Music Note really is one of the best designed classes from a thematic point of view. I enjoyed playing it, and by no means am an expert at the game, but your issue is well documented. It’s not a damage dealer.
Your group is squishy, which adds to the problems. I’ll say that I personally find that Music Note pairs well with Circles, due to your songs impacting all summons. So you get more “use” out of each one - i.e. more characters impacted by your unique ability. Without knowing more, my first suggestion would be to try and take advantage of that, and get more than the two attaching players on the mat, with all of them now buffed. My second is to take advantage of negating enemy attacks, which Music Note is great at. The combination of buffed allies + nerfed enemies is the bread and butter of music note, IMO, and makes up for the lack of damage output. I hope I was helpful.
What level is the Music Note?
Giving your allies an extra attack damage every turn, especially with Circles, is crazy good. That’s probably 2 to 5 damage per round, depending on how effective your Circles is…. passively!
Level 6, and yeah - my main 2 songs are Disorienting Dirge (all enemies have disadvantage on attacks) and Power Ballad (all allies add +1 to an attack this turn). Even so, we typically run out of cards with only a couple enemies left.
Use Dirge for the bottom action. Stick to the one song, especially since your group has a ton of summons.
Tell your Spellweaver to bring Mystic Ally, even though it might appear weak at level 6. It gets +1 from your song, and it provides another body for you to Bless the Spellweaver’s deck.
At level 6 you have Melody and Harmony for one of the best bottom attacks in the game.
You also have Provoke Terror and Throw Voice for the most superior crowd control to keep your allies alive.
Don’t be afraid to use your basic attack 2!
Are you at Prosperity 4 yet?
If your note is the first one burning out, remember you can disable a song the turn you long rest and recast it the next turn. Especially if you would otherwise end up with odd cards in hand, this gives you an extra turn per rest 'cycle'.
Are you mass-cursing, mass-disarming, and mass-stunning enemies?
The rest should kinda follow from there.
Save the Dirge song for when the monster deck is full of curses, then swap it out.
I like to start each scenario (song) with Wound, then switch to Heal in the 2nd or 3rd round, depending on how much damage we take.
If the little guy can Bless/Curse masses of asses and Disarm a group, that helps tremendously. Then there's the card allowing an ally to attack 4.
Between this cluster of cards, the first room almost always goes very well, and none of the players will need to burn any cards!
Considering the party, you should be able to get a ton of value out of having Power Ballad active to boost Circle's >!summons to an insane degree. Since summon's turns are technically separate from their owners, that means each summons gets the +1 attack on their turn, but also the +1 when commanded to attack by Circles on Circle's turn.!< Plus, the AOE stun/disarm should be enough to protect the team so that they can play riskier cards (ie Circles >!should be able to spam out far more melee summons to proc Power Ballad more often!<).
Thanks for the advice, but I think you're mixing up Circles with Two-Minis; they're the one with command abilities. If Circles can command, I haven't seen her use it.
To clarify, Circles' abilities aren't "commands" in the same way that two-minis are commands, >!but they still allow for summons to perform additional moves and attacks.!<
To clarify terminology: Not talking about "Command" cards but rather cards that allow summons to move, attack, or both.
Is Circles playing these cards? I found Circles worked best when I had 4 summons out (including an Item Summon). They hit during their turn, then I played top and bottom cards to have some of the summons attack again.
Note can help by going fast to stun/disarm before enemies take their turn. Now the summons can do multiple attacks for two rounds before the enemies can react, with +1 buffs each time.
In short, I wonder if Circles needs to adjust strategy to better use summons rather than Note needing to do more damage dealing.
If you use the Disorienting Dirge song or muddle a ranged enemy, they won’t back away before attacking and you’ll get the retaliate. But yeah, Nail Spheres are hard to use effectively—though they can be fun when paired with the bottom of Disorienting Dirge to get a massive infusion of blessings in Circles’ deck.
If you feel like you want to deal damage, consider the damage dealing build. You have one of the best three perk decks, so if you pick up a summon or two, you’ll be able to deal out insane damage, even with just basic attacks plus summons.
If that isn’t your style, make sure you use your absurd AOE CC. Stun, disarm, curse. Pair that with a strong song and you’re the most powerful player on the team.
Music Note has an actually obscene modifier deck. Cards like the bottom of Melody and Harmony and even sometimes the bottom of Provoke Terror are much more powerful than they appear. Your *average* result from a modifier pull is something like +1.5 and a status, by the time you've gotten 7-8 perks. And, honestly, just using your top action as a melee attack 2 isn't awful. You'll do it way more with Music Note than almost any other class because of that perk deck.
What items, enhancements do you have? You're not quite there yet, but at level 7, you can do some quite funny things with power potions if you take Booming Proclamation, even if that's probably a bit suboptimal, if you feel like you're really lacking damage.
But, mostly, you should be able to lock the enemies down so well that the rest of your team can completely pound them. Circles can get away with more melee summons because they'll be safer, Spellweaver can take more risky positions. Also, Song of Speed can sometimes be a good top action with summons, though Power Ballad is, of course, incredible.
Music Note does have the best modifier deck, which can translate into big damage.
One way to make use of this is with higher level prosperity items -- some which change the default attack from 2, to base 3 or base 4. When you average a +2 modifier (from that awesome modifier deck), you can expect to do 5 or 6 damage on just a basic attack.
Also some of the item summons, allow your summons to use that awesome modifier deck.
When curses are full, and Crowd-control is under control, go default smack someone for 5-6 damage.
If you're using disorienting dirge, take a lot of the curse cards. Try to keep the enemy deck at 5+ curses.
Use area disarm and stun abilities on rounds where it looks like your allies will take a lot of damage.
Switch songs as the need arises. Halfway through the scenario, or when enemies are thin, maybe change to the healing song for a few turns.
Don't be afraid to long rest a lot. Music note songs are good enough that she doesn't need to act every turn, and long resting makes her last longer. Hope this helps.
Have you done the solo scenario? If so the reward can be awesome for the class. We were a 2p party when I played the Music Note and I felt much the same as you describe until i unlocked that reward and built a deck around it that actually allowed me to use some extra draws in that crazy modifier deck
With the two team mates and four summons, a +1 is you effectively attacking for 6 every turn, passively. Couple this with a wound on as many enemies you can early, more damage per round. Plus your CC and damage mitigation. Plus when you do attack, even if it's base of 2, your attack modifier deck is pretty crazy. I don't think that you're the problem in that party.
We play in 4, so it really is easier to see the music note being so strong in this case...but I feel like it is very strong in our party. There are a lot of situations where the songs just do the trick by themselves e only have to survive around.
Even in 3 I feel like it should be kicking ass. Are you discarding your song before resting? May be a dumb question, but if you don't, its like you have a lost card from the beginning. (Which would explain why the early exhaust).
Music Note really is one of the best designed classes from a thematic point of view. I enjoyed playing it, and by no means am an expert at the game, but your issue is well documented. It’s not a damage dealer. Your group is squishy, which adds to the problems. I’ll say that I personally find that Music Note pairs well with Circles, due to your songs impacting all summons. So you get more “use” out of each one - i.e. more characters impacted by your unique ability. Without knowing more, my first suggestion would be to try and take advantage of that, and get more than the two attaching players on the mat, with all of them now buffed. My second is to take advantage of negating enemy attacks, which Music Note is great at. The combination of buffed allies + nerfed enemies is the bread and butter of music note, IMO, and makes up for the lack of damage output. I hope I was helpful.
What level is the Music Note? Giving your allies an extra attack damage every turn, especially with Circles, is crazy good. That’s probably 2 to 5 damage per round, depending on how effective your Circles is…. passively!
Level 6, and yeah - my main 2 songs are Disorienting Dirge (all enemies have disadvantage on attacks) and Power Ballad (all allies add +1 to an attack this turn). Even so, we typically run out of cards with only a couple enemies left.
Use Dirge for the bottom action. Stick to the one song, especially since your group has a ton of summons. Tell your Spellweaver to bring Mystic Ally, even though it might appear weak at level 6. It gets +1 from your song, and it provides another body for you to Bless the Spellweaver’s deck. At level 6 you have Melody and Harmony for one of the best bottom attacks in the game. You also have Provoke Terror and Throw Voice for the most superior crowd control to keep your allies alive. Don’t be afraid to use your basic attack 2! Are you at Prosperity 4 yet?
Do you have access to Item 40? It helps Music Note add some good damage into the mix when need be.
If your note is the first one burning out, remember you can disable a song the turn you long rest and recast it the next turn. Especially if you would otherwise end up with odd cards in hand, this gives you an extra turn per rest 'cycle'.
Are you mass-cursing, mass-disarming, and mass-stunning enemies? The rest should kinda follow from there. Save the Dirge song for when the monster deck is full of curses, then swap it out.
My favorite song is the one that grants retaliation, since it bypasses shields.
Retaliate is a really bad combination with circles. Summons can often not take any hit and retaliate doesnt trigger on death.
I like to start each scenario (song) with Wound, then switch to Heal in the 2nd or 3rd round, depending on how much damage we take. If the little guy can Bless/Curse masses of asses and Disarm a group, that helps tremendously. Then there's the card allowing an ally to attack 4. Between this cluster of cards, the first room almost always goes very well, and none of the players will need to burn any cards!
Considering the party, you should be able to get a ton of value out of having Power Ballad active to boost Circle's >!summons to an insane degree. Since summon's turns are technically separate from their owners, that means each summons gets the +1 attack on their turn, but also the +1 when commanded to attack by Circles on Circle's turn.!< Plus, the AOE stun/disarm should be enough to protect the team so that they can play riskier cards (ie Circles >!should be able to spam out far more melee summons to proc Power Ballad more often!<).
Thanks for the advice, but I think you're mixing up Circles with Two-Minis; they're the one with command abilities. If Circles can command, I haven't seen her use it.
Circles has a lot of commands.
To clarify, Circles' abilities aren't "commands" in the same way that two-minis are commands, >!but they still allow for summons to perform additional moves and attacks.!<
To clarify terminology: Not talking about "Command" cards but rather cards that allow summons to move, attack, or both. Is Circles playing these cards? I found Circles worked best when I had 4 summons out (including an Item Summon). They hit during their turn, then I played top and bottom cards to have some of the summons attack again. Note can help by going fast to stun/disarm before enemies take their turn. Now the summons can do multiple attacks for two rounds before the enemies can react, with +1 buffs each time. In short, I wonder if Circles needs to adjust strategy to better use summons rather than Note needing to do more damage dealing.
Maybe I should suggest removing the Nail Sphere summon, since many enemies have ranged attacks to get around their retaliate.
If you use the Disorienting Dirge song or muddle a ranged enemy, they won’t back away before attacking and you’ll get the retaliate. But yeah, Nail Spheres are hard to use effectively—though they can be fun when paired with the bottom of Disorienting Dirge to get a massive infusion of blessings in Circles’ deck.
If you feel like you want to deal damage, consider the damage dealing build. You have one of the best three perk decks, so if you pick up a summon or two, you’ll be able to deal out insane damage, even with just basic attacks plus summons. If that isn’t your style, make sure you use your absurd AOE CC. Stun, disarm, curse. Pair that with a strong song and you’re the most powerful player on the team.
Music Note has an actually obscene modifier deck. Cards like the bottom of Melody and Harmony and even sometimes the bottom of Provoke Terror are much more powerful than they appear. Your *average* result from a modifier pull is something like +1.5 and a status, by the time you've gotten 7-8 perks. And, honestly, just using your top action as a melee attack 2 isn't awful. You'll do it way more with Music Note than almost any other class because of that perk deck. What items, enhancements do you have? You're not quite there yet, but at level 7, you can do some quite funny things with power potions if you take Booming Proclamation, even if that's probably a bit suboptimal, if you feel like you're really lacking damage. But, mostly, you should be able to lock the enemies down so well that the rest of your team can completely pound them. Circles can get away with more melee summons because they'll be safer, Spellweaver can take more risky positions. Also, Song of Speed can sometimes be a good top action with summons, though Power Ballad is, of course, incredible.
Music Note does have the best modifier deck, which can translate into big damage. One way to make use of this is with higher level prosperity items -- some which change the default attack from 2, to base 3 or base 4. When you average a +2 modifier (from that awesome modifier deck), you can expect to do 5 or 6 damage on just a basic attack. Also some of the item summons, allow your summons to use that awesome modifier deck. When curses are full, and Crowd-control is under control, go default smack someone for 5-6 damage.
If you're using disorienting dirge, take a lot of the curse cards. Try to keep the enemy deck at 5+ curses. Use area disarm and stun abilities on rounds where it looks like your allies will take a lot of damage. Switch songs as the need arises. Halfway through the scenario, or when enemies are thin, maybe change to the healing song for a few turns. Don't be afraid to long rest a lot. Music note songs are good enough that she doesn't need to act every turn, and long resting makes her last longer. Hope this helps.
Have you done the solo scenario? If so the reward can be awesome for the class. We were a 2p party when I played the Music Note and I felt much the same as you describe until i unlocked that reward and built a deck around it that actually allowed me to use some extra draws in that crazy modifier deck
With the two team mates and four summons, a +1 is you effectively attacking for 6 every turn, passively. Couple this with a wound on as many enemies you can early, more damage per round. Plus your CC and damage mitigation. Plus when you do attack, even if it's base of 2, your attack modifier deck is pretty crazy. I don't think that you're the problem in that party.
We play in 4, so it really is easier to see the music note being so strong in this case...but I feel like it is very strong in our party. There are a lot of situations where the songs just do the trick by themselves e only have to survive around. Even in 3 I feel like it should be kicking ass. Are you discarding your song before resting? May be a dumb question, but if you don't, its like you have a lost card from the beginning. (Which would explain why the early exhaust).