Half-Elf Dilettante: Bard

[deuxanes]

How useful is the feat "Half-Elf Dilettante: Bard"?

During the journey (heroic levels to 20) it comes in handy as an emergency button in some situations. Does it make sense to train the perform skill (provided you've got spare skill points)?

At which point will it become obsolete?

[Discpsycho]

I was never a huge fan of Fascinate, though I also haven't done a pure bard life and I therefore only used it in dungeons ~ level 7 or lower, where I don't usually have a need for much CC. Depending on the build you're likely to have another escape mechanism by higher levels, though there's nothing wrong with escape redundancy. My big problem with Fascinate was the long casting time, which it shares with most other songs.

If you're willing to overlook that, the answer becomes more complicated. If you're not running a Cha-heavy build, you're stuck close to a (level/2)+2 (level 1 investment) + 1d20 DC because of the cross-class restrictions on Perform. The variability of the 1d20 portion is going to make it much more variably successful (are you trying to CC all the mobs? just one or two?), but we can assume a +10 for the purposes of average utility.

With the exceptions of Wis-heavy mobs like kobold/hobgoblin/troll shamans or dwarven clerics, a lot of mobs have a pretty terrible Will save. I don't pretend to know a whole lot about the scaling of saves in heroics, but I recently ran a Warlock with Hurl Through Hell through heroic levels. From 15-20, he had somewhere around a DC 28 thanks to SF: Necro and the vast majority of enemies failed these casts (<10% saved), which makes me think that a no-fail DC vs. Will would be ~30 in the roundest of numbers.

I could bring up something about the non-linear difficulty scaling in heroic levels vs. the relatively linear growth of Perform DCs (1/2 per level + ~1 skill modifier on an item), but I'll just throw out a couple of numbers instead:
- At level 6 in quests like Proof and 3bc, you'll be at a minimum DC of (6/2) + 2 + 2 (14 Cha, as there's a 13 Cha minimum for the dilly) = 7. A performing item could easily get you into the range of 12, a Cha item (or better base investment) could put you closer to 14, which seems like plenty for this level.
- At level 14 for Trial of the Archons, you'll be at (14/2)+2+2 = 11. Perform +10 and a Cha +6 item could put you at a 24 minimum, which still means very few mobs would save.
- At level 20 for Storm Horns, you're at 20/2 + 2 + 2 = 14. Perform + 12, Cha +6 (using old loot) sets you at 32, which is better than my Warlock's HTH was.

Epics are obviously a different story, but it looks like you'll cc at least 80% with a full cross-class skill point investment mediocre base Cha, level-appropriate Cha item, and a mediocre perform item. If you've got the extra skill points and don't mind the cast time, go for it!

[Schmackdown]

My main is a half-elf monk that I'm looping through 3x pally, fighter and rogue DRs. I took a 14 base CHA, but don't usually wear a CHA item otherwise. I'll take a full point in Perform every other level, and only swap in a Perform item when I'm actively running a Fascinate. Generally it's a 85-90% success rate on at-level heroic elites with the best item possible for a given level. As I usually solo, I use it frequently. All it takes is knowing where you want it to land, then winding it up beforehand. There's no sense in walking into a room of mobs and starting, you should be finishing the song as you arrive.

When I ran through 28, Fascinate would land on EH mobs at the same rate, again with only half-levels in Perform, no dedication to CHA and the best Perform item I could find. I also crafted a pair of songblade wraps, but rarely swapped them in.

Though the ability clearly states it should qualify the HE for any bonuses conferred by items that check for characters with bard levels, Anthem items never regenerate dilly Fascinates in my experience.

[Hephaistor]

The bard delitante has some synergies with Scion of the Feywild. I prefer the extra sonic damage over the sneak attack damage you get form Scion of the Ethereal Plane and the +20 Melee / Ranged Power from Scion of Arborea.

Scion of the Feywild
+10 Sonic Spell Power, +30 Universal Spell Power
+4 to the DCs of Enchantment spells, +2 to DCs of other spells
Add 2d20 Sonic damage to weapon and unarmed attacks (Scales with Spell Power) < That spellpower is boosted by the perform skill.
+20 Healing Amp

Every point in sonic spellpower and perform get's you 0.2 extra sonic damage per hit.