work fine just by using singing, but sometimes I equip my lute when I lull.

Elemental Rhythms Adds magic resist, fire resist, and cold resist to group - Uses percussion for increased effect I'm not quite sure what to make of this song. The resists are nice and all, but I still don't know how much they actually help out. I've tried experimenting using a lot of magic resistance and all, and it does seem to make a difference, but I usually opt for other songs during battles with casters. Maybe I'm not giving this song enough credit, and maybe I should try it out some more. Currently, I'm fighting mostly non-casting stuff, so I probably won't bother with it for awhile, especially since I get another magic resist song at 41 anyway.

Anthem de Arms Adds STR and Attack speed to group - Singing Well, this is a good old standby, a nice song to sing in groups with tanks, and not a bad solo song to twist with other stuff. Especially nice to twist with other stuff if you're carrying a lot of stuff and would be encumbered without the added STR. Until I got Bellow at level 12, twisting Anthem and Warsong was an extremely nice combination for STR. I don't think the attack speed of both songs together stacks completely, although it may stack some. I really can't seem to tell a whole of difference in the speed, or at least I didn't back in the days I twisted these two songs, although, I did see a remarkable increase in my overall effectiveness in battle, which makes me think that this combination of songs is rather nice, even if it's hard to observe the song's effects at work.

Cindra's Charismatic Carillon Adds faction to targeted NPC - Can use wind Not a bad song, although until recently, I usually never felt it worthwhile to memorize it just to get occasional better prices. Nowadays, though, I've become kind of obsessed with being charismatic, as a good bard should, and I like to use this song a lot. It can be nice in dealing with buying and selling expensive stuff, and could raise faction needed to get quests. Seems like a nice song for role-playing purposes as well; nice to be able to have NPCs appreciate your singing enough to look upon you more favorably.

Brusco's Boastful Bellow Direct damage to target - Singing This is an excellent song. It really is. Many people talk about how the use it for awhile and then go on to other things as they increase in level and get new songs. I'm level 39, though, and I must say, Bellow has and still is, one of the most useful songs I have. It keeps getting better, too. Every two levels, at every even-numbered level, the maximum damage it does increases by one. One point of damage is not a lot. At level 12 it's not even a lot, let alone at level 36. But it's nice. At level 36, my maximum damage with bellow was 19; at 38, it increased to 20; and at 40, it increased to 21. Guess you can use that to figure out the max damage at level 12. I think it's 7. Anyway, bellow can be thrown around in battle to do nice damage, especially at level 12 and the following few levels. Although, of course, I have found it to be extremely useful in many situations up to and including my current level of 40. I'm sure many bards probably think my strategy of sticking with bellow to not be as good as theirs. However, I am quite confident in my abilities, and know from experience that Bellow has always worked great for me. I guess different people just have different strategies, though, so try out a bunch and find out what works best for you. Also, remember that strategies will likely differ depending on whether you are going solo or in a group, and depending on the makeup of your group. Just be flexible, as always, and experiment constantly. You can twist it with other songs like Anthem, although sometimes I find it more useful just spit out bellow after bellow. Depends on the situation and whether or not you're grouping, or what classes you're grouped with, etc. Oh, as far as PvP goes, bellow is on of the many songs that's nice to use to interrupt casters and do damage at the same time.

Purifying Rhythms Added magic resistance, disease resistance, and poison resistance to party - Uses percussion for added effect Well, here's another resistance song, one that, quite frankly, doesn't exactly excite me. I haven't used this one much, and don't have too much to say about it besides what I said about Elemental Rhythms. Actually, seems like I get into more fights with casters than with diseased and or poisoned stuff, so if I actually use one of these two songs, it usually is Elemental Rhythms. These two songs don't stack, either, by the way.

Lyssa's Cataloging Libretto Identifies target item - Uses singing skill I must admit, I still have not gotten this song. I plan to, of course? I've planned to for awhile, but haven't bothered yet. After all, it's an identify song, and you can easily identify something by right clicking on it. This song does have a use, though. Seems that with some of the lambent armor quests, you need certain portions of the Rune of One Eye. Now, you can get those runes, but I hear that you need to identify them in order to tell which portion of the Rune of One Eye you have.

Kelin's Lucid Lullaby Area Effect song that puts things "to sleep" for a moment - Uses strings for added effect Many people absolutely love this song. I rarely use it myself, though. I think I had just misunderstood it when I first got it, and didn't bother to test it out fully, though. Later on, when I did try it out, I could see that it can be a useful song. Anyway, what it does is lull targets near you, and makes them forget all the damage people have done to it, I think. This basically means that the baddies forget about everyone attacking them? except for the bard singing lull, who they start to attack right after lull wears off. This song can be nice if you or your group just wants to fight one baddie at a time. However, it has been my experience, (albeit a limited one), that even with a constant singing of this song, the lulled baddies will still be "awake" enough time to deal out quite a bit of damage to the bard. The fact that this song is resisted very easily doesn't really help this situation. If you sing this is a group, here's a few things that could be helpful. For on, it may not be the best idea to try to twist in other songs; just concentrate on lullaby. Also, you have to make sure your group members all attack the SAME baddie, allowing you to lull the others. And one very important thing? make sure the healers are ready to heal you, since you'll likely be smacked around quit a little bit.

Tarew's Aquatic Ayre Underwater breathing to party - Can use wind skill Not much to say about the effects of this song. It allows you and your party to breathe underwater, which can be pretty cool. Problems can arise, though, if your party members wander off to far, or if you wander off too far, or if something bad happens to you, (like getting disconnected or smacked down by something). This is also a nice song to practice your wind skill, since you can sing it continuously, unlike Carillon. Fun to play with a flute for the animation, too.

Guardian Rhythms Adds AC, Magic resist, and some kind of "spell shield" to party - uses percussion for added effect Hehe, another Rhythms song. The magic resist on this on is kinda cool, if you're into that sort of thing, and this song can stack with either Elemental Rhythms or Purifying Rhythms. That can increase magic resist by quite a lot, maybe enough to make the songs useful. Of course, in most cases, I bet you could find two better songs to juggle, or even just use Bellow or something to interrupt casters, (why do you need to resist magic if you can just interrupt it). Oh well, maybe I'm missing something. This song adds AC, too. It's not very much AC, though. I read about how this song has a "spell shield", but I'm still not quite sure what that is. Sorry, I do know quite a bit about bard songs, but I don't nearly know everything. This is just a collection of a few of my thoughts, anyway. Plenty of stuff I know about songs that I've not included in this guide, and still plenty of stuff I don't know.

Denon's Disruptive Discord Area effect damage over time, and decreased AC to target - uses brass for added effect This is the first brass song, and it can be annoying hard to get that brass skill up. Since this is an AE song, too, you shouldn't practice it just anywhere. My brass skill is skill kinda low. I tend to practice it by putting training points in it or finding a deserted spot in the zone and chatting with friends while I practice. I've heard about people who go afk for long periods of time to increase it? I dunno, I may go afk every now and then while practicing, but just leaving the keyboard all night to get your skill up just isn't my style. Oh, and it's probably not a good idea to do on a PvP server. I once got into bed to rest a minute when waiting for a faerie guard to spawn once, and I fell asleep, but that's another story. Oh, I've been ranting about the brass skill and not the song? anyway, once your brass skill is high enough, turns out that this song is pretty cool. It does a lot more damage with a horn, too. Since it is a damage over time song, you can equip your horn, play it, then switch to weapons or something, and switch songs while Denon's continues to do damage. Lots of variations on how to do this, one popular way to twist songs includes Denon's with brass, Chords of Dissonance with strings, and heal with strings, and no weapons at all. Takes a lot of switching and all, but it can be a nice way to juggle three songs, and do damage and heal for quite a bit at the same time. This song is resisted a bit, which gets on my nerves, so I don't use it as much. Despite it's effectiveness when not resisted, sometimes I feel that with so many resists, I might as well sing something else. Also, it took me so long to increase my brass skill, that a few levels or so went by before I used this song much at all. All in all, though, it can be quite a nice song. I recommend increasing brass skill as soon as you get it so you can use it right at level 18. Don't be a slacker in brass like I was, once you get Appalling Screech at 26, it really hurts to not be able to sing it right away. But we'll get to that later.

Shauni's Sonorous Clouding Group invisibility - REQUIRES a wind instrument to play it This song does not require much explanation. It gives invisibility to your party. There's lots of little details about this song, so I'll mention a few. First of all, this song requires a wind instrument to play. If you suck at wind, then practice. Wind is easy to practice with this song, or Aquatic Ayre, not like using the AE Denon's to increase brass. Also, don't try to twist any other songs with this. It just dos not seem to work well. The level 24 see invis song would be nice to twist with this one, but, h, what can you do? You could get people to cast se invis on you, actually, then this can work nicely. This song, like other songs, does make you and party members emit song sparkles, which can help you know where your other party members are. It can also let others know where you are, which may be frustrating in certain situations on PvP servers. Of course, I'm on a PvP server, but this issue hasn't really come up with my own experiences. It's not really a big deal. Once a caster has you targeted, invisibility does not matter too much; you might as well try to Selo away instead of using this song. If a meeleer gets you targeted, you can easily run away from them, (expect if a Paladin roots you, I suppose). OF course, you could always just stay and fight. This song also gives invisibility to undead, I hear. Not sure if I've even used it around undead. I don't much care to hang out around undead stuff anyway. I get freaked out when I turn around to see a skeleton pet staring right at me. I don't like that too much.

Largo's Melodic Binding Area Effect song that lessens AC and attack speed - Uses the singing skill This is an interesting song, though I've not used it too much. It lessens the AC and attack speed of your opponents, and lessens the attack speed enough, at least, that the effects are easily seen. Of course, you can always throw in Anthem and or Warsong and raise your party's attack speed while lowering your opponent's, which is nice, too. The area effect can hit multiple opponents which can be good since they're all affected, but bad since they could all get aggro on you. This song gets baddies annoyed at you very easily, by the way. Basically, this is a song that has some uses, and can be effective, but I usually have other songs that I find more effective in the same situations.

Melanie's Mellifluos Motion Randomly teleports your party a short distance away - Can use wind instruments This can be a fun song, but as far as actual usefulness goes, it's not too great. It can teleport you a little ways off, but if you have to escape from a baddie this way, Selo's seems to be the wiser choice, since you can keep running, and you won't be disoriented from being randomly teleported somewhere. Plus, while Selo's should probably always be memorized, not much use in taking up another song slot for this. As far as the fun factor goes, this song can be great in playing around with group members. Oh, and I've heard of people getting "stuck" someplace in the game. In such situations, this song could be of help, possibly saving you the trouble of getting a GM's assistance.

*Cancel Magic - REQUIRES the use of a stringed instrument Well now, this song, well, I have only used this song a few times. I haven't even used it when I needed it, but basically just to see what happens when I played it. Anyway, I assume this is the type of song to play when you need to get harmful DOTs and stuff off you or maybe party members. The thing is, though, I very rarely fight stuff that casts DOTs on me, and so this song is rarely memorized. On the few times that a DOT has been cast on me since I got this song, it wasn't worth the time to memorize this song and test it out. At any rate, I don't know much about this song.

Selo's Consonant Chain Snares target for a few seconds - Uses the singing skill This is a great song, one that's usually memorized, too. Unless I'm grouped with a druid and or a ranger who can use the snare spell, Chain is the next best thing. Unlike the snare spell, Chain just lasts a few seconds, so you have to keep singing it over and over again. It's great in slowing down running baddies, whether they're running away from you, or running toward you or a friend. Since it doesn't last long and is easily resisted, you may have trouble twisting in other songs without losing the snare effect on your opponent. This song is also a great taunt. This may not matter too much for chasing an opponent down, anyway, and this song is still very effective and a great addition to a bard's songbook.

Lyssa's Veracious Concord Adds see invisibility and ultravision to the group - Can use wind instruments This is a very nice song for me. See invis is nice, especially on a PvP server, but that's not why I like this song so much. If it was just for the see invis, I probably would rarely use it, although I think there may be at least one baddie that fights while invis. Oh, and by the way, Shadowmen must just be the color of air, since this song doesn't seem to make much difference when looking at them. Anyway, though, next we come to the ultravision part of this song, which really excited me when I heard about it, since, well, I'm a human. I don't see very many human bards, though, and Wood Elves and Half Elves inherently get either ultravision or infravision, so if you're one of those races, this song might not sound to appealing to you. I love it, though, nice to twist with Selo's when running through dark zones.

Psalm of Warmth Adds cold resist, damage shield, and infravision to party - Uses singing skill This is a nice song. It adds a bunch of cold resist, which isn't really why I like it, but it does have a very nice little damage shield. I think the damage shield does about 5 damage, every time something hits you, which is kinda weak compared to some other damage shield in the game, but a nice touch, making this good to twist in with some other songs, especially when your group is fighting multiple baddies. I think this song might add one point of damage every five levels, although I'm not completely sure; I haven't used it much lately. Oh, also, this song adds infravision, maybe from the heat that the song gives off. That's kinda nice for me as a human.

Anglitch's Appalling Screech888888 Area effect fear - Can use brass instruments This is one of the best bard songs there is. If your brass skill is low, practice, practice, practice! This is too good of a song to skip over just because your brass skill might be low. This song is a great way to get your opponents to run off. Twist this song with Selo's Consonant Chain or team with a snare-casting druid or ranger, and you have the baddie slowly walking away from you, barring resists. Oh, and like chain, this song is resisted quite a bit. Nevertheless, it's still an extremely effective song. It might not be the best song to use in dungeons, however, as fearing baddies can lead them away to their friends, and the fact that it's an area effect song, it probably shouldn't be used in dungeon situations. I don't fight much in dungeons, though, and outdoors, at least, this song can be great.

Solon's Song of the Sirens Charms target for around 10 seconds, (providing the target is level 37 or lower) - Can use wind instruments This is an absolutely fantastic song; one of the best in my opinion. Once charmed, your pet will respond to /pet commands, and can help you beat don another baddie. Anyway, if you have doubts about the effectiveness of this charm since it only lasts about ten seconds, well, you can always sing it again, and keep recharming and recharming, and throwing in Selo's to get a safe distance away in case of resists. There's a whole lot of things you can do with charm, and a whole lot of places around the internet that you can read about them, so I won't go into detail about it here. You could always just experiment; this is a wonderful song. Just remember that you can't charm things above level 37.

Crission's Pixie Strike Mesmerizes target for a few seconds - Can use wind instruments If I'm not mistaken, this song also lowers the magic resistance of the target a little bit as well as mesmerizes it. When mesmerized, the target won't attack until it is attacked, or until the song effect wears off. Be careful, though, even when this song isn't resisted, the baddie is not necessarily mesmerized. I think this may mean that sometimes the song "works" in that the baddie's magic resistance is lowered, but that may not necessarily mean that the baddie is mesmerized. It's kind of confusing, and I'm not quite sure I've explained it right, but simply put, this song is not extremely reliable for the mesmerize effect. In addition to not always mesmerizing your target, it is resisted quite a bit. On the other hand, this song is useful in many situations, and can be very nice in interrupting casters.

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