Overview
Methodical approach to Argent Adept and his multitude of Songs, to discover strong but simple 2 Instrument Combos.
Basic Overview
P = Perform, A = Accompany
H = Harmony, R = Rhythm, M = Melody
DR = Damage Reduction, DMG = Damage
Drum – a/r p/m
Pipe – p/m x2
Horn – p/m a/h
Bell – p/r a/r or a/h
Harp – p/h a/h
Lyra – p/h a/r
Alacritous Subdominant
p- Target Player Play Card
a- You use Power, Destroy this card
Cedistic Dissonant
p- Destroy Instrument, Destroy Target
a- You Discard 2, Draw 3
Inspiring Supertonic
p- Target Player use Power
a- You heal 2
Counterpoint Bulwark
p- 2 Targets, 1 DR
a- Target Player Draws Card
Inventive Preparation
p- All Reveal Top of Deck, May discard
a- Target other Player Play Card
Syncopated Onslaught
p- 2 Targets, +1 DMG
a- Deal 1 damage
Rhapsody of Vigor
p- 5 Targets, +1 HP
Sarabande of Destruction
p- Destroy Ongoing or Environment
Scherzo of Frost and Flame
p- Deal 1 damage, twice
Main Combos
There are
3 ways to get Perform Melody
3 ways to get Accompany Harmony or Melody
2 ways to get Perform Harmony
1 way to get Perform Rhythm
Harp and Lyra are capable of consistently giving additional power, making them key to using 2 instruments.
Bell is also unique in that it is the only instrument that provides Perform Rhythm
Bell and Harp are also the only 2 that only require a single song
Accompany for Harmonies are all selfish effects
Accompany for Rhythm affect others
Since all 2 instrument combo’s require Inspiring Supertonic, I won’t list it as a requirement to do the following combos.
Also, I only list optimal effects, so I won’t bother listing things like Syncopated Onslaught 1 damage.
Optimal 2 Instrument Combos
2 Songs (Rhythm)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – Self Heal 2, Power, Draw
with Inventive Preparation – Self Heal 2, Power, Play
Additional Song (Alternate Perform Harmony)
Alacritous Subdominant – Replace Power with Play
Ideal for most situations, very versatile instrument setup. Allowing you to customize what is needed while providing constant self healing. This also has the advantage of moving into the ultimate 3 instrument setup.
2 Songs (Rhythm)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – 2 Targets 1 DR, Self Heal 2 x2 or Self Heal 2 & Draw
3 Songs (Syncopated Onslaught Accompany sucks)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – 2 Targets +1 DMG, Draw x2 or Self Heal 2 & Draw
Additional Song (Alternate Accompany Rhythm)
Inventive Preparation – Replace Draw/Self Heal 2 with Play
Allows you to heal yourslef upto 4 per turn while also providing damage reduction. This is one of the most resiliant builds possible. It can also function moderately well as Support with a single Draw or Play given, but sadly no powers will be given.
2 Songs (Rhythm)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – 2 Targets 1 DR, Draw x2 or Self Heal 2 & Draw
3 Songs (Syncopated Onslaught Accompany sucks)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – 2 Targets +1 DMG, Draw x2 or Self Heal 2 & Draw
Additional Song (Alternate Accompany Rhythm)
Inventive Preparation – Replace Draw/Self Heal 2 with Play
Capable of providing 2 Draws or 2 Plays while also increasing DPS or Tankiness. Incredibly powerful with heroes based on One Shots. Able to quickly help get entire team setup very quickly as well. Optimal Support setup.
2 Songs (Melody)
with Rhapsody of Vigor – Self Heal 4, 5 Targets Heal 1
Provides lots of healing, 4 (probably 5) for you and 1 for everyone else. Doesn’t really do anything else. Personally I don’t really recommend it.
3 Songs (Melody – Rhapsody of Vigor with…)
with Counterpoint Bulwark – 5 Targets Heal 1, Draw x2
with Inventive Preparation – 5 Targets Heal 1, Play x2
Healing everyone while also providing Draws or Plays isn’t really a bad thing to do. Depending on your team either effect is very useful. The slight downside is that it requires 3 songs for the basic setup. Most other setups only require 2 songs. At worst require 3 for ‘optimal’, but this requires 3 from the beginning.
Special Mention
3 Songs (Melody – Scherzo of Frost and Flame)
with Syncopated Onslaught – Deal 1 damage x4
Spending your turn to do 4 damage isn’t really impressive. Especially since its 1 damage 4 times, which means you are extremely weak against damage reduction. However the fact it’s 1 damage 4 times means you are extremely enhanced by damage increases. With Legacy providing +2, you’re suddenly hitting for 12 per turn which is actually fairly higher.
Note there are more than a few Heroes who average around ~4 damage per turn. Examples, Expat, Fanatic, Haka, etc. The difference is that they tend to be building up for something huge, providing excellent support or have powerful one shots. You don’t really have any of that while DPSing.
Additional Information
While the 2 key instruments (Harp and Lyra) are key to your support capabilities, the other 4 you are freely able to destroy for this effect. This effect is insanely powerful and you should not be scared to utilize it against tougher targets. Even if it means destroying 1 of the key 3 instruments. Why?
You have a total of 8 ways of recovering Instruments from the trash!! So be bold!
This is such an incredibly important effect that you should never hesistate to use it. If you team needs an ongoing or environment gone, and you have Sarabande available. USE IT. It doesn’t matter if its going to combo or not. Altho if you feel the Environment or Villian will require constant usage of Sarabande, I suggest building Lyra into Drum.
I’m honestly not 100% sure, at most I can imagine it might be useful if you’re doing the DPS build and you want Legacy to drop Inspiring Presence. Maybe if you’re going to make Haka rampage, while everyone is at full HP which let’s you heal them after.
It’s a good effect, but it’s a selfish effect. If you need it, use it. Otherwise self healing 2 is probably better. The problem is that it requires an additional song to be able to use it tho.
I find that getting Performs for Rhythm to already be a fairly difficult task, so I rather give out solid damage increase or reduction. I don’t personally see a peak into the top of decks to be equivalent, but I can definitely understand how it can be situationally useful. Again, If you need it, use it.
Oh danny boy, the pipes… the pipes are calling… I think you will rarely find yourself wanting to use 2 different Melodies. I would have rated it much higher if it could use the same Melody twice, but alas. Use it for Cedistic Dissonant food.
It’s basically the exact same combos as Lyra + Bell or Lyra + Drum. The only thing you get in addition is basically a self heal 2.
Polyphoric Flare
-Always have at least 2 instruments
-If you’re using Harp or Lyra, remember to NOT give yourself the additional power
— Unless, you have 4 instruments and you’re about to do an EPIC CONCERT!!
-It let’s you do some amazing support by letting you do 2 instrument combos without using Lyra or Harp
-It can really enhance your DPS spec by using Bell to Syncopated Onslaught on yourself, resulting 2 damage, 5x!!
TL? DR!
- Harp + Lyra
- Harp + Bell
- Lyra + Bell
- Harp + Horn
- Lyra + Drum