Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Bard Suggestions and Overall Thoughts
BadgerCraft
Member, Alpha Two
Over the past few weekends I've been able to play Bard up until level 15 and feel like I have a sense of how the class plays. What works/ what doesn't - just felt like sharing to see if other have had similar experiences.
To start, I really like the Bard class and what it offers. Previously playing a healer in WoW, I think that the support classes in Ashes having clear roles to support the party feels really good. I was worried that the Bard would just be a Cleric-lite but making the Bard class into a more utility role and giving the cleric the main role of keeping the party up is an interesting design choice that I've been having fun with. Weaving in auto-attacks and casting spells feel great - I like how your spells interact with each other and how your auto-attacks aren't supposed to deal big damage, but as a means to amplify your buffs to your party. It does feel more WoW-esque in terms of having a keyboard rotation/ playing whack-a-mole with your spells to optimize resonant procs compared to the Bard's previous iteration of reaction based - in the moment - spellcasting. From my background I like this change, but being able to keep that decision making in what spells you cast, for that moment, intermingled with mastering your spell rotation would be a direction I'd like to see the class moving towards.
I do think that in it's current state, there's no real reason to pick anything other than the mana buff. Other than shifting to healing if things go astray and the cleric can't keep up. Which is a cool utility based design space in and of itself. I'd like to be able to use the lifesteal or damage buffs within combat and it would be interesting for the resonant procs to synergize with certain dps's rotations to keep that utility support class identity.
I think that aesthetically the spells look awesome. For the most part, I think that it's clear to you and your group members what spells you're casting and how they can then respond. I especially love how the Sagas look and feel. From a functional aspect, having a more clear animation for your mana proc would be nice - similar to the health proc beam. (Even if it was just a re-skinned blue beam, that would work) I would also like to see some more interaction with the instrument that I picked at level 1! Let me play little songs for my party! (Either free form like FFXIV or pre-sets like Baldurs Gate 3 - bonus points for being able to be in a band with other bards like Sea of Thieves)
TL;DR - I think the Bard looks are plays great! There are some mechanical and visual things to fix but the direction feels good. Looking forward to how this class shifts throughout the playtest.
To start, I really like the Bard class and what it offers. Previously playing a healer in WoW, I think that the support classes in Ashes having clear roles to support the party feels really good. I was worried that the Bard would just be a Cleric-lite but making the Bard class into a more utility role and giving the cleric the main role of keeping the party up is an interesting design choice that I've been having fun with. Weaving in auto-attacks and casting spells feel great - I like how your spells interact with each other and how your auto-attacks aren't supposed to deal big damage, but as a means to amplify your buffs to your party. It does feel more WoW-esque in terms of having a keyboard rotation/ playing whack-a-mole with your spells to optimize resonant procs compared to the Bard's previous iteration of reaction based - in the moment - spellcasting. From my background I like this change, but being able to keep that decision making in what spells you cast, for that moment, intermingled with mastering your spell rotation would be a direction I'd like to see the class moving towards.
I do think that in it's current state, there's no real reason to pick anything other than the mana buff. Other than shifting to healing if things go astray and the cleric can't keep up. Which is a cool utility based design space in and of itself. I'd like to be able to use the lifesteal or damage buffs within combat and it would be interesting for the resonant procs to synergize with certain dps's rotations to keep that utility support class identity.
I think that aesthetically the spells look awesome. For the most part, I think that it's clear to you and your group members what spells you're casting and how they can then respond. I especially love how the Sagas look and feel. From a functional aspect, having a more clear animation for your mana proc would be nice - similar to the health proc beam. (Even if it was just a re-skinned blue beam, that would work) I would also like to see some more interaction with the instrument that I picked at level 1! Let me play little songs for my party! (Either free form like FFXIV or pre-sets like Baldurs Gate 3 - bonus points for being able to be in a band with other bards like Sea of Thieves)
TL;DR - I think the Bard looks are plays great! There are some mechanical and visual things to fix but the direction feels good. Looking forward to how this class shifts throughout the playtest.
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