BRD songs are not overwriting correctly

[Kirschy]

With the release of new gear that increases BRD song duration, a new problem has been occurring. If you try to re-sing a song that is already on a player, the song will have no effect. This continues to happen until the current song's duration goes below a certain time. (Around ~140 seconds.)

This was not a problem when duration enhancing items did not exist. And it was not a huge hassle when the BRD Merit 2 categories introduced Troubadour. But with +3 instruments, empyrean armor that can add another +1 to songs, and multiple items and JA that increase song duration, this becomes a problem.

My BRD in particular has +4 to some songs, and two items which increase the duration. When I sing a song, I'm unable to overwrite that song for almost a minute. This seems like an old mechanic that should be changed with the progression of the game. I think songs should overwrite based on duration, with a longer duration song overwriting a shorter duration song. (A potency check first would be even more amazing!)

Is there any chance we could see an adjustment like this in the future?

[Tamarsamar]

. . . you know, it makes me wonder what the point of duration-increasing gear is if you're still just singing the same thing repeatedly, anyway . . . >_>

[Kirschy]

Mostly so you can do other stuff in between songs. Everything from healing, status cures, hastes, keeping mobs slept, or even just extra leeway when keeping up 4 sets of songs. You also have BRDs that might want to melee and proc red !!, pull mobs, or go off to trigger events in activities like Salvage.

[Kavik]

i have one question... if the song has not worn off yet... why would you re-sing it? Brd songs do not degrade in potency the longer they are on, so sing your stuff, run off and do something else as you suggested. If you really need to keep a song on someone for some reason, just wait till it's about to wear off and recast it.

[Byrth]

The easiest example I can think of is Soul Voice. Soul Voice lasts for 3 minutes, so the best way to use it is actually:
Soul Voice -> Songs -> wait about 2 minutes -> Troubadour Songs

This way people get the benefit of SV songs for 7-8 minutes instead of 5 (if you'd just done SV->Troubadour -> Songs).

It could be that Kirschy is approaching the point where she actually has to take Duration+ pieces off to make her songs overwritable within the 2 minute window, which is lame. Also, there are times when you want to rebuff quickly. Maybe you popped a NM in Walk of Echos and want to toss songs on before the next pull so you can focus on healing. There are all kinds of situations where this happens, and the bottom line is that bard should always be able to overwrite the buffs they gave.


My impression was that the songs generically wouldn't overwrite if the new song (before considering duration enhancement) had a duration shorter than the remaining duration on the current songs.