Alas poor Virtuoso, I knew you well.

[Artagon]

I'm afraid that the T5 for virtuoso is just underwhelming. It looks great to have the SP song and the Dance song at that tier, but they changed the dance song to be a long cast.. and it is no longer useful enough to give up other Tier 5 options.

While the SP song is nice.. is it worth losing +1 crit multiplier? Sadly, no. In the current state of game, the spell points recharged are pretty negligible.

Please drop the Song of Capering cast back to the short-cast it's been at for so long.

Also, the fascinate (extra types) does not actually work on Fascinate as described. Thus losing another reason to want virtuoso.

[flaggson]

This is pretty much the feeling I was left with. For me, having the dance song as a long cast song instead of a quick cast, pretty much removed the usefulness that it once had. I loved using virtuoso before, it felt the most like the kind of bard I would want to play, able to do a bit o' this and a bit o' that. Now, it looks like warchanter is going to be the path for me.

[Neoxxz]

My main is/was a virtuoso.

While Capering was nice, for me, Enthrall/Music of the Dead etc were the hallmarks of the prestige.

Pre U19, when my bard didn't need 18 levels of bard for Anthem, had 27 songs, longer buff songs and a smaller variety of songs it didn't feel too wasteful popping a few Songs of Capering. However, even then, the fact that it set the CD of Fascinate/Enthrall to about 8 seconds was a big downside, especially in EE. Another downside was that, as opposed to OID, it would often break after a few attacks.

Now that my bard has only 21 songs, no anthem and lots of song variety (e.g. Boast, Skaldic Rage, Song of Heroism etc), even if I had easy access to Song of Capering, I'd definitely think twice before using it.

For a non-healer/caster bard, the optimum spec currently seems to be investing heavily in the Warchanter tree and splashing the SS tree for song duration, magical training, Perform and heal spell crit. Even if the subtypes of Fascinate aren't working as intended, just taking the free Magical Training and first 3 core Spellsinger skills gives you a very healthy 11% healing spell crit, which coupled with an Empowered Coccoon is extremely nice.

[kryscendo]

I had 12+ virtuosos ... just finished re-enhancing 3 of them. Fewer songs, shorter songs. Haggle bard lost points in haggle. I posted on the Suggestions forum that I just want one buff song which works like the new Fascinate is supposed to work. Enthrall just needs to be incorporated into Fascinate, imo.

Also - I don't want to have to take the various versions of Rage just to get Ironskin ... seems like a waste of points since I never want to be raged. And I've got the spell for those who DO want it.

Having very mixed feelings about the upgrade ... mostly good, but just a few little things here and there. Trying to stay positive ... not sure it's working ;)

[Neoxxz]

I had 12+ virtuosos ... just finished re-enhancing 3 of them. Fewer songs, shorter songs. Haggle bard lost points in haggle. I posted on the Suggestions forum that I just want one buff song which works like the new Fascinate is supposed to work. Enthrall just needs to be incorporated into Fascinate, imo.

Also - I don't want to have to take the various versions of Rage just to get Ironskin ... seems like a waste of points since I never want to be raged. And I've got the spell for those who DO want it.

Having very mixed feelings about the upgrade ... mostly good, but just a few little things here and there. Trying to stay positive ... not sure it's working ;)

You can get an extra 11 spells (5 from SS, 3 from WC and 3 from the ED feat).

You can also get +50% song duration if you take the Lasting Inspiration ED feat when you hit level 26.

I personally like the flexibility of having Enthrall AND Fascinate... situationally different uses. I use Fascinate when I want them to be mezzed for a long time (e.g. if I'm soloing for example, and have no intention of killing them) and Enthrall when the mez duration is irrelevant as they will all shortly be dead.

As far as the Ironskin/Recklessness line I agree that it's horribly AP inefficient. I only spend 2 points in that entire line (on DPS bards at that) just to pick up 1-point Boast to boost the burst from Manyshot.

Also, not only does Skaldic Rage stack with the Rage spell but it doesn't inhibit casting either.