Bards of All Styles!

ArchivedUser

So I started this post for the discussion of the Bard class, in which I would love to hear any and all ideas, wants and want not's. I want to hear from PvPers, PvEers, and RPers.

My wants : I want Bards to be a legit SUPPORT CLASS!! By that I mean I want to be the class that enhances my allies and their ability to deal damage, heal, and mitigate damage. Also in the same regard I want the ability to weaken my enemies damage, protections, and healing effects.

I've play quite a few MMOs where the holy trinity was the focus of the classes, and by all means I still think thats the better option over a unspecialized character build, BUT I would love for it to become the Divine Quad so that the Support players like myself can feel more involved.

Well anyways if you stumble upon this post and you're possibly planning on being a Bard main, please feel free to talk about your wants and what not as long as it pertains to the bard class, lets have some good discussions

ArchivedUser

I gather they were planning a class and sub-class system, it would be interesting to see how that works out.
Bard with tank as a subclass would be very strange.
The challenge with bards and a few other classes ( healer, illusionists, etc) is solo play. If you're not in a group what do you do clobber them with a lute? It's funny once or twice but that's it.
Magic buffs and debuffs from a bard makes sense. Charming beasts spell music. Silencing music, deafen the foe., to other commands.

You could add Decoy music that seems to come from the other way to lead a foe away from a gate. That makes sense. Magical ventriloquist but with music makes a tiny bit of sense. For that the game needs to add a ground decal that is steerable to designate the direction or position that a sound decoy effect comes from. You could do a lot with that functionality but in the end the bard will have to get out his sword or ideally a rapier and do things the hard way.

The basic solo bard mix might be sleep music (sounds far off dulls target detection ranges), beast taming, decoy music, false commands (again decoyed rear), Silence magic (deadens all sound in an area and debuffs magic users), Funeral march (debuffs injured foes), enraging music (causes the target to charge <strong>blindly</strong> at the music source), healing music, speed music (speeds units movement), disco ball of doom (makes foe dance rather than fight, high level), Fan (high level bard spell on humanoid foes only; foe switches sides and fights for you because you're his favorite star. ) Backed up with a light fast weapon like a rapier and dart gun disguised as a wind instrument (the old blow gun flute trick).

ArchivedUser

I do hope that Bard/Cleric will be able to do some minor group healing.

ArchivedUser

I have to agree. I think bards offer a unique opportunity to have a support class and a crazy fun one. A bard/cleric could be a fun style of healing or bard/fighter and bard/mage could be fun dps. Im truly excited about the possibilities for this class. Bard/summoner particularly has me curious.

Another thing we need to know is how our songs will work. Do we need to maintain a song for its effects ala EQ, or will they be cooldown based or channeled? So many questions.

ArchivedUser

id like bards to have some sense of rhythm to how they use skills kinda like monster hunter hunting horn where you would input combos to give certain buffs.

So if the bard skills are given "tones" and if you use these skills in a certain order or make a rhythm with or just making noise will do some sort of effect. kinda like Zelda ocarina of time ud input the song code to move ahead in the game.
this would make bard a very unique class and if you choose it as a secondary class the skills change the abilities but also add a hymn when you use it.

for example if you use stealth as a rogue but augment it with a bard skill you play a harp and instead of going stealth you lull the people in the area to sleep.

ArchivedUser

(Bard/Cleric)I agree with you on this, some minor healing and possibly group dispells. I'm also super interested in Bard/Summoner or vice versa.

ArchivedUser

This Bard class is what I'm most hyped for :3 I've played Bard like classes in other mmos and I really enjoy the whole buffing and debuffing!

I'd love to see:
1. A weapon that's more like a war horn rather than a music instrument. I think that would be more realistic and would suit all races- and a little easier on the eye - sometimes running around playing a banjo is rather frustrating to watch ^^ You could cast the war horn and it can leave an aoe radius around the player as if motivating the team or threatening the foe *-*

2. Minor Aoe HoTs and DoTs - like pulsing from warhorn

3. An AoE remove debuffs for allies and buffs on foes

4. Skills that paralyse/sleep/stun blah blah foes

5. I like sound of charming mobs for a short while to be your pet ^^

6. A wee dps damage skill but nothing major ^^

A res would be nice too and stuff xD pretty much that would be me dream class xD

Can't wait to see how it turns out xD

ArchivedUser

Im super excited, I can't wait for some Bard info

ArchivedUser

From what I can tell Bards are going to have songs that they can use to buff them self's and allies or debuff or control enemy's. this would work if broken into skill trees like songs of war vs songs of friendship so not all bards will play the same way and even more variation can come from the orientation of primary class vs secondary.

FOR EXAMPLE:

Bard/Tank: Able to cast songs to boost group defense while applying stun to enemy's.

Tank/Bard: Able to pull agro with taunt that also apply's Fear to enemy's.

Building a good Bard primary seems to focus on helping allies control to flow of battle by timing your boost, debuff enemies, or control small mobs to turn against large boss or field monsters.

Building a good Bard secondary would focus more on how you build you primary and what aspect of the bard you need to boost your current play style.