Some first weekend bard thoughts (up to lvl 12)

Relhaz

• Targeting quick wit in action mode is... not great. Theres not a great way to swap between hitting enemy and healing yourself.
• The mana song feels too important to play anything else until you get the dual cast melody thing. I would occasionally swap to the healing one for a burst of healing when we didn't have a cleric but then immediately back to mana.
• Melodies are supposed to be playable while doing anything but I couldn't start them during the start of auto attacks (basically while holding Q).
• Could use a range indicator on the AoE damage abilities (lament, lullaby, also hymn).
• I also played some fighter and man the damage difference while solo'ing felt bad. I know as a support it makes sense but oof it didn't have to be so bad.
  
  Unrealistic, but it would be sick if the audio for the different bard spells tied into each other.

NoxVost

> I also played some fighter and man the damage difference while solo'ing felt bad. I know as a support it makes sense but oof it didn't have to be so bad.

This is how it should be! Personally I would vote for more bard dmg nerf, now the class is overpowered.

ThevoicestHeVoIcEs

NoxVost wrote: »

> I also played some fighter and man the damage difference while solo'ing felt bad. I know as a support it makes sense but oof it didn't have to be so bad.

This is how it should be! Personally I would vote for more bard dmg nerf, now the class is overpowered.

Or...how about we make it all about choices and sacrifices and don't pigeonhole archetypes into really narrow playstyles? Otherwise the extended 64 classes are going to be extremely flat and uninspired, and the game's replayability will hurt in the long run.

My own thoughts about bard.

So far I don't like:
* overreliance on the dancing and singing, playing music themes. Bards are more than that across multiple RPG systems (D&D, Pathfinder etc). This should have been leveraged as the inspiration
* overreliance on channelled effects, this will hurt bard in the pvp setting A LOT, as makes you vulnerable to interrupts
* Bard is not a 100% buff bot...but I don't see much playstyle variety. Why I cannot be more a melee focused bard? Why do I feel I have to build around kiting, ranged damage so much? This sentiment seems to be fairly true for all archetypes
* I felt I had to adjust my talents on fly way more than with other archetypes: I had to keep switching between single target and AoE skill forms, and melodies. This is going to be a major issue post release if the class design stays as it is
* vendors in A2 do no have spell swords and bows on sale
* spell swords and spell bows do no have magic user specific finishers as wands and spellbooks do. Why?

So far I like:
* mobility
* sustain - This isn't mage or ranger but its a solo friendly class

I have levelled up a fighter and bard past level 10, mage below 10. To my surprise I didn't hate the bard experience, but I see some worrying general trends with archetype designs.

V_V_V

NoxVost wrote: »

> I also played some fighter and man the damage difference while solo'ing felt bad. I know as a support it makes sense but oof it didn't have to be so bad.

This is how it should be! Personally I would vote for more bard dmg nerf, now the class is overpowered.

I'm not sure if you did this, but I changed my spec out of group and respec'd for solo damage and it helped a lot. That being said; the mage doing 2k damage when the best I could achieve was like 113... felt a bit underwhelming. It's a good thing I mana drip ;o)