Bard feels bad now. The main mechanic of the class has been changed and gutted.

SmileGurney

Kyraax wrote: »

I remain optimistic that Intrepid will continue to take the Bard class and the game as a whole in a good direction. The PTR notes look really interesting.

Which part? The massive dps nerf for bard? Some of that stuff like Shocked seems justifiable, everything else seems to be too much at the same time.

Dark Lullaby nerfs, they should just removal conditional extra damage on it. After the patch you will get max 15% more dmg instead of 75%. So down from 125% dmg per tic to 65%. All other damage skills got nerfed as well.

"Shocked" stacks needs a nerf, no idea who thought that making them stack to 20 was a good idea with fast attack speed weapons like wand.

Anyway I have some control footage recorded, and obviously I will be comparing the bards dps performance after the patch drops. If Intrepid pigeonholes bard into the support role, instead of enabling more playstyles across all archetypes, then I'm out. It might be a good time to create an alt I suppose.

Berek Blackblade

Andi wrote: »

LaureTheGamer wrote: »

Instead of attacking to support the group while balancing the innate desire to finish weapon combos with the need to heal and do other things, we now must fan our keyboards, often with zero regard for what spells we are actually casting. We no longer really care what our spells do. We now must care that they each add a single stack of Resonant Weapon. Press 'em all.

This is my main complaint.

• You are now a caster, all other play styles aren't compatible
• You now cast as much as possible, as fast as possible, regardless of effect
• You stop being a supporter also doing some damage
• You lose the versatility you brought, you're now only a mana battery

It's pretty obvious that this can't stay as-is. Already the number of Bards has plummeted, and players like me, who just reroll, aren't tempted to go back to a class that isn't fun anymore.

TBH, I can now write a looping script for a bard on a second PC, place it wherever I'm farming on my main and not care. All I now care about is mana.

Whereas before, Bard was an active playstyle, it's now the most bot-compatible of all archetypes.

THIS

This is my main complaint.

• You are now a caster, all other play styles aren't compatible
• You now cast as much as possible, as fast as possible, regardless of effect
• You stop being a supporter also doing some damage
• You lose the versatility you brought, you're now only a mana battery

Spif

SmileGurney wrote: »

Calibix wrote: »

Channeled abilities give the stack on cast. You can just hit all your dances in succession and have 4 stacks for example.

All dances are important utilities in a fight. I wouldn't waste them in pvp just to get a stack. The silly channel times of many bard abilities and the applied movement slowdown will catch up to the bard sooner or later. That's the main reason why a lot of us cancel the cast as soon as we gain the main dance buff.

Most bard abilities are castable while moving at full speed, and even sprint speed. What movement slowdown are you talking about?

nemiisis

i dont even use the damaging skills anymore after the nerf.
they do less dmg than just auto atking.

Spif

I admit that the attacks are underwhelming for their direct damage. But they have more value than auto-attacking if you consider that they give 2 resonance, and one applies chill and weakness. If using menacing, every resonance is worth 75% damage

If not using menacing, then you're not in it for the damage and the res stacks are even more valuable.

It's like maddening dance when you are solo 220% to 280% damage for a 4s cast is weak. But 2 res stacks added to that is a lot better.