I see a lot of post filled with misconceptions about the Minstrel Realm Ability Speed of Sound. Below is a list of facts regarding this skill. I will not try and convince you of anything or give you opinions. I will however tell you how I use it. Hopefully this will educate non minstrels about this realm ability.


1- Speed of Sound grants the minstrel and the minstrel's group the same movement speed as Motivational Anthem for 30 seconds.

2-Speed of Sound cannot be activated while you are stunned from magic or melee style means.

3-Speed of Sound cannot be activated while you are mezmerized.

4-Speed of Sound is instant cast ability and has no casting animation and is uninteruptable.

5-Speed of Sound is on a 30 minute refresh timer.

6-Speed of Sound does not purge any negative effects already on you, it will however suspend the following effects.
-snare
-root
-melee hindrered/snare effects
-Diesease's snare effect (has no effetc on dieseas's healing hampering qualities)
The term "suspend" means the active movement slowing effects such as root and snare no longer hinder your movmeent until the 30 second period while under Speed of Sound's effect takes over. Once Speed of Sound's effect elapses the effects of root and snare return to their counters. In most cases these counters elapse before Speed of Sound's counter elapses.

For example:
Player A cast a 24 second root on you.
Minstrel Hits Speed of Sound
Once Speed of Sound's 30 second efect elapses youa re no longer rooted. This is because the root timer "wore off" while you were under the effects of Speed of Sound.

7-Speed of Sound does not purge negative effects such as Mez-stun-diesease-poison-root-snare.

8-Speed of Sound Does not raise Armor factor or provide damage absorbtion or protection form magic. A minstrel under the effects of Speed of Sound can still be damaged.

9- While under the 30 second effect of Speed of Sound the following spells, if not resisted, may be landed on the minstrel, however they will have no immediate effect until Speed of Sound's timer elapses.

For example:
-Minstrel sees 2FG mids hits Speed of Sound 30 second effect timer begins
-Mid Healer casts Tranqulize Area (level 44 pacification specialization) Duration 1 minute 5 seconds.
-Targets under the effect of Speed of Sound are not mezmerized by the Healer's spell and can continue moving.
-Targets that did not resist the Healer's Tranquilize Area spell cannot attack, cast spells, switch weapons etc because they are under the effects of Mezmerization.
-If targets are under the effects of Speed of Sound+Tranqulize Area and are damaged in any way (alwasy happens) the mezmerization effect immediately terminates.

Here is how this happens in the field. It works everytime flawlessly:
My group sees your group.
I Hit Speed of Sound
Your crowd control class casts AOE mezmerization
Other members of your group see my group still running around /sticking to you.
Your group assumes we resisted or purged
Your group members panic and attack with melee and spells.
My group can no longer be mezmerized for 60 seconds as we take damage, the efefcts of your mezmerization have ended, my group is now able to move at Motivational Anthem speed until the 30 second timer of Speed of Sound elapses.
My group continues with attack sequences.
Sprinting away does not help since we are all moving at Motivational Anthem speed.
We attack your healers thus ending your ability to heal
Your healers run aroudn while we beat on you.
After about 10-15 seconds of this, usually your group will realize that your healer is in trouble and you will begin to attack our healers or maybe even nuke the /assisters killing yours.
While this is happening, I am mezzing your casters and melee clases chasing my healers and my melee classes.
30 seconds elapses, the battle is now mostly people betaing on a target until dead hoping their healer is alive, using every RA at their disposal to remain alive.
Around this time I have mostly been left alone and am stunning and mezzing anyone I noticed doing damage unmolested.

Here is an example of how Speed of Sound gets me killed.
My group sees your group.
I Hit Speed of Sound
Your crowd control class casts AOE mezmerization
Other members of your group see my group still running around /sticking to you.
Your group assumes we resisted or purged
Your group members panic and attack with melee and spells.
My group can no longer be mezmerized for 60 seconds as we take damage, the effects of your mezmerization have ended, my group is now able to move at Motivational Anthem speed until the 30 second timer of Speed of Sound elapses.
No one attacks our healers or me.
I am unable to get anyone to damage me.
30 seconds elapses-myself and my healers are now mezzed for 35 seconds (pending determination-resist reductions of mez timers etc)
During this period your group was able to kill our melee class and casters. Since our healers cannot cast while mezmerized and under Speed of Sound
Your group then turns to my healers and me where we basically fight to the death trying to kill whoever we can.

Starting to see how it works?

Here is another example:
My group sees your multiple groups and decided to flee.
I hit Speed of Sound.
My ground cranks up endurance-hits sprint if we have a paladin and immediately run trying to lose your group.
I fire up speed song.
Your group cranks up sprint and is able to cast mezzes-snares-on us but we keep running..
If your snares and mezzes last longer than 30 seconds, the moment Speed of Sound runs out, we are under those effects.

This has happened to me once.
A fun trick I do is if I know your group is after us, is pop a mob so he breaks your mez-then I stun and mez the mob-fire up speed BEFORE Speed of Sound elapses. This way when Speed of Sound does run out I am not mezzed anymore ;P

This works for roots and snares too.

Things you need to learn. To be efefctive vs Speed of Sound groups.

1- You need to know who the minstrels are.
2- You need to recognize the Speed of Sound activation sound effect and visual aprticle effect
3- You need to mez as usual.
4-You need to not break mez on our healers. 99% of the time your AOE happy types do this. You will need to make sure they learn how important this is.
5- If a Minstrel is under Speed of Sound and you atatck him/her you effective broke the mez-now he/she can move around and kite your group and mez you! Hope you have purge. Attacking the minstrel won't help you because a smart minstrel will just run through everyone and confuse you and turn and mez you as you run at normal speed.

Hopefully this information will be useful for your and your groups. Speed of Sound is on a 30 minute timer and last 30 seconds.

I won't reveal every trick I use. but the above fundamentals should help some folks who think Speed of Sound is some kind of mega purge "I win" button. With Realm Abilities, DAoC group combat requires more strategy and thinking than /stick style

Good Luck and I'll see you on the battlefield. Myscha the sled dog
UO-NWN-AC-AC2-EQ-DAoC

Mercede Dominici 65 Maestro - EQ _ Cazic Thule
Mercede Dominici 50 Flail Defender - AC 2
Mercede Dominici 50 Envenom Minstrel - Palomides<i>Edited by: Myscha the sled dog at: 10/11/03 6:17 pm
</i>

We know how it works.

It should not be a group purge, speed 6, cc immunity, offensive spell. It should only be used for escape.

It should free you from attacks knocking you out of speed 5, but that is ALL it should do. Instead, we've got armsmen and casters running around at speed 5 ATTACKING enemies.

I don't care how many Albs say it doesn't work that way, I've seen too many melee trains bounce from bard to druid to druid on speed 5 to believe anything else. If I'm shield slamming a melee who is attacking my bard, that melee should be slammable for one, and secondly, he shouldn't be taking off away from me at speed 5 for my druids. I can't keep up by any means yet he's skewering my support.

Once and for all, SoS should let characters escape attacks knocking them out of speed 5. That is all it should do. If they decide to attack in any form, they should immediately lose the effect. If they are CC'd prior to or during the effect, they do not get a free purge of it. They get to watch their group run away from them, maybe they can come back and rez them later.

Lastly, any relic carrier should not get the benefits of SoS. Too many relic raids have been spoiled by one single SoS'ing minstrel who is CC immune, virtually melee immune (they can't hit him if they can't catch him), grabbing a relic and escaping. Not a damn thing the defenders can do about it.

But hey, all my opinions are wrong I'm sure. Albs should have preemptive group purge, CC immunity, speed 6, combined with buggy attack issues.

Edit: Just so I'm clear, I know it's not CC immunity per se, however, with resists the way they are, 30 seconds at speed 6 is CC immunity. Hib groups can't keep up with you, since they don't get consistent speed 6. Mid groups can't get out of attack mode fast enough to benefit from speed 6 to stay with you. At worst, you will be mezzed for mere seconds after the SoS dies. Melees won't be CC'd at all.

Any SoS group that is organized can escape 99% of the time barring any idiotic decisions. That's if they don't decide to use it offensively and tear apart your support before you can get near em.

Luna

"They're all out there laughing at you for playing midgard, the only reason you'll ever get any love at all is if the people of Albion (the superior realm) start getting upset because we can't find anyone to kill."

"Yes exactly, I care nothing for the other realms, in fact, if you look at the wheel of Nerf, there is a big freaking chunk of midgard, and a slightly less big, but still huge chunk of hibernia, and the albion slice, which can be seen only by a microscope, has been relabeled to 'spin again.'"
- Ipno, Cleric TL <i>Edited by: LuNaTiC AnGeLiC at: 10/11/03 6:53 pm
</i>

It isnt cc immunity....

The problem is you guys have no way of telling if someone who is running around has cc on them or not. <i></i>

It pretty much is CC immunity.

Alb grp engages Mid grp.

Minstrel SOS's.... healer AE mez's...

Alb tanks clerics casters run around, getting occasionaly hit, but then fleeing easily. When that person is hit, the AE mez on them is gone. Ravage 50th Berserker Palomides
Cooz 50th Champion Bors
<i></i>

I understand minstrels can not SoS while mezzed, but is it true that if a minstrel SoS'es, it also doubles as group purge by breaking everyone in his groups Mez and Root? Or maybe just "suspending" the effects of them for 30 seconds, which after resists is pretty much purging the effects. Redge SMASH<i></i>

"but is it true that if a minstrel SoS'es, it also doubles as group purge by breaking everyone in his groups Mez and Root?"

Redge for crying out load!!! Read the original post <i></i>

All sos does is removes the movement penaltys of CC

Say my group runs along, then gets ambushed by some mids.

Ae mezzed.

Gets everyone.

Minstrel has to purge to use sos.

Then the entire group can move around at speed.

But they cannot attack, cast, anything untill the mez time is out, they purge, or anything that would normaly break teh effect, like getting hit would happen.

so if you see people running around at speed5, not doing jack shit, odds are they cant do anything to you.

The problem is there is no way to know if the person has cc applied to them currently. <i></i>

SCENARIO: 1

AOE mez lands on group..No one has purge but Minstrel.
Minstrel Purges
Minstrel uses Speed of Sound
Only Minstrel can run around.

SCENARIO: 2

AOE mez lands on group
Group does individual purges on a per character basis (Albion has no group purge)
Minstrel hits SoS
Albion group can haul ass and attack for 30 seconds and stuns roots wont land now, however after the 30 second timer is up, if your CC style spell (except MEZ which we purged already above) will take hold.

SCENARIO: 3

Mid group sees Alb Group runs up full speed
Alb group sees mid group but wants to run THRU them (such as towards a keep or other destination of importance)
Minstrel hits Speed of Sound
As Albs get in range MId group cast AOE mez.
Alb group just blows past you arives at destination unscathed
(this is what Speed of Sound was designed for in the first place)
Alb group arrives at destination, remainder of mez timer takes effect pending determination/purge/rsist timer reduction/minstrel being smart and curing mez etc.

SCENARIO: 4
Mid group ses Alb grp and charges
Minstrel hits SoS
Mid group mezzes catches all Albs in Radii.
Mid group uses Assist and kills each Albion in 3-5 seconds each.
Alb group dies unless they ran away.(this is because you have neutralized the ability for the other Albs to cast spells heal fight since you never broke their mezzes.)

SCENARIO: 5
Mid group ses Alb grp and charges
Minstrel hits SoS
Mid group mezzes catches all Albs in Radii.
Mid group uses Assist and kills each Albion in 3-5 seconds each.
Minstrel and Cleric purge and begin healing mezzing like they are designed to do
Your group, and the target you are all assisting on takes longer to kill, odds are our melees with Determination good resists will have mez where off about same time as SoS
Alb group fights back-yet you have killed no one.

There are lots and lots of situations like this! I think it adds an interesting dynamic to the game. Please remember SoS is not group Purge.

Hope this information helps!
Knowledge is power. Myscha the sled dog
UO-NWN-AC-AC2-EQ-DAoC

Mercede Dominici 65 Maestro - EQ _ Cazic Thule
Mercede Dominici 50 Flail Defender - AC 2
Mercede Dominici 50 Envenom Minstrel - Palomides<i>Edited by: Myscha the sled dog at: 10/11/03 9:32 pm
</i>

The point is call it mez immunity or not it renders mez useless for the 30 seconds it is affective. Thats everyone's biggest gripe, its a defensive ability, but everyone utilizes it as an offensive ability and or get a relic out of the fort free. Perhaps relic guards should be able to break SoS. -Thundarr warrior of Formidable- Palomides
"No one ever got Famouse by assisting. " -Los Ortiz
-Nimhe bard of Lancelot (in limbo)
-Vitellius Invictus retired enchanter of Innoruuk. <i></i>

Looks to me like this scenario nets the same RP

SCENARIO: 4
Mid group ses Alb grp and charges
Minstrel hits SoS
Mid group mezzes catches all Albs in Radii.
Mid group uses Assist and kills each Albion in 3-5 seconds each.
Alb group dies unless they ran away.(this is because you have neutralized the ability for the other Albs to cast spells heal fight since you never broke their mezzes.)


Myscha the sled dog
UO-NWN-AC-AC2-EQ-DAoC

Mercede Dominici 65 Maestro - EQ _ Cazic Thule
Mercede Dominici 50 Flail Defender - AC 2
Mercede Dominici 50 Envenom Minstrel - Palomides<i></i>

and what about mezzed albs who had weapons out previous to mezz still being able to attack
<i></i>

If you didn't play a minstrel, Myscha, your tune would be different. No pun intended.
~Gud... you know the rest

<i>"J'aurais voulu ne pas mourir,
 J'aurais voulu ne jamais grandir,
 J'aurais voulu me casser l'

actually you are wrong, motivational anthem gives 204% speed whereas SoS gives 200% ^^ Zerdan
Unicorn Knight of Palomides
(Retired for now/Cancelled)
Raven Ardent of Bors
(Retired for now/Cancelled)
<LARFO>
Tylar: "get on all fours, and go run around in your l33t 8v8 group and go be someone elses bitch, I owe my RPs to no one but myself."<i></i>

"and what about mezzed albs who had weapons out previous to mezz still being able to attack"

-If you are mezzed and a minstrel hits SoS it does not end the mez effect.

_if you have weapons out and are hittgin someone and an enemy player lands mez you stop atatcking, even if a minstrel hits Sos AFTER you were mezzed.

-If you are attacking and minstrel hits SoS THEN you are mezzed you cannot attack until mez ends or your are damaged. but you can RUN AROUND looking like you are attacking ;P

This is where 90% of the time people freak out because you break your own mezzes seeing albs with weps out running around under Sos half the time the are mezzed and you are hitting them breaking it.



Myscha the sled dog
UO-NWN-AC-AC2-EQ-DAoC

Mercede Dominici 65 Maestro - EQ _ Cazic Thule
Mercede Dominici 50 Flail Defender - AC 2
Mercede Dominici 50 Envenom Minstrel - Palomides<i></i>

SoS is overpowered, no way around it. Everyone knows how it works. Albs click it and they fucking win >< Palomides Petition
Protoss: "I remember playing my zerker against eldritch, aoe mez stun nuke nuke nuke stun nuke nuke nuke till our whole group is dead u fucking faggot shit overpowered moron."<i></i>

-oh, so sos isn't overpowered, now i understand.


-sos allows the melee train to rape your healers/casters while you watch the clerics/casters flee away with no way to kill them. It's grossly overpowered, but there is no convincing those that don't want to hear it. I suggest trying to play against it.... against good groups, then come back here and preach on. <i></i>

...
4-You need to not break mez on our healers. 99% of the time your AOE happy types do this. You will need to make sure they learn how important this is.

lol hi... in a good alb grp sos does this... Allows the casters to KITE, allows every cleric to KITE.... if they sos usually either if a cleric or caster they blow purge and then cast cast cast a mid or hibbie hits em, run around to loose em cast cast cast... rinse repeat... for alb det tanks they dont even needa purge,

BTW myscha... nice trying to explain how its not overpowered but it is,~~~ If a middie healer is running around they got tanks on em for 30 seconds, even if they were mezzed theyd blow purge and just beat on the healers or casters since they dont needa sprint or anythign to catch up...

IT DOES give immunity to mez and such, even if purge is down or they dont got det because if theyre mezzed they can just run around and then a tank see's a cleric running in a circle asif he wasnt mezzed... then u get the melee train on em, and then they just let em break mez then run away, not hard... also during sos u cant tell who blew purge or not u stated this but also it hurts since ur blind trying to kill shit but everything can get to u so fucking fast...

Also the combo of BoF + sos which u didnt include... every cleric has bof... its in the guide for warder n00bs to get it 1st for clerics, Hit bof and pretty much NOONE can touch u, even if sos = 30 seconds if youve got 2 clerics hi2u bof for 60 seconds, usually all the casters are taken down 1st since we cant go sos for teh win and get away from all the melees....

SOS AND BOF ARE OVERPOWERED PLZ NERF <i></i>

Do you want a druid to give you a play by play of how group purge is retarded in order to know how overpowered your ability is?

SCENARIO 1
You're a dumbhead

fin! <i></i>

Mid group uses Assist and kills each Albion in 3-5 seconds each.

Doesn't work when the target is MOVING AT SOS speed while the Mid group has to move at sprint speed at best.

In this event, the target can pretty much kite the assist train.

And worst of all..you can NOT outrun the Alb melee train either. They're on SOS speed too.

Throw in Bunker of Faith for laughs and giggles.

Fiala <i>Edited by: Rakaiah at: 10/12/03 12:36 am
</i>

"SoS is overpowered, no way around it. Everyone knows how it works. Albs click it and they fucking win >< "

LOL you ding dong.


Myscha the sled dog
UO-NWN-AC-AC2-EQ-DAoC

Mercede Dominici 65 Maestro - EQ _ Cazic Thule
Mercede Dominici 50 Flail Defender - AC 2
Mercede Dominici 50 Envenom Minstrel - Palomides<i></i>