Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about Phase II and Phase III testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
feedback gearing, leveling, bard
Fireguard
Member, Alpha Two
I played fighter to 25 first phase, then ranger second phase, and for phase 2.5 I decided to play bard. Bard Feedback:
1. The class is fun in that there are a lot of mechanical choices and options you can make. Any button you push builds towards your class resource resonance.
2. Mana drains too fast. You feel obligated to run a mana bard in every party. With the lag causing pensive aura to not passively tick and people not passively generating mana, you fall behind bad and everyone looks at you with an angry face. When there is no lag, mana is EZ to sustain and everyone is surprised how good you are doing. Even for a 1 minute encounter you feel forced to play mana.
3. I don't like that my abilities heal / affect out of party people when I have heal out of party people setting disabled. I am trying to pvp but I keep giving mount mana, or shielding the enemy team. I just want to shield my group/raid. Mounts don't need mana.
4. Getoff the stage applying disarmed is actually bad. There are so many DR categories that you end up ruining things. Bards are overloaded enough as is. Whatever the disarmed category is gets bricked randomly.
5. Marionette being based off the caster's HP is a recipie for disaster. You build 8k hp, if you CC anyone who is 'undergeared' its essentially functioning as a 10 second stun. If you marionet low level people it IS a 10s stun, they will die before it breaks.
6. There are too many buffs on the bar. I can't see what the remaining duration is on the masks.
7. The masks are too funneling. I can't go a damage saga if I want to be a pensive melody bard. I can't swap back and forth between healing and damage song if I am forced into using all masks of one kind. etc.
8. gambit sometimes fails if the target is dead and I cast it, but it still goes on CD anyway.
9. maddening dance does not affect many NPC buffs.
10. Please let us keep the same skills when swapping between the AOE and ST versions. I don't want to have to drag off 3 skills and on new ones for skills that have the same name every time. Anthem of alacrity aoe version VS ST version.
11. Shielding dance being uncapped on ally count could lead to future problems. IE 20 bards being stacked and channeling it at once, or 50 bards, etc. for healing.
12. I don't like lulaby + maddening + chilling lament. They all do the same damage % while applying 1 -2 effects? at least the 2 15 yard spells could be different. I can't 'feel' the cone. Thats a generic bard thing, I can't tell what the cone is for skills.
13. Melodies being canceled by CC sucks bad. And theres 0 point to it. Theres no CD, it doesn't delay casting as its on its own cast window. It just makes bards re-spam their melodies in pvp or areas with tickle CC wich is a PITA.
14. I don't like how every aoe effect is a circle. I guess it doesn't really matter, but when you hit enemy mobs, its a disco ball on their chest.
15. Uppies is OP. It disables enemy melee in pvp spread across your whole group for 8s. As long as it exists there will always be an uppies bard in pvp. [Heroes of ages past]
Overall: bard is OP, and literally mandatory for every group due to mana costs. The alternative is slow pulling or sitting and eating rations. Combined with the damage multiplier of the damage aura, and running 2 bards is better than another dps. I am fine with the dps part but let me at least go 'damage' for 30s per 5 minutes or something idk. Right now its full time mana pump. When the servers aren't lagging the mana saga becomes useless as a naked bard can full sustain group. When the servers are lagging nobody can sustain a hungry group. Bard is fun to play but I feel like it ticks a ton of debuff and buff categories. Which I guess is its role. I am probably going back to ranger personal preference. Also caster gearing route is 2x worse than physical gearing.
Gearing this phase:
I am pretty sure you've heard it but people don't really like the current gearing system? level 10 heroic gear is worse than level 20 greens in general. So most people aren't even planning on crafting level 10 gear (maybe 1-2 pieces). I am personally only leveling my gathering professions to wear the artisan clothes for pvp stats.
1. I am level 25 and I have 2 copper weapons, and 3 pieces of vendor gear I bought. I am not a scientist, but something is wrong. I farmed humanoid mobs the whole way. Yes I could've min-maxed more but do you think a casual player will?
2. I hate the current named mob camping meta. You either afk 20 minutes (too short to go do anything else) or you get a party with timers are rotate between named mob spawns in a small area. The tagging being so important is also big.
3. You can't even tell if you have tag or not on a mob.
4. CC still affecting people not in pvp combat.
5. Secondary stat balancing makes some gear very bad and some super great.
6. Max health stacking meta has no DR.
7. Its not worth farming generic mobs for drops until you finish with the named mobs. Between the named mob drop rate, spawn timer, etc - you are better off getting guarenteed what you want from named mobs. Few people 'should' be farming generic mobs for RNG chance of a rividium longbow for example.
8. The level brackets for gear dropping is a PITA. I want steel rings and necklaces. The only giants that drop it are the ones in New Aela. As the other giants in the desert are too high level for example. You are forcing people to punch down to get what they want. Like farming a level 6 nangolith for magic gloves on a 5 min CD for example. The level 13 I kept stealing the kill from wasn't happy and neither was I - that I had to be there.
Leveling:
it was ok. Its fun hanging out with the fellas grinding mobs. People are still glitching into restricted areas, etc. and safespotting mob AI. I with leash range was clearer. I really like the long leash range of mobs.
1. Density - I guess this is probably changed now due to you guys increasing the damage of elites so it shouldn't matter as much now.
2. Its a super PITA having your mount killed by grems and ravens when running around as you are leveling.
3. There are pretty large 'dead' zones of where there are mobs but not enough to be worth farming. Or the right type.
4. Certain mobs are much much better to farm than others. I am glad some stuff is better but some things are terrible to farm. Nobody likes beetles. Nobody likes the flame elementals. Theres some more mobs than this but yeah. Name of the game this time was find X type of mobs that match your level bracket if possible (imo).
Overall: Leveling is ok but the quests are really bad. Theres about 5 different ways I know of to bug out the arlogian collar quest for example. I am not going to have to beg a physical dps class to do it and sell the necklace to me for example. The token thing is neat, but I have no idea what quests have it or not. That leaves me skipping most of the quests to get leveling ASAP. Its not exactly fun leveling up, I just like grinding with my friends.
Still more to do, so far good job. I think you guys are OK waiting until a POI pass before looking at mob AI again. I would like stronger reset conditions. As mobs get stuck in the walls too often or floors or stairs.`
1. The class is fun in that there are a lot of mechanical choices and options you can make. Any button you push builds towards your class resource resonance.
2. Mana drains too fast. You feel obligated to run a mana bard in every party. With the lag causing pensive aura to not passively tick and people not passively generating mana, you fall behind bad and everyone looks at you with an angry face. When there is no lag, mana is EZ to sustain and everyone is surprised how good you are doing. Even for a 1 minute encounter you feel forced to play mana.
3. I don't like that my abilities heal / affect out of party people when I have heal out of party people setting disabled. I am trying to pvp but I keep giving mount mana, or shielding the enemy team. I just want to shield my group/raid. Mounts don't need mana.
4. Getoff the stage applying disarmed is actually bad. There are so many DR categories that you end up ruining things. Bards are overloaded enough as is. Whatever the disarmed category is gets bricked randomly.
5. Marionette being based off the caster's HP is a recipie for disaster. You build 8k hp, if you CC anyone who is 'undergeared' its essentially functioning as a 10 second stun. If you marionet low level people it IS a 10s stun, they will die before it breaks.
6. There are too many buffs on the bar. I can't see what the remaining duration is on the masks.
7. The masks are too funneling. I can't go a damage saga if I want to be a pensive melody bard. I can't swap back and forth between healing and damage song if I am forced into using all masks of one kind. etc.
8. gambit sometimes fails if the target is dead and I cast it, but it still goes on CD anyway.
9. maddening dance does not affect many NPC buffs.
10. Please let us keep the same skills when swapping between the AOE and ST versions. I don't want to have to drag off 3 skills and on new ones for skills that have the same name every time. Anthem of alacrity aoe version VS ST version.
11. Shielding dance being uncapped on ally count could lead to future problems. IE 20 bards being stacked and channeling it at once, or 50 bards, etc. for healing.
12. I don't like lulaby + maddening + chilling lament. They all do the same damage % while applying 1 -2 effects? at least the 2 15 yard spells could be different. I can't 'feel' the cone. Thats a generic bard thing, I can't tell what the cone is for skills.
13. Melodies being canceled by CC sucks bad. And theres 0 point to it. Theres no CD, it doesn't delay casting as its on its own cast window. It just makes bards re-spam their melodies in pvp or areas with tickle CC wich is a PITA.
14. I don't like how every aoe effect is a circle. I guess it doesn't really matter, but when you hit enemy mobs, its a disco ball on their chest.
15. Uppies is OP. It disables enemy melee in pvp spread across your whole group for 8s. As long as it exists there will always be an uppies bard in pvp. [Heroes of ages past]
Overall: bard is OP, and literally mandatory for every group due to mana costs. The alternative is slow pulling or sitting and eating rations. Combined with the damage multiplier of the damage aura, and running 2 bards is better than another dps. I am fine with the dps part but let me at least go 'damage' for 30s per 5 minutes or something idk. Right now its full time mana pump. When the servers aren't lagging the mana saga becomes useless as a naked bard can full sustain group. When the servers are lagging nobody can sustain a hungry group. Bard is fun to play but I feel like it ticks a ton of debuff and buff categories. Which I guess is its role. I am probably going back to ranger personal preference. Also caster gearing route is 2x worse than physical gearing.
Gearing this phase:
I am pretty sure you've heard it but people don't really like the current gearing system? level 10 heroic gear is worse than level 20 greens in general. So most people aren't even planning on crafting level 10 gear (maybe 1-2 pieces). I am personally only leveling my gathering professions to wear the artisan clothes for pvp stats.
1. I am level 25 and I have 2 copper weapons, and 3 pieces of vendor gear I bought. I am not a scientist, but something is wrong. I farmed humanoid mobs the whole way. Yes I could've min-maxed more but do you think a casual player will?
2. I hate the current named mob camping meta. You either afk 20 minutes (too short to go do anything else) or you get a party with timers are rotate between named mob spawns in a small area. The tagging being so important is also big.
3. You can't even tell if you have tag or not on a mob.
4. CC still affecting people not in pvp combat.
5. Secondary stat balancing makes some gear very bad and some super great.
6. Max health stacking meta has no DR.
7. Its not worth farming generic mobs for drops until you finish with the named mobs. Between the named mob drop rate, spawn timer, etc - you are better off getting guarenteed what you want from named mobs. Few people 'should' be farming generic mobs for RNG chance of a rividium longbow for example.
8. The level brackets for gear dropping is a PITA. I want steel rings and necklaces. The only giants that drop it are the ones in New Aela. As the other giants in the desert are too high level for example. You are forcing people to punch down to get what they want. Like farming a level 6 nangolith for magic gloves on a 5 min CD for example. The level 13 I kept stealing the kill from wasn't happy and neither was I - that I had to be there.
Leveling:
it was ok. Its fun hanging out with the fellas grinding mobs. People are still glitching into restricted areas, etc. and safespotting mob AI. I with leash range was clearer. I really like the long leash range of mobs.
1. Density - I guess this is probably changed now due to you guys increasing the damage of elites so it shouldn't matter as much now.
2. Its a super PITA having your mount killed by grems and ravens when running around as you are leveling.
3. There are pretty large 'dead' zones of where there are mobs but not enough to be worth farming. Or the right type.
4. Certain mobs are much much better to farm than others. I am glad some stuff is better but some things are terrible to farm. Nobody likes beetles. Nobody likes the flame elementals. Theres some more mobs than this but yeah. Name of the game this time was find X type of mobs that match your level bracket if possible (imo).
Overall: Leveling is ok but the quests are really bad. Theres about 5 different ways I know of to bug out the arlogian collar quest for example. I am not going to have to beg a physical dps class to do it and sell the necklace to me for example. The token thing is neat, but I have no idea what quests have it or not. That leaves me skipping most of the quests to get leveling ASAP. Its not exactly fun leveling up, I just like grinding with my friends.
Still more to do, so far good job. I think you guys are OK waiting until a POI pass before looking at mob AI again. I would like stronger reset conditions. As mobs get stuck in the walls too often or floors or stairs.`
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Comments
I also got a ton of drops from even completely normal mobs and a few 1*s too. I feel like the hardcore players' mentality is "only the best or nothing else" and it got hit super hard with "the best is no longer available and you've already outpaced the rest, so now suffer".
Also, for people who don't read discord - the elite mobs will be weak again, exactly because all the hardcore people have completely outleveled their own damn progress, so now NORMAL strength is too much for them
I had a real nice laugh about that.