Quote from Gensokyou;1121089:
Both.
Dunno about the master titles...
But
Singing = Playing Instrument with Microphone.
r5 singing allows use of singing without a microphone equipped, and by extension the buff skills and lullaby (although without the mic you don't get the music buff effect bonus from your rank of singing).
So... buff yourself with your handles equipped without needing to keep an instrument on you somewhere.
No using dischord without instruments though, but that's neither here nor there. :B
Encore.
Resets cooldowns on all Music skills.
Has a cooldown itself of 30 (rF) to 18 (r1) seconds.
And, hey! It also plays applause for you.
Heh, make your own praise whenever you do something cool. Can use it just for fun, don't even need to have music skills on cooldown. :B
Phantasmal Chorus.
Cooldown/Duration of 30 seconds
Sets a circle on the ground along with a backup chorus (the chorus can last longer than the circle and its effects)
Activate the skill by using it, and the next music skill you use will set down the Circle and play the vocal chorus.
Depending on the skill used to activate it, the circle has a different effect.
Battlefield Overture, Lullaby, and Vivace will set down a circle with the effect of "
Sigh Song".
Enemies that pass over the circle will suffer a debuff that causes them to deal less damage and move/cast slower (-35% stats/attack/speed at r1 I believe).
Using Enduring Melody, March Song, and Harvest Song will set down a circle with the effect of "
Hymn of Life".
Being in the circle will cause your HP/MP/SP to regen at a rate of 3 per second at r1 (i think).
Besides those effects, passing through the circle will apply the buff that was used to lay it down. (walking over a circle that was placed using Overture will provide you with increased max/min and crit based on the bard's rank of overture and music buff bonus/duration)
Different buffs can stack with each other if you walk over two different Phantasmal Chorus circles that were laid down.
Using the Encore skill a single bard can do something like...
(Chorus) + Overture -> Encore -> (Chorus) + Vivace
This ends with players outside the circle having vivace applied to them (dat range of effect).
Character walks over the first circle and gets Overture buff, which cancels out the "normally applied" Vivace buff from before.
The same character walks over the second circle and gets the Vivace buff applied from the circle, while keeping the Overture buff from the other circle.
So buff music normally applied still doesn't stack, but buffs received from walking over circles will stack with other, different, circle buffs.
If you walk over two Overture circle, the last one you walked over will overwrite the previous one, regardless of comparative effect strength.
Is this enough or is there anything else you wonder about the new bard skills.