I have been playing bard since the opening of steam early access. Its basically the only class i leveled beyond level 15.
I feel that bard is a really cool class. I think they aimed for a class, that has tools for most situations. They can make a diffence in most battles, one way or the other. They seem to have a bit of an identity crisis though. For a class that is suppose to be able to support and be versatile, they are very - I repeat, very slow at adapting to situations. Which is really a shame, when you clearly designed them to be versatile.
Bards have a big toolbox. They have good buffs, good debuffs, stuns, trips, mezz, slow, silence... In general, a really solid toolbox. Their best abilities - sagas, are locked behind a wall of buffs (red, blue and yellow face buffs). There is a 30 second cooldown on the buffs, and the combination of those buffs, dictates the saga you can use. Cool concept on the drawing board, but it does not work very well in the game. It does not feel like a good gameloop to use. You are extremely locked in what the buffs are, and it takes 1 minute and 30 secs to change. Every situation is resolved in that time.
I have some suggestions, to pull it back into the fun zone.
First of all. In every game where there is a bard, they all have one thing in common - songs. They play songs, and they buff the group. Songs should not be locked behind skillpoints. The 5 songs they can play, should be something that is just unlocked. I realise that will give bards to many points. But you could instead make those points into a way to spec into specific songs. The bard should be able to just change to the song to what the group requires, without too much fuss.
Second. The buffs you get - that right now determine your active saga, should be long time buffs. Having to put them on every 30 seconds is more annoying, than tricky gameplay. When you put them on, its should be for like 5 minutes 10 minutes whatever, or until you change them.
But the big thing, that needs to be made better, is the sagas. The power of a saga can be discussed. I think some are cool, and others are a bit worse... But the way you use them, is not good. So, here is my suggestion.
The sagas themselves would need a skillpoint to get. So the 5 skills points you dont have to use for the songs, could be used to pick which sagas you would want instead. Simple change, that would define your bard in a direction you favor.
The way the saga should work, is not by what buff you have on, but by what song you are playing in that moment. So, if you ar playing the mana song, your saga would automatically be pantheon. If you play menacing, it would be appocolypse saga. Speed/stamina song it would be ages past saga etc. That way, it takes a few seconds to change what saga you want to use. That way, you can truely be versatile. The group needs a heal, well here we go. We need to get way - boom, runspeed. It would give the bard the edge they really need atm.
The last thing is, that bards cant really decide if they want to be a ranged or melee class. Their dances are all a sort of melee range, which I think is cool. You have to risk it for the biscuit. If you wanna shield the tank, you have to get close. You want the mobs to do less dmg to others, you gotta be close etc. But there is conflicting abilities, that does not seem to work that well together. Get off the stage / Mock. Discordance /Mezz dance. Mezz dance / dark lullaby. They are all a combination of melee / ranged, but are ability combos. It would be nice if some got a bit more range, or make one combo melee, and another ranged. You might have the vision, that it needs that mix of range, but it weakens the class a bit too much in evolving combat, like PvP. And BTW.... Dark Lyllaby should work with Marionette :)
Anyways, I hope this gets read b a dev, that takes the time to read it.
You are doing a awesome job! I love the game! I can clearly see your vision, and when it releases, i will be so awesome.
