Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
My thoughts on the Bard (the first 10 levels)
haelin
Member, Alpha Two
Coming from MMOs that are more PvX related and very heavily involved in crafting, trading, and open pvp, I was ONLY excited to play bard as I heard it was more or less advertised as a non-healing support which is something I truly am only passionate about in video games.
So, I will try to make this as coherent as possible by starting with your innate spells.
So the first spell <b>Quick Wit</b> is perfectly fine, nothing truly wrong with it, I don't understand why it had to be a healing spell, but I do like that later you can choose to give it a movement speed buff, which is in the vein of utility support. But it could have easily have been a shield or it could have an ability where you can choose the extra buff like shield/ evasion, shield/pep, shield/mana, etc. The other innate spell is fine, its a simple escape spell.
<b>Melodies</b>
As of right now, it is a little sad that the only one that seems almost mandatory is Pensive Melody as mana seems to be so ridiculously important. Also, out of all of the melodies, Pensive Melody (mana) and Cheerful Melody (healing) are the only two that scale with magic power, which is an absolute shame. I can't see why anything else would be chosen especially when if you don't cast pensive melody you will run out of mana yourself just as fast as your party members. I can't see Epic Melody ever be used except in many open PVP where you want to chase people down, but it still seems very lackluster and extremely niche. On top of that, I do think the visuals of the melodies and the status bar effects are extremely unintuitive and hard to see how effectively your melodies are affecting the group.
<b>Other Spells</b>
Some notable mentions is spells like Gambit which I think are amazing, I feel that this is the risk/reward type stuff utility really needs and it shines.
Marionette and Mesmerizing dance are kind of mid, but I do think the servers and the lack of animations make it feel less potent than what they really are, my opinion is not refined.
Anthem of Alacrity is also a very good example of true non-healing utility support type.
<b>Final Thoughts</b>
My final thoughts is that the bard, purely in a non-healing utility support fashion is very underwhelming. Mana management is pretty much mandatory for everyone and it makes the class boring to play as you are a walking ration. The healing spells for the bard are actually very good but this would just make him a more AOE friendly secondary healer next to the cleric and I would even argue he has TOO MANY healing abilities. This can easily be changed into shields or something where you can choose the damage you're mitigating (Magical vs physical) to give the bard a more "higher skill ceiling" that people were already talking about with the class. I know in other PvX MMOs, non healing support classes for example Archeage or Albion Online (in early stages). They would have spells where you can channel an individual to give them invulnerability which makes you a target in PVP situations where the bard must be killed first, your protection, is also your teammates protection. As well as spells just like Anthem of Alacrity that were also channels where you will have a small buff like 10% increase but can build up to 60-70-80% damage increase the more successful you are at holding the channel uninterrupted.
I personally would like to see more Risk/Reward gameplay like Gambit, some more buff/debuff management (like debuffing snares and what not), some quick last minute saves or invulnerabilities, and maybe Crowd control or spells that can be timed well with your teammate to get maximum benefit. As of now the Bard is essentially someone who makes killing mobs 10% faster, and it reduces down time of heals and mana, which is nice for fast leveling, but the class as a whole, feels like a low-hanging fruit. One could even say that you should allow 2 consecutive melodies at once and add another melody or replace the healing one with something else as there is already cathartic melody which is a heal in itself.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
So, I will try to make this as coherent as possible by starting with your innate spells.
So the first spell <b>Quick Wit</b> is perfectly fine, nothing truly wrong with it, I don't understand why it had to be a healing spell, but I do like that later you can choose to give it a movement speed buff, which is in the vein of utility support. But it could have easily have been a shield or it could have an ability where you can choose the extra buff like shield/ evasion, shield/pep, shield/mana, etc. The other innate spell is fine, its a simple escape spell.
<b>Melodies</b>
As of right now, it is a little sad that the only one that seems almost mandatory is Pensive Melody as mana seems to be so ridiculously important. Also, out of all of the melodies, Pensive Melody (mana) and Cheerful Melody (healing) are the only two that scale with magic power, which is an absolute shame. I can't see why anything else would be chosen especially when if you don't cast pensive melody you will run out of mana yourself just as fast as your party members. I can't see Epic Melody ever be used except in many open PVP where you want to chase people down, but it still seems very lackluster and extremely niche. On top of that, I do think the visuals of the melodies and the status bar effects are extremely unintuitive and hard to see how effectively your melodies are affecting the group.
<b>Other Spells</b>
Some notable mentions is spells like Gambit which I think are amazing, I feel that this is the risk/reward type stuff utility really needs and it shines.
Marionette and Mesmerizing dance are kind of mid, but I do think the servers and the lack of animations make it feel less potent than what they really are, my opinion is not refined.
Anthem of Alacrity is also a very good example of true non-healing utility support type.
<b>Final Thoughts</b>
My final thoughts is that the bard, purely in a non-healing utility support fashion is very underwhelming. Mana management is pretty much mandatory for everyone and it makes the class boring to play as you are a walking ration. The healing spells for the bard are actually very good but this would just make him a more AOE friendly secondary healer next to the cleric and I would even argue he has TOO MANY healing abilities. This can easily be changed into shields or something where you can choose the damage you're mitigating (Magical vs physical) to give the bard a more "higher skill ceiling" that people were already talking about with the class. I know in other PvX MMOs, non healing support classes for example Archeage or Albion Online (in early stages). They would have spells where you can channel an individual to give them invulnerability which makes you a target in PVP situations where the bard must be killed first, your protection, is also your teammates protection. As well as spells just like Anthem of Alacrity that were also channels where you will have a small buff like 10% increase but can build up to 60-70-80% damage increase the more successful you are at holding the channel uninterrupted.
I personally would like to see more Risk/Reward gameplay like Gambit, some more buff/debuff management (like debuffing snares and what not), some quick last minute saves or invulnerabilities, and maybe Crowd control or spells that can be timed well with your teammate to get maximum benefit. As of now the Bard is essentially someone who makes killing mobs 10% faster, and it reduces down time of heals and mana, which is nice for fast leveling, but the class as a whole, feels like a low-hanging fruit. One could even say that you should allow 2 consecutive melodies at once and add another melody or replace the healing one with something else as there is already cathartic melody which is a heal in itself.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.
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